User Comments - catherinem

Posted on: Passive Verbs and 被

We haven't been able to use Facebook or Twitter since summer 2008.

Posted on: Have you bought your Shanghai Expo ticket?

听说节日的票已经卖完了，可是其他的日子应该没问题吧！

Posted on: Asking for a Raise

Pretzellogic - I will try to address some of your main points. First of all, it's very possible that I didn't explain clearly enough why we do not have "esoteric" vocabulary in our newbie to intermediate level lessons. This is because our content focuses on high-frequency language at the lower levels. Only in upper-intermediate, advanced and media level lessons to we delve into specific terminology and lower-frequency vocabulary. This is not because we have anything against esoteric topics. On the contrary! It's a pedagogical approach we espouse to ensure that learners at the lower levels have a strong command of the basics. "Basics" does not just include individual vocabulary, either, but sentence structures and grammar as well.

If you look at our upper intermediate level lessons, for example, you will find content about remodeling a house, ultrasounds, zombies, photo editing software, etc. These are fairly specific to each field.

To your point that "But the fact that something can't be done in China, or that Chinese don't do some task, doesn't mean that I don't want to bring it up," I'd like to just say that we don't limit our content to only things that the Chinese do/only things that can be found in China. Our lesson on Jewish holidays is a perfect example. This was a user-requested lesson (not surprisingly there aren't many non-foreign folks in China who celebrate Rosh Hashana)!

We are not planning on covering the same topics over and over again. In fact, the staff here try very hard not to do this! We listen to users, we review our own content, we brainstorm all the time. We will continue to try and diversify our content, while still adhering to our language guidelines. I encourage you to email us with your own suggestions. Doorknobs? Servers? Painting houses? Check. Just let us know what you're interested in and we'll add it to the list. Believe me - it's not an easy task coming up with thousands of lesson topics. I'm extremely proud of what we've done so far, and I look forward to your input!

Posted on: Special Green Hat

You are totally correct. I've just fixed it. Thank you for pointing it out!

Posted on: Special Green Hat

For the record I didn't know this cultural fact until we were planning the lesson. Then coincidentally one of the speakers at last weekend's Int'l Literary Festival (Su Tong) here in Shanghai brought up a story about his childhood which involved "green hats." This stuff can come in handy! (Apparently calling someone a turtle in Suzhou means they wear a green hat).

Posted on: Getting to Know CPod Teacher Helen (and exciting content news)!

I think everyone should calm down! See how the topic of dialects can be so divisive! As changye noted, the line between dialect and language is a blurry one, and the jury's still out, even among many experts. Let's focus on the question: what would you like ChinesePod to help you learn more about?

Posted on: Getting to Know CPod Teacher Helen (and exciting content news)!

All very good suggestions. I have to admit, I'm surprised by the number of people who have requested Sichuanese! How interesting :) Cantonese is definitely a possibility, and we do plan to have English language podcasts about dialects/languages within the Chinese language family.

Posted on: Asking for a Raise

It's a good question. First off, we're continually looking to your feedback for ideas on lessons to produce. We've been doing this for a while now and it's working well, in my opinion. We're also trying to produce lessons that reflect the times - lessons about the Expo, lessons about events in the news, etc.

At the newbie to intermediate levels, we focus on high-frequency language. This means language that learners at these levels will need to know to communicate effectively in Chinese. So in many ways it's not just about the topic of a specific lesson. It's really about the language covered. In the case of these two lessons about asking for a raise, the content of the dialogs is quite different, despite the very similar titles. Learners will be able to take parts of the language covered and use it in other situations (rejecting flattery, for example, is not business specific).

So to answer your question, no, we're not just going to cover the same things over and over again. We're trying to diversify our content, to reflect more news and current events, to delve into the murky realm of dialects, and to take more user suggests in producing new content. You can find more about our immediate plans in my recent blog post here.

Please continue adding your own suggestions to this community section post. Thanks for your input!

Posted on: Asking for a Raise

The titles are just about the same, but in this one, "Asking for a Raise," the employee is practicing what he'll say to his boss to get a raise, accepting compliments, etc. In the other, "Requesting a Raise," a person is explaining to a friend why her boss denied her a raise.

Posted on: The Shanghai Literary Festival

There was a brilliant Academy Award-winning short documentary in 2006 about this topic: The Blood of Yingzhou District. More on Robert Dessiax from Shanghaiist here.