User Comments - podster

Posted on: Finding Things in the Supermarket

Vera, regarding "收银机 is not suitable for China at all": Really? I have that word in my Chinese textbook, but it means cash register, and I see it in the dictionary as "cash register" as well (meaning the machine that holds the money, and calculates and records transactions). What then, would you call a cash register, if 收音机 is not suitable? Also for MoliBa's question, I guess the question is about the self-checkout with a bar code scanner. I have never seen one in China. Is there a word for it? I know 条形码扫描器 is a bar code scanner, but that does not necessarily mean that it is for self checkout.

Finally, for 收银员, my book has 收款员 for supermarket cashier, but when I look that up in the dictionary it says "receiving teller" which I assume means a bank teller. Are 收银员 and 收款员 interchangeable in meaning for supermarket cashier?

Posted on: Classical Chinese vs. Modern Chinese

Tingyun, thanks for the additional resources, and as I am soon to join you as a "CPod alumnus" let me agree with you that CPod has been a great resource. Vera does a great job presenting interesting topics and responding to user questions, as do the counselors who also make contributions at times. Best wishes to you and all with your studies.

Posted on: Classical Chinese vs. Modern Chinese

Tingyun, Looks like CPod decided to let this issue quietly die of neglect, (and declined to publish a correction) but in case anybody else cares about classical Chinese, here are a couple of resources I became aware of today, courtesy of the American Mandarin Society:

Chinese Text Project http://ctext.org/

Classical Chinese Dictionary http://wyw.hwxnet.com/

Posted on: The End of the Road

Right-Wignut, I guess the replacement, if you want to think of it that way, is the new "Jenny Zhu Show." The old "The Jenny Zhu Show" wound up a long time ago, but ChinesePod is launching a new one: "Important Chinese Things with Jenny Zhu". In the podcast Tom just said that CPod was coming out with a new culture show but the details had not been set and were still under discussion, so maybe this recording was in the can a while ago. If you look in iTunes, it looks like Jenny's show has already launched, but its currently a collection of old Beijing Standard Time, Qing Wen, and KTV Time shows. This week's newsletter, however, says "This week we announce our new culture show featuring our longtime favorite host, Jenny Zhu. The show will be called "Important Chinese Things with Jenny Zhu" and will feature current events, important cultural information about China, and also what's trending on Chinese social media."

Posted on: Long Time No See!

wen, you may find the following helpful:

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/tone-rule-changes-for-bu

Posted on: Ordering Furniture Online

Veronique,

Check out Mandarin Companion e-books. They are graded readers so tell stories within a defined set of vocabulary.

http://mandarincompanion.com/

Posted on: Saving with Alipay

Vera, re. " though 银行卡 is the card, it implies your account number." I used to get very confused about this too. (Maybe still do ;-) I think in my country we think of the bank account as separate from the card, with the card just being a means of accessing the account. But in Chinese you seem to think of the ATM card as if it were what we think of as a "stored value" card, like a subway card. For example, if I made a deposit to your account by going to your bank's branch, or electronically, I would NOT say to you (in English) that I had now "put some money on your card" BUT if I understand right you could say “转账到你的银行卡”. Thanks.

Posted on: Calling an Ambulance - Part 1

MIke, re "...behind on the news"), to be fair to pilsner, John's departure did not make it into CPod's "News and Features" or the ChinesePod blog. Same for Connie and Jiaojie. But even though the team has been downsized I think the quantity of lesson output has held up. Vera must be working very long hours, writing scripts, answering user questions on line, hosting podcasts, etc. And Jenny is supposed to start helping with the recordings again this Spring. (Her maternity leave was not disclosed either until she had to, in effect, tell us that "reports of her death were greatly exaggerated" in response to user posts.) No rest for the weary.

Posted on: Joining a Sports Team

There are a couple of CPod lessons on 太极拳.

Click the menu icon (that thing with three horizontal bars in the upper right hand corner of this page), then choose "Library". From within Library, the third row of text ends with the words "keyword search." This is a hyperlink that you can also click. Enter the word "exercise". You won't see the search results (probably) unless you scroll down, The second and the last lesson are about 太极拳. (As of today).

Posted on: Antique Appraisal Reality TV

Never got an answer to this, but now everybody knows. Unfortunately the problems that were already an issue did not become "irrelevant" with the rollout of the replacement web site. To answer your request for specific descriptions, the ability to edit comments or replies to comments was not restored.

Also, attempts to log on to ChinesePod from Skritter are not working. Several users have already called this to your attention. It looks like your developers forgot about the API and about your customers who use Skritter to enhance their ChinesePod experience.

May I suggest that you publish your own list of known bugs or missing features in one of the related discussion boards, along with a commitment to restore that specific feature (if that is your intention) or an expected time by which a bug will be fixed? Since you previously said that de-bugging was on hold because of work on the new web site it seems reasonable to expect that fixes will now quickly be forthcoming.