Watching Chinese televisions can be a great way to learn Chinese as well as retain the Chinese that you've already learned. From the news to family sit-coms, Chinese channels can help people from novice to advanced level in developing greater proficiencies in reading, speaking, and listening.

Chinese TV Packages

JadeWorld (HK, China, Taiwan)

The JadeWorld packages offers programmings from Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan. Talk about cross strait connections! You get 3 Hong Kong channels that are geared toward Cantonese speakers in the United States. And if you are a Hong Kong movie buff, the third channel broadcasts HK films 24/7. The CCTV 4 and CCTV9, which speaks standard Mandarin, makes up the Mainlaind Chinese channels. CCTV4 comes with "快 乐 中 国", a Chinese program that is designed to instruct language learners, and CCTV9 showcases "Learning Chinese", which is another excellent show to help you with the speaking, listening, grammar, and other aspects of Chinese instructions. Both Shows air twice a day, every day from Monday-Friday or Saturday. And the taiwanese channel is TVB8, which airs popular Taiwanese music, variety shows, news, and others. Now that is what I call variety! You get Cantonese, Mandarin (mainland accent, taiwanese accent), simple characters (mainland), traditional characters (HK, Taiwan), and channels with their own unique style and genre. All this in a 5 channel package.

My Experience with JadeWorld

My family and I have been watching the JadeWorld channels for the last 7 years. When I want to go to Hong Kong from my living room, I click to channel 450 and 451. If I feel like challenging my listening skill, TVB8 is the channel that helps me decipher what the heck the Taiwanese are saying. Channel 454 is where I get the most out of all the channels, because it's all in standard Mandarin. I watch 455 whenever I get tired of listening to Chinese, but want to get my CCTV news in English. What about 453, the HK movie channel? I'm only interested in watching certain kinds of movies, and I've already seen most of the ones that interest me. 453 is to veg out on the re-runs.

Mandarin DirectII Service

It is exactly what the name implies. You get four mandarin channels, with each coming from Beijing, Shanghai, and Taiwan. You get all many sub-genre of programming from the Phoenix North American Chinese Channel, the Pheonix Info News, the MTV Chi Channel, and the CTI Zhong Tian channel. All Mandarin, all the time for less than $16 a month. Not a bad deal. And I'm particularly interested in what the MTV Chi Channel is like.