User Comments - xiaohu

Posted on: The Surname Code

jennyzhu

祝你感恩节快乐！希望你吃得好而吃得饱！你喜不喜欢吃土豆泥？感恩节我特别喜欢吃土豆泥！

我觉得今天的课蛮有趣的。非常感谢你们这么详细的为我们把字的声掉讲清楚。

:)

Posted on: The Surname Code

C-Pod is totally awesome!!!

Thanks for giving us the tones of the characters and some pronunciation pointers to watch out for the 张 and 姜 connundrum!

I'm just going to have to take a jaunt into the expansion to look up all those characters, 我爱中文!!!

Posted on: Often: Using 常常，经常，通常 (chángcháng, jīngcháng, tōngcháng)

paganfarmer

Yo baby, you be trogging!

I don'no 'bout ya'll but my Chinese need some serious explanation!

Oh, man...why you be houndin' a 皮条客?

Posted on: Catch the Train

What I love about Ken so much is the sense of warmth he brings to the podcasts.  When I first began with Chinesepod there was no John Pasden, there was just Jenny, Aggie, and Ken (at least up to the higher levels).

I was really impressed by Ken's style, he creates an atmosphere that really makes learning accessible. His genuine humor (unlike that other guy on a certain uh...something...pod101...something...dot com) and insight into the language and culture of China kept me coming back for more.  I love how the style is loose and improvised, there is laughter and education paired side by side.

Now I'm not going to make any pretense that Ken's Chinese pronunciation is the best, but it doesn't matter because he is not offering himself up to be the model of pronunciation for the students to follow, that's why we have Jenny.

Above all, Ken realizes that these podcasts need to be entertaining as well as informative which is why Chinesepod's podcasts are some of the most downloaded podcasts on the Internet.  Not just language learning podcasts, but most downloaded PODCASTS, which is a testament to the savvy of that, "awful sounding key presenter" and how much he really understands about teaching foreign language through recorded media.

Posted on: 请 (Qǐng) - Please and Beyond

paganfarmer

我想问你一下，你真的是女的吗？你的头像是你吗？

Posted on: Welcome to ChinesePod

gcharestiii

Allow me to also elaborate.

If you intend on being able to speak this language, or have any amount of competency in it whatsoever, you HAVE TO be diligent.  You MUST study everyday, at least a half an hour to an hour.  You CANNOT DO WITHOUT speaking practice as part of your regimen.  If you are planning to just listen your way to fluency, then you can stop what your doing and quit while you're ahead.

You need to vary your activities in the language, much like you must very your activities at the Gym if you want the results your looking for.  You have to push yourself, and this includes studying when you don't feel like studying.

What's so wonderful about Chinese is that it's so abundantly rich!  There are layers upon layers to discover, and when you peel back a layer, there is still an unending supply waiting to be peeled back!  This will, in and of itself fuel your interest level and keep things fresh. 

I, like Henning STRONGLY suggest learning reading and writing from the very beginning.  It makes learning the other aspects of the language (speaking and listening) all the easier as time goes on.

When I said give yourself a time frame of two years, I was speaking of a situation in which you study everyday, and constantly try to immerse yourself in the world of Chinese.  If you do everything you can to fully immerse yourself in it, which can include fun activities like Chinese movies and music, then your journey will be much shorter and far less frustrating. 

I strongly suggest finding language partners from the very beginning, perhaps via the Internet, or just at a local Chinese restaurant or grocery store.  The more you speak the easier it gets, and I mean it gets EXPONENTIALLY easier.

Again, if you need any guidance, I am always more than willing to help you. 

I wish you all the best with your studies, and look forward to seeing you on the forums!

Xiao Hu

小虎

Posted on: Welcome to ChinesePod

gcharestiii

You'll get alot of help from this website, if you work on your Chinese everyday, with the help of Chinesepod and the community here, I'd say within 2 years you can start having intelligent conversations in the language.

arquenniel

I think it's wonderful that you're following a dream and passion!  You'll really get a lot out of using Chinesepod. There are people here who have just exclusively used Chinesepod in their studies and it's worked for them, now they are able to carry on full conversations with Chinese people! Remember, don't be afraid to ask questions.  I for one would be happy to help you with anything, you can always contact me through my profile.

Good luck in your studies.

欢迎你们！

Posted on: Birth by Chinese Zodiac

小虎不就是属虎的吗？ 呵呵！

Pearltowerpete:

I find it interesting how lately Chinese has grown closer in style and structure to English.  I think the Chinese that's spoken in Chinesepod podcasts is even a bit closer to our modern vernacular than is the Chinese spoken throughout the rest of the PRC, perhaps this a because Shanghai is an especially westernized city?

When I watch movies that feature language that's a little closer to classical chinese, films like 夜宴, I can't help but lament how Chinese has become, as you say, "mucked up" by other language's influence.

Personally I love how concise the Chinese language is, and how one can say just a little and mean quite alot.  I feel English is a language that forces us to be very 啰嗦，whereas Chinese forces us to choose our words more carefully and not run off at the mouth so much, and as other poddies can attest, I can run off at the mouth!  In many ways, learning Chinese has been a great tool to helping me learn to be more concise in my language.

I wonder if, in learning a foreign language any other westerners have noticed a similar phenomenon?  Has learning Chinese cleaned up your own native language?

Posted on: 户籍制度

richnirish

I feel Sotrapa's explanation is a bit confusing.  Actually it's really easy.  It's a simple equation:

Rolled Tongue + Yen = Ren

Roll your tongue up so the very tip makes contact with the Aveolar Ridge, then with the tongue curled, say the word "yen" as in the Japanese word for money.

All the Chinese initial "R" sounds (not final R sounds as in "er") are made this way.

By the way, I'm in the process of constructing a Western Accent Reduction group, you're welcome to join, I will be regularly posting updates, and if you have any questions, you can contact me through my profile.

Posted on: Girly Talk

john

I remember once someone suggested the possibility of creating a "Lower Intermediate" level, which would essentially be like the current Intermediate level, half English, half Chinese.  I think that categorization would be a very positive change.

The Intermediate level lessons could go back to the way they used to be, conducted 95% in simple, conversational Chinese, and the Upper Intermediate stepped up in terms of the degree of difficulty in the language, but not the amount of Chinese used in the podcasts.

I feel the problems users were having before was that it used to be very difficult for users to make the transition between Elementary and Intermediate, because in Elementary they are at the stage of drinking milk from a bottle and in Intermediate they are suddenly being given Apples and Meat for dinner, as it were.

The Lower Intermediate level would provide the smooth and easy transition into a total Chinese learning environment.

I am a big believer in total immersion, and I'm also a firm believer in leaving the English "crutch" behind as soon as possible!

Incidentally, I feel there has been too much English in the recent Upper Intermediate lessons.