Some Lesson suggestions

Leonardo (from Spod) had some interesting experiences with some 女理发员 (peluqueras). As 女理发员 could also imply some extra services (peluqueras sexosas).

See the blog :

http://aspicylife.blogspot.com/

We definitively need a politically incorrect lesson on this subject. ; )

hi,every one. my name is yangchunyang(杨春阳），english name is yaffa.And i'm Chinese. I'm glad to see so many foreigners are interested in china and chinese culture. If you need help,just feel free and call me. My email is : yang195854255@yahoo.com.cn MSN:yang195854255@live.com

Thank you all. i want to know people from every place .

Bey,BEST WISHES!

hi,every one. my name is yangchunyang(杨春阳），english name is yaffa.And i'm Chinese. I'm glad to see so many foreigners are interested in china and chinese culture. If you need help,just feel free and call me. My email is : yang195854255@yahoo.com.cn MSN:yang195854255@live.com

Thank you all. i want to know people from every place .

Bey,BEST WISHES!

hi,every one. my name is yangchunyang(杨春阳），english name is yaffa.And i'm Chinese. I'm glad to see so many foreigners are interested in china and chinese culture. If you need help,just feel free and call me. My email is : yang195854255@yahoo.com.cn MSN:yang195854255@live.com

Thank you all. i want to know people from every place .

Bey,BEST WISHES!

Not really a lesson suggestion but a podcast suggestion.

It would be great if someone at Cpod could make a short podcasts with 3 or 4 nice and short Tang Poems and add the transcript.

I need to show off my poor spoken chinese next month and have nothing really clever to recite. ;)

This poem for example :

韋應物 Wei Yingwu

寄全椒山中道士 (Poem) sent to a Doist priest on the Chuanjiao mountain

今朝郡齋冷， 忽念山中客；

澗底束荊薪， 歸來煮白石。

欲持一瓢酒， 遠慰風雨夕；

落葉滿空山， 何處尋行跡。

More down to earth: How about a lesson on reading the map of the world (planet earth to be more precise) with continents, major countries and cities? I loved the lesson with the "city map" and having to figure out the path taken etc. Same thing could be done with a journey starting in Shanghai, travelling x kilometers to the east and y to the south etc.

...and just remembered I also did a pdf of constellations.

http://www.bazzanet.com/constellations.pdf

I added these to the wiki a while back as well.

http://wiki.chinesepod.com/index.php?title=Astronomy

I'd forgotten I'd added all the moon names as well, I should probably get out more. lol

You can find all the western constellations in the Cpod dictionary. I know because I added most of them myself.

Cool.

I start counting days then.

Is there a lesson on phenomena beyond the solar system scheduled also?

rsmith91,

good ideas. you will see a lesson on planets March 5th.

and to everyone, thanks for the ideas and keep them coming.

-clay

I second the idea of some space/astronomy lessons. I think solar flares and interstellar medium are going a bit too technical, but certainly the names of the planets and the moon would be interesting.

You could fit a lot of cultural background in because the Chinese constellations are completely different to ours in the West, and the names of the planets probably have some good stories behind them too.

Perhaps a link to China's fledgling spaceflight program? There are loads of possibilities.

Coming from another direction on the topic of heaven -- one topic that I have missed (at least from the Newbie and Elementary lessons) is astronomy. The names of the planets, moons and other objects. Perhaps one lesson the solar system and one for objects outside the solar system. I assume that the solar system itself would yield an obvious vocabulary list. (planet [generic term], the names of the 8 planets, the Moon, comet, asteriod, shooting stars, the Sun, solar flares, etc)

Outside the solar system -- Galaxy, black hole, nova, red giants, dark matter, quasars, interstellar medium [well, maybe])

Along other lines, the Chinese constellations and the stories behind them would also offer interesting cultural material.

There was a weather forecast lesson, but how about a newscast lesson with those phrases that would be said every evening, e.g. the Chinese equivalents of "Good evening ladies and gentlemen", "Back to you, Steve" etc.

Leonardo (from spanishpod) need some pick-up lines for chinese girls.

http://aspicylife.blogspot.com/

The chinesepod relationships topic seems to be a bit short. There's a demand for more. : )

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/tag/list/t/112

What about a lesson on Chinese gardens, e.g. the ones in Suzhou? It could include some words to describe those strange rocks, latticed windows, bridges, layout etc.

bazza: Do you have a pic of yourself with the little red book? Look at them studying ardously: Ok, you don't have to don your swimming gear :-)

This appear to be all of 《毛主席语录》on a single page:

http://www.mowind.com/dushu/wenhua/maozhuxiyulu.html

Here is an English translation:

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/

The little red book really is little, it's rather cute in fact.

One topic I really want to see is a lesson on "Near death experiences." Like (almost) drowning in a swimming pool, or more commonly, getting involved in an accident. In Japanese to narrowly escape death is described as 九死に一生を得る - literally, 9 deaths one life. It seems the expression comes from Chinese. So pretty please, a lesson on 九死一生！

我很喜歡喝茶。 我覺得中國茶很有意思但是一點復雜。一個茶的課程一定很有用。比如說， 你們可以教我們怎麼形容茶的味道。 很有意思。

謝謝！ ：）

Last year I went to Yunnan and bought lots of pu-erh. I drink longjin and Japanese xincha almost everyday, but I don't have a very large vocabulary to describe teas, so when I go to the store, I just end up saying 不好和 , 很好，還可以。 etc. It would be great to learn many more descriptive words. It would be useful for much more than tea as well!

Best,

Gary

bazza: Here are some excerpts from Mao Zedong's works in Chinese and English answering this everyday question: What should I do? ;-)

http://www.morningsun.org/living/what.html

Oh, nice. That's the downside of only looking at intermediate and above i guess. I searched for "death" and "funeral" before. Maybe that would be a useful tag?

user18844 and AuntySue, The lesson you want is Elementary - Consoling the Bereaved.

We did have a lesson about what to say (and not to say) when someone dies. Yes, it's very important to know. It was maybe six months ago. All I remember is that we must resist the urge to say "I'm sorry", unless, of course, you were indeed responsible for the death and need to apologise.

Another lesson which I have suggested before and can't believe it hasn't been made yet is, The Funeral. What do you say to someone who's loved one has just passed away? One of my good friends' grandfather passed away a few months ago. I went to the funeral but I was at a loss what to say to the family. I think this would be incredibly useful. Also what to say to someone your own age after they have just broken up with a boyfriend or girlfriend.

In my area here in Los Angeles, I just have to step out my front door and go around the corner to the bookstore and I'm in Comic Book HEAVEN!

We have Chinese Manga 漫畫，as well as one's from Japan translated into Chinese, currently I'm engrossed in GTO (Great Teacher Onizua) translated into Chinese with the interesting name of 麻辣老師！

I think having lessons centering around all kinds of entertainment would be great! Once I get my 88Groups up to speed I'll be creating my own lessons surrounded by all my most beloved forms of entertainment! HA HA HA!!!

God bless you Ken Carrol for thinking outside the box and giving us users a chance to take our education into our own hands!

By the way if anyone is interested my 88Groups profile is here:

http://88groups.com/acting--entertainment---演员，娛樂，娱乐--中国的电影

trevorb, I read Chinese comics after my nephew finishes with them. He buy them someplace in San Francisco's Chinatown. They look like Manga, but the stories are definitely Chinese. Perhaps they aren't literary masterpieces, but your point about visual clues is right on. In any language, I think, more reading is better and, if a less intimidating format makes you read more, then that's the format you should use.

I'll see if I can find his source.

H'm Harry potter, that sounds interesting how do you say/write Expelliarmous in Chinese? :-)

Alas my chinese is not good enough for the media lessons which is why I wondered about comic books because you get short bits of text with a visual clue to what they are talking about....

Song lessons are good too, especially when to a familiar tune.... liang zhi lao hu et al.... Curiously Sammo Hung sang that on Martial law once and I'm pretty sure his native language is Cantonese.....

I didn't know you were a Pastafarian, bazza.

Thanks for highlighting those links rc2008, I had missed those. lol

Being way more interested in current topics than dead authors, I'd suggest a lesson on the use of plastic bags in China - background for this is the new Chinese regulations banning their free use, I have an upcoming 2-read-(Chinese)-news story on this (88group).

After reading henning's links and grammar I now worship henning. AuntySue and TaiPan can be saints.

Everyone should look at hennings links.

I would absolutely LOVE to have more lessons about things from the ancient past, Confucious, Lao Tzu Lessons on Classical Chinese etc, however I never requested them before because Chinesepod is about useful, modern, practical Chinese that you can apply to your daily life as opposed to 孔子曰：人之初性本善。。。什麽什麽。。。

I wonder if the staff at Chinesepod would be open to adding that sort of thing into our curriculum? I'd be very interested in studying Confucious.

Another idea might be to have lessons built around western novels that have been translated into Chinese, such as: "The Lord of the Rings" (魔戒之王）， Harry Potter, "哈利波特", The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 湯姆歷險記 ect.

Nevermind, found one on ebay, a bilingual one. :)

Where can I get one of the little red books?

I would really like to see topics from classical chinese literature, myths, or history. Contemporary texts would also be nice, but I can imagine there are copyright issues.

How about lessons on or mentioning Cunfucius, Lao Tzu, and others like them?

Qing dinasty, warring kingdoms, Boxer rebellion, etc could all make great topics i think.

There were times when the number of little red books with the words of 毛泽东 were overtaking or a least level with the bible ...

New topic suggestion: How about (classic?) Chinese jokes and/ or puns?

trevorb:

How can you be so obtuse? We're talking about our Chinese learning LIFE here! ;)

I'd love to have more episodes dedicated to Chengyu and specifically the USEFUL ones. I have a chengyu dictionary in my electronic translator that I use to learn new chengyu and I can't tell you how many I've commited to memory only to later find out when speaking with the Chinese people that NOBODY EVER uses that chengyu.

Also on the flip side of things like Laodai suggested, some more lessons on useful slang. Modern slang that people use alot, kind of like our "Cool" as opposed to the Chinese equivilent of "GROOVY" (maybe not used quite so often in this day and age.

Back to the original question, what about fairy tales? Red Riding Hood? Hansel and Gretel? Any other ones that were particularly dark, twisted and disturbing?

trevorb,

I don't know if China has their own comics, but I've seen Chinese translations of Japanese manga.

Writings from local papers... check out the cpod Media lessons; many of them are short news articles and some of the recent lessons have an audio version of the text recorded by the cpod team (in addition to the lesson mp3). I know Media shows up as the section after Advanced, but the content isn't necessarily "Advanced". I think some may be Upper Intermediate or even Intermediate level (vocabulary-wise). The only catch is the lesson mp3 is entirely in Chinese.

Also, LibriVox, has some recordings of Tang Poems and Analects of Confucius.

http://librivox.org/three-hundred-tang-poems-volume-1-by-various/

http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5551

It's a little beyond me at this point, but they may suit your level. I'm waiting for someone to record 紅樓夢, 西遊記, or 三國演義. Or I'd love to get to the point where I could read them at a decent speed.

酷 (kù) is an interesting word. It means "cruel" but it's also a transliteration for "cool" (also used in the compound 酷毙 kùbì: extremely cool).

I would like some lessons centered on Chinese slang. ChinesePod does a great job of using modern language (as opposed to textbook language), but a lesson devoted to street language would indeed be 酷毙 kùbì.

酷 (kù) is an interesting word. It means "cruel" but it's also a transliteration for "cool" (also used in the compound 酷毙 kùbì: extremely cool).

I would like some lessons centered on Chinese slang. ChinesePod does a great job of using modern language (as opposed to textbook language), but a lesson devoted to street language would indeed be 酷毙 kùbì.

Call me obtuse but I come here to Learn Chinese and I'm not sure doing that through a book that has been translated from its original language by numerous people and organisations with their own ends is going to help me with that!

I think its important to understanding of the language that we understand the people of China and their country and get a sense of it outside of "Crouching tiger". this is particularly important to those of us that don't reside in china but do this from thousands of miles away.

I'd be interested in writings from local papers or maybe traditional Chinese works even comic book content (if there is such a thing in china) .超人实在是太酷了

I know it's nothing new, but I'm always up for more chengyu lessons.

How do you say off-topic in Mandarin?

Amen.

This is a secular learning environment. We have touched on Christianity a few times in the lessons already, and most of us had no problem with that, but it's enough now. There are dozens of other religious viewponts that have not been mentioned in the lessons yet. Fair's fair.

AuntySue:

Again, I'm not advocating using Chinesepod as a soapbox, and trust me when I say I'm probably the most liberal Christian you will ever meet!

What I don't understand is why so much resistance to it? It's just another point of view which you can agree with or not. If if offends you so much it doesn't mean that you have to listen to it...you can exercise your right to stay away and let the others that do want it listen.

It's like the Drug Dealer lesson, throughout the podcast John was constantly reiterating that Chinesepod in NO WAY advocate the use of drugs, but there is a podcast dedicated to learning how to TALK ABOUT IT.

I for one HATE drugs, I think rampant drug use is a cornerstone to decay in society. That being said the reality of the world is that Drugs exist, drug users exist and if I want to be able to speak intelligently in Chinese about the subject, then I will need a certain set of vocabulary to be able to express it.

This also doesn't mean that I personally advocate the use of drugs, I just need to add certain words to my "arsenal", it's part of becoming truly fluent in a language.

The Christian side of me didn't rear it's ugly head and I never posted anything on the boards, nor e-mailed the staff at Chinesepod that they should remove the lesson.

In fact I think it's healthy to talk about it.

Similarly every Chinese language series talks about the one child policy of China. I personally think it's a horrible thing and it goes against one of my fundamental personal beliefs that no one should to impose control over pro-creation. People should be allowed to give birth to as many children as they want to. Yet you don't see me tearing those lessons out of my textbook and ranting and raving about how offended I am, and how DARE they include material like that is advocating governmental control over pro-creation, because you know what? It exists. Whether or not I personally agree or disagree with it, It's still a reality in China. I still need to know what it's all about and how to communicate with my fellow man about it.

Through creating lessons about these subjects, NO ONE is forcing me, asking me, nor even implying that I follow any particular dogma. I don't know why you would think that. Lessons on these subjects is only in an effort to help broaden the horizons of the learners here on the site.

These lessons should be here as a part of our curriculum to study if we so choose to.

There have been cpod lessons on religion... for example...

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/buddhism-and-taoism

and I think there was one about 观音 somewhere. Now, one could argue these are related to Chinese culture, blah blah, but it doesn't seem that different to me, religion is religion.

I, personally, wouldn't mind a couple of lessons that talk about the mix of religions popular in modern day China. For example, do Chinese Christians (religion) also go to temples and pray to 观音 (religion and culture)? What's the interplay between religion and traditional culture... where do they mix and don't mix, etc.?

But of course, like others have mentioned, no extended continuous threads that sound too preachy please =)

I am happy with all kinds of topics as long as they vary.

Regarding religions just I hope

飞行面条怪物信仰

will not be neglected again.

http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%A3%9E%E8%A1%8C%E9%9D%A2%E6%9D%A1%E6%80%AA%E7%89%A9%E4%BF%A1%E4%BB%B0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster

Wait a tic... so you propose to infiltrate a mixed learning place with a series of stuff from one type of religion and one god, assuming that anyone "religious" follows that religion, and asking those who don't like it to skip those lessons... and then anyone who doesn't think that making the place a thinly veiled soap box for that kind of religion is a fantastic idea is being PC? Does PC mean "anyone who doesn't like what I like" now? Sorry, that's no defense. Some people are too parochial to realise how offensive these types of suggestions are, so I know it's not deliberate, but hell, let's not encourage it.

xiaohu,

I think you completely misread my last post. I was ragging on myself. I called myself an illiterate, no one else. I can't read chinese characters at all, and have always found that self depricating humor is funny and is the least offensive kind.

Again, what is the story about? is it a progressive story or just a short story?

On another note, I agree with Adam Corolla completely about the state of humor in our country. Political Correctness crushed comedy. But as RJBerki noted, this change, and come in cycles. Look at the funniest humor recently: Dave Chappelle had the most successful show on television for awhile, the same black jokes told by black people... The Blue Collar Comedy tour, the same old redneck jokes, but told by rednecks. Humor is Humor and what makes comedy comedy is the truth in it... PC still exists but it's disarmed when remarks are aimed at yourself.

I dont know the answer Xiaohu, I just know what happens. Times will change someday. One historical lesson would probably be fine but a continuing thread was suggested. Still, it may start the same discussion again. Actually Cpod has broken quite a few barriers without too much fuss. We are probably more progressive than most. Take heart in that.

RJBerki:

I just am having trouble understanding why people can't put their personal feelings aside. I thought I made it clear that it's all about the spirit of education!

It's like morning radio host Adam Corolla recently ranted about that this whole PC movement is seemingly all about the censorship of words and ideas.

Oh we better not say the word "Bible, or God" because we might ...MIGHT... make somebody mad at us and they'll write a nasty letter in."

Why don't we dumb everything down to only benign topics about cooking and sewing?

Oh wait...we can't do that because the topics about cooking will get the raw vegan community riled up against Chinesepod! Topics on sewing will get the animal rights activists inflamed against Chinesepod because it's cruel to raise Sheep just for the purpose of producing Wool!

Come on here people! With every topic and I mean EVERY TOPIC there is the possibility of offending someone. I think it's about being discerning enough to see something for the spirit in which it's intended.

Why is it that it's perfectly okay to show some guy getting blown away and blood splatting on the wall on Prime-time national television perfectly okay and yet it's not okay to make an educational podcast about the Bible?

I just don't get it.

ok, I think this whole thread has demonstrated exactly why this thing could not be done. Not right maybe, but just is.

Hhmmm...don't you think now we're hitting below the belt here?

because I'm a retarded illiterate, is that a chain story, or a short story?

obitoddkenobi:

By the way, my story was ABSOLUTELY TRUE! I've always had an unusual capacity for eating spicy food while rendering others around me astounded at the sight!

I guess my beloved Uncle was curious to find out the limits of my capacity to eat spicy food!

Xiaohu, I like you drug dealer story better. Your latest is too spicy ,just like this thread, which I wont touch.

TaiPan:

LOL!

Kudos, kudos!!! The best way to settle an dispute is with great humor!

I think you can probably learn the whole bible from those two links I gave anyway, so no real need for any cpod lessons.

Xiahu,

I would be IGNORANT if I used the word 'agnostic', (and when I say 'ignorant', i mean unaware. it's because I never really understood what agnostic means vs. the others), and I would be a RETARDED if I used the word 'athiest' (and when I say retarded, I mean hindered, because it doesn't capture what I mean when I would say 'spiritual, not religous').

Isn't English such a POOR language (and when i say poor, I mean deficient or lacking in something).

TaiPan the 'Gay Heathen'

(and when I say 'gay', I mean happy, delighted... 'Overjoyed' actually that I'm not addicted to the 'Opiate')

Taipan:

By the way, I do believe religious and political topics and absolutely appropriate for public EDUCATIONAL forums! Think back to High School being required to read novels like "The Catcher In The Rye" a novel with an abundance of profanity and offensive ideas, and yet it has merit as an educational tool. (and it has sold over 65 million copies)

I think we should all be grown up enough to put our personal views aside in the spirit of education.

TaiPan:

You're absolutely right! We shouldn't split hairs on definitions, it's absolutely unproductive. However I think there are definitely words that are more charged than others, such as the word "illiterate" in my post. In retrospect I should have thought more about the way I worded it to be more respectful to people such as saying, "not able to read Chinese".

In this case I think using the word "Agnostic" or "Athiest" would be more appropriate since it doesn't carry with it the negative connotation of hatred of God or hatred toward those who believe in God, simply a statement of your religious preference.

What do you think?

We should use knitting oriented ideas (something whichI suspect a great many Chinesepod users would like to have on the site) such as passages from Elizabeth Zimmerman to help us learn Chinese and become more well rounded in our abilities with the language.

If we are to achieve pure and true fluency there is no other way.

xiaohu,

There are so many definitions for the word heathen, slicing hairs as to which one I was referring to is not a good use of time. But I'll explain... Heathen, by it's source is a christian word: unconverted. It doesn't mean 'closed off' in the one i was using. Heathen has also been used by christians to describe the 'unreligous'. Which, of course, from the mind of a christian who believes THAT definition, using the word heathen is closed minded and has negative connotations. The word does not even exist without christians pushing religion and the need to classify non-converted. The negativity associated with the definition, is because christians' judgemental misuse of it throughout history.

You already know from experience, slicing hairs on definitions of words is non-productive. Like calling someone a heathen, can simply mean non-converted but can sound offensive, calling someone 'illiterate' can sound offensive, yet if you're using the actual definition of the word, illiterate simply means 'not able to read' and it's not insulting at all. I, for one, am an illiterate Chinese speaker, and I'm not offended if someone calls me that... but if you're using the negatively charged definition, then it is an insult. Unfortunately, audiences and readers get to make up their own mind about tone of the writer.

AuntySue, Well said.

I'm not going to add anymore to religous topics on here. RJBerki had a great post on 'Heathen's Greetings' about it... Politics, religion, etc. are not appropriate for public forums

Happily Heathenistic,

TaiPan

Auntiesue:

My point is that all topics should be fair game as long as it's used for educational purposes. I didn't say for the people here at Chinesepod to ADVOCATE Christianity through the podcasts, only just to use Christian oriented ideas (something whichI suspect a great many Chinesepod users would like to have on the site) such as passages from the Bible to help us learn Chinese and become more well rounded in our abilities with the language. I never ever said to use passages from the Bible to help us become more ready to convert others to Christianity, and I'll tell you every Christian group preparing missionaries to go to another country will have a language learning center gearded specifically toward the that very subject, in essense they don't need Chinesepod for that, they have their own means.

My point was that we can use all subjects in an educational context to aid all of us "Poddies" the community as a whole in how to speak intelligently about a great many, many subjects.

Also I meant "religious" only within the context of "Christianity", sorry I should have been more specific and said the disclaimer should state: "all those offended by this sensitive subject of Christianity should use personal discretion when choosing to listen". thereby giving those who may take offense, an idea of what material the podcast is going to cover so they don't get a nasty surprise while listening.

I also think other sensitive subjects should be covered by Chinesepod, such as: Wicca, Islam, Abortion, Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, The Death Penaltiy, Communism, Capitalism, Polytheism, The Birds and the Bees, etc.

Remember in the context of education we're covering the material from a purely objective point of view, as a way to enhance our language abilities and help us to more freely and fluently discuss any and all subjects with the Chinese People.

If we are to achieve pure and true fluency there is no other way.

Why in the world do we as a people want to promote censorship? I thought we all advocate the idea of free speech.

Oh, I see, so if I don't acknowledge YOUR god as the one great god, I'm not open minded. What if I acknowledge him and despise him as the universe's greatest evil doer? Would that make me more closed minded than someone who believes the opposite? I don't think so.

"give a disclaimer before the lesson that it you are not religious and" -- be careful, some people are deeply religious but don't believe in Christianity at all. Don't confuse the two, they're not the same thing.

You see, the whole topic is too troublesome for use in a lesson.

Taipan:

I think in this case promoting 'heathenism' within Chinesepod is in a way implying keeping Christian centered ideas of the site, which would therefore not be very 'free' or 'openminded', as 'openminded' by definition implies an openness to ALL ideas even those you don't agree with or that are offensive to you.

And besides if we just go by the strait definition of "heathen":

"not acknowledging the God of Christianity and Judaism and Islam"

Then by definition, the word would not imply open mindedness it would imply a state of being closed off

toward the ideas of: "the God of Christianity, Judaism and / or Islam", which would therefore imply a state of revolting against the ideas of Christianity or God, which would therefore by definition, not be so open minded.

I figure if I can read the whole bible in English (which I haven't actually) I should be able to read it all in Chinese if I'm ever to reach true fluency.

The Chinesepod Ten Commandments

(as delivered unto me, by God, on a mountain in Glendale)

1. Thou shalt use Chinesepod

2. Thou shalt not worship Jenny Zhu or her avatar.

3. Thou shalt not say anything bad about Ken Carroll.

4. Remember The Saturday Show, and keep it holy, and hope it comes back.

5. Honor Ken, Hank, Steve, John, Jenny, Connie, Aggie, Amber, Dave, Clay, Venus, and the rest of the staff of Chinesepod.

6. Thou shalt not murder your tones.

7. Thou shalt not study other languages besides Mandarin, except Spanish at Spanishpod (andanyotherfuturereleasesofPraxisLanguageLtd,Inc)

8. Thou shalt not poach off itunes without paying for at least a basic subscription

9. Thou shalt not answer others' language questions on the conversation boards unless you have the fluency or 'admin' authority to do so.

10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's fluency unless you have put in the time and effort to get there yourself.

Heathen, by definition, is not a bad thing. It just means 'uncoverted' to the anglo religions... therefore implying free and openminded.

Taipan:

I don't think keeping Chinesepod "heathen" would be a good idea, but keeping Chinesepod 'free' and 'openminded' would be a great idea.

One lesson or so about Christianity and China would be OK, but please don't overdo it.. The bible has fine qualities, but I can't believe that it is a good text for the purpose of learning Chinese.

obitoddkenobi:

Thanks I'm glad you read through the story! I tried not to make it too long and complicated like my last story (看起来故事这么长， 怪不得没有人读了呀！)

I think if there are enough fellow Poddies who are interested in writing it could be interesting.

Perhaps it might also be something for my 88Groups group. However I still have a lot of work to do to get that up to speed.

By the way, in case anyone is interested, my 88groups profile is here:

http://88groups.com/acting--entertainment---演员，娛樂，娱乐--中国的电影

While I know many are on this site learning Chinese in order to convert a billion Chinese people to save them from themselves, please keep cpod as 'heathen' as possible...

Maybe just in a special section for the Bible lessons and (sigh....) give a disclaimer before the lesson that it you are not religious and if you are offended by the idea of Christianity so stay as far away from this podcast as possible. (for pete sake why are people so over-sensitive these days? I can't wait for the death of PC and I'll be the first to put a nail in the coffin!)

I know the general rule is to never discuss religion or politics, but don't you think these subjects have merit as part of complete learning? Just because we might offend someone we are noever going to learn the difference between 上帝 and 神？ Even though I am Christian I listened and studied the podcast on Buddism & Taoism 佛教和道教。。。without becoming offended. Why is there so much Christianity bashing going on these days?

I agree with Auntie Sue: for Christ's sake, leave religion off this site. Hockey yes; superstitious ancient (as in pre-science and reason) mumbo-jumbo no.

Oh no, please, no bible, yuck. The day I have to put up with bible-bashing with my lesson is the day I'm outa here.

小虎, I enjoyed your story. 看起来， 很容易看得懂 for me, but I think you are right in believing that it should be reviewed by/ cleaned up if necessary, a native speaker。 Comparing how we say the same thing differently in different languages is educational. I'm not sure a podcast is necessary, but the general idea has merit. Additionally, you avoid the problems discussed in an earlier thread of people not wanting to read your stuff because its not by a native speaker. BTW is it a true story? I've never been one to chase 辣的，but I've watched others eager to prove themselves, and your story sounds true to that.

On the light side, a hockey podcast would be fun. By the looks of the hockey lovin' poddies thread, and this season, Jenny could redeem herself from her Detroit wasteland comments by talking about the Detroit Red Wings (底特律紅翼隊). Besides, that Buffalo player needs some lessons.

Here's another idea for maybe something new under "Extra's". For all those Poddies (like myself) who are interested in writing in Chinese, maybe we could have a new section called: "Story-Pod" or something like that.

It would be user-submitted short stories written in Chinese. Any errors would be cleaned up by the Chinesepod staff and then a Podcast could be made around the story.

I'd be happy to offer up the first story:

辣菜大王

我爱吃辣的东西，我特别喜欢吃中国的四川菜。这在高鼻子老外中是少见的怪事。所以，有很多人叫我"辣菜大王"，尤其是我的舅舅。

有一次，我去舅舅家吃饭，舅妈给我们做墨西哥菜。墨西哥菜本来就辣，舅舅看到我还把很多很辣的辣酱往菜上撒，便好奇地问我："这个菜你还嫌不够辣吗？"

我回答说："我吃得比这个还要辣。"

舅舅听后，便去楼下拿来一根青椒，对我说："如果你真的是辣菜大王，就应该能吃得下这根青椒。"

我先尝了一下，觉得没问题，便将整根青椒一口气吃了下去。看见舅舅那目瞪口呆的样子，我又带着傻笑自我吹嘘："怎么样？是不是辣菜大王？"舅舅连连点头说："是，是，是辣菜大王！"

接着，我便对我的表弟表妹们模仿起美国总统尼克松和里根来；我的表演惟妙惟肖，把他们笑死了。

突然，我的表弟问我：" 小虎，你不高兴了吗？"

我说："没有的事，我很高兴啊。为什么这样问？"

表弟说："但是你的脸为什么那样红？而且还在流眼泪，好像在哭一样？"

表妹也附和说道："是啊，你的脸特别红，而且满脸是汗。你去照一下镜子吧。"

我跑到卫生间一看，我的脸真的好红好红，而且眼泪汪汪，汗流不止。但是，我并没有什么特别的感觉呀。

回到客厅，表弟表妹说："哎呀，是不是那个辣椒把你辣死了呢？"

我说："没的事，我没有什么特别感觉呀。"

他们说："既然没事，那么我们继续玩吧。"

玩着玩着，我觉得有点喘不上气来，胸中好像有一座火山，胃里直冒火；嘴也干得像戈壁沙漠，脑子里只有一个念头：冰水！冰水！

我跑去打开冰箱拿水喝，一连喝了两瓶冰水，嘴里仍然觉得又干又辣。这时，表弟递给我一些面包，说："面包可以去辣，吃了也许就没事了。"

我把他给我的面一条包全吃了，但仍不见效。

另一个表弟递给我一瓶盐，说："吃点盐吧，听说盐可以止辣。"

吃了一瓶盐我更觉得口渴，只想喝水，喝呀，喝呀，不停地喝水......！

这时，舅舅哈哈大笑，走到我的面前说："你不是辣菜大王吗？你不是说过不论多辣你都能够承受吗？看来，你还是有点吹牛哦！哈哈！"

你说，我这个舅舅坏不坏？

I think the Bible thing is a great idea since it is the worlds most read book! I'm sure there are plenty of non-heathens who are on Chinesepod (myself included) who would be very interested in the Bible lessons. 基督教徒权利！

A good novel might be "The Lord of The Rings" 魔戒之王since it's a very popular and timeless story that might give opportunities for alot of interesting new words like: (哈比人）he he...

Here is a guide to converting an mp3 into an ipod audiobook file as well. :)

http://www.dagondesign.com/articles/turning-mp3-audiobooks-into-ipod-audiobooks/

I also support Wolson's original request of further lessons on train travel. I know there already exists a Newbie lesson that even includes supplemental vocab for soft-sleeper/hard-sleeper etc., but it would be nice to see those used in context. Essentially, ratchet it up a notch and have Elementary/Intermediate lessons on typical ticket-window transactions. Thanks!

Wow, thanks Bazza! I was wondering where to find a online Chinese Bible stuff. This is great for us non-heathens. :)

Here is a complete audio bible as well:

http://www.lhm.org/asian/china/onlinelisten/ChineseAudioBible.html

The quality is a bit low but help keep the file sizes down, for example Genesis is 28mb and yet it's 4 hours long.

Here is a good online bible:

http://www.bbintl.org/read/?do=read&a=gb&b=niv

You can have a Chinese and English split screen.

I still think a bible series of lessons would be good, like one chapter per lesson until we can read the whole bible in Chinese. :)

Or alternatively a well known novel, but a novel chapter would probably be too long for one lesson and there may be copyright issues.

Wolson,

Thanks for the great topics. You will see (and hear) them in the future.

Obitoddkenobi,

Thanks for helping out.

Here is an interesting story that would be fun if expressed in Chinese:

My first visit to China a few years ago began with this incident. I arrived at the Beijing airport about 9:30 in the evening and was met by my host. After securing my bags, we settled down in a car for a two or three hour drive to Qinhuangdao. There were several construction zones on the highway that were somewhat poorly marked, at least by my American standards. They are marked maybe a hundred yards before they narrow down to one or two lanes: No lights but a few flags and bricks in the road and maybe a sign.

The driver of our car was cruising down the highway at I guess about 80 MPH. (You know how these official cars are!) At one of these sites, a badly loaded truck jumped into our lane just before the construction. Of course there was a lot of screeching of tires, and horn blowing but no crash. After the construction site, our driver drives around the right side of the truck and delivers what I guess to be the Chinese equivalent of the "bird" along with some invectives.

But then our driver does not resume his previous speed. He waits until the next construction site and them stops in the middle of the road with the truck behind him. He reaches behind the seat and picks up what looks like a pipe. Then he gets out and goes to have a discussion with the driver of the truck who also gets out with a club. They must have had a very interesting conversation for about ten minutes. No blows or fighting occurred but I certainly thought it was going to! Meanwhile, the other traffic on the raod is either backed up behind us or a few less then timid drivers were driving straight through the construction on the highway.

This was an interesting first exposure to highway diplomacy in practice! "Road rage" is not solely endemic to the US!

When I was on a train recently from Chengdu to Kunming, I thought it would be great to have a lesson that uses the recordings one hears on (long-distance) train rides. The Chinese is very clear and not too fast. Has a lot of good vocab.

Thank you

There is a good one called "The Scene of the Accident" it is upper intermediate, but you could pick up some of it. http://chinesepod.com/lessons/the-scene-of-the-accident/discussion