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Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Learning Chinese DVD & CD Sale

Learning Chinese DVD and CD Sale 

 Chinese DVD and CD Sale

FAQ CD & DVD's

Q. Should I buy DVD or CD's to Learn Chinese?
A. Yes - They are an excellent method and most of the CD's and DVD's

Q. Why are they on sale?
A. I want to focus the site on Learning Chinese Textbooks, so I have put all the CD's and DVD's on sale.

Q. Do you think DVD's or CD's are going obsolete?
A. Yes and no.
 They are not selling for me. My textbook sales vs DVD's / CD's are 20 to 1 at least. So getting rid of inventory that does not sell makes sense for my business. Then I can simplify my website, and focus on what sells.

Q. Do I think they will be obsolete?

A. Personally no.

I prefer having a CD or DVD. MP3's and video files moving them around are a headache from device to device for those of us less technically advanced. At least with my current hardware and software set up. And a lot of the content on the DVD's are not available online at this time. 

The Video market seems to be moving to an all you can eat, with limited selection, pricing model such as NetFlix. So DVD sales industry wide have dropped dramatically. For teachers, I see DVD's as a great solution since the material is not available online, and this is specialized market. Yes, Youtube has some Learning Chinese Materials, but it's nice to be able to play a video without any advertisement. Plus, this way you don't need to worry about having a good Internet Connection.

 One of the Learning Chinese Textbook Series I carry went to MP3 replacing a CD and I disagree with the decision. I wish they had kept the CD, and added the MP3 files. They are hosting them on their website, and websites are not always accessible. Plus it's not 100% clear where the actual files are located.

Same with the Chinese Reading Touch Pens, which went from CD to MP3 with no notice, so you have to download, that was a huge headache for me to figure out and caused some customer frustrations I did not appreciate. Plus downloading files from China is not super fast. CD has great usability and no downloading issues.

Q. Are they new?
A. Yes

Q. Are they guaranteed?
A. 100% - which means they will work when you receive them. This does not mean you open them all up, say you don't like them, and return them theoretically without copying them - I am sure nobody would do this... I have more in my return policy about CD and DVD returns. I changed the return policy after somebody bought a bunch of DVD's, opened them all up, and then returned them since they did not like them. All in the same series.

Q. What zone are they?
A. Most are zoneless, but you need to look at each product page. It should be there.

Q. What is a DVD zone?
A. The wonderful people at the big movie studios, made zoning for DVD's. That means a Disney DVD made in China in Chinese, will not play a standard US DVD Player. You can buy a zoneless DVD Player, which takes care of the issue. If I understand correctly, zoneless DVD players are not legal in the US, but they are available. Chinese and Korean electronic retailers carry them. This also applies to Blue Ray DVD's. On the back of DVD's there is a picture of a globe that has a number below it, that is the zone. US is Zone 1. Taiwan Zone 4. China 6. Often DVD's are more expensive in Europe, than they are in the US. Or DVD's are cheaper in China, than in the US. It's frustrating, since in the US it's a pain to get DVD's dubbed in a foreign language (Disney does an amazing job, there US Mulan DVD has Chinese on it).

Q. What language are the DVD's in?
A. Mandarin Chinese with English.

Q. Are there sub-titles?
A. It varies, please check each DVD.

Q. Can you play English sub-titles with Chinese
A. Depends on the DVD.

Q. What language are the CD's in?
A. Mandarin Chinese - check each CD. I have some CD's that are used to teach English.

Q. Do you have CD's or DVD's in Cantonese?
A. No. Back in the days of Cassette Tapes, I bought some Cassette Tapes with Books, and they were very slow to sell. I used to get lots of requests for Cantonese, so I was surprised at the lack of sales.

Q. Which accent of Mandarin?
A. It varies. Look where they are made. If made in China or Taiwan it will have their respective accent. Ones made in the US vary in the accent. I prefer the Taiwan accent over the Chinese, but I am married to a Taiwanese...

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Thursday, January 5, 2012

Sire will start speaking Chinese soon!

Very exciting news!

The iPhone 4S goes on sale in China starting the 13th. I am curious how Siri will do with the different Chinese accents...

iPhone 4S goes to China; Siri to start speaking Chinese in 2012 - LA Times

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Thursday, January 27, 2011

I want Mandarin Flash Cards!

I have had a couple of customers call me up and tell me they want Mandarin Chinese XYZ.  The last one was Mandarin Flash Cards.

And then I ask Simplified Chinese Books or Traditional Chinese Books.  The person usually does not know.  Then I ask them where there teacher is from.  If Taiwan, Traditional.  If China, Simplified. 

Usually...  Some teachers from Taiwan are teaching Simplified.  I call customers when I see a mixed order of Simplified and Traditional Chinese.  Often the customer mixed the order by mistake.

And then I tell them they probably want Simplified if they are working with a teacher, and I explain the difference and the advantages of Simplified and Traditional Chinese Characters (longer blog post).  Basically a person from China usually thinks Simplified is the best, and a person from Taiwan thinks Traditional is the best.  Supposedly Simpfilied is easier to learn since less strokes, and traditional is easier to learn since more systematic.  Me, I think both are equally hard to learn :-)  The best comment I heard was when the Chinese writing was "Simplified", they did not simplify it enough.

What I find a bit annoying is a Chinese teacher who tells me that Taiwan does not use Mandarin Chinese. The Chinese Teacher knows better.... Mandarin Chinese is the official language in Taiwan.  My wife has been complimented on her Mandarin Chinese by people from China, and she is from Taiwan.

There is Taiwanese accent, just as there is a Shanghainese Accent, Beijing Accent, as well as what China calls Standard Chinese that is used in newscasts and such that is close to the Beijing Accent. I find the Shanghainese Accent very pretty and the Beijing Accent to be a bit harsher, and the Taiwanese Accent nothing special since I hear it all the time.  The Taiwanese Accent is softer than the Beijing Accent.  If you listen to a person speaking Mandarin Chinese you can usually tell where they are from by their accent.

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Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Accents in Chinese

I asked my daughter how a friend of hers Chinese was. She said it was OK, but her friend thinks my daughter has an accent. My daughter's comment was her friend has the wrong accent.

So both are in high school in the US, what's the missing info. My daughter's family is from Shanghai, where my daughter's Mother is from Taiwan. Chinese does have accents, the standard accent in China is called a Beijing accent. The Taiwan accent is a little bit softer. Both understand each other fine, and the Taiwan accent last I checked is seen as a little bit more stylish because of pop singers.

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Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Chinese - Most Beautiful Language?

Mandarin is the most beautiful language in the world, she declared, and is set to overtake English to become the new international language.
"Everyone is learning Mandarin today because they want to do business with China, and everyone who knows Mandarin must be proud to use it," she claimed.


From an article in a New Zealand Paper.

The question would be with which Chinese Accent? Since the person was from Beijing, I would guess in her opinion it would be the Beijing Accent. But some people prefer the Taiwan accent since it's softer and seen by some as trendier. The official language in China is standard Mandarin, which is what would be considered Beijing accent, but not the old Beijing accent (confused yet). Wikipedia article that has a good map. There is a bit of controversy over who makes better Chinese tutors due to differences in standard Chinese accent and Beijing accent.

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