posted by minghan on November 22, 2013 | 10 comments
Hey Popup Team,

I'm not really sure where to write this, so I figure here is as good a place as any. I feel kind of confused/upset about the amount of content being produced by your "Popup Towers" lately. For the intermediate podcasts, there have only been 9 podcasts put out this year, which doesn't even average to 1 podcast per month. Looking back, I think you had close to 30 podcasts in 2012 for the intermediate level. For the advanced level this year there are only 10 podcasts.

I feel like every time I sign on I just see a stream of Sinica podcasts, which is fine, but it's not the reason why I paid for an account with this site. I don't want to insult or attack you guys, I'm just bringing it up because I really like you guys and I want to fully understand the situation. I seems like there has been a noticeable decrease in podcasts being put out and I was wondering if there was a specific reason for that. And if there is, is there anything your customers can do to help?

I've been thinking about this more because I'm pretty sure my subscription will expire soon. And I would really like to see more, regular podcasts being produced.

Thanks
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trevelyan on November 22, 2013 | reply
@minghan,

Yes, there are reasons for reduced frequency (largely to do with me frankly) but Popup Chinese is not going anywhere. We've never been able to produce enough to avoid some complaints, but have more and better materials now than ever, so we ultimately are what we are.

We have another dialogue recording session this weekend, so things are ongoing and if there is anything you'd like covered that we've missed please do email with suggestions. Realistically, we are at a point where we have covered so much it is challenging sometimes to find new things to teach. And it can be difficult getting good dialogues as well.

In the meantime, If people want to help the obvious ways are linking to us or contributing with word or mouth. Popup Chinese is very much a labour of love, but more resources do translate into being able to hire and produce more. That said we are not really the most commercial organization and consciously avoid trying to maximize revenue (with email spamming, recurring billing, limited free stuff, etc) when it comes at the expense of the sort of place we want to be. The same goes for producing content we're not happy with, just for the sake of volume.

That said, I don't think you need to feel guilty or worried.

Best,

--david
meng.evans on November 22, 2013 | reply
Hi Popup team,

I've been a subscriber for 4 years now and absolutely love your work - it's such a fun and interesting way to learn both Chinese language and culture, and for that I sincerely thank you! However, I have to agree with minghan's comment as it's a shame that there haven't been many intermediate and advanced podcasts lately.

David, I hear what you're saying about not wanting to maximise revenue at the expense of your vision and quality of content, but perhaps a bit more marketing and social media presence could be helpful? I feel that your service would be of interest to a massive number of people, but they haven't be able to discover you yet!

A few friendly suggestions you could try: an open Facebook page (rather than closed group), blog, events that members can attend (in Beijing or elsewhere) and/or maybe some marketing partnerships with other innovative Chinese learning tools (such as the Kickstarter supported Chineasy, who have a very big social media presence)? As minghan suggested, I, and I'm sure the rest of your members, would be very happy to help by spreading the word - it would just be easier if there was more content in the form of social media posts, blogs, press releases etc that could be spread!

Let me know if I can help, I'd love to see you guys go very far!

Meng
archimon on July 25, 2014 | reply
David,

Is what you said in this post still current? It seems as though Echo hasn't been involved and any new podcasts recently and that content is continuing to trickle quite slowly. I completely understand your point about the difficulty finding new points to teach, but the initial energy that was put into regular things like KTV Wednesday and Film Friday is almost nowhere to be found here these days. I still enjoy going through the older material and so don't regret my subscription, but I would like to know what the future of the Popup websites is, as the Cantonese website and the Spanish-Chinese sites seem to be more or less inactive as well. I hope you're all doing well.

Sincerely,

MF
trevelyan on July 26, 2014 | reply
@archimon,

Echo is newly married and not actively recording with us. I am not sure if she will in the future, but perhaps not. She seems to be going through a rough time in her life.

The future is always what happens tomorrow. If you want to see more KTV Wednesday, please recommend songs. Rather than rehash Film Friday, we're experimenting with new ideas like the Quiz Show with Brendan out of town as well.

Best,

--david

archimon on July 27, 2014 | reply
I'm sorry to hear that things are a bit down for Echo, I hope everything works out. Thanks for the quick response!
iaing on July 26, 2014 | reply
I was going to say congrats Echo, until I read the third sentence. Hope everything's ok. Popup without Echo is like losing its soul. Still the coolest Mandarin learning website on the planet, bar none. All the best with the future.
deanbarr on July 28, 2014 | reply
Echo, Best wishes and may all your troubles be little ones. Dean
donalthurley on July 28, 2014 | reply
I think Grace is also an excellent Popup Chinese host but I'm sorry to hear that Echo at the moment is not involved. I for one hope she will come back at some time again as her enthusiasm and sense of humour on the podcasts is infectious. I wish her all the best. Donal

oyamakuma on August 2, 2014 | reply
This is just an idea, but I would like to have different accents on the show instead of just the standard putonghua accent. You could have the non standard accent first and then use 标准普通话 to explain it. I feel like I learn something from here or a textbook, but whem they speak mandarin here in gz with the nanfang accent, i just hit a blank.