User Comments - tony.cpod

Posted on: I Want This

aunti68, I occassionally post questions in the lesson comments. Sometimes they get answered and sometimes not. For example, in the Elementary Golf lesson (July 13 2008) I asked for clarification on something but it went unanswered. Obviously the ChinesePod staff cannot wade through each comment for each lesson (especially when individuals decide to hijack the thread and post advertisements for 'Mission Hills Golf Course'), it just isn't possible. I guess that's why it may be a good idea to put some sort of system in place like requiring each post to be authorised before it is published so as to avoid a lot of unrelated content. There is always the forums for non-lesson-specific queries.

Posted on: I Want This

Hi Howard

Good point. I found the same myself. I originally wanted to go through each comment one by one for every lesson I studied, thinking that would ensure I extract the maximum out of each lesson. I found the same as you, that the lesson tends to act as a springboard into conversations based loosely around the subject at hand.

If it helps out at all, I found that it is best to read through the comments if you have a specific question based on the lesson and see if it has been asked already, otherwise you can ask and hopefully get a reply that answers it for you. Otherwise I just move on to the next lesson :)

Posted on: Golf

When I learned 'golf' previously it was listed in all my textbooks as 'gāoěrfūqiú'. Is this wrong? Or perhaps a more formal less commonly used way of saying golf?

Posted on: The New Site and the Guided Plan

Could I be so bold as to ask whether any ChinesePod staff are able to let us know if the option to browse lessons both in chronological and reverse-chronological order is possible with the new format?

It would be fantastic if the series of pages within each lesson channel could be displayed at the top of the page rather than the bottom to avoid having to scroll all the way down to go to another page.

Posted on: Using 看 (kàn) and 看起来 (kàn qilai)

Thanks boran! Just the motivation I needed! :)

Posted on: Using 看 (kàn) and 看起来 (kàn qilai)

I'm only a Newbie at this stage. Given the large amount of Chinese spoken in this podcast, I found that I couldn't extract as much explanatory information as perhaps more advanced students could. Where complete explanations were offered in Chinese and only the basic gist of these translated, I really felt a bit lost.

Posted on: The New Site and the Guided Plan

Hi John and Jenny

The new site looks fantastic! I just have one tiny query. Previously we could go backwards and forwards over Newbie, Elementary etc lessons by choosing whether to sort by newest first or oldest first. It looks like this option has been removed. Is there any chance it could be worked back in? I like going through the lesson sets from the very first lesson up to the current one, and find browsing from the oldest first is the quickest way to locate the lesson I want to study (since I haven't gotten half way through yet).

P.S. Forget ItalianPod, when are we going to see a CantonesePod? :)

Posted on: Wireless Internet

Interesting to note that Ken said 上网 (shàngwǎng) was a verb, but here it is being used as an object. I previously learned the word for ‘Internet’ as 因特网 (yīntèwǎng) or 互联网 (hùliánwǎng). Could you say ‘wireless Internet’ using either of these two words instead, or would that just sound odd?

Posted on: Didn't Hear Clearly

Sorry to have been asking so many questions lately, but could somebody please clarify the difference between 懂 (dǒng) and 明白 (míngbai)? I know they both mean ‘understand’, but are you able to explain whether they are completely interchangeable, and if not, their specific usages?

Posted on: Just Looking

Can you also say “I’m just looking” as: - 我只是逛逛 (wǒ zhǐ shì guàngguang), or - 我只逛逛 (wǒ zhǐ guàngguang) I think I learned it as this back in formal Chinese classes…are these all acceptable?