Chinese Track: Recent Episodes
Chinese Track
The Impact of Chinese Language Skills on Career TrajectoryThis interview was with Jamie Rufe, an American who has resided in Taiwan for 11 years. Jamie’s journey to Taiwan, albeit somewhat accidental, was influenced by his prior experience of living in China. His interest in Chinese language and culture was deeply rooted in his upbringing, inspired by his father’s business interactions with Chinese-speaking clients.
Reflecting on his language learning venture, Jamie shared his progression from high school and university studies to eventually relocating to China and Taiwan for work. He recounted the various methods he employed to enhance his fluency, including taking formal Chinese classes, utilizing flashcards, and actively engaging with native speakers to practice and refine his language skills.
Jamie also shed light on the challenges he encountered in securing job opportunities that necessitated Chinese proficiency. Immersing himself in Chinese-speaking environments proved to be a transformative experience, significantly bolstering his language capabilities and expanding his career horizons.
As the job market in China and Taiwan continues to evolve, Jamie noted the escalating demand for higher levels of Chinese proficiency. He advised aspiring individuals to immerse themselves in native content, practice listening and speaking regularly, and continuously adapt to the evolving language prerequisites in the professional realm.
The conversation underscored the value of Chinese language proficiency in career advancement and the persistent commitment required to excel in a competitive job market that increasingly values bilingualism.
Effective Methods for Language Learning and Skill Enhancement* Utilizing Podcasts and Native Input: Actively engaging with podcasts and other native language content, such as books and articles, can expose learners to authentic language use and aid in vocabulary expansion. * Consistent Practice: Regular practice through activities like conversation practice, listening exercises, and accent refinement can significantly enhance language skills over time. * Diversifying Content Sources: Exploring a variety of content in the target language, akin to one’s interests in the native language, can keep learning engaging and relevant. * Structured Learning Paths: Tailoring learning paths to individual needs, whether through structured curriculums or self-driven approaches, can provide a roadmap for progression.
Expanding on the theme of language learning methodologies, he shared insights on the importance of balancing input and output strategies. He emphasized the necessity of consuming diverse native content such as books, articles, and podcasts while actively practicing conversation skills and working on accent improvement.
Furthermore, he stressed the significance of creating a continuous feedback loop in the learning process and outlined his personal approach of extensive reading, active listening, and consistent speaking practice to reinforce language acquisition.
Emphasizing the need for a diverse range of content sources, he suggests aligning one’s interests in the target language with familiar topics from their native language. Additionally, he recommended adopting a systematic approach to learning, including vocabulary retention and leveraging tools for grammar explanations.
In discussing learning paths for Chinese learners, he differentiated between those benefiting from structured curriculums at language training centers and those preferring self-directed learning. He advised starting with foundational concepts and gradually progressing to higher proficiency levels, with a focus on spoken language before delving into character recognition.
Reflecting on his own language learning journey, he expressed a desire to have engaged with native content earlier to expedite his learning process. He highlighted the advantages of immersing oneself in challenging materials to advance to higher proficiency levels.
Reflecting on his expat experience in Taiwan, he underscored the instrumental role of Chinese language skills in his career growth. He highlighted the abundant opportunities that surface at advanced levels of Chinese proficiency, particularly in Taiwan’s bilingual education initiatives and corporate settings.
For networking and career prospects, he recommends active involvement in local networking events and breaking out of expat circles to forge connections with Taiwanese professionals. He recounted securing a job opportunity through LinkedIn and emphasized the efficacy of local networking in accessing the Taiwanese job market.
Lastly, he underscored the importance of leveraging local connections and word-of-mouth referrals in Taiwanese networking culture for enhanced career prospects, advocating for prioritizing relationships with Taiwanese contacts for more impactful networking outcomes.
Moreover, he stressed the importance of balancing input and output in language learning, advocating for activities that reinforce both listening and speaking skills. He suggests creating feedback loops within the learning process to ensure continual improvement.
TL;DRAdvanced language skills are instrumental in shaping an individual’s professional growth by opening doors to diverse career opportunities and enhancing global competitiveness.
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In this episode, I interview Caleb Shetland, an American now working in Taipei as a firmware engineer. Listen to find out: – His experience learning Chinese at a US college – What approach he wishes he had used instead, to learn characters – When he realized that learning Mandarin would be useful for his engineering career – […]
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We have added a couple of new options to the pricing page. New users now have the option of choosing between the existing Premium Online plan, or the new Guided Plan. In addition to all the features from the regular online plan, the guided plan also provides an assignment for each lesson. This usually requires […]
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We recently updated both our Chinese Flashcards iPhone apps with modern designs. They should be available as free updates, if you have them already. You can find them in the app store here: Chinese Flashcards: Learn 2700 characters Chinese Flashcards II: Learn 1000 words for beginners
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I recently made a couple of small changes to the Course Outline page. The “Complete” links have been renamed as “Transcript” and have moved to the front of every lesson. I feel “Transcript” is a more descriptive label than “Complete” and moving it to the front better reflects the progression that most users make with […]
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One feature that many users have asked for, is the ability to export flashcards to Pleco, the popular dictionary app. This could always be done of course through the Export page. However this required multiple steps. I’m happy to announce that if you’re using an iOS device (iPhone or iPad), then head on over to […]
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If you haven’t noticed, the entire site has been recently updated with a brand new design. It was a bit of a rocky start at first, with lots of small features not working. Most have now been fixed though, and early reviews seem to be good. The biggest benefit of the new site is that […]
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Well it took some time, but it’s finally here. The new CLO App for Android has been released on the Google Play store. Like the iOS version, the Android version comes with the first 3 lessons for free. You can then purchase lesson content for levels 1 and 2 into the app. These include the […]
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I have added a new home page for subscribers to measure their progress. Once logged in, click on the CLO logo on the top left of the page to be taken to this new page. It is a modified version of the current course outline page. It will look something like this: On the left, […]
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The flashcard page on the site has been updated with a new format. The old format was quite outdated, requiring Java and not being mobile friendly. The new version should work fine on mobile browsers – both desktop and mobile, without requiring any additional software to be downloaded. It uses a similar format to the […]
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As I wrote about recently, the CLO Level Test is now ready for trial. Anyone can try it, even without an account. To begin, choose your mode. If you haven’t learned characters yet, then start with pinyin. You will hear a word being played. Type out what you hear with the tone numbers, then press […]
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Some have wondered what I have been up to behind the scenes at CLO. We stopped creating new course material sometime back as so few people had made it all the way to the end of level 7. Instead I focused on tools to improve the current site and look for more tools to take […]
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If you have purchased a CLO lessons download (or a level download) and want to import the lessons directly into iTunes, you can follow the instructions given below. 1. Make sure you are running the latest version of iTunes. The instructions given below are for version 11. If you have a different version of iTunes […]
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New users to our website may notice a new link greeting you – our new demo page. The idea is to make it easy for new users to try out the different features of CLO by putting all the free demo lessons and resources in one area, with steps to guide you from one section […]
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If you have logged in to the new CLO site recently, you may have noticed new avatars showing for different users. There is a different avatar for each level, so this gives you an idea on what level (1 to 7) different users are. Of course, you’re free to put your own profile pic (as […]
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Well it took a while, but we finally added level 2 lessons to our CLO app. We also added a Restore button, to retrieve previous lessons that you may have deleted.
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I recently started a new site, based around the CLO material but with a focus on reading and typing in Chinese. The site is free at the moment – it just requires a Facebook login. The goal would be to eventually integrate it with CLO so that users can choose between focusing on listening (CLO) […]
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We’ve been doing some retouch work on the new version of CLO, trying to make the activities look a little prettier. If anything doesn’t look the way it should though, let me know.
The post New CLO Facelift appeared first on Chinese Track.
Due to popular demand, I have added Pleco format to the export page on NewCLO (you will need to be a subscriber to access that page). So you can now choose which lessons you want to export, what content from each lesson you would like (vocabulary, characters, supplemental vocabulary) and it will export it in […]
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We will be using our Facebook page and new Twitter account to send out words of the day (WOTD). Some days might have multiple words, while other days may not have any. This way, vocabulary can be introduced to you in the context of what’s happening around the world these days. Here’s the first WOTD: […]
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It’s been a long time coming – many have asked if they could become affiliates for CLO. I’m proud to announce that we now have our own affiliate program. Now you can start earning money for promoting CLO! Sign up and earn 50% of any sales you produce. Let me know if you have any […]
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I’ve posted the first four lessons of CLO on the Udemy site. The lesson audio and transcripts have been combined into a video so you can listen to the audio while reading the transcript. If people are interested in this format, I could offer the first level or two of CLO on the Udemy site.
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I’m happy to announce that CLO now has its own YouTube channel. There are several videos there from various dialogues in the course. Here’s one of the early ones:
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Version 1.21 of our CLO app is now available for download. Changes include a couple of bug fixes: – The audio now plays even when your device goes to sleep. – Couple of MP3s from lesson 31 were not playing before. This should now be fixed.
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After some delays getting going, I’m proud to announce that the Spanish version of CLO is officially live at: www.chinocastellano.com. You can also subscribe to the iTunes feed or general feed.
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Version 1.2 of our CLO app is now available for download. Changes include more lessons (all of level one) and character stroke-order animations for new characters in each lesson. The videos that we included in the original version will be replaced with characters for future versions. Enjoy!
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We will be making some changes to the theme / look of the main CLO site, as well as revamping the signup / login process. You may have noticed that the site now requires you to sign in with your email address, rather than your username. We plan to phase out the use of usernames […]
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I’m happy to announced the general release of the new version of the CLO site for all premium subscribers at www.newclo.com. As the format on the old site is quite different from the new one, I’ll keep both online for the time being, so users can choose which one they like better, as all premium […]
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I’m happy to announce that the app version of our CLO course is now available for iPhone and iPod Touch users
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Today marks the 4 year anniversary of Learn Chinese Online. Although it may look like we have been dormant for the last little while with promised updates that haven’t come, there has been lots going on behind the scenes. Specifically, there are now 4 projects that I’m currently working on. Here is an update on […]
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For those of you using the popular Pleco Flashcard software, I have released the entire vocabulary list for CLO for use on Pleco. You can find them here: CLO-Pleco.zip Enjoy!
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I’m happy to announce that users of the popular Skritter website to learn Chinese characters, can now access all the vocabulary from the first 100 lessons of CLO. Enjoy!
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