Bad Chinese

paganfarmer

November 24, 2008 at 02:55 PM posted in General Discussion

I have been listening to the podcasts, and I think Jenny is great. However the other male voices speak atrocious chinese, it's extremely annoying. It's unbelievable when they repeat their mistakes over and over again... I suggest they just stick to english..gosh! my hair stands at the back of my neck!

xiaohu

November 27, 2008 at 06:54 AM

rjberki

I miss her old Avatar! AAAALLLLLRIGHT!!!

Jess_Andersen

November 27, 2008 at 06:41 AM

FREE AUNTIE68!!!

RJ

November 26, 2008 at 05:07 AM

I think you guys miss the colorful kitty.

xiaohu

November 26, 2008 at 04:49 AM

henning

我一见小猫的简历就感觉很烦，我也又看了她写的留言。我觉得那个女孩的态度真的很不好。不过我到现在还没记住她下流的那张照片。

Jess_Andersen

November 26, 2008 at 04:28 AM

Speaking of dear Auntie, how much longer is she gonna be in CPOD jail? I think she get's the point by now, time to end the medieval banishment.

bababardwan

November 26, 2008 at 01:23 AM

Thanks Pete,

I have no problem with a "warts and all" discussion [from genuine users].

I think it's great having a trial period to check out the site before subscribing and I for one used the trial period to check out the site before subscribing.You guys obviously know how to run your business best ,and are doing a fantastic job at it too I might add,but I can't help but wonder how important it is to actually be able to post comments during a trial period.Not being able to post during a trial would have had no bearing for me on whether I subscribed or not.I wonder what others who have subscribed think ? This has to be weighed against being able to post during the trial period seems to open the door for lots of trolls as far as I can see.I would have thought questions on how to use the site for people on a trial period could instead be directly emailed to Praxis.Just my observation.Cheers :)

pearltowerpete

November 25, 2008 at 08:16 AM

Hi bababardwan

We're watching the trolls closely. CPod has always encouraged "warts and all" discussion of the service. It's essential for the poddies to tell us what they like and don't like.

But, I agree, there seems to have been an explosion of pointlessly negative commenting recently. We're still working out the best way to keep the boards civil, informative, and lively. It's a tough balance.

Saying negative things about CPod is not grounds for deletion. But personal attacks on listeners or hosts will be deleted with extreme prejudice. There are plenty of places on the Web to scream at the world. This site is about learning and exchange.

Anyway, I do appreciate the dedication and skill of you and all the non-paganfarmer commenters on this thread. You make this community what it is. Keep your questions, comments and (constructive) criticism coming!

bababardwan

November 25, 2008 at 07:38 AM

Well said Henning [et al].I also agree with light that it is the mixture that makes CPod so rich and entertaining.While I agreed with xiaohu's comments on Aunties rants at the time [and I note subsequent comments in that post recently],the vast majority of the time she had a great contribution to make and I was personally grateful for the help she gave me.So while I respect CPod's decisions in these matters,I must say it is surprising how much the trolls are tolerated ,when someone like Aunty who was a genuine contributor was banned.I know there was some suspicion raised at one point that she was trying to promote competitors,but these trolls are not only trying to be highly disruptive ,but are also blatantly promoting competitor sites.I don't know what they think they'll achieve.It's pretty obvious CPod has a fiercly loyal band of followers who are also highly intelligent [and not blind to trivial imperfections or brainwashed ] and won't be easily fooled.

urbandweller

November 25, 2008 at 05:55 AM

哈哈！ Henning...i think that cat had rabies!!

tvan

November 25, 2008 at 05:44 AM

又来了？

paganfarmer

November 25, 2008 at 03:46 AM

同志..., i know it's hard for some people to accept their own shortcomings. what more in a place where dissent and criticism are rewarded with a visit by the firing squad (i have changed my ip add, just in case).

just because i dont fit in with the stereotype of a submissive oriental damsel - with eyes downcast, hands clasped murmuring unnhh...unnhhh...you religious apologetics have to go so far as to speculate about my gender.

i dont spend my precious time (and lose my beauty sleep) posting useless annoying messages, but i understand its hard for some people to accept my valid opinions just bcos i dont have a dangling piece of easily-excited beef between my legs. i mean, geez... these dudes try hard but lets call a fart a fart and not scent-free (or accent-free) gas. i think honesty is what is lacking here with everyone going 'great site, guys, bla bla i love you, youre my mate, ur pics cool...' makes me wanna puke.

气死我啦。。

henning

November 25, 2008 at 03:29 AM

xiaohu,
the door into darkness opens right here.

xiaohu

November 24, 2008 at 09:52 PM

henning

瞧我的记性，我不记得了。我只记住她带着鼻环的那幅头像。但是我还记得她那个女孩不是那么温柔的而她的态度不太好。

henning

November 24, 2008 at 09:19 PM

xiaohu,
or more likely: crazykitty...as an CPod old hand you surely remember that angry little girl (原来她使用了一幅穿热裤的头像。。。还记得吗?).

xiaohu

November 24, 2008 at 09:08 PM

haikeyi

If he IS indeed a girl then it's a great ruse. Personally I have the feeling we have a return visit from Chittywangwang.

light487

November 24, 2008 at 09:00 PM

The only other new male speaker is Pete of course and we have heard how well he can speak. I have to agree that Ken does make a lot of mistakes in the pronunciation of words but that's the thing that kept me going as a newbie and still does keep me going. I have tried listening to just native-only speaker lessons and there is no reference for comparison to how a non-native speaker tackles the language.

Ken always has little tips and tricks into how to remember tones and words that only a non-native speaker could have come up with. It's this non-native angle mixed with a native speaker angle that makes the ChinesePOD approach so rich in learning content. I hear Jenny say "dee-ahn" and then Ken repeat "dee-ann" and it's just one of those things that a non-native speaker would do. I can hear that I could make the same mistake just as easily, even with the 11 years of living on China that Ken has had.

Without Ken, John, Pete, Amber, Clay, JP and all the other non-native speakers.. it just wouldn't be the same and I would have most likely lost interest months ago.

haikeyi

November 24, 2008 at 08:16 PM

I think s/he's a girl. She sounds just like my sister! The picture is great.

I hope you come back paganfarmer and you stay in character. I love you. You are the greatest!

If she is a man she writes great fiction!

xiaohu

November 24, 2008 at 07:57 PM

haikeyi

I'm 99.99999999999999999 percent sure that Paganfarmer is a man, just here playing pranks, trying to see what kind of a rise he can get out of us.

I have to admit 它的头像很漂亮。

haikeyi

November 24, 2008 at 07:23 PM

Hi pagan farmer! Are you a pagan or a farmer or both? "borneoherbs?" Are you a herbevore? You call everything a "mate," so you're naturalized Ozzie, but you are ethnic Chinese, proud of it, of course, an outsider. Let's see, you think Jenny is great and Connie is sweet and you hate male voices. Everybody's sexuality is nobody's business but yours. You think yanks are "unbelieveable" - sexually perverse somehow, interested in only one thing... the ratings. You are young and beautiful... Hey, is that your real picture? You are clever, sharp as a razon but not very smart. You're gay, so what? Really, we don't care. Do we, guys? Hell, you could be a man for all I know. Welcome on board!

urbandweller

November 24, 2008 at 05:30 PM

paganfarmer, YOUR posts are starting to make the hair on the back of my neck stand up!!

xiaohu

November 24, 2008 at 04:24 PM

paganfarmer

I too am left scratching my head at your statement. What male voices are you talking about?

I wouldn't go so far as to say the John speaks accent-less Chinese, but he speaks wonderful Chinese, and anyway neither he nor Ken are presenting themselves as the MODEL for others to follow, that's Jenny's role.

What male speakers are you referring to?

henning

November 24, 2008 at 04:05 PM

So, borneoherbs AKA paganfarmer, what "other male voices" are you refering to?

John speaks an accent-free Mandarin and all speakers in the dialogues are natives - as are the hosts of the Advanced shows. If you are talking about Ken - co-founder of the site and male host of the Newbie and Elementary lessons - he takes the role of a foreign learner and never claims to speak perfect Mandarin. But see, he is a tremendously gifted teacher anyways and enormously popular among the students here - for good reasons.

So, please inform yourself more thoroughly before you start posting annoying complaints all over the place. There are more than 1000 lessons waiting for you on all sorts of subjects (autism, taxation, franchising, logistics, theory of relativity, financial crisis, Internet configuration, 红楼梦, generation gap, you name it!) and they have proved to be highly effective for a large number of learners.

If you have something of value to contribute on the language or the culture we are all eager to read your insights. If not, please just leave us learning.

Thank you!
Henning