Lessons to be REMOVED (batch 1)

hi bababardwan,

we share the same sentiments. I wanted to go back to the old lessons I missed, it's just too tedious to download them thanks :)

ewong,

You can probably see that the DVD comes free when you sign up for a 1 year premium subscription.However, sorry to disappoint you but I asked the same question via email a couple of months ago or so and the answer came back as no.Perhaps things may have changed since then and someone from CPod will clarify for you.Good luck.

Is the chinesepod DVD available for sale?

The only thing I miss about the older lessons is, "Do you..understand...the words that are comin' outta my mouth?"

But the lessons themselves seem really outdated when compared to the stellar quality of the current lessons, they just stick out like a sore thumb. 

Besides quality, the presentation of the lesson content isn't in keeping with the current format, so I'm all for the re-do's.

I liked artkho's idea of putting them in a Chinese Pod Classic section.Maybe too late for that now,but even if the quality of the audio was lower,I would be interested in the journey.It may even emphasize further just how good CPod is now ,and show that it has continued to evolve.My new DVD set doesn't have these old lessons.But I respect CPod's decisions in this regard.Keep up the good work.

Thanks, Lunetta. That approach looks good.

I've been using CPod for a while so now I just do the lessons as they are posted but when I started I began with the 6 intro-lessons. I saved all the vocabulary from both the dialogues and the expansion sentences and then I used the vocabulary to find new lessons. When you click on the little plus sign next to a word you'll get a list of other lessons where it occur. Then I would just choose one that seemed relevant and interesting. The good thing about this method is that you automatically reinforce the vocabulary you already know and how it's used while learning new stuff.

Hmmm… this raises a question as to how I have been approaching lesson selection. I had just been going through the lessons in the order they were posted. Although I have downloaded the lessons in question, there are still extras in a lesson that are not downloadable (well, not easily), e.g., like the extra dialog. Because I have found the extras very helpful, I will probably just skip the first 100 or so lessons (is that about 3-4 batch removals?).

So what approach do people take for deciding where to start?

wei1xiao4,

Glad you got the downloads sorted out. There is a lesson 0016; it's called The Four Tones. The new tone series (one lesson for each tone) is actually much better.

no pb, I followed every single Newbie, Elementary, Intermediate and Higher Intermediate lesson + all the extras.

Nice to revisit them partly when I search the dictionary though.

OK, my son came home from boarding school, got his hopeless mom all downloaded. Thanks everyone for your help. I'm ready to send lessons 0007-0026 to Hainan Island for a rest. By the way, is there a lesson 0016?

hi wei1xiao4

firstly it would be helpful if you could choose to display your public profile (can be selected in "your profile" from the links at the foot of this page). Whilst you have chosen not display your profile I can't enter your conversations, an error 404 - not found occurs.

Here is how I have downloaded and added lessons to iTunes:

You will need to go to each lesson individually and download each lesson, dialogue, fix etc. I assume that you are able to download OK?

Depending on what software you are using you will either be asked to select a directory for the download or it will default to your My Downloads directory or any other directory that you may have set up. Any way you need to know where the files will end up.

Once you have downloaded everything you want, the next question is to decide whether to leave the files where they are or move them to your iTunes music folder (I move them). This is up to you but if you move them to your iTunes music folder they will then be with the rest of the music, podcasts etc that you may already have. To move them you need to know where your iTunes music folder is. If you are not sure you can find this in the iTunes menu under Edit>Preferences>Advanced>General>iTunes music folder location. You can then use My Computer to navigate to that folder and add a new folder named e.g. CpodOld or whatever. You can then move the files to that directory.

Next step is to add those downloaded files to the iTunes library so that they will appear in iTunes and synchronise with your iPod. To do this go to iTunes then select File>Add folder to library. A browse window will then open and you just navigate to the folder where you saved your downloaded files. Once you have selected the folder click OK and they will all be added.

It is a little complicated but if you have any problem or questions feel free to send a message or continue here

hi john,

that's indeed great news. there are so many lessons but I haven't really downloaded them, it takes a long time to download one by one so i only get to study the recent lessons

John, I have been having a tough time downloading these lessons that are going to be removed. Can you give step by step advice on how to download these lessons into i-Tunes for posterity before you remove them. I've been using the feed and don't know how to download individual lessons.

ewong,

The old lessons are still on the DVD, and yes, we do have plans to eventually offer the DVD for sale.

So long ago the lesson "Ken Can't Dance" was renamed to the Ken-less title "I can sing, but I can't dance"... and now it's being thrown in the remainder bin. Ah, the indignity of it all.

Good to see the attention to quality here. I loved those old lessons at the time, and thought they were an amazing advance over other learning material available... but ChinesePod has gotten so much better since then!

are the old lessons included in the dvd? is the dvd for sale? i signed up for premium last january so i couldn't get the promo

julesong,

We'll preserve the supplemental vocabulary, but the lessons in the first batch are all way before Connie's time (and mine too!). I don't think those will come into play until sometime after lesson #0100, but we'll keep on eye out for it.

Will the supplementary vocab that Connie provided in the comments in the lessons that are going to be removed be copied over to the new lessons?

RJ,

The "redone" lessons will begin appearing in March, as new Newbie lessons. That means they will continue sequentially with their ID numbers (08xx).

Julesong, RSMith91, and AuntySue,

They will show up in your feed as new lessons, using the same filenaming convention. They won't be identified in the podcast as a re-recording, but you can bring it up in the comments if you like.

I guess you could say some of them are not "completely new," but honestly, they'll be very close to it.

baillies,

We will have to delete the old lessons, which means they will be deleted from your bookmarks as well.

We have plans for adding the Fix to all lessons, yes. Deciding which lessons we remove helps us to identify which lessons really need the Fix (the ones not being removed).

If we've ticked "future newbie lessons", will these remakes come through on our mp3 feed or do they quietly nestle back into history?

Hi John

1. Are they getting deleted or will they still be available if you have booked marked them?

2. Will the lessons not removed be getting the fix in the future?

Artkho classic! chinesepod classic ... maybe they could put all of the previously removed lessons in as well. Have you already got all of the old zh lessons to sell? I think I have some but i am no where near advanced enough to tackle them.

Anyway i think it is a good idea to clear up all lessons that don't fit with the current quality/grading.

Are you going to re-do the lessons and release them as brand new lessons, so with ID numbers 0800 onwards, or are you going to keep them as 0007-0026?

If you are making them as brand new lessons, does that mean there won't be anything completely new on ChinesePod for a while?

I don't mind either way, because I never listened to the old lessons anyway.

Will the new lessons use the same filenaming system?

yeah, with their inferior audio, they'll be called the telephone box sessions!

Instead of removing these lessons, classify them as Chinesepod Classic.

Otherwise, I'll download them, keep them for a few years, and sell these classic lessons on Ebay to the highest bidder. Or, maybe in the future, there will be Cpoddie Convention (cooler than the Trekkie Convention) where Cpoddies will trade the classic "episodes" with one another.

Good approach. Thanks John. And we can watch for these to re-appear as new lessons soon?

julesong,

I'm thinking maybe one batch every 2 weeks or so. There shouldn't be that many batches, though. Probably three or four.

John - how quickly/often will you be removing and replacing the lessons? One batch a week, a month?

Thanks!