User Comments - zhenlijiang
zhenlijiang
Posted on: Focus and Specialization
December 31, 2011 at 2:23 AM* It would take even them a lot of attention and intensive labor, as you know, not to mention how extremely tedious it would be when you're not making discoveries and learning like we learner-transcribers are.*
Posted on: Focus and Specialization
December 31, 2011 at 2:10 AMI didn't mean to imply that you meant to imply! haha
Also, I think I'll know when it's time for me to stop doing transcripts and move on. I think most of us will ..
Posted on: Focus and Specialization
December 31, 2011 at 2:03 AMBaba I threw out that transcripts for purchase idea precisely because I understand there's some need for them and I thought it might be a way to meet it, not dismiss it.
Remember when GoManly got a student of his to transcribe a whole batch of lessons? I guess there wasn't sufficient motivation to spend more time or attention on the work, but I don't think those were anywhere near accurate or acceptable quality for users who need transcripts. Anyway my main point wasn't that it shouldn't be a teacher or other staff member doing them, it was that even native-speaker Chinese teachers on staff here can't just whip them up in a jiffy. It takes even them a lot of attention and intensive labor, as you know, not to mention how extremely tedious it would be when you're not making discoveries and learning like we learner-transcribers are.
Posted on: Focus and Specialization
December 31, 2011 at 12:55 AMI did mean of course official CPod-produced transcripts, not anything poddies did.
Realistically, if I were CPod the thought of being swamped by complaints from users, should errors be found in official transcripts, might well put me off the idea of offering to provide them. Or I'd offer them but couldn't justify it unless I could charge a lot of money.
One thing about typing in Chinese, it's so easy to carelessly select the wrong candidate out of all those homophones. In English if you misspell a word occasionally that usually doesn't screw up the meaning.
Posted on: Focus and Specialization
December 31, 2011 at 12:34 AMRJ I don't know if you've ever sat down and transcribed a 15-minute audio recording (in your native language). I admit to being a very slow worker, but if you're aiming for reasonable accuracy--and really can you imagine customers being satisfied with anything less than a letter-perfect transcript, if an official one were to be provided by CPod?--it's a pain, and takes time. Sure, the host who actually did the lesson could probably get through transcribing something she recorded herself faster than some random native-speaker staff member, but it's still a lot of work and trouble, even for a teacher (and I'd agree with Bodawei about such limited resources). Some time ago a CPod counselor (not one of the hosts) dropped in helpfully on one of our transcript efforts. On one word I'd seen as tricky I had to ask her if she didn't actually mean B instead of A (A and B being homophonic 2-chars, easily confused because the meanings also seem very close). She replied thanks, correctly it should actually be B. That could have been either a typo or a mistake on her part; either way it shows how easy it's not, even for a native-speaker teacher, to transcribe a lesson accurately.
It seems to me nearly all the active poddy transcribers here myself included are (CPod) Intermediate students, which seems natural, Anyone considered an advanced learner would have advanced beyond such needs. Like most Japanese learners of Chinese I'm like you, my listening and speaking skills fall way short of my reading. That's why I transcribe, because the grueling process is like all the practice and physical conditioning work any athlete has to do before he's in any shape to go out and compete. The physical work helps improve my listening, which of course is much much more than just the aural perception but also vocab and the ability as Chris mentioned to anticipate, something we all have in the languages we are fluent in.
We've gone over this before, but to me the lesson banter will always always be easier to get than the dialogue. There's a certain pattern and they're very good here about sticking to teaching the lesson, whereas the dialogue is fictional settings and the writer's imagination, so I never know what's going to be thrown out there.
I don't know, could CPod maybe be persuaded to sell access to a Transcript tab to subscribers who want one, say just for UI lessons? Just an idea.
Posted on: Focus and Specialization
December 29, 2011 at 4:28 PMHi RJ, actually I don't think a native speaker can transcribe a whole lesson in a few minutes, if the transcript is to be accurate, reliable and good for the purpose you'd like it. Even for a native speaker I think it takes a good amount of intensive work.
Poddies ask in the comments section for help with listening all the time. Usually someone helpful is up there with a response pretty quickly, fellow learners and/or CPod teachers. Is that something you don't want to do for some reason? You can give the time codes of the patches you need help with--not that you don't know this.
Posted on: Focus and Specialization
December 29, 2011 at 3:12 PMHi Bodawei
I think one last thing - there are individual learning styles, and mine might lead me naturally to transcribing a podcast, so I fight it, and try something that challenges me. I am the sort of person that keeps notebooks of expressions that I have learnt outside the class room since August 2006. I look up characters I don't know when on a bus. I need to lighten up and just listen and learn more naturally.
Oh. I thought all along you were questioning the validity in general of learners choosing to do transcripts.
My point wasn't so much that transcribing can be fun as that I don't think you miss out (I wasn't thinking socially) by staying clear of transcribing, if you're not doing so voluntarily and enthusiastically. Since John's example seems to prove me wrong, let me just modify that to say that whatever you might miss out on, it's not so compelling that you would have to take transcribing up--especially if you have other activities keeping you busy and engaged. In any case, you would be the one to know best what's beneficial for your personal learning journey.
Posted on: Focus and Specialization
December 29, 2011 at 10:09 AMNeedless to say, transcribing isn't for everyone. I've always said it's (a pleasure) for a select group of people inclined that way. Unlike John who has the experience of being forced to do it, those of us who have been active in the Transcripts group do it voluntarily and often even enjoy the process. Does transcribing hold me back as a learner? I'm quite sure it absolutely does not. What does hold me back is lack of effort in areas such as reading and getting actual speaking practice opportunities. One of the things transcribing is for me is a way to become acquainted and comfortable with speech patterns and spoken word usage. I find that very helpful; at the same time I'm not saying that couldn't be achieved in other ways.
I don't see how someone who isn't interested in transcribing for whatever reason, and you've articulated a few, could be missing out in any way learning-wise. The ones who like it and feel that they benefit from it in some way aren't suggesting that all learners ought to get into it. As Chris said, to each his own and all that.
Posted on: Focus and Specialization
December 31, 2011 at 6:45 AMHi, not sure what you're referring to by "In that case, it's even more interesting". A translator has copyrights to his work. I don't think transcribers have any such rights, I think transcription is just a transfer of the existing content from one format/medium to another.
But I've always thought CPod were being kind to let us post our transcript efforts in public. Because technically we're exposing the entire lesson, and while someone who only views a text transcript of an audio podcast certainly wouldn't benefit as if they had access to the audio lesson, the content is something CPod don't want to give away to people who aren't paying subscribers. I've always thought there was a sort of decision on their part not to make any fuss about our group activities because we're so obviously earnestly trying to learn and help peers learn. I appreciate that and like it that way, never mentioned.