Another way to learn Mandarin is via your iPod. Kate Chapman says you can download lessons, transcripts, exercises, even get one-on-one support and a personal tutor through Shanghai-based ChinesePod.

 

Yet another way for expats in Shanghai to tackle the Mandarin challenge is via the popular and versatile iPod. ChinesePod is a Web-based Mandarin school accessed by users in 110 countries, and based in Shanghai.

 

ChinesePod co-founder Ken Carroll has a solid background in language teaching. He has been in Shanghai since 1994 and it was here 10 years ago that he started the Kaien language school that teaches English to local Chinese.

 

This is a traditional language school that teaches students in the classroom. Carroll's business partner Brian McCloskey oversees the running of Kaien language school (www.kaien.net.cn) while Carroll devotes his time to ChinesePod.

 

Two years ago Carroll meet Canadian Hank Horkoff whose background was in software. Carroll and Horkoff worked together on an innovative new language school concept. The result was their decision to take it online.

 

Carroll is the first to admit that there are already a lot of language-training Websites, "but most of them aren't very good," he says. They are created by software developers who can't produce successful language schools and the people with the language skills don't have the technical capabilities, he says.

 

With nearly 250,000 users around the world and thousands of regular paying subscribers, it seems the ChinesePod format is successful. "We use the technology to facilitate communication between students and teachers or other students rather than leaving the students to interact with the technology," says Carroll.

 

The basic podcast and transcript is US$6 a month, the premium service with more resources and exercises is US$20 a month, and the more advanced practice with a tutor is US$165 a month. There is an initial free trial period.

 

Individuals advance at their own speed; they can listen to brief digestible 10-minute lessons while jogging or sitting at their desk.

 

In the two years since ChinesePod has started, the popularity of the technology they are using has grown rapidly. Podcasts, RSS syndication and blogs are now easily accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. However, Carroll says there is no one way to teach 250,000 global users - those who tried once. "We are always trying to refine it as we go along."

 

Their site is always in "beta." In the world of computer geeks this means the software is constantly being tested and updated in response to feedback and developments. Google operates under the same system of constant upgrading.

 

At the same time as technology was expanding to make online learning easier, the world's interest in Mandarin was also burgeoning, and Carroll says this interest is only increasing with the Olympics looming in the near future.

 

It seems the hierarchy of the Catholic Church is even interested in the language: ChinesePod has two long-term subscribers from Vatican City. "I'm hoping one of them is your man," says Carroll, the native Irishman in him shining through.

 

The main focus of ChinesePod is North America where the iPod culture was born but there are students from many countries including one from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

 

The iPod culture is central to the concept of ChinesePod. At the same time as Carroll and Horkoff launched ChinesePod, the company started EnglishPod which was aimed at teaching English to Chinese people. But, Chinese people did not embrace the concept. "You need that iPod culture which didn't exist in China two years ago but things are changing and it will happen in China," says Carroll.

 

And when they do, expect to see EnglishPod back; it was sold to Carroll's Kaien language school and they are currently working on re-launching it.

 

Despite the success of ChinesePod, Carroll doesn't see himself as a Mandarin teacher. "I'm not qualified as a Mandarin teacher." But, he claims to know all about learning languages and his skills combined with those of Jenny Zhu, the other host of the podcasts, offer listeners both a native perspective and that of a foreigner with decades of teaching experience.

 

Carroll says they stopped counting the lesson downloads when they got to 20 million and he has no idea how high it would be now. One of the keys to ChinesePod's success is that their podcasts sound like conversations rather than the dry drills, which many traditional CDs often are. Things are kept short and simple for people who don't have much time. "We're not overly ambitious and we certainly don't reduce the language to grammar, because then we'd lose everyone's interest."

 

Other strengths of the learning style include the relationship that learners feel with the teachers and the relevance of the lessons that are guided by students' feedback, Carroll says.

 

While it is difficult for Carroll to be objective about the effectiveness of the Website, he says there is a large base of "hardcore" long-term users and a lot of positive anecdotal feedback.

 

"People will write in and say 'I learned more here in two months than I did in that night school'."

 

And Carroll can't understand why more people are not making use of the opportunities the Internet provides. "You can create an entire business from a small room and distribute it to the whole world, receive payment even. There's no part of a digital business you can't do online now and there are a billion people connected."

 

ChinesePod has not spent any money on advertising. "That was the scariest decision of my life to put a business plan together that didn't have an advertising plan in it. I guess we're just radical, the more I think about it."

 

They are now reproducing the success of ChinesePod with SpanishSense (www.spanishsense.com), an online Spanish learning school also based in Shanghai. Four people were brought over from South America and the Website has been operational for nearly eight weeks.

 

"If SpanishSense gets the traction ChinesePod has I'm retiring in five years - I'm done," says Carroll.

www.chinesepod.com

 

By Kate Chapman

 

(Shanghai Daily May 31, 2007)