User Comments - RJ

Posted on: Retirement Homes, ChinesePod and a Harmonica

Wow, thats great HHL. Good luck. That theme song is simply awesome. Makes me miss China very much.

Posted on: The Stable 稳 (wen)

All things must pass. Amber's intro is finally gone, but I must say I dont think the new one is an improvement. Admitedly I am heavily biased but I liked the old one better. Greg rates high on my list of teachers, but the Amber intro was a monument to your roots. You should have kept it.

Posted on: Why, Oh, Why?

click small grey cogwheel at top right of this page and you can select this option under "show extra options"

Posted on: The One-Child Policy

according to wikipedia:

"A 2006 China Daily report stated that wealthy couples are increasingly turning to fertility medicines to have multiple births, because of the lack of penalties against couples who have more than one child in their first birth; according to the report, the number of multiple births per year in China had doubled by 2006."

Posted on: The Spring Festival Gala

Zhao Benshan, long time comic has dropped out but I understand American billionaire warren Buffet sung "Ive been working on the railroad" while playing the ukulele. Strange. Did you catch that one? Apparently there was some question as to whether or not it would make it to the actual show, but it was featured on the gala website.

Posted on: The Seven Year Itch 2: Facing Divorce

自爆我的脑海

Posted on: Focus and Specialization

Zhen,

I understand your point. I would be happy if they just continued to provide half English discussion for Upper Intermediate. (same as Intermediate). thats me though. I cant say overall which is best and two years from now I may prefer all Chinese because I will be up for it. Someone in that position could just move to advanced however. Still something for everybody. Maybe an experiment. Do some upper intermediate lessons with half English banter and see how it goes over. If half of them were done this way it would provide the often sought after "transition" lessons.

Posted on: Focus and Specialization

interesting. I have to give this some thought but I think one of the reasons the "banter" is difficult is the uncertainty as to what word I am hearing. Its not the big words that cause problems, its the small ones. The little words that glue everything together.

Posted on: Focus and Specialization

Mark,

I tend to agree. For me, this week was also a bit of a disappointment. I was looking forward to my usual extra study time during the holidays. This year was different.

Posted on: Focus and Specialization

Hi Bodawei,

A lot of preferences are based on personal style which grows out of personal learning needs and does change as one progresses. Sink or swim may work if you get 80% of something but My reading and vocab skills tend to be one full level above listening and speaking skills. (I realize some folks are just the opposite, and this causes a difference of opinion) I would like to do some upper intermediate lessons but I can not understand enough of the banter to gain anything from it. Very discouraging. I don't even bother with the discussion, I just do the lesson line by line from the web page. If I stick with intermediate, I get no new vocab. I would be happy if they kept the banter at the intermediate lesson level and style (where John's half is in English) on through the upper intermediate level. Transition to full Chinese discussion could be delayed until the advanced level. I agree that there is zero chance of Cpod changing their take on this, and I WILL get through it. I will eventually make the transition, but I could learn faster if I could understand enough of what they were saying in the discussions to get a foothold. I do feel like the lesson discussion is a full level or more above the lesson itself. Am I truly the only one that feels this way? Listening is important. I tend to think speaking comes last. You have to develop a complete vocab and the ability to pick up on this vocab at normal speaking speeds before you can participate effectively in a conversation. You can speak with a limited vocab, but when the other person answers you, they draw from their vocab, not yours. If you don't understand the response, you are dead in the water after one sentence. This is indeed what happens if you are dealing with a native or proficient speaker and it is native and proficient speakers you want to be able to speak with.

btw- you say you are in the "walk away sink or swim school". Walk away = sink. That is not what is supposed to happen in "sink or swim". You are supposed to learn to swim, or it is not working. I think we are having a problem with how we define things. No wonder we "disagree"