I've written at least one entry already about how I think the match between podcasting and learning a new language is one made in heaven. Languages are all about tones and inflection and it's hard to learn to speak a language from a book.
A tone is worth a thousand words.
JapanesePod101 has been around for a while and now Chinesepod.com has has hit the podosphere.
...for all the difficulty in learning a language that is made up of more than 4,000 characters, interest in Mandarin, or Putonghua, has never been greater. Thanks to China's growing economic might and future global influence, countries from South Korea to Kenya to the US have been pushing to make Putonghua an integral part of their language curricula.
I especially like the part of the article where is points out how the word 'ma' can mean several different things (including horse and mother) depending on the inflection.
