When Fiona, Gwilym, Constance and their team were running ChinesePod, they regularly included both simplified and traditional characters, as well as versions of phrases as used in Taiwan. As a person who lives in Taiwan, this was very useful. A lot of foreigners live in Taiwan. So, why give up on us? I cancelled my subscription and will not resubscribe because of this change.
So… sometimes change is disappointing as well.
Hi Jay,
I am really sorry to hear that. We decide to put simplified characters only because it would make the picture clear and simple. We are afraid that too much information may make students frustrated. Besides, although it’s great to teach phrases used in Taiwan, it may make students confused. But, we do not give up on you! Our website allows students to switch the characters to the one you prefer. And on YouTube, we have a channel for traditional characters named Mandarin MadeEZ by ChinesePod. Hope it would help:
Betty
That’s Fiona’s old channel, I mean I know ChinesePod bought it or acquired it but… those are just old, relabeled videos.
Anyway… interesting answer.
Hi Jason,
Although it’s an old channel, we still upload new videos there.
To OP and anyone else in Taiwan/ppl looking for Taiwan and trad character content, just leave ChinesePod for good and move over to Skritter. I don’t know what happened with Fiona and her relationship with Chinese Pod, nor do I actually care, but I was shocked and then happy to see her face when I got back onto Skritter a few months back. They’re making videos now that are just like what they did at ChiensePod, only they continue to actually produce content and then provide vocabulary lists that you can use in your Skritter account. When the vocabulary varies significantly between China and Taiwan, they actually make two separate lists, that way you can work on what you need. It doesn’t get into the advanced content that ChiensePod once produced, but there’s a sufficient amount of relevant vocabulary that you can use in your daily life.