Mandarin?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by nosborne48, Nov 28, 2020.

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  1. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    If a guy decided to learn a little Standard Chinese, where might he go, D/L wise?
     
  2. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Try cudoo.com. Cost around $25 for one course. They have 160 languages. Just noticed - now on sale $16.49 and they also have a Chinese Cultural Awareness course that looks very interesting.
     
    Dustin likes this.
  3. Mac Juli

    Mac Juli Well-Known Member

  4. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Another idea. I took Mandarin at night at my local Community College (in Canada). Nosborne, the Community Colleges in your State are a pretty good deal -especially for those who live there. Most of them have lots of online courses. Maybe Clovis? There are about 20 schools to choose from I think.
     
  5. Mac Juli

    Mac Juli Well-Known Member

  6. Mac Juli

    Mac Juli Well-Known Member

  7. asianphd

    asianphd Active Member

    There is some China university that offers Mandarin course online, on a term basis.
    Especially in times like this, the supply should be increase.
    Try to look at this: https://www.cucas.cn/
     
  8. Messdiener

    Messdiener Active Member

    Once you have a foundation (an intro level course or two), I'd strongly recommend Lingq and Glossika.

    The former provides a wealth of short stories and the associated audio, entirely for free. If you want to create flashcards or get tutors, they provide those for a reasonable fee.

    The latter uses a "mass sentence" method, providing you with EN-ZH sentences and associated audio in something of a Spaced Repetition System approach (showing you the sentences at certain intervals to ensure acquisition and long-term retention). Glossika has a free tier, but it is quite limited. The paid subscription gives you more access, not only to Mandarin but also to dozens of other languages too.
     
    Dustin likes this.
  9. Dustin

    Dustin Well-Known Member

    Interesting! I'd never heard of it, but took a quick look. The best language learning experience I ever had was on Lingoda, where for about $10 CAD an hour you did a group lesson with 1-4 other students. I progressed extremely quickly in that environment, but unfortunately I've had other demands on my budget and haven't been able to continue after doing their marathon promotion (where you do 90 one hour lessons, one per day, in a row within strict terms and if you complete them, you get your money back, which I did.)

    It looks like the three levels of Cudoo cover A1 and a bit of A2 on the CEFR scale (with the levels going A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2 - B1 being conversational with numerous errors, B2 being the minimum you need to get a study or work permit in a French-speaking country, C1 being advanced approaching fluency [a never-ending asymptote], and C2 being equivalent to an educated native speaker.) To get to A1 for $50 is pretty good, if the instruction is decen.

    I might try their Arabic Level 1 and see if it's a good fit for me to establish a base.
     
  10. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    If you can afford $10 hr -- you can go to a real college and get academic credit for the same money. I did that, for Spanish I, II and Mandarin, some years ago. Italian and Ukrainian, I did at night in the High School system, when I was in my 40s. They were more like $25 a school year, but that was back in the 80s. And they gave me official High School credits.

    My original high school transcript dates from 1960. About 10 years back, some place I was taking a course requested that I send them a copy of my HS transcript. I went to the Board of Education office and got one - just under the wire. They purge the records after 50 years. I paid for 3 copies, just to avoid future problems. You never know...
     
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  11. Dustin

    Dustin Well-Known Member

    I thought about it. I can do online courses from Humber College for about $350 each. If I were living in Canada I would have done Athabasca's Certificate in French Proficiency which is 10 3-credit university-level courses, but living in the US means they cost $1700 CAD each and I could get a Master's degree for $17K!
     
  12. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Good school, Humber. My son earned himself a Creative Writing Diploma in extension from there about 10 years ago. It's served him very well. His first College program was at Sheridan - that was Media Writing and he earned that around 1991. He's the second multiple-CC grad in the family. I'm the first: Niagara (1x -at 46) Mohawk (3x -at 52-62). Might well have a couple among my grandkids... got a 1x CC grad already - she's in Uni now.
     
  13. AsianStew

    AsianStew Moderator Staff Member

    There maybe a workaround for that. Were you in Canada when you did your Bachelors with Athabasca? Did you update your address details with Athabasca? If you haven't changed your Canadian address, it won't matter! Sign up for the Athabasca Cert! But then again, a Masters degree does look better on the resume than the Cert... decisions, decisions...
     
  14. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    BTW - you can get a French proficiency Cert. from an Ont. Community College for way less. Around $350 each for 8 courses. Here's Mohawk's link. There are other programs at other Colleges. $2,700 beats 17K at Athabasca. It's a good school, but OML - the prices! :eek:
    https://www.mohawkcollege.ca/ce/programs/communications-languages-and-preparatory-studies/competence-french-language-829
     
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  15. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Not a recommended strategy. It would constitute fraud against the Canadian Government. I'm sure they're paying Athabasca a heavy subsidy for each Canadian student. That thought might not stop a really determined chiseler, I suppose - if we have any such on the board - but I'm absolutely sure Dustin is not a chiseler of any type. I think if someone (anyone) tried this and it was detected - as it likely would be at some point - at the very least their name would stink at Athabasca and they might very well be ...um, disenrolled. Forever.

    It's almost like maintaining a post-box in Ouagadougou, to take unfair advantage of a low-cost degree program for developing African countries. If anyone on DI is actually doing something like that (and again, I'm POSITIVE Dustin isn't) then ... I don't want to hear about it.
     
    Last edited: Dec 8, 2020
  16. Dustin

    Dustin Well-Known Member

    Yes, this is probably the way to go. I briefly attended Humber North and didn't have a good time (my emotional health wasn't great then either so I don't blame the school), but I knew some people from Humber Lakeshore and they loved their experience. At the time, most of the "creative" programs were down at Lakeshore (music, art, etc.), not sure if that's still the case.

    Edit: Looks like there's actually an even mix now https://mediaarts.humber.ca/future-students/explore/full-time/all-programs.html

    I actually did update my address with Athabasca because I needed my materials for my last course shipped to me. Although they get a per-student subsidy for students studying in Alberta they don't get any money for students studying elsewhere in the country, Canadian or not. That's a significant issue and almost led to the school's insolvency a few years ago leading to the current high(er) prices, so even if I could save a buck I wouldn't do that to my alma mater.
     
    Last edited: Dec 8, 2020
  17. eriehiker

    eriehiker Active Member

    Mac Juli and innen_oda like this.
  18. innen_oda

    innen_oda Active Member

    I think Quebec also offers VERY cheap French immersion courses to Canadian citizens, but damned if I can find the link for it. Something like a couple hundred for 3 months? You'd have to find cash for living costs, although the more remote parts of Quebec are basically frozen tundra, so I shouldn't think rent would be too dear.

    Wish I could remember where I had read that - maybe I'll bookmark it properly this time.
     
  19. Dustin

    Dustin Well-Known Member

    From the "I would do it differently if I were transported back there" department, I was offered 5 weeks in Quebec City learning French in an intensive program as part of the Explorer program that puts English speakers in Quebec and native French speakers in English-speaking parts of the country for the summer and pays all basic expenses (all you need is pocket money basically, your tuition, room and board are covered.)

    Unfortunately I turned it down to do a very distressing semester at Trent University which didn't end up giving me anything except $7,000 in debt and a 6 credits transferrable to my eventual degree, out of the 15 credits I took.

    The French instruction would have been much more valuable! To be young again.
     
    innen_oda likes this.
  20. innen_oda

    innen_oda Active Member

    Hey, you may be the oldest you've ever been . . . but you are also the youngest you'll ever be.

    I've no doubt similar opportunities are still out there. No time like the present.
     

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