Chinesepod Oscars

Sorry my last comment was a bit off topic.

Thanks RJBerki for the Excel files, they are excellent.

How did you generate the characters to get them into

Excel? MS Pinyin? I am a fan of Excel and was

wondering of ways to use it for this purpose. I was

also wonder about mind-mapping in case you have any

ideas.

I posted before about a book named Learning Chinese

Characters (this one is for grown-ups!) using

mnemonics to remember characters or more specifically

the components of characters by building a story

around them. I showed the book to the weekly class I

attend and got only a lukewarm reaction but I think it

is great. You can use the "look inside" feature on

Amazon to check it out as it is hard to verbalize. But

I would recommend checking it out.

The Iceberg Award for 'Worst Sound Effect' nominees:

The Chinese Singing Transition found on some Dear Ambers

Clay's coffee slurp/simulated bong hit

Ken Nose-Breathing into the Microphone while Jenny is talking on many 2006 Newbie and Elementary lessons

I think we should award an oscar to Aric for his cameo appearnace on the Dear Amber Show.

Aric was truely the only "star" at Cpod but despite losing him we now have Amber and Clay, worthy members of the CPod brat pack;-)

My two favorites are both Upper Intermediate

Abducted by Aliens

and

Pushy Insurance Salesman

They are both hilarious, who writes this stuff? Good job!

Jenny,

We might have to give you and Ken your own categories such are the magnitudes of your contributions. But then it is hard to think of one without the other - a bit like Bonnie and Clyde!

avatar number two goes to sparchange I think. Another fight. A dragon (?) and a squrrel.

I nominate a certain fat little dog as the official cpod mascot for the year and a certain well adorned squirrel as avatar number one. In both cases its all about personality.

Jenny,

ah, the gloves are off but I would not worry. I think Ken is a bit out of shape. You can take him.:-)

lustChina- the powerful part of the Zhongwen series of books I recommended to you is really the CD. In fact, the CD could stand alone. It contains all the material in the text plus audio of the text is read (pronounciation) and pinyin is provided as well as the character strokes and definitions and games. I cant find the link to the price list but the first 6 volumes I think come with only one cd and the cost is $2 for the text book and $2 for the cd. There are 2 workbooks that go with each but these are not so hot in my opinion. So if nothing else you get for $2 animated stroke order for over 100 characters. If you collect all 12 books you have well over 1000 characters and they are supposed to be the most used. I believe thsee were supported by the Chinese govt and actually used to be free. This is why they are so cheap.

After seeing the new vocabulary manager I have to nominate that as the best new technical feature!

RJBerki,

I have some Chinese kids books I picked up when I was in CHina, one of which is based on the Wizard of OZ and the other is more of a dictionary but each character is given a single glossy colourful page with the picture of the character 'in action' e.g. Nan2 with a picture of a pumpkin for nan2 gua1 and then at the bottom of the page along with the stroke order are four other examples of the character's usage (no english).

The ISBN is 7-5365-3041-2/J.684

BTW, The Wizard of Oz, which was released in 1939, won two oscars:-)

Yeah,

I would give a nod to Connie for managing to stay in character. She always speaks mandarin even unscripted when Amber is saying "So Connie how would we say..." followed quickly by "and how about this, Connie " and you'd think she might just utter just one word of English but no. What a professional.

Best voice actor:

Connie.

Best show:

Lover's Spat

Best sound effects:

Black market gun deal.

Best series (!):

八卦周刊

Best new feature & best drama:

Upgrade to V3.

Ha ha... This is great. I will do my best to make this happen!

There ought to be Best Avatar, Best Dramatic Series, Best Comedy, and Best Jenny Zhu Quote!

oops, lustchina,

You had Lifetime Achievement Award. And I misspelled 'lifetime'. My bad.

Cat fight still on though.

Yeah! Let chinesepod Oscars fill the void left by Gloden Globe and possibly Grammy.

I propose Life Time Achievement Award. I smell a cat fight between Ken and myself. Aint gonna be pretty.

Taipan,

Razzies after Chinese New Year, pls. I want to celebrate new year in the 'i am great ' grand illusion.

I think yall are onto something here....

maybe so, or should we call the cpod raspberries the iceberg awards? Im thinking best sense of humor goes to Taipan. Always quick witted and good for a smile.

If we're going to do this, we definitely need to also do the chinesepod raspberry awards. We need razzies for Worst lesson, worst lesson intro, worst sound effect...

Lustchina, I think you willl like them. They contain stories such as the tortise and the hare, and the three little pigs etc. I have made excel sheets for practice of all the characters and words introduced in books one and two. Each worksheet is a chapter and there are spaces for writing them repeatedly along with the pinyin and definition. Send me your email address and I would be glad to share with you.

I am feeling some competition in the best supporting user category!

These look interesting RJBerki, I must check them out - they will nurture my inner chinese child!

Thanks.

Another option for stroke order and character practice. There is also a set of childrens books designed for Chinese children being raised overseas by a university in China. The set contains 12 books and each comes with either one or two CD's for study. On the CD's for each chapter, the new characters are drawn in animation as the audio calls out the formal name of each stroke used. Very nice. These are very cheap. 14 chapters in each book, 12 books and about 10 new characters per chapter. Each chapter centers around a story and they get progressively complex. The books are a couple dollars each as are the CD's. The workbooks I have not found to be of much use. Buy the text and the corresponding CD and I think you will be pleasantly surprised. It a child like theme but its a nice change of pace sometimes. There are several locations listed you can order from. Do not order by email - it doesnt work well but if you call them the books will arrive in a couple days. I ordered from the new york office and had good service. Try volume one and two and if you like them you can buy more. Be sure to get the CD's. You will need them.

http://acclub.org/content/blogcategory/30/44/

My nomination for best supporting user:

lustchina

:D

Bummer, the software doesn't work on Macs. Thanks though! It looks like a great program.

No problem Calkins but I'll expect a nomination for best supporting user :)

http://www.cchar.com/

my free trial has coincidentally just run out, $36 to continue. I think it'll be money well spent.

For best lesson photo I vote for "Wrong Number": Wrong Number The expression on this guys face is classic and I love the retro teal-colored phone...gives the image a nice 1970's feel. lustchina or RJBerki, would one of you provide a link or conversation name that references that character software? Sounds interesting. Thanks.

On the topic of looking back on the chinese year (almost) gone, I am wondering what experiences people have had in the year wrestling with this demanding but rewarding language.

As a recent quote I heard which is apt I think here - "we're all alone in this together" which captures the individual paths that we are all on in the learning process while at the same time being together through the CHinesepod medium.

So has the previous 12 months been a time of steady progess, a plateau or a brick wall? What stage are at and how is your motivation level now compared to a year ago?

For me it has been a breakthrough grappling seriously with characters for the first time and trying to wean myself off Pinyin. But I am up for the fight!

Would you award yourself an oscar or maybe just a nomination?

There should be an oscar for the best helping hand a user has given to a fellow user, even inadvertently.

In my case it would go to RJBerki who posted about a piece of software that allows you to copy a character to the clipboard and it grabs it and draws it for you on a 4*4 grid, showing the proper stroke order. Brilliant.

Lunetta - "Are You Okay?" is the best lesson graphic EVER. It totally gets my vote.

How about Death by Ninja, one of my favorites! The acting is really over the top. And even though it is a classic, I still like Ken's obvious discomfort in the make-up one.

What about best lesson photo?

The First Tone

Are you OK?

Scary Clown

Describing Athletes

Ah RJBerki, how nice of tvan to elevate us..:) I agree with you, if I applied for a new job, I am not sure I would emphasize a reference that said that am "enthusiastic". But enthusiasm without too much achievement to show fits pretty well with me and this weird language..:)

I'd like to nominate "Experiencing Agricultural Life", "Sheep, Wolves, and Fruit: a Riddle" because these are fun and quite different from the average lessons, and also the entire Jizhou series..:)

best comedy - parking lot rage. Still my favorite lesson.

best sound effects - Jenny re-creating the sounds of a physical altercation in the same episode. :-)

thanks for the mention tvan, I must say, that one caught me by surprise. The fact that I was on vacation for two weeks at xmas probably led to way too much posting. I hope "enthusiastic" is a good thing.

speaking of the pop out - why doesnt it work from the home page. I open to see a new lesson but have to go to dialouge or something to even use the pop out. Sort of defeats some of its purpose I think. I have to switch tabs to select the option that will then allow me to be independent from switching tabs ??? Still helps but......

And lets not forget the technical side of the CPod magic - you know, the part of the Oscars that isn't televised!

Best new feature on the site: the pop out of the player so you can switch tabs without interrupting the podcast..

Can anyone think of any others more worthy?

Of course, Ken, but be warned that any vote for yourself will likely not be counted in the final tally. :-)

Best Sound Effects: Godzilla

Most Enthusiastic New User: MarcelBdt or RJBerki.

Best Cpod Newcomer: Clay

Extended Whining in a Lesson: Male lead in Turbulence

Do I get to vote here?

Other potential categories:

Best Drama in a Dialog

Best Banter in a Podcast

Listener's Choice: All Time Favorite Lesson

ChinesePod Oscars....A FAN-TAS-tic idea! When does the voting begin?

Great idea! Here's two of my Oscar nominations:

Best sound effect: Without a doubt those clicky whirry noises in the 'Elevator Emergency' lesson (though I still would have liked it if the woman screamed when she realized she was stuck!)http://chinesepod.com/lessons/elevator-emergency/discussion

Oops - I've just realized that lesson is from 2006. Oh well, I listened to it in 2007 anyway.

Most worrying moment: When Jenny said she was going to luàn chuān mǎlù (jaywalk) and get arrested by the traffic cops, just to show how you can use your Chinese skills outside the classroom. Fortunately I think Ken put her off sufficiently. Phew! (http://chinesepod.com/lessons/jaywalking/discussion)

I'll have a more serious think about my favorite lessons later. All I can say is ChinesePod did amazingly in 2007, and I'm sure you guys can build on that to become even better, funnier, and just all round greater in 2008.