User Comments - ElijahW
ElijahW
Posted on: Elevator Emergency
June 3, 2008 at 6:49 AMSince the update of the website, I've encountered several lessons where the audio files in the expansion tabs don't work. This is one of them.
Posted on: The New Site and the Guided Plan
June 3, 2008 at 6:34 AMOverall, I think the changes are great. If I weren't already enrolled in language school, I would jump on the Guided plan. Much more reasonably priced than the now-named Executive plan.
Two problems I've had:
1.) Safari doesn't display a lot of the Chinese text correctly on the new site. I don't understand why there would be a difference, but there is. I'll try updating Safari and see if that works. But it works fine in Firefox.
2.) The new audio buttons are less responsive than the old ones. My internet connection isn't the greatest, so what I used to do is open all the tabs at once, then listen to the lesson in iTunes while I wait for the audio in the Dialogue, Vocabulary, and Expansion tabs to load. Now I have to click each and every button individually and wait.
Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Xinjiang
May 20, 2008 at 6:30 AMGreat lesson! 我真爱新疆菜！
Posted on: Pearl Tea
May 16, 2008 at 1:46 PMA comment on the dialogue files: I listen to them repeatedly every day on my walk to school, and I have found them to usually be quite clear. But on this lesson as well as "Not on Purpose," I had trouble hearing the dialogue. Compared to other recent dialogues which were just fine ("Paris" and "Hungry Traveler: Hunan," for example), it seemed like the dialogue was too low, and the sound effects were too high. As the buses were whizzing past me on my walk, I was straining to hear 她怎么没来, then got my ears blasted by a cricket! I was a cinema major in college, so maybe I'm just 太挑剔了！
Posted on: Pearl Tea
May 15, 2008 at 12:28 PMMy American friends in Shanghai introduced me to 珍珠奶茶. One of them hated it and said she felt like she was drinking snot balls. Another one loved them and drank one almost every day. Until she joined 珍珠奶茶 Anonymous, that is. She kicked the habit over a year ago.
Posted on: Hot Soup
February 19, 2008 at 2:18 AM我喜欢喝汤还是可乐？I know which is healthier, but during the summer I typically go for the Cola!
Posted on: The Old Man Who Moved a Mountain
January 29, 2008 at 12:12 AMI listened to the dialogue before listening to the lesson. And it sounded a bit creepy—"I'm dead, my son's dead, and my grandson's dead!" No "when" marker before all the talk of death. But listening to the lesson cleared it all up. But since it's an old story, I'm guessing they actually are all dead by now anyway.
Posted on: Where Children Come From
January 20, 2008 at 2:36 AMDoes anyone out there know how common adoption is in China? I know foreigners often have an interest in adopting Chinese kids, but do Chinese people adopt? I ask because I have two adopted siblings, and they have had serious difficulty dealing with "where they came from." I'm guessing that these kinds of jokes are more acceptable in China because adoption doesn't happen much. There aren't many parents who have seen first-hand the life-long scars people have to deal with when they truly were 从垃圾箱捡来的.
Posted on: The Monks in the Temple on the Mountain
January 12, 2008 at 11:25 AMGreat lesson! When I start quoting it to my Chinese friends, they're always amused. One drawback: The expansion sentences seem to have problems, especially toward the end. The Chinese writing doesn't match the audio.
Posted on: The New Site and the Guided Plan
June 3, 2008 at 12:55 PMMy version of Safari is a bit old: 2.0.4. It also has a problem with some of the special characters on SpanishPod and FrenchPod. I plan to upgrade in the next few days.
I also appreciated the ability to sort by date for two reasons: The newer lessons are better, so I liked working from the not-that-great lessons to the terrific lessons.
Second, I wanted to be sure that I did the serial lessons (杨洁's Diary, etc.) in the proper order. But hopefully the "Sets" feature can keep that straight.