Hi there,
I’ve noticed that it has been over 3 months since any new content has been uploaded to this site. I’ve also noticed that new content is uploaded to the ChinesePod YouTube channel several times a week.
Will this website continue to be updated with new content?
I’ve given up on ChinesePod, probably forever. I used it quite a lot almost a decade ago when I was teaching Chinese, both for improving my own language and for my students. It was excellent for content-based lessons and follow up that covered a lot of material that you would have in a typical, traditional style Chinese class. I used it a lot for my students as extensions, since we didn’t have a lot of actual contact hours in our class and I was not going to waste our precious class time explaining grammar or vocabulary to them.
I accidentally hit something on my computer the other day and an old downloaded ChinesePod lesson started playing on iTunes and I thought “oh wow, maybe I should go back to paying a large sum of money for ChinesePod. It was actually kinda good”. I then logged on to see what new goodies had been made over the years. Almost…nothing? They changed the layout of the website, so there’s no way for me to even filter out the level I want to look at (no matter what I do, it still shows at the levels at once), but it looks like the most recent advanced lesson was uploaded over a year ago. And it’s from a Youtube video, which means you can get the content for free, instead of paying $30/mo to access it.
Some digging around lead me to discover that ChinesePod is heavily promoting newbie and elementary lessons on YouTube. Well that’s nice for the general population of beginners who just want to passively learn on YouTube, but the joy of ChinesePod was that they were audio lessons that you can take with you anywhere you go, with structured PDFs and accompanying audio downloads that put all other Chinese textbooks to shame. There’s no need to oversaturate the YouTube “come learn Chinese from me” stuff that’s already everywhere on YouTube. But for some reason, that’s the direction Chinese Pod has decided to go.
Somewhere else online I saw a ChinesePod moderator respond to someone by saying that COVID had seriously affected their ability to produce content. That’s a load of crap. First of all, the lack of new advanced lessons goes back to 2018. Even before that, there was maybe one new advanced lesson every 2 months. COVID-19 lockdowns didn’t start until February of 2020. Second, there’s a ChinesePod office in Taipei, which had very, very little impact from COVID, barring a four month period in 2021. I know because I live in Taipei. I’ve walked past the ChinesePod office many times and I was here for all of the pandemic. COVID is a poor excuse for not producing content that you charge an insane amount of money for. It’s a convenient excuse, certainly, but it’s a really poor one.
ChienesePod was groundbreaking when they first started. They got that language can be acquired through short, relevant dialogue, an accompanying transcript, and simple explanations. It was like the first 20 minutes of a traditional-style Chinese class, only the content was relevant to one’s life, instead of teaching 馬馬虎虎 and filial piety and environmental protection but never teaching shapes and colors like every Chinese textbook out there. The quality of the lessons varied, and there was a LOT of anti-America, Chinese Superiority nonsense embedded in more lessons than anyone should feel comfortable with, but overall, it was better than any textbook I’ve flipped through.
I’ve also noticed that every time someone on here asks about why there isn’t any new content, there’s a bunch of “well what do you want?”. People then clearly articulate what they are looking for, but there’s still no new advanced content. I don’t really know why people should need to tell Chinese Pod what they’re looking for. We PAY for the product. It is the responsibility of the company to do their research and learn what the consumer wants. The number of “it sounds like we’re not meeting your needs. Can you elaborate on what you are looking for?” responses to “why isn’t there any new content” is astounding.
I can only say that it’s obvious no one is steering the ship anymore. I just wish there was a way to buy the entire ChinesePod library as a mass download before they disappear forever, that way I can have something to use when I go back to teaching Chinese again next year.
I too miss the old days of ChinesePod when we had high quality audio lessons like this:
There was no need for video lessons, rather, we had solid audio lessons with user and staff interactions. The old dashboard was also superior. Very sad to see the gradual devolution
I share all of your sentiments. I really am disappointed at how this site seems to be slowly dying through neglect. If ChinesePod is moving toward a model where all new content is hosted on YouTube, they might as well just upload their entire back catalog onto YouTube, or Spotify; people who want access to the PDFs etc. can pay a small fee for it. This is the same model that most other Chinese teachers making a living via social media have adopted. If that’s what they’re planning on doing they should just do that, instead of whatever it is they’re trying (and failing) to do right now.
It also looks like they’re pushing one-on-one instruction, 10 classes for only $299. But with services like iTalki out there, and without a strong listener base, I don’t know how attractive that’s going to be either.
Also looking at the hit counts on the videos they are posting, I wonder whether they’re even making enough from ad revenue to make up for neglecting their site.
Yeah, I’m really saddened by the way things have been going. I am still a subscriber because there is enough archived content for me to work on. However, I am getting near a point where I may cancel my subscription due to lack of quality new content. It really seems like this site has been left to die off.
Hey All,
I have been a subscriber for nearly 15 years (from the very early days!) and share everyone’s frustration. I will probably let my membership expire in the next few months.
FYI, they have been uploading full lessons on Spotify. At first I thought it was new content but then realized they are just recycling old lessons. Anyways, if you have Spotify, you can check out the lessons there.
Best,
Can we expect an official statement of Chinesepod on these heavy statements?
So odd, Chinesepod has become a ghost town. How did this happen? Who took the site over after the Fiona/gwylim era? Who would operate a business in this way? Hillarious how they don’t respond at all. What a group of absolute losers. My company gave me this subscription. If I had paid it myself, i’d be demanding a refund.
Just chiming in to note that it has now been over eight months since this website, which I pay to access, has updated.
Currently, our team is engaged in the development of new content that is designed to meet the needs and interests of our valued audience. Rest assured, this new material is being prepared with utmost care and attention to detail, and we anticipate that it will be made available for upload in the near future.
I appreciate that Chinesepod staff are finally responding to the very understandable concerns of their paying client base.
At least some new content that is designed to meet the needs and interests of the audience is currently being developed and released… via ChinesePod’s YouTube channel.
Are you able to comment on why this content is not being integrated into the paid platform?
I don’t think Atif has any affliation with Chinesepod. Atif is trolling.
@989409063 It took me way too long to realize that 
.
It’s probably not a good sign that no one from Chinesepod has bothered to delete the posts.
We would like to express our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused by the delayed response. The Chinesepod team is actively engaged in the development of new features and updates to enhance the user experience and prevent the issues you have mentioned in your comment.
What new features? What kind of content? Are you getting back to your roots of high quality audio lessons?
I do not understand the difficulty in introducing new content when it has been so long. I personally have been waiting several years and am not willing to wait much longer. ChinesePod used to be great and we were promised better but have received nothing. Continually reviewing old lessons over and over is useful but not worth the money as there are plenty of other options. One of the joys of the old ChinesePod was learning about what was going on in China but without new lessons – all the discussions refer to things which were topical over 5 years ago.