User Comments - John

Posted on: The Person Component

xiaohu,

Marco knew exactly what he was doing, and the elements you mentioned were all a deliberate part of the style.

It has been made very clear that this style isn't appreciated by most ChinesePod users, but this style certainly does not represent the limit of Marco's abilities. (I'm pretty sure you haven't seen SpanishPod's grammar videos.)

I have every confidence in Marco's abilities, and look forward to continuing to work with him in the future.

Posted on: Personal Trainer

Pete,

It's interesting to apply that line of thinking to the phrase 不耐烦. It also works as well, but I think most of us just learn it without deconstructing it.

Posted on: The Person Component

Changye,

As I mentioned before, the purpose of the video was not to cover a list of radicals. It was to cover the most useful component parts (whether or not they are technically classified as radicals/部首).

So the plan was to start with the most useful/high-frequency component parts, and base further development on user feedback. In a way, I guess you could say the abrupt end to the Radical Show was following the plan. I'm listening to the user feedback! :)

Posted on: The Person Component

Wow, so many comments...

I'd just like to clarify a few things.

1. I still believe that video is a good medium for teaching how to write or how to understand Chinese characters. As some of you recognized, we did (very briefly) try some new pedagogical approaches in this video. Most Chinese and Japanese character learning resources are stuck in a very deep rut (Heisig's Learning the Kanji and the movements he inspired are huge exceptions), and I'm not at all interested in jumping into that rut. If you want to memorize the 214 Kangxi radicals, you certainly don't need video to help you. Actual Chinese handwriting is one of the areas outside that rut worth exploring. There are others, as some of you have pointed out.

2. When I said we're discontinuing The Radical Show, I meant it. But I didn't mean we're abandoning all efforts on teaching characters. We're abandoning the name, the style, the theme, the silliness. Hopefully not all the fun... but definitely with a much stronger educational focus. I'll be re-working the concept and launching a better video series on learning characters. I'll be working with Marco once again, because however you feel about this video, the man does excellent work. Those of you that know SpanishPod's La Clave series on grammar know that. JP is the pedagogical content mastermind, but Marco created the style and intro (and even the intro music!). They're easily the best videos to come out of Praxis Language so far. (And I personally feel that Chinese characters have greater entertainment potential than Spanish grammar, so there are huge possibilities.)

3. You're going to start seeing more improvements on ChinesePod soon. I know you hate that word "soon," so I will say this: The Grammar Guide will be updated with new entries next week (Merry Christmas!), and we will begin following a regular updating schedule in January 2009. I will continue developing my ideas for a character writing show (it really is a very time-consuming process), and in the meantime the videos will take a more community-oriented angle.

More announcements next week (but not in this thread).

Posted on: The Person Component

Henning, Calkins, yaq, RJBerki, bababardwan,

Thanks a lot. I really am listening to your feedback. I realize ChinesePod has lost some momentum lately in the feature/usability development department, but more development is coming.

And we can most definitely do better.

Posted on: The Person Component

I'm taking down all the constructive criticism, everyone. So far I've got:

• Not funny at all.
• Too little educational content (to the point of not being worth watching).

This was an experiment and a risk, but I see it as an important learning experience for us on what not to do. Anyway, time to get back to more useful learning materials. This little experiment will not see an episode 2.

(I'm definitely not giving up on characters, though!)

Posted on: The Person Component

cassie,

Here are two relevant (Chinese-language) introductory articles: 偏旁 (radical), 部件 (component).

Posted on: The Person Component

To all:

Consider your criticisms duly noted. The character-learning element will be more prominent in future episodes.

Posted on: The Person Component

xigua2,

部首 (bùshǒu) is a term used by dictionaries for classifying characters by 偏旁 (piānpáng). The term 部件 (bùjiàn) comes from a structural approach to character composition.

Posted on: The Person Component

All discussion and criticism is welcome.

A quick note, though: this series is meant for Newbies, presented as an alternate way to look at characters.

You'll notice we never use the word "radical" in reference to parts of characters (which are called 部件 (bùjiàn)). This is because both the word "radical" in English and 偏旁 (piānpáng) in Chinese are historically linked with archaic classification systems rooted in a need for dictionary organization. Computers are changing everthing, however. "Radicals" are no longer essential for looking up characters; we have copy-paste and handwriting recognition. This is where the 部件 (bùjiàn) concept comes in: deconstructing characters for understanding rather than for pure conventional classification.

And yes, it is sort of a radical concept.