User Comments - alwingate
alwingate
Posted on: How spicy?
July 24, 2007 at 6:11 PMHello John. I did not notice a grammar tag link on the last Newbie Lesson. Did I miss something?
Posted on: Baby Care
July 1, 2007 at 10:59 AMDave, I have a similar observation about keeping the expansion sentences connected to the difficulty level. Sometimes Newbie vocab is put into relatively complex example sentences. The second observation is that it seems a bit unusual to display Newbie lessons in the expansion section in Chinese characters only, not Pinyin. CPod, by definition is lessons in spoken Mandarin, but that isn't the whole story because there are written assignments. Yet, I have yet to discover what is the approach to learning characters, since this really isn't dealt with comprehensively..ie the writing of characters and the learning of characters at a Newbie level. Maybe I am off base here. I do know that there is a word by word pinyin display for each character. I am still sorting this one out in my fevered brain.
Posted on: I forgot your name
June 28, 2007 at 3:07 AMGreat comment John. The distinction is crystal clear. Thanks.
Posted on: Chinese Money Denominations
June 17, 2007 at 9:22 AMMy question is this: Can you buy proof sets of Chinese coinage. I know that you can in the U.S. from the Franklin Mint. I don't know if there is coin collecting in China or not. But, a mint set or proof set are valued items in the US. I am not a coin collect: too poor. ")
Posted on: Chinese Money Denominations
June 17, 2007 at 9:21 AMAntoniov That's a good question. Use to be you could pay with green backs in China, but now the dollar is declining so it is not a favored currency, but I think the official answer from the government is no. You are supposed to use their currency. I have been to China, but I could be wrong I(as usual)
Posted on: Olympic Swimming
June 13, 2007 at 6:27 AMI enjoyed this lesson very much. I like the repetition in the different styles of swimming. Pretty neat visual stuff. I wonder whether ChinesePod has considered publishing the the expansions in Pinyin. Since there is no Cpod defined way to learn characters and it is not on my radar screen at this point, it would be very useful to have the Newbie and Elementary lessons, expansions and dialogues in Pinyin. I know we all have limited resources. But, I find the test for example at some point, rather meaningless. That is because I have not progressed far enough to make a difference in the placement test. So, at the end of taking the test. Yes, I am an idiot. Okay. I like the new expanded lesson regards a bit more discussion of words and their derivations etc. Nice to have a bit of that, but don't want to get into too much of that sort of thing. Things can be over-worked as I am fond of doing. The other thing I would like to see is lessons designed for teachers. Perhaps there are a lot of teachers on CPod. Perhaps, not. There certainly is a demand for English teachers throughout the world at this time. I am not sure of my specific idea. Perhaps a blog on pedagogy or an approach for teachers. I sometimes use Cpod in my classes. I know, double dipping. But, it is a very nice model I think. The trick is to keep it developmental and incremental. Anyway, I enjoy you and Jenny. I know it takes a lot to put together this enterprise and Ken you are one tough competitor and great business man. Of course, this is just my opinion. I could be wrong. But, to say this compliment: you and Jenny are the heart and soul of Cpod. And I remember when Ken's tones were peccable and so much has happened in that area. I am tone challenged. And, especially that pesky first tone. Chinese is like taking a roller coaster ride. Anyway, kudos. Al Wingate
Posted on: Cold Beer
June 8, 2007 at 4:48 PMWell, all interested in such things. Alcoholism is consdiered a disease by most enlightened countries and by medical and psychological organizations all over the west. Saying that a heavy drinker is pretty much like a heavy drinker. Not so. There is a tremendous difference between the two. Many factors: But, the alcholic, suffers from an overwhelming desire to drink which compels him to do so in spite of the tragic consequences including loss of job, health, family etc. No matter how far down the scale they go; they are unable to see they have a problem. Some persist to death; liver disease, bloated hospital stays: they guy still wants to drink. Not your typical drunk who just wants to get drunk every night. So, for the poorly informed, these things are best to the discussion of professionals. Thank you, Dr. Albert Wingate
Posted on: Two Little Tigers Song
June 8, 2007 at 4:17 PMSpace wasters.
Posted on: Where Children Come From
June 3, 2007 at 2:44 AMWell Dave, my opinion: China is more open today than it has ever been, but it is not a democracy. I don't think you will see that topic any time soon; but as usual, I could be wrong.
Posted on: Free Association
August 1, 2007 at 6:49 PMJenny, John or Amber, I am having trouble structuring questions. Is there a structure to follow? And is this something that I can research in grammar tags? Thanks, Al Wingate Taiwan