Comments on: Ken Carroll (of ChinesePod) podcast

By: cgorae

cgorae — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:33:45 +0000

I enjoy the podcast when Jenny and others are involved BUT Ken should stay from *any* attempt to even speak Mandarin…he is just plain awaful as an instructor and really contributes nothing to the usefullness …that said the podcast is great without him!!

By: English Teacher in China

English Teacher in China — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 16:34:59 +0000

This is a great site and works very well. Regardless of how annoying Kens’s accent may or may not be. You are not supposed to be mimicking him anyway, it is Jenny and the Chinese spoken dialogue that should really be focussed on. Grow up Simon!!!

By: Gustaf

Gustaf — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:30:38 +0000

That’s funny, my first thought when I heard Ken was “wow, that chinese man speaks very good american!” My second thought was that he is probably on drugs, or strained to the extreme by having to speaking a foreign language (English), and that this was the reason that he sounds so strange. Sort of super laid back but at the same time too intense for comfort. The ChinesePods seem pretty good, but we have of course seen this a million times before.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 18:35:35 +0000

Crikey, some real fussy comments here. For me, the comparison between the usual dry CD of vocab and grammar compared to these podcasts is gigantic. One is dry, irrepressibly dull and impossibly boring, and the other are these podcasts, full of life with simple, effective lessons.
As for his accent? It’s really easy on the ears, and most of the Chinese speaking is done by Jenny anyhow. Sure it’s a bit of a mash-up of American and Irish, but again… who cares?
This is one of the few internet sites I’ve come across that have really impressed me of late, and I really do wish the creators all the best with it. It’s an awesome resource, and I hope it does as fantastically as it deserves.

By: rohito

rohito — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 17:57:04 +0000

Chinesepod is a great resource, and I use it extensively (its relatively cheap and has a good approach and gives plenty of exercise). Having said that I have to partially agree with Simon in that Ken’s slight accent in speaking chinese. I am sure he is a great guy and he is a good teacher in general. Also all credit to him of thinking of a great resource like chinesepod, but it would improve the service if someone with a more ethnic chinese accent was presenting (someone like the co-presenter, Zhu Jenny). Perhaps it is difficult to find someone with the mix of having perfect chinese accent with great English oriented teaching abilities, but it would help greatly. This is specially very important for beginners. Lets take this as a constructive criticism.

By: Helen Lawless

Helen Lawless — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 13:38:38 +0000

I should like to try to learn Korean by this means. Is this possible? Helen McCune Lawless

By: TechHerding - Creating Technical Training In The Virtual World » Using Podcasting For Learning -- In A Big Way: ChinesePod.com

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 18:34:57 +0000

[…] You’ve probably never heard of it, but the fifth most popular podcast in the world last year is educational. ChinesePod.com — now with over 500 individual podcasts — provides both free and subscription audio content to help anyone with a web connection learn Mandarin. Started by Ken Carroll (an Irishman — go figure) the premise was simple. Create simple conversational shows, with engaging professional hosts, and use that platform to help people learn. […]

By: TOM

TOM — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 06:51:49 +0000

first post from simon is ridiculous

i listen every day to chinesepod (i live in china) and it’s a great way to learn - cheap and easy

perhaps simon would like to suggest a better way?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 00:56:56 +0000

No Gary, Simon is 100% correct.

“Irish begrudger”? The thing is that Ken Carroll doesn’t sound REMOTELY Irish. If he just had a distracting Irish accent, I could understand. But the fact is that “Ken Carroll” does not even sound like a native English speaker!

Listen to one of his Podcasts sometime, the accent sounds VERY MUCH like a Chinese person with overdeveloped “English banter” — lots of content, little substance. It blew me away to see his picture and realize he’s white! Not only that but he actually makes English mistakes in his podcasts! And I don’t mean mistakes like a native speaker would make, but mistakes in NUMBER and CASE (exactly the kind of thing a Chinese person would do). Quite frankly, I’m dubious that the voice is the same person as the picture.

One thing is for sure though. Although I love the idea behind ChinesePod and think it’s a great way to learn, the banter of BOTH of the announcers constantly serves as an example of unnatural English, and it’s grating on the ear just to listen too. ChinesePod may be popular, but it certainly ISN’T for the announcing.

By: tom

tom — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 16:10:28 +0000

Well said Gary - I couldn’t agree more.