User Comments - andrew_c
andrew_c
Posted on: Saved by the Gong: Math class
April 2, 2008 at 10:43 AMHi goulniky, Is that transcribed banter or just additional vocabulary?
Posted on: Sweet Roasted Chestnuts
March 26, 2008 at 10:39 AMWhere are the best chestnuts found? I've heard 天津, but that was from a 天津人. Perhaps I've misunderstood John's question at the end, but doesn't the 糖 come from the chestnuts themselves? When I've bought them from the supermarket, the good ones have been really soft and really sweet.
Posted on: Relativity
March 18, 2008 at 3:53 PMHi evelyne, I just saw your second message. If their intent wasn't to present the "theory of relativity", but rather as a play on the word "relativity", then that's disappointing to me. When I was previously under the false impression that they were at least trying to introduce the language related to a scientific subject, I was thrilled.
Posted on: Relativity
March 18, 2008 at 3:35 PMHi evelyne! I would agree with you that language of everyday use merits the most attention, but I can't see why some level of specialized language isn't possible. I always thought that a great advantage of CPod's modular approach is that everyone can pick and choose lessons most relevant to their needs. Because of this some lessons can be really useful to some people, even if they're not useful to everyone. I'm not expecting technical lectures in Chinese, but this lesson was touted as being on "the theory of relativity", so they built up some expectation in me as to what the content of the lesson would be. To use Dave's description, it turned out to be more "soap opera-ish subject matter", and that was disappointing.
Posted on: Relativity
March 18, 2008 at 2:00 PMHi Changye, Thanks for pointing out that resource.
Posted on: Relativity
March 18, 2008 at 12:59 PMI mean live in China, I'd love to visit!
Posted on: Relativity
March 18, 2008 at 12:59 PMAny discussion involving Fourier transforms I would be isolated? I don't bring up such things in an everyday setting, but I'm not learning Chinese to talk to 老百姓. I live in the USA and don't plan to go to China, so aside from speaking to my mother-in-law, I'm learning Chinese so that I can speak to colleagues in an academic setting. I currently experience isolation to varying degrees when Chinese people use Chinese to discuss technical issues, and it happens on a daily basis.
Posted on: Relativity
March 18, 2008 at 11:37 AMHi rechoboam, To clarify why I brought up the inaccuracies, I don't care if they get the science wrong, the only reason I brought that up is that (together with the awkward English translation) it makes me suspect that they might have gotten the language wrong as well. I think that it's reasonable to expect to get the language right, that's what we're paying them for. I agree that we can't expect them to teach us all of the specialist language that each of us needs to know. However, I don't see how you can call this even a window into an area of specialist language. So much of the dialog was off-topic, and of the two statements that were, one didn't form a complete sentence.
Posted on: Relativity
March 16, 2008 at 7:50 PMHi rsmith91, I totally agree with you that it's impossible to please everyone. I'd like to add to that. Thanks to ChinesePod's modular approach, not every lesson needs to.
Posted on: Saved by the Gong: Math class
April 2, 2008 at 11:02 AMI really liked this lesson. Regarding John's offer at the end, a lesson just like this one, only about calculus homework would be really helpful.