User Comments - catherinem

Posted on: Making people do things with 让，令，and 使

@zhenlijiang: Are you referring to comments posted by Jiaojie before this one:

"Yes, a person can also 使 you to do or feel something.

For example, 他使我感到很快乐。Tā shǐ wǒ gǎndào hěn kuàilè. ... etc..." I ask because I am able to see three comments by Jiaojie but I don't know if they're not the one's you are talking about.

Posted on: Ordering Food for the Group

@pretzellogic I've reviewed the lessons you listed above and while you're right to point out that they all share some basic vocabulary, I have to disagree with your contention that this lesson on ordering food for the group simply rehashes old content. This lesson deals with important linguistic and cultural issues. The central linguistic issues are 你来点菜吧／我不会点 and the suggestions/conditions stated by the friends as the one is trying to order: 我们都俄怀了／大家有什么不吃的，就说. As for the cultural issues, this lesson focuses on one person in a group having to order (and maybe not wanting to) and also touches on the kinds of food one is expected to order (cold/hot dishes, soup).

While this dialog may share some key vocabulary with other food lessons (i.e. 点菜／来菜单) I don't know this can always be avoided! I can also assure you that the team tries its best to make sure old content is not repeated, and one of the key elements in dialog writing is presenting real life language in new and interesting contexts (while maintaining our emphasis on high frequency words and phrases).

As for the topics you mentioned above, we have the following lessons available on:

vegetarianism/veganism (Dear Amber has an interesting thread on being vegan in China):

Finding Vegetarian Food

Vegetarian Eating

And allergies: Allergies

Thanks, as always, for your input!

Posted on: All About the Lesson Content

@timothygstout - This is a very interesting suggestion and one I haven't personally heard before. Thank you! Out of curiosity - do you save phrases and/or words from the lessons to your flashcards? Do you find you use this tool on CPod at all? Also, do you use pen and paper to increase your writing practice in addition to your speaking practice, or is it just more convenient doing it that way? Thanks!

Posted on: All About the Lesson Content

I'm curious to know if you set your preferences to "hide English" as a default in the dialog/expansion sentences tabs of the lesson page. Do you find this helpful in your studies?

Posted on: All About the Lesson Content

Thanks for your feedback, timothygstout. I agree with you - I think the audio review is an excellent tool for speaking practice! Personally, I think out of everything I use it and the expansion sentences the most in my studies.

Posted on: Politely Declining an Invitation

As a rule we do not feature the hosts of the lessons as voice actors in the same lesson. Otherwise it would be too confusing! This is not necessarily true of a few of our very first lessons back in 2005, but since then it is something we specifically avoid. As far as variety in voice actors is concerned, we do try to mix it up, though we only use people with unaccented standard Chinese at the newbie-elementary-intermediate levels. This rule unfortunately limits some of our options for variety at the lower levels, but it does mean you'll hear some more voices at the higher levels. Thanks for your input, keikonihonjin!

Posted on: Learning about Levels

This is a short (4 episode) series created to answer questions we have received regarding ChinesePod and how to use it. Do you have any questions about how to use the site? If you're looking specifically for lessons, I'd recommend browsing our large archive here.

Posted on: Going to the Gas Station

Sounds ok from our end... are you still experiencing the problem? If so, what browser are you using?

Posted on: 在中国上大学

Thanks ladevorah. We're currently working on the English translations in the annotations. Will let you know when they're available.

Posted on: A Magazine Subscription

At the sentence level we don't always choose to translate literally word for word. The translator in this case has used the high frequency situation of making a dinner reservation as the context of the statement. We wouldn't say, "I'd like to reserve 4 seats at 6 o'clock tonight" in English, so the translator has gone with what he felt would be more natural.

If you mouse over the words individually you'll find their literal translations. This is meant to give learners a clearer understanding of how the statement is constructed and what each element means. Please let us know if you have further questions.