@Murrayjames,

Amen to that!

The Popup vibe is second to none.

Not to knock Chinesepod, but...while Jenny Zhu (a very beautiful Shanghai socialite) and John Pasden (a very handsome coolguy who speaks fantastic Chinese) are, both likeable enough, the problem is that Jenny had no teaching experience to speak of before joining Chinesepod and John's teaching style is a direct holdover from the training school environment. The way they both teach and explain material, most especially John, is to treat the student like they're in elementary school. To explain concepts only in the most basic, lowest-common-denominator way, as if the students aren't capable of understanding it in another, more academic way. They offer little in the way of grammatical guidance, cultural insight or to help the student internalize the material or understand the emotional subtleties of the language.

Chinesepod does nothing to educate the student on the structure of the language, to help them learn HOW it's put together and WHY it's put together in that way. There's also zero emphasis on providing any sort of road map for the student to actually raise up his or her level, short of purchasing their ultra expensive executive package at several hundred USD per month.

They seem to believe that having a lively discussion about a topic and explaining the meaning of a few words is adequate. In my book John's peronality is too straight to be a host. He would be, (and probably currently is) a fantastic manager, which seems well suited to his personality type, but a host needs another level of charm, wit, creativity and magnetism.

Chinesepod's dialogues tend to lack creativity and naturalism and all the hosts are a bit bland. Although I do really tend to like David Xu as a host.

On the other hand, Brendan's knowledge of grammar and mastery of the subtleties of Chinese is absolutely astounding and his sly wit often leaves me rolling on the floor. David Echo and Brendan all inject the dialogues with humor as well as academia. Echo's background in teaching Chinese as a second language shines through in every podcast.

Popup Chinese is great edutainment.

This is the only site that has any sort of emphasis on learning WRITTEN CHINESE. Every lesson offers downloadable PDF character practice sheets. There is also a character writing practice pad. Best of all, if Echo senses that a student has any sort of command of written Chinese at all, she will actively post a message in Chinese that's catered to the level of the student. Jenny on the other hand rarely, if ever, even tries to post in Chinese, even at advanced levels. If she's trying to elicit a discussion from the students, then she's going about it in the wrong way, because a discussion in English is useless to the student and worse, pushes them back into an English mode.

In short this is all a product of Chinespod's somewhat watered down “轻轻松松地学汉语”approach.

Studying a language, and actually learning it to some appreciable level is not, and never will be the entirely enjoyable and relaxing experience that it's promoted to be on Chinesepod.

Especially not a complicated language like Chinese.

Yes there are certain elements that can be entertaining, fun and joyful, but at the end of the day, it's painstaking work and a long and winding road.

The shortcomings of the site are most evident in the host of students who have, after four or five years of heavy Chinesepod usage only now been able to make the jump up one or two levels from where they originally started. These students' "upgrade" is only based on their listening comprehension, not their SPEAKING and definitely not their reading or writing, which are at much lower levels.

In my mind, to start with C-pod at Newbie level in 2008 and graduate to elementary in 2012 is a bit slow. And most of these students have absolutely no knowledge of the written language, simply because it's not promoted. Most of these students can't put together an actual sentence in the language (spoken or written) beyond basic, canned phrases. It seems they would have been better off with Pimsleur.

In my mind it's a bit of a tragedy.

Other shortcomings are that C-Pod wraps up everything in a tidy red Western bow. By trying so hard to make the language appealing and sexy to Western audiences, one can gain precious little insight into the cultural background of China. To understand the Chinese mind, to learn to mingle with the Chinese in a Chinese way. One can only hope to understand the simple and obvious Chinese social protocol of, fighting over the bill, maintaining face, purposely wasting food at a dinner table, Tai Chi, China's one child policy, Treating friends to dinner, Chinese family closeness, etc. These social phenomena are present in and explained in every basic China travel guide, but for a site that boasts a backlog of thousands of lessons, there are very few that actually deal with Chinese culture in any appreciable way.

Besides, whenever I listen to Chinesepod's lessons, it always seems like the language originated in English and it was translated to Chinese, not that it began as actual, native-level Chinese.

It's all tinted in a Western hue, flavored with Western spice, given a Western zing.

It always seems so inauthentic.

In my mind, this is all a product of Chinesepod's relax and freely study Mandarin "on your terms" approach.

Sorry, you can't successfully learn a language "on your terms".

Imagine that I'm coming from zero. Starting from no knowledge of how to learn a language and suddenly I'm going to come in and start calling the shots? To decide for myself how to learn a language when I have nothing whatsoever to go on? To make an effective study plan for myself and stick to it?

Oh really?

Languages are not learned, beyond those rare and precious few brilliant polyglots, by process of osmosis.

Popup Chinese on the other hand is like a University online, with an fully academic approach. With a complete, systematic pedagogy. With great hosting presence, clear grammatical and linguistic explanations, realistic voice acting, memorable dialogues, a wealth of enlightening study materials that include comprehension questions, exercises, tests and HSK tests, as well as full staff support and a great community. Popup is, pretty awesome.

Besides, like David said, it's put together by people who really know the language.

If Chinesepod were the only game in town it would be an okay place to learn the Mandarin language, provided you know how to organize your study, but with Popup Chinese as an alternative, the choice is clear.

Advantage Popup Chinese.