User Comments - Mingmao

Posted on: Finding the Office Building

I have also noticed Dilu a few times saying that something is boring that was something I thought was useful. I hope these are just jokes to keep the tone lighthearted (not the effect it has, in my opinion, but maybe what she's going for), and not something that would cause you give less detail on an explanation. I would always prefer to err on the side of potentially too much detail, rather than too little. It's frustrating to have something covered in a lesson but still come away unclear; having more details or examples than you need just makes something feel more solid.

Posted on: Finding the Office Building

When the visitor to the office says "我看到了," meaning, "I see it," could she have said, “我看见了"? And how would this change the meaning or the tone?

Posted on: Family Member Terms of Address

This lesson was a good start, but it would be nice to have an extended-extended family lesson, going into more terms. Such as second cousin, half-sister, niece and nephew's (all 4 different ones) spouses, and also addressing 排行. This lesson also didn't get into grandchildren or their spouses, or great-grandparents. What about my niece's daughter and her husband? Do they have terms? It would be nice to have _all_ the terms laid out until they come to the very end.

Posted on: Family Member Terms of Address

Hi Jenny,

is 弟媳妇 a regional term? It was listed as 弟妹 in my textbook.

Posted on: Family Member Terms of Address

As I understand it, the naming has nothing to do with surnames; it is just that in general, women take their husband's last name.

I believe that 堂哥, etc. refer to children of your father's brothers, while 表哥, etc., refer to the children of your father's sisters and also your mother's siblings. The 堂 designation seems to be an indication of preserving the male line (which historically coincided with the surname).

Posted on: Family Member Terms of Address

I came across the terms 外甥 and 外甥女 for your sister's sons and daughters. I'm not sure why they didn't cover them in this lesson.

Posted on: Lesson Brainstorming

I had no idea you might have a shortage of lesson ideas. The lessons I find myself wishing existed are myriad! Please, where would like lesson suggestions sent?

Also, I have two suggestions right off the bat that are rather general and could serve to generate a lot of lessons:

1. There are a lot of Intermediate lesson topics that could be well-served by expanding them into Upper Intermediate lessons with more complexity. Also, there are a number of Upper Intermediate lessons that could be reworked into simpler language and vocabulary for Intermediate level lessons. I can't yet follow Advanced lessons and don't listen to as many Elementary lessons, but I imagine the same principle would apply.

2. My second suggestion addresses the issue mentioned by a few commenters above, and with which I agree: the gap between Intermediate and Upper Intermediate is too big. At least, it is too big if Chinesepod is your main source of Chinese learning material. When I started with Chinesepod many years ago, I had assumed that Intermediate lessons would prepare me for Upper Intermediate lessons. They do not. Upper Intermediate lessons assume prior knowledge of a lot of vocabulary, usages and grammar that is not covered in Intermediate lessons, especially in the host discussion. Many, many new Intermediate lessons could be created by writing lessons around vocabulary, expressions and grammar that appear in Upper Intermediate lesson texts and discussions, but are never explained at the Upper Intermediate level. I know this would take some time to anaylze, and that it might not fit your work schedule. If you can find the time, however, I think it would go far to help address the level gap that some users find difficult to navigate. It took me a few years with Chinesepod to realize that I was not going to be able to move up a level without doing a lot of outside research on my own.

Posted on: Organizing a Marketing Event

Does 超市大卖场 encompass department stores, such as Zellers or K-mart, that don't have a produce section? Also, I'm pretty sure Walmart in Canada doesn't have a produce section; would that mean it is a 超市大卖场 in China but not in Canada?

Posted on: A Qing Wen to Our Listeners

Again similar to the above request, I would like a series of qingwens on the most basic, generic two-character forms of one-character words. I think that in many cases the examples for this and the above request would overlap. For example, "石": would the most common, basic two-character form of "石" be "石头" or  "岩石"?

Host discussions of the Upper Intermediate lessons seem to include a lot of such words, when used to clarify the meaning of words in the dialogue. But these generic terms are rarely in the dialogues themselves. Where does one usually learn them? I am interested in these questions, and in learning the most basic forms of words. 

To clarify further, if we were to use an example in English, which of these synonyms is the most basic, general term: 

happy, glad, joyful, pleased, tickled, cheerful, thrilled, gleeful?

I think most people would agree that "happy" is the most generic term. 

I would like to have some lessons or a list helping to clarify similar terms in Chinese that represent the most basic or generic version of an idea.

Posted on: A Qing Wen to Our Listeners

Similar to the above request, a lesson on verbally asking which character is meant without getting into writing it: such as "明天的明。"

Often I get into these conversations, but either I don't recognize the word the other person is using, or I try to give an example that is not the standard example and the Chinese speaker still doesn't know what character I'm trying to indicate. It seems that for many characters there is a standard two-character word that is most often used to specify that character (as in the 明天 for 明 example above). 

I would love to have a list of these common two-character word indications of single characters, where there is a standard or general habit.