edx Chinese Language: Learn Basic Mandarin
Entry posted by Shelley
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This week I started this new course with edx. It is starting from the beginning which was fine with me as I feel I have, as a self studier, missed out on some basic things. I hope to plug these holes and learn some more grammar.
The vocabulary is fairly standard beginners level.
The teacher, Estella, is from Taiwan. Her English is very good so it is easy to understand her explanations. She has a nice smiley face (not that this has a direct bearing on the lessons but it helps 
) and seems genuinely keen on teaching Chinese.
I am impressed with what you get, bearing in mind the course is free, there are texts, workbooks, the videos which are broken down into 1 or 2 for vocabulary and then ones for grammar and dialogue.
Each week there is a quiz and it needs to be submitted as it goes towards your final mark, 6 quizzes @ 10 points each and the final exam for 40 points making a total of 100 points. A minimum of 80 points is needed overall for a pass. This is an Honour course so there is no scrutiny of how you take the quizzes and exams but there is also no certificate. To get a certificate costs $50.00. Not sure what this is for or what it entails, not planning on going for a certificate so I don't know.
I have done week 1, the texts, workbook and watched the videos. I have taken the first quiz and got 100%. I must admit I wouldn't have expected anything less at this level but I am hoping it will get harder and I will start to learn some new things.
I also hope that if this course goes well and there is the interest she may do an intermediate level course in the future.
As I progress with the course I will update and add to this blog.
P.S. I should have also added that if anyone is interested in taking this course it started on July 6th and finishes on August 14th when the final exam is published (and you have a week to do it), but you can submit the quizzes at any time for all of the lessons so you can do it at your own speed and you can join in any time till August 14th but that might be a bit late
Week 2
This week we were sent an email with some additional information about the course and the news that they have released an app to go along with the course. At the moment it is only available for iOS but an android version is promised soon.
it seems to be a combination of flash cards and a matching game, but not sure as I am an android user and will have to wait.
I forgot to mention that the course also offers the opportunity to have a 30 minute tutoring session with Estella using Google Hangouts. As it is for many people from many time zones it is done on a lottery basis, you register that you want take part and what time zone you are in (from a list supplied) and then people are picked at random. This happens on Sunday ready for Thursday when it takes place.
She will then concentrate on your speech and correct your tones and mistakes.
Estella is very keen on getting your tones right, she stresses the importance of correct tones several times a lesson.
I have found out that Level 2 will start in September and they intend on doing 6 levels in total at the moment. Each level is 6 weeks long and as it seems like they leave about 2 weeks between courses it looks like it will last nearly a year. This is encouraging and make me really want to take advantage of this wonderful resource that is for free and I intend to make the most of the following year of Chinese lessons.
I would encourage anyone who wants to start learning Chinese or just as a brush up your rusty skills, this is a really good way of doing it. You can learn at your own pace but you do have some deadlines to help keep you from putting things off.
So I am off to hit the books, well the internet and see how much Chinese I can learn this week.
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