User Comments - paulinurus

Posted on: Personal Ad

Caution: There are two errors in the "fix dialogue" that have not been fixed as of today:

Pete said:

  (I can satisfy all the requests you've made.)

and she responded:

这个职位有什么要求？

Pete said:

  (He's always thinking of getting a raise. I don't think it's possible!)

and she responded:

他们队没戏了！

Haha! Looks like someone was in a rush and didn't check the recording.

Posted on: City: Mumbai

I found 2 questions (#4 and #5) in the pinyin exercise that did not give the correct answer:

re4nao

tui1jian4

And yes, the matching excercise was developed in a hurry since the lines are parallel.

Generally, I've come across quite a few errors in the pinyin exercises, when even after entering the correct pinyin as shown on the vocabulary section, the marking still shows the answers as wrong.   

Posted on: City: Mumbai

Well, I've just now listened closely to the dialogue between Jenny and John while at the same time reading via online dictionary Reigau's excellent transcription of what Jenny said in Chinese.

What a difference it is from before when I heard the show without understanding much of what Jenny said. I got a lot more understanding and learning this time around.

I have some constructive suggestions for John.

Many poddies have commented about the huge learning gap when they move from Ellie to the Intermediate level. I think you could significantly close this gap if you interprete/mirror in English of what Jenny said in Chinese. I think telling us the tones is not as important as mirroring in English what she said in Chinese before presenting your response or reaction. The contents of the Intermediate lessons are in most part excellent, however their potential to expel full benefit to poddies require substantial understanding of what Jenny said. In my opinion, if you mirror in English what Jenny says in Chinese before presenting your responses, it will go a long way in helping close the gap moving from Ellie to Intermediate.

For example:

Jenny: 嗯，是的，我觉得我们也可以接受乱！

John: 哈哈哈！

08.13

Jenny: 那最后这个女孩儿说：我推荐一些地方给你吧，推荐一些地方。

John: ...recommend is...?

Posted on: City: Mumbai

Reigau,

Nice job transcribing! Funny thing is when I read the dialogue I understand more words than when hearing the dialogue...brain speed me think! Works best reading and listening to Jenny same time. 

Posted on: Heading Home

Light,

I notice you asking the Chinese sentence structure question before, and here again. Maybe, the explanation below would help.

Chinese sentence structure can be confusing without going through some learning of Chinese grammar. A good and cheapie book is Schaum's Outline of Chinese Grammar, by Claudia Ross. Basically, a  basic Chinese sentence structure is same as English sentence, viz:

subject+verb+object

however, unlike the English language, in Chinese the adverb is usually placed before the verb. 

subject+adverb+verb+object.

This is why, it is more correct to say 我明天回国 wǒ míngtiān huíguó rather than 明天我回国 míngtiān wǒ huíguó, although I think in colloquial usage, the latter structure is quite understandable. Cheers!

Posted on: Kungpao Chicken

这个周末我将请朋友来我家吃饭，我试一下做宫保鸡丁给他们吃，希望他们喜欢我做的饭菜。这个课又意思又用的，加油！

Posted on: Watching the Sun Go Down -- 登乐游原

Another short but profound poem. Nice job explaining it Pete!

Posted on: Boston

I started subscribing to Cpod in early Feb after having spent a year learning Mandarin at two elementary Chinese adult learning courses offered by the Toronto Board of Education, and participating at an internet site which specializes in language exchange. Joining Cpod, I found that Intermediate matches my learning level. 

In the past three months at Cpod I've kept up with all the new Newbie, Ellie, and Intermediate podcasts, and some UI and Advanced podcasts. I've also reviewed many past (2008 and older) Newbie and Ellie podcasts, but not yet the past I, UI, and A podcasts. Here are my main observations:

The 2009 Newbie and Ellie podcasts have a lot more theatrical sounds and effects compared to 2008/07 but the lessons have been substantially 'dumbed down' in the amount of vocabulary and phrases taught.

Examples: Newbie - Miss Daddy has only one key phrase/word repeatedly throughout, and likewise in Rise And Shine; Ellie - GPS Fail and Watch Out also have only one key phrase/sentence repeated throughout.

Compare the 2009 newbie and ellie lessons to the older ones like newbie "Street Argument" and ellie "Wang Wie episodes" and one can see how much more learning there are in the older podcasts

Personally, I go for content rather than theatrics.

Chinese is not an easy language to learn, but I think at the current ‘dumped down' rate of teaching one could stay for years at Newbie/Eliie levels and face even more frustration when they attempt to cross over to Intermediate level when Jenny speaks Chinese. I share the same view as some here that there is a huge gap when moving from Ellie to Intermediate.

As for Upper Intermediate, I find the lessons too specialized and impractical for day to day usage purposes. When will there be an occasion for me to converse with my Chinese friends on the technicalities of cutting up a frog?  Would it be worth ‘bursting my hump' to spend hours studying and memorizing the vocab for such an occasion? These UI lessons may be great for Cpod to increase its range of lessons inventory, but they are mostly impractical, too technical, and not useful for me. 

I've looked at some of the Advanced lessons and like some here, I also find the topics more interesting and practical than the UI lessons. However, since I cannot at this time understand Jenny and Connie's Chinese dialogue, the advanced Cpod text have no added value relative to reading any Chinese text found in Chinese magazines or newspapers of which there are plenty in Toronto. With the help of online translation such as MDGB, reading Chinese text is no longer a problem and anyone from newbie to advanced level can read Chinese text. Being able to remember and know how to use the vocabulary, syntax, and idioms is much more difficult.     

There are many ardent Cpod fans here as witnessed by the frequency of arrows shot at people who dare to criticize, and the oozing of accolades even when lessons repeat the same phrase again, again, again, and again (想你，起床，倒车,    一直往前走x米), so hang on while I put on a helmet and massage my thick skin.     

ps. for those interested, the Chinese courses I took (each is 2 hours per week, 10 weeks starting each fall) use the text book "Integrated Chinese 1" which I found to be very practical and effective, and is available on Amazon.  

Posted on: Rise and Shine!

Pete,

I read jevious post, wow! clearly not only was it a personal attack, but also one of highest profanity! So how come he is not kicked out as per the Comments Policy? And why are your Cpod colleagues silent on this matter? Where's the beef, uh, I mean management man? Where's the backbone man?

Natives posting and helping us to learn Chinese ... that's great. But dawg, check it out man, to be thin skin and defensive all the time, that's not helping us learn Chinese, and maybe even lose our appetite to visit China.

How about if we go over to Englishpod to chat away and be ready to pounce on any comment we feel put our culture or country down. Would such an intolerant mindset be distracting and detrimental to people who are there to learn English? Guess not, cause we're too thick skin, don't really care who says what even to presidents, and absolutely have no face to save.  

Yep, I have an axe to grind in this post. In a past post chatting with someone about how to say "high maintenance woman" in Chinese, no one on Cpod bothered to help even though this opinion was expressed in Jenny's interview. However, a native Chinese woman posted that I will be killed in China for saying what I learnt from one of Cpod's lesson that Chinese women prefer to marry someone with house, car, and good pay (and maybe, mmm, a Westerner?) Wow... for saying this, I could be killed in China? Beware, China visitors!

Pete, are the natives posting on Cpod's boards subscribers to Englishpod? Why are they here causing distraction and dissent?

Posted on: What do Foreigners Like?

yeah, and maybe jokingly they'd say,"Nothing  personal, just business!" just like they say in the Apprentice. Mmmm, how to say in Chinese "nothing personal, just business!" 

Maybe" 不私人的，仅仅生意！”