Learning Chinese via Skype and podcasts

Was bemoaning my lack of progress at learning Chinese. And then was reminded of ChinesePod when I saw that it was written up in The Economist in an article titled Mandarin 2.0. I'm going to try again!

Co-founder Ken Carroll tells The Economist this is "language-learning 2.0."

“Tens of millions” of people in 110 countries now download the free ChinesePod podcasts, Praxis's flagship service, says Mr Carroll. About 250,000 listen regularly and “several thousand” pay for the premium services, which include individual Skype chats with teachers.
- from The Economist (June 7, 2007)

Comments

[Des Walsh]

Thanks for the link Debbie. I've signed up and hope to be able to say "Hello my name's Des and I'm an Aussie blogger" in Mandarin by October! :)

[William]

I am also learning Chinese by a special and innovative service in http://www.hellomandarin.com and http://www.hellomandarin.com/courses/course.html . I like to learn in live class with teachers from Beijing directly. I also like to practice Chinese with volunteers freely everyday http://www.hellomandarin.com/connectingchina . Watching Chinese learning TV on CLTV http://cltv.hellomandarin.com is also interesting and helpful to practice listening and learn more about Chinese culture.

[Shun]

Yes its good idea, but that will work only if you found someone on skype who is native speaker of china and interested to teach you. My friend suggested me to learn chinese using http://www.chinesesphere.com/