User Comments - dgeorge
dgeorge
Posted on: 话中带刺
April 24, 2007 at 6:05 PMHello ChinesePod, Would it be possible to still have the Englsh included in the PDF for Advanced lessons? I would consider myself somewhere between the elementary and the intermediate level. The old format which included the English translation allowed me (at my level) to also get alot out of even the advanced lessons. I know that it would take up more paper...Perhaps could it be made an option to receive advanced PDF lessons with/without the English translation? Please forgive me if I'm in the wrong section to post such a comment. I must admit I'm somewhat overwhelmed (information overload) by all of the changes to the website. I love the work that you all do at ChinesePod and have benefited tremendously in bettering my understanding of/learning Chinese. I appreciate all of your great efforts to upgrade to a new system. However, I think that with some of the changes you're eliminating good/desireable options (like for example the "English" in the advanced lessons). Personally, I liked the old format. I liked the simplified and the traditional combined in one lesson (although I know it generates more paper if printed). This allowed for me to more readily study simplified and traditional characters simultaneously. In college I originally studied only traditional characters... so it was really convenient having both forms of writing in one file (without having to explicitly download 2 different files). Almost subconsciously I was starting to get up to speed in easily recognizing the Simplified characters. Also the fact that the old lessons were in Unicode it was easy to copy and paste the dialog into my NJstar Chinese Word Processor and use its "word annotation" tools for further exploration of meanings and etc. Now to do this I have to click on the "(Text version)" link within the PDF to get a unicode version and then copy and paste this file into NJstar. The changes have made things more cumbersome (at least for me). Also I think that the previous "push" technology delivering lesson via email was a great option as well. It used to be that a minute before going to work I could quickly check my email printout the lesson and be on my way (ie simplicity). I realize that RSS is a great way to distribute information but I feel a little too overloaded with information ( I know it's probably just me)...It could just be a learning curve... but for me it seems like extra work now just to collect the lesson now. I guess mainly because now if I want the lesson in both Traditional and Simplified characters (and Unicode) I have to complete 3 separate downloads...plus if I click on any links from the RSS I'm prompted for my ID and password (more extra steps). It all just seems a little more cumbersome than it used to be. I don't advocate hindering progress and positive change, but I think that it would be nice to leave some of the old methods of distribution, formatting and etc as options to choose from because many of the older processes were more convenient. Having said all of the above...again I want to reiterate how much I appreciate you all and all of your good work. I still think that you present one of the best approaches ever to study Chinese. Take care, Donald
Posted on: Death by Ninja
September 12, 2007 at 6:09 PMCool lesson! Perhaps let Peter survive and return as "Peter Parker" aka "Spiderman." and let him get his revenge on the ninjas and Li Jingli. :-)