You might have seen our posts before about different Chinese TV shows that are worth watching to improve your Chinese. As a reminder, here are the links:

10 Chinese TV Shows to Help You Learn Mandarin
10 Guilty Pleasure Reality Shows that Will Help Your Chinese Language Skills
WCC’s Chinese TV Show Archive

While there are are some great options in those articles to inspire you to delve into Chinese TV, I’ve been hooked on one show this season and I’m convinced it’s the best one for me to learn more Chinese. Allow me to explain…

Introducing: iSupermodel 爱上超模 (ai4shang4 chao1mo2), Season 2!!!!

I talked a bit about Season 1 of iSupermodel and why it was such a good one for learning Chinese in a previous article. The main point is that with reality shows like these, there are no scripts which let’s you hear Chinese as it’s actually spoken every day.

If you’re not familiar with iSupermodel, it is essentially an America’s Next Top Model reality show clone. You get the same drama, the same production quality and it’s easier to follow than a Chinese drama because you already are familiar with the format.

In a nutshell, 14 girls are chosen to represent China’s most promising young models and each week one girl gets kicked off the show after a head to head battle.

Here are my top 4 reasons why iSupermodel Season 2 is even better for your Chinese than Season 1.

Reason #1: Miss J

You might love ‘em or hate ‘em but drag queens sure do bring the drama! America’s Next Top Model celebrity coach J. Alexander (aka Miss J), hits the scene in China.

Chuckle to yourself as he attempts some Mandarin words and hear bits and pieces of what he says get translated into Chinese. It’s sure to ramp up your learning and keep you entertained at the same time!

Reason #2: Talent, Talent, TALENT!

Last Season’s girls definitely had some talent, but this year the bar has been seriously raised. As the show has gained prestige around the world, elite Chinese models are lining up to get on board.

In Season 1 it was easy for me to pick my favorite (Kiki, I still love you!!), but it’s much trickier in Season 2. The talent is on a whole new level, the girls are more fun to watch, and the competition is fierce.

Reason #3: It’s in London, Mate

Last season we enjoyed some great views of the wild Australian outback, but this year we’re smack in the middle of London and the girls are forced more often to use their English skills.

This comes in handy if you’re anything like me where you listen to a Chinese sentence and catch the meaning 3 seconds later. You’d think that hearing more English on the show would make it a worse study tool, but actually you often get to hear the English and Chinese back to back, making it downright manageable.

Reason #4: Worldwide Top Model Sightings

Somebody somewhere has dumped some serious money into this show because just 2 episodes in and we’re already seeing world famous photographers and supermodels like Erin O’Connor helping to coach the girls.

Stay tuned, you might even see someone you recognize.

To watch iSupermodel in China, you can go to any of your favorite video websites:

Watch it on Youku/Soku
Watch it on Baidu
Watch it on iQiYi

If you aren’t in China and are having trouble streaming the videos, you can search “爱上超模” (ai4shang4 chao1mo2) in your favorite video site to see if they’ve got it.

Watch a few episodes and then come back and tell me who you think is going to bring home first place!