Review: Popup Chinese
January 5, 2010 – 11:43 pmLearning Chinese is en vogue and with the recent rise of the Chinese economy it might be the next big thing. However I remember the time when I started out, that was in late September 2007. At that time the possibilities for learning Chinese online can be best described as unorganized. Of course there were dictionaries. However structured learning material was well hidden on some university websites or just incomplete. I had to stick to those ever boring books. Times have changed.
Just before Christmas I got a hint to look at Popup Chinese. As I’m always looking for better methods to learn Chinese, I gave it a try. So let’s answer the important questions: What is Popup Chinese? and: Is Popup Chinese a useful product?
What is Popup Chinese? Popup Chinese is a website to support your Chinese learning through various teaching methods, most importantly podcasts. For people like me podcasts have a special meaning in the learning diet. While people in a Chinese speaking environment just can speak Chinese anytime, others have to use alternatives. I can just download a podcast and put it into my BlackBerry and listen to it anytime. The Popup Chinese podcasts come in different flavors, from absolute beginners to really challenging ones. Apart from a dialog, grammar is discussed and helpful comments shed light on the correct translation. I feel very comfortable with the Elementary dialogs, however the Intermediate dialogs are already challenging to me. Hopefully I can get there soon.
Furthermore, Popup Chinese provides transcripts, which can be used to make sure you understood everything right. They have additional exercises for those who want to prepare for the HSK, and also some miscellaneous stuff.
The dialogs are fresh, interesting, surprising and definitely different from what you get from the average textbook. I’m really surprised by this in a positive way. There are very natural, dialogs like they could happen any day and a wide range of topics is provided. The only thing I dislike a little is, they often speak with a Beijing accent, with a lot of 儿-sounds. I’ve learned mandarin in Kunming and Chendu, both places with very little 儿-sounds. This is a question of personal taste, but I guess the exposure to different accents can only be helpful to me.
Conclusion: If you are looking for a podcast to support your Chinese learning, then Popup Chinese might be right for you. It’s right for me as a supplemental tool while I’m moving around and can’t use my time in any other way. A good selection of topics and difficulty levels help to find appropriate material and supplemental exercises on the website help learning effectively. You should give it a try. They have a free trial so you don’t buy a pig in a poke.
Website: http://popupchinese.com/
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3 Responses to “Review: Popup Chinese”
Great review, Junjie. I checked that website and it’s not bad. As far as the basic conversation goes, I could understand. But that’s because I’ve repeated that basic stuff so many times, in Malaysia and recently when I skype with my girl. But my progress is very slow, I don’t learn much lately, just try to bring back the knowledge I gained this year when I lived in a Chinese family. Once I live in Taiwan, I will learn and speak Chinese daily and hope I can communicate normally in half a year. So I really wonder what will I be able to say about my Chinese end of 2010. Life is so unpredictable, I learned that there’s no straight way to reach a goal, the road is long and winding. So be it my Taiwan plans or my learning Chinese: I’ll leave everything open. We’ll see. I’m surely gonna read the stuff you recommend, though. Because you’re excellent in this. Thanks for sharing.
By MKL on Jan 6, 2010
Thank you so much for the link, I’ve always wanted something like that. It’s so useful when I can use the plain time in car or while buying things to pracitce some Chinese.
However, I won’t continue learning Chinese seriously before finishing learning all my business and economics stuff, I have to set priorities
By Aremonus on Jan 6, 2010
I’m happy to hear you like it. In the coming weeks I will also write about other sources for podcasts, so you can decide what fits you best.
By Junjie on Jan 6, 2010