Apparently reprogrammed for different screen sizes...
But perhaps some device was forgotten. If you have an iPad mini, which I travel with, the new version, the app does not work as intended. When you first started everything is fine. Then if you go to any of the lesson right after the lesson there is nothing. A blank screen, actually a black screen. No amount of talking or moving will help. The only thing you can do it completely remove the app from your lineup then when you restart it it appears as though you have just restarted it from nothing. Then you play the next lesson and the same thing happen. So there is no going from one lesson to another with ease, You have to completely dismiss the program to get anywhere near another lesson without a black screen appearing. I love Chinese pod but I listen to it when I travel which is often. This makes me put it down for long periods of time. Perhaps your technical people can fix this problem. And of course I would change my review.
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Worst service ever! Hardly any new content
I had signed up for a monthly account. When the gift of learning came out, I contacted them and asked if I could use it for my account. They said no problem. After realizing they were charging me for 2 subscriptions I contacted them multiple time to have it canceled. After multiple automated messages they still couldn’t tell me how to cancel. After weeks of talking with support we finally cancelled it. Also, they confirmed to me that they canceled it. After 6 months I was charged again for a semiannual subscription. I contacted them, but they didn’t seem to know anything about the previous messages, subscriptions, and cancellations. Also, they won’t issue my refund. Huge headache!
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This app can’t connect to internet
Other apps fine and can also browse internet
But can’t connect to internet here
But can’t connect to internet here
Terrible experience
I changed phone and I can’t restore my subscription.
No way to get to the beginning
There should be a way to sort the lists by date added or something like that. I’d like to start at the beginning without scrolling for 5 minutes, not at the latest lessons.
Superior Language App
All the bad reviews must be from freeloaders expecting free services. Best Chinese language learning podcasts available which will teach you from the basics all the way to native level. Been using for years.
No new lessons!
Pros: Lots of conversation videos that will help improve listening comprehension for all levels.
Cons:
1. Price is way too high for subscription. Wait for Black Friday sale for best price, and even then it’s still expensive! Black Friday discount code will be announce on their Facebook page.
2. Grammar lessons are sorely lacking. In addition, it is hard to find specific grammar lessons as Chinesepod was not designed with this in mind from the start.
3. I subscribed to Chinesepod for 3 years, but starting November or December of 2017, the hosts quietly and abruptly left leaving Chinesepod with no new episode! Perhaps they wanted more money. Very disappointed as I paid about $200 for premium subscription (using Black Friday discount) and wanted to listen to new lessons. It’s been like that for the last 8 to 9 months. Unexceptable! Recently, they’ve hired a few new interim hosts and put up two to three new lessons, but they aren’t enough and not up to par on quality like previous lessons. I am currently revaluing whether to renew my annual subscription this coming Black Friday, 2018. Give me a massive discount to make up for my troubles and I might reconsider, but in its current state, I will look elsewhere for my studies!
Cons:
1. Price is way too high for subscription. Wait for Black Friday sale for best price, and even then it’s still expensive! Black Friday discount code will be announce on their Facebook page.
2. Grammar lessons are sorely lacking. In addition, it is hard to find specific grammar lessons as Chinesepod was not designed with this in mind from the start.
3. I subscribed to Chinesepod for 3 years, but starting November or December of 2017, the hosts quietly and abruptly left leaving Chinesepod with no new episode! Perhaps they wanted more money. Very disappointed as I paid about $200 for premium subscription (using Black Friday discount) and wanted to listen to new lessons. It’s been like that for the last 8 to 9 months. Unexceptable! Recently, they’ve hired a few new interim hosts and put up two to three new lessons, but they aren’t enough and not up to par on quality like previous lessons. I am currently revaluing whether to renew my annual subscription this coming Black Friday, 2018. Give me a massive discount to make up for my troubles and I might reconsider, but in its current state, I will look elsewhere for my studies!
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Geared at people looking to confirm China’s supremacy
Chinesepod is borderline proChinese/antiAmericn propaganda. To make it worse, over the course of this podcast, there have been (usually male) American hosts with (always female) Chinese hosts flirting with each other and calling this “Chinese class”. Their topics are almost always about cultural things in China that are somehow “better” than the rest of the world. Yellow fever anyone? I’m no longer subscribed, but I downloaded a ton of podcasts before I stopped giving them my money. I often turn them off and walk away because of the clear “China’s the best in the world” message they’re trying to send through their Chinese classes. Yesterday I randomly pulled up a podcast about over the counter drugs. The story was a woman with a headache and her friend offering her an aspirin. Then a guy comes in and announces that you shouldn’t “randomly eat (亂吃)” drugs, as if it was a “don’t do drugs” ad. The entire following 16 min discussion of the dialogue (between an American man flirting with a Chinese woman the whole time) basically says that Americans take over the counter drugs with no concept of what they do to you, and Chinese are better for “powering through the pain”. Yes, this is a cultural difference that will come up in Chinese culture. My Taiwanese friends call me “doctor” because I’ll take ibuprofen when I have a headache or Tums with a stomachache instead of GOING TO THE HOSPITAL. This is called a “cultural difference”. I think spending an afternoon waiting to see a doctor so I can get a prescription for ibuprofen when I have a minor headache is a waste of time, but Chinese culture feels it’s safer this way. I don’t appreciate being SHAMMED in my Chinese lessons for coming from a culture that occasionally uses over-the-counter meds to make oneself feel better when faced with minor discomfort. Too many of these episodes are like this. There’s one where they talk about how being a 酒鬼, aka DRUNKARD isn’t a shameful thing in Chinese culture. Umm, to men over 50 maybe. I don’t know any young people here who aren’t ashamed of Chinese drinking culture, but Chinesepod makes it sound like being drunk 24/7 is the way to be in China! You could create a podcast that explains that men drink a lot in China, and if you’re foreign, you will probably be invited to become stumblingly drunk with them, should that be your thing. Instead, you normalize alcoholism as if it isn’t a disease that needs treatment. And foreigners kinda have a reputation for being crazy party people in China. Any time China does something differently than the US (apparently the only other country on earth, according to this podcast), it’s better. China is not a “better” country. Nor is the Chinese language. It’s different than other places and languages, and the classes should reflect that difference, not the perceived “superiority” that Chinese people are brainwashed from birth to disseminate. Can you imagine an American-created “learn English” podcast where everything emphasized how the US is the best country in the world? “All homes in America have kitchens, not like those pathetic traditional Chinese homes where you can’t afford anything more than a hot plate”. “We’re a melting pot in the US, not like your 92% Han majority culture, so we’re not nationalists like you people”. First of all, the above is false, like lots of “Chinese culture”things in Chinesepod. Secondly, even if it was true, no one should EVER dare frame the US that way. One nation, culture or group is NEVER better than another. We learn languages to become more informed about culture and places that aren’t like the ones we came from. To better understand differences so we don’t jump in and attack people just because they’re different than we are. Languages aren’t learned to announce why one culture is better than the other. If you want to think and talk like that, go back to the 1930’s and join Hitler. Or become a multimillionaire and join Trump. Stay out of cross cultural and linguistic education and please don’t charge people money for your propaganda. At least try a tiny bit to diversify your cast.
Also, that “Say it Right” series had so much potential. It’s really unfortunate that you hired some white guy who clearly smoked a ton of weed before coming on to record. I tried using it in my Chinese class, but it’s really hard to convince middle school children to look past the super bloodshot eyes and clearly “somewhere else” face. I can’t even play the audio without half my students shouting “你喜歡大麻嗎？” at no one in particular. Maybe you should have hired one of the thousands of white faces in Taipei that knows not to go near MJ in Taiwan? Maybe a foreign woman? Person of color? There are plenty in Taipei, where it was recorded. Nah, women and people of color don’t learn Chinese. The only people on earth who learn Chinese are white men, according to this podcast. Just like the only native speakers are women who constantly flirt with white men. So much potential and such well thought out lessons. Total failure when it comes to presentation.
Also, that “Say it Right” series had so much potential. It’s really unfortunate that you hired some white guy who clearly smoked a ton of weed before coming on to record. I tried using it in my Chinese class, but it’s really hard to convince middle school children to look past the super bloodshot eyes and clearly “somewhere else” face. I can’t even play the audio without half my students shouting “你喜歡大麻嗎？” at no one in particular. Maybe you should have hired one of the thousands of white faces in Taipei that knows not to go near MJ in Taiwan? Maybe a foreign woman? Person of color? There are plenty in Taipei, where it was recorded. Nah, women and people of color don’t learn Chinese. The only people on earth who learn Chinese are white men, according to this podcast. Just like the only native speakers are women who constantly flirt with white men. So much potential and such well thought out lessons. Total failure when it comes to presentation.
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great 😎
Best way to learn chinese.
they make it fun too.
they make it fun too.
Terrible business decisions
Content has been frozen for 5 months and I started my annual subscription 8 months ago. Not worth the cost anymore.
