It is my experience that video does not provide much value over audio when trying to learn the fundamentals of a new language.
The exception is for demonstrating the interactions associated with ad hoc, unscripted encounters. This becomes valuable after one has already mastered the structural basics and acquired a moderate-sized vocabulary.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find many examples of “person on the street” encounter material like this. The only ones I'm familiar with are experimental videos that the interns at Chinesepod created in a series titled, “Video Hotpot”. The two good episodes were: The Market and The Restaurant.
CCTV has broadcast hundreds of short, entertaining, travel-focused language videos in two series titled Happy China and Happy Journey (note the abstract URLs, a seemingly common phenomenon on Chinese websites). Each episode includes subtitles and transcripts, and they can be streamed or downloaded. The language level is pretty advanced; I hope to be able to comprehend these videos some day.
CCTV also broadcasts a short language series titled, Travel in Chinese created by a famous foreign national TV personality named Da Shan. I haven’t found these to be useful, as the content is not very well organized.


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