URLLesson Introduction
08/08/08 is 'round the corner! That means Olympics, and that also means that we have a DVD available with 888 lessons on it. Listen in and see what's new at ChinesePod.
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penben says
July 17, 2008
Your olympic site is quite spectacular. I'm impressed, guys! And please, put up all the links you talked about. Thanks!
clay says
July 17, 2008
Glad you like!
Here is a quick link for those who havent seen it yet
Chinesepod Olympics
roscovanbasten says
July 17, 2008
Here are the links mentioned in the podcast:
Press
"Lost in Translation"
Groups
maoxian says
July 17, 2008
I dig funk. That interview with Jenny is excellent (news of Canadian boyfriend notwithstanding). Thanks for the link.
amber says
July 17, 2008
Don't forget about the link to subscribe to Dear Amber.
Or just search "Dear Amber" on itunes directly, and click 'subscribe'! :)
jjcarson says
July 17, 2008
Hello everyone. New user here.
Sadly, not going to the Olympics. Lack the money, planning, and the time to go. How much is it costing fellow Americans to go to the Olympics? I've wanted to go to China for awhile now, but I'm thinking now would be a bit more expensive of a time to go. Anyway, nice Podcast and way to inform.
theblindseer says
July 17, 2008
I will be in Beijing for the Olympics. Real practice for my language. Nothing like jumping in the deep end. I will however avoid the huang2niu2. Thanks for that lesson it has no doubt saved me some money. See you all in Beijing in a couple of weeks.
TBS
mikeinewshot says
July 17, 2008
Great looking Olympics site.
I looked at the Badminton vocabulary.
Kill is apparently 杀球使对方无力防守之球 in Chinese, and 'rally' is 为争夺一分的往返拍击，一个回合. Flick is 发球时一方干扰对方!
The commentators must speak very quickly to get these mouthfulls out in a hurry!
davett says
July 17, 2008
I don't think I'll be able to go, but I'll definetly watch it. jia you zhong guo!
Amber, you should arrange to sing the national athem for Canada in Chinese, that way you'll please both your country and your home away from home.
songyian says
July 17, 2008
I didn't know Amber had a separate Itunes podcast. 我马上去subscribe! It's cool to see all the media coverage Chinese pod is getting. You guys deserve it.
clay says
July 18, 2008
UPDATE:
Dear Amber will gou out this saturday while QingWen will go out this sunday. The Cantonese show won't come out this weekend.
rjberki says
July 18, 2008
Clay,
so what is being eliminated? You said you were going from 9 shows to 8 per week but you are adding (although you choked already) Cantonese. Unless you got it backwards, we are then loosing 2 of something else. What is it? Just the regular lesson mix will slow down a little? Or did you mean from 8 to 9 shows by adding Cantonese?
RJ
frances says
July 18, 2008
Rjberki,
I'm pretty sure he meant that the regular Mandarin lessons would be running only weekdays instead of every day. Those are the two lost shows.
Clay,
I apologize for this comment in advance. This is a slash: "/". This is a backslash: "\". The CPod Olympics site is at "chinesepod dot com slash olympics". I thought about it and decided I'm too geeky to hold my tongue, even though I know I'm being annoying. Sorry.
lostinasia says
July 18, 2008
Whoah - only five regular Mandarin lessons per week?! Have I got that right? If so, that would be very annoying.
Hmm... now that I've listened, yes, it does sound like only five Mandarin lessons per week. This worries me, since I spend most of my time in the Upper Intermediate and Advanced. Out of the past 20 lessons, there have been... (pause to count...) 4 in the Upper-Intermediate/ Advanced section. Numbers for all levels: 6 Newbie (I recognize they're good for many, but I don't use them), 5 Ellie (sometimes useful), 4 Intermediate, 3 Upper Intermediate, 2 Advanced, 1 Media. That pattern looks a little TOO deliberate - is this how it's going to be, with 20 lessons per month, rather than 30/31?
And, er, is this actually posted somewhere, rather than just mentioned in a News podcast that I (and likely others) would never have listened to had I not seen the comments?
lostinasia says
July 18, 2008
Correction. That should be one advanced out of the past 20 lessons (apparently the new total monthly number), not two.
Seriously, a **28%** (2/7) drop in the amount of content should probably be announced with a bit more warning. I recognize that a while back you also had five lessons per week, but that was when Advanced & Media were off in a separate world.
henning says
July 18, 2008
LostInAsia,
see my post here.
It would be nice to see some reply from CPod regarding their Advanced / Media policy.
lostinasia says
July 18, 2008
Thanks henning - I just posted over there too.
Sigh. About 48 hours ago I was somewhat satisfied (but not happy) re: the traditional plug-in. I did hope to have at least a few weeks without getting annoyed again. I just wish ChinesePod would stop making me feel like a sucker...
ancalagon says
July 18, 2008
So yeah, would it be possible for one of the staff to delineate for us exactly what the new schedule will look like. Is it:
M-F: Mandarin Lesson
Sat: Cantonese Show; Dear Amber
Sun: Qing Wen
?
timbendersls says
July 18, 2008
I also wish there were less newbie/ele lessons and more advanced - I'm still intermediate, but for the eventual day when I become skilled enough...
From the advice I've heard ("download the lessons you find interesting, don't try to work in order") I imagine my method is somewhat unusual, but I started working at the older lessons forward. Only needed about 100 newbie lessons before they became boring and I could comfortably move up to Ele, so there seems to be alot more newbies than people need (even if they only find half interesting, there are more than enough). I needed a good 150 of the eles before I was fully ready for lower intermed (though I finished the remaining 50 up anyway by mostly just listening to the remaining dialogues), so I can see adding some more there, in case some people are picky about which ones to use, but there doesn't seem to be a pressing need.
Not sure whether I'll have the same impression of the higher levels, but my impression is each jump might take a bit more work and lessons than the one before, and yet each higher level tends to have progressivly less available.
I'm 99% impressed by ChinesePod, and I barely use my other language learning tools anymore. Just not looking forward to the day when I run out of lessons (admitably far away, but it will come sooner at the current difficulty distribution). I imagine the decision of whether the renew my subscription for next year will be based on whether a good proportion of new levels are in the higher difficulties.
daofeishi says
July 18, 2008
I love the olympics site, but as far as I can see, it doesn't show up in Firefox (v 3.0.1). I can see the banner and the background, but the flash content won't load. Does anyone else have this problem?
wjefferys says
July 18, 2008
Amber
Do we have to subscribe specially to "Dear Amber," or will our subscription to Chinesepod (for the lessons etc) do the job?
joannah says
July 18, 2008
it seems to be still avalable on my normal lessons feed
schreck says
July 18, 2008
I am looking at the July 2008 Esquire with Mike Myers on the cover and I don't see the article on Chinese Pod. Did I miss it? What page is it on?
henning says
July 18, 2008
Exchanging an Advanced for a Cantonese show - not a good deal for a Mandarin learner, if you ask me.
auntie68 says
July 18, 2008
I was one of those begging for Cantonese podcasts, but I'd rather not now, if it has to be at the cost of an Advanced Mandarin lesson.
Especially since Clay has given indications elsewhere that it will be a "fun" lesson, focussing on fun and entertainment rather than on even the little bit of "hard learning" that might have benefits for my Mandarin:
Eg. in the form of insights into how the Chinese language and Chinese characters change across dialects. Or else by introducing us to some classical characters which are relics in Mandarin but still very much alive in this living language which is Cantonese. I know that when I studied Cantonese via a bridging course published in the PRC and written in Mandarin, this "comparative" approach was good for my Mandarin as well.
henning says
July 18, 2008
auntie, I agree - a "changye-Podcast" would be cool. Not "Cantonese shows" but rather hardcore lessons on the development of the Chinese language over space and time with ethymology, dialects, developments of characters and pronounciation. Maybe packaged in the Advanced format (in Mandarin).
chillosk says
July 19, 2008
Any Shanghainesepod in the works? Been wanting to learn it for soooo long!
mark says
July 19, 2008
The reduction in the number of lessons per week is disappointing. I am unhappy to hear this news. Neither Cantonese or Qing Wen are any kind of substitute from my point of view.
baillies says
July 19, 2008
I will reserve my opinion of the changes from the latest news until after they are in place. I only hope that the focus shifts to lessons above ele. Maybe Ken could use his time to do the same thing for German pod as he did here and Clay can continue with the fewer newbie/ele lessons here.
I vote for the lessons to include int, up int and adv every week with ele most weeks and media/newbie split every second week. I agree with the comments above that most users of this site are trying to get to the intermediate level and study the levels above because a: there are not enough intermediate lessons and b: it is still good to challenge beyond your level to really attain your target.
I hope that cantoneasy proves to be successful and can spin off as a separate 5 lesson site in the future leaving the opportunity to explore other dialects in a one lesson a week format. Remember this site is called chinesepod not mandarinpod after all.
I would also like to see a dear change show on cpod!!
Lastly hopefully the time from reducing the lesson output will be used to review and fix the content for all of the old lessons to get them to std. Especially as this would be as good a way of keeping new users as releasing so many newbie lessons.
bazza says
July 20, 2008
You lot are very negative sometimes. :P
I'm looking forward to the Cantonese show.
tommyb says
July 20, 2008
I love the vocab lists on the Olympics web site, Ive always wanted to know the basketball terms. Unfortunately, although the web design has a nice style, I cant print out the vocab lists. I cant even select all, copy and paste.
Im sure the cpod staff suffers from suggestion overload, but I do think adding vocab lists and grammar examples in a central location would be of great value. Somehow good study materials get dispersed all over the place.
ancalagon says
July 20, 2008
Ballies, with all due respect, you're way off in your suggestions. That is not to say you're not entitled to suggest whatever you'd like; by all means. But it is at best selfish and at worst stupid/silly for you to suggest one Newbie -or- Media lesson per week. The Newbie lessons are this site's bread and butter; I would wager a substantial majority of NEW customers are first-time learners or past-novices looking to brush up. For them, the Newbie lessons are indispensible. It is to me indisputable that Newbie/Elementary lessons need to take prominence. Here would be my preferred four week breakdown:
第一星期：
星期一: Newbie
星期二: Elementary
星期三: Intermediate
星期四： Upper-Intermediate
星期五： Advanced
第二星期：
星期一: Newbie
星期二: Newbie
星期三： Elementary
星期四： Intermediate
星期五： Upper-Intermediate
第三星期：
星期一： Newbie
星期二： Elementary
星期三: Elementary
星期四: Intermediate
星期五: Media
第四星期:
星期一: Newbie
星期二: Newbie
星期三: Intermediate
星期四： Upper-Intermediate
星期五： Advanced
I think this is a pretty fair four week schedule, all things considered. To be honest, how difficult it was to draw this up is a testament to how painful cutting two lessons a week really is. I'll just have to second what was said earlier: this was a very abrupt announcement, and those of us who've paid well in advance for service (a year, in my case) can't help but feel a bit wronged having just short of a third of the content we paid for cut. I'm not saying I regret my purchase; just that it's very shady for things to have been gone about in the manner they were gone about. Sorry if I sound preachy, but hopefully you guys will learn from this and be that much better a company in the future.
对不起；谢谢!
charleygarrett says
July 20, 2008
The feed contains a link to a "N0015trad.pdf" file, which would be a pdf of the "dialogue" using traditional hanzi characters. I think that's just a mistake. It doesn't really make sense that there would be such a file. You might want to check on that.
timmyjshishei says
July 20, 2008
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
Finally some Cantonese lessons! It is going to be so helpful! I am studying Cantonese and Mandarin at the same time and My mandarin is much more advanced then my cantonese and this will be a great help and yet another reason why i will re subsrcibe in the future! I LOVE YOU GUYS!
Tim
roscovanbasten says
July 20, 2008
@schreck,
The article from Esquire Magazine where Ken Carroll is featured is called "Enter the Dragon". His section is on page 98.
The strange thing is that my scanned August edition and your July edition both seem to have Mike Myers on the front??!! Can't quite understand that - but will work it out and get back to you!
amber says
July 21, 2008
hi wjeffreys,
You can subscribe to Dear Amber directly through itunes, or just as before through the website. Either way!
timbendersls says
July 21, 2008
Well to disagree with ancalagon's breakdown:
I understand most people are at the newbie/ele level (as was I a bit ago) - but you really only need that many newbies a week if people have a phobia of old lessons. I mean, with nearly 300 newbies in the archives already...does anyone need more than that to graduate to ele? Assuming they review and study somewhat regularly?
I understand that some might prefer a new lesson simply because its all new and shiny, and thats why, even though the nearly 300 out there is way more than enough, I think there should probably be a new newbie each week. Otherwise the message is that newbies are 2nd class and should just go dig in the archives, and I don't think anyone here is suggesting that. But more than 1 newbie a week, at the expense of more advanced lessons that are in shorter supply, seems excessive. And the advanced learners begin to look like 2nd class citizens…
(Sorry about the odd font guys - I'm really computer incompetent. Did one cut and paste and couldn't figure out how to make it normal again...)
tezuk says
July 22, 2008
Hey, I was thinking as you guys are taking off a lesson can you atleast make the Qing Wen a little better, the show is great, but surely it wouldnt be hard for Connie to put the sentences in one of the tabs for paying users with translations, maybe expansions too?
Also as it seems there are less top end lessons perhaps introducing a few more advanced Qing Wen lessons would level the blance. Just suggestions. :)
frances says
July 22, 2008
By my math, we're now going to have five new lessons a week and six different levels. The question as I see it is which levels will more often be the one missed in any given week. I hope we don't often see a single level getting more than one lesson a week.
auntie68 says
July 22, 2008
@frances: Good point. Somehow "Media" was always detached -- in my head, that is -- from "Advanced".
So the arithmetic (before it became Maths for me) seemed straightforward:
A full cycle 5-day cycle each week, ie., Newbie, Elementary, Intermediate, Upper Intermediate, Advanced. When did "Advanced" become coupled with "Media"?
In my head, QW and "Media" are actually enrichment classes. The way the other 5 types of lessons fit in with them is slightly different, but it is an important difference, because the question of transitioning between levels takes a back seat for QW and even "Media". In that sense, they are "level"-neutral (although "Media" definitely is for the very brave who can handle "Advanced").
Maybe CPOD could be persuaded to consider satisfying the hunger for "Newbie" lessons by releasing a brand-new lesson each week, plus one "Newbie Redux" lesson every other week. That "Newbie Redux" alternating with "Media" which then appears only once a fortnight.
Are Dear Ambers supposed to be lessons?
ancalagon says
July 22, 2008
If anything is expendable, it is the Media 'lessons.' What, exactly, is the point of those? Chinesepod members at that level can and should go try their hand at internet clips from actual Chinese TV, internet news stories right out of China. Media lessons are wholly unnecessary. I think there is something nice and balanced about the notion of every week looking like :
M-Newbie
T-Elementary
W-Intermediate
Th-Upper Intermediate
F-Advanced
I realize this seems fair to you all, but that presupposes two things: the first being that the Chinesepod community is made up of equal numbers at each level; and two, that ChinesePod, which after all is a business, can accrue just as many members with a balanced schedule as it can with a schedule more tilted one way or the other (be that newbie or advanced).
frances says
July 22, 2008
The media lessons have already been very infrequent, so I don't think we have to worry that they'll force out any other levels. I'm still looking forward to the day in the distant future when I'll be able to take advantage of the media lessons.
I do like the idea of a more even distribution of difficulties, but if their statistics show that they'll attract more users with extra newbie lessons... I don't know. I can still hope that they'll attract so many people with the extra newbies that they will be able to hire another Chinese teacher and add back in weekend lessons. I guess that's unlikely, but it would be nice. This is going to be a very difficult balance for CPod as so many users of every level would already like to see a greater emphasis on their own levels. All of the difficulties will probably be reduced noticeably.
The Cantonese will be fun.
chapman3us says
July 22, 2008
Da jia hao,
This is my first post here. I having been lurking for about three months. I think this is a very important discussion so I will add my 2 cents worth. I hope I will not offend anyone!
When I look at the Lesson Channels. I see 270 Newbie, 200 Elementary, 165 Intermediate, 102 Upper Intermediate, and 133 Advanced.
Newbies are CPOD'S bread and butter. With the Olympics, I think many people are coming here to learn a little bit of zhong wen for the Olympics. CPOD has done a wonderful job. Once the Olympics are over, it will be people who want to learn zhong wen seriously. I see "Newbie" lessons as a base to take "Elementary" lessons. Which is a base to take "Intermediate" lessons. And so on and so on...
I am a "Newbie". I am just about to graduate to "Elementary". I think there is a very wonderful base of "Newbie" lessons. I have not even studied a fraction of them. I hope to be fluent in Mandarin someday. I would like to see the number of the upper class lessens balanced out. I know I will be studying these lessens soon.
I think the number of "Newbie" lessons could slow to catch up on the number of upper class lessons. I do not think this would do much harm to CPOD or the patrons.
Auntie68,
First, Thank you very much for your wonderful and very insightful comments. :-) Yes, Dear Ambers are a lesson, But I think they are a lesson into Chinese culture. I think Amber's lessons in culture are just as important as the lessons in Chinese language. You cannot seriously learn one without the other!
I think that QW is an enrichment class. They are very good. I cannot comment on media. Media is too far above me. If it is about news. I think the advance student could find these resources on their own. I do not think CPOD should waste their resources.
boucif says
July 23, 2008
john says
July 23, 2008
Just a few quick notes to address some of the comments here:
1. We will continue to publish 1 new Newbie per week (but not more than that). Yes, Newbies are our bread and butter.
2. "Advanced Media" is meant as a resource to help Advanced learners bridge the gap to native media sources. Once you can handle those, then you don't need us, and you have truly graduated. (加油！)
3. The release of the Cantonese show has been postponed, but not canceled!
auntie68 says
July 23, 2008
@chapman3us:
I have to agree with you that:
I'd class them as "enrichment" lessons, though. As an overseas Chinese, I find the DAs valuable because so many tens of millions of "diaspora" Chinese have individual experiences of "Chinese culture" which are so very different from the world revealed by Dear Amber. So it's educational.
Thanks for your kind comments, I'll look out for questions from you in the posts, and if there's an answer (or some good examples) somewhere in my little print dictionary, I'll try to share them with you. All the best for your Chinese studies.
rjberki says
July 25, 2008
So, Im guessing Cantoneasy is off the table now? Odd you should announce this upcoming new feature, knowing Clay was leaving. My hope is that you will continue the cantonese.
bazza says
July 25, 2008
John says above that it's been postponed, but not canceled.
sfrrr says
July 29, 2008
All you guys so irritable about the number of Newbie lessons might want to stop and give thanks to the Newbies because they keep the site alive for the intermediates, high intermed, and advanced students. Without Newbies, we might not be here at all.
As for Cantonese, I'm looking forward to something once a week called Cantoneasy. I could use a bit of Cantonese pronunciation and vocab to supplement my conversations in Chinatowns in the U.S.
Yes, I too want more intermediate lessons, but I've learned to supplement the CPod lessons with other things--such as watching Chinese movies. Not a heavy lift.
timbendersls says
August 5, 2008
John's statement of about 1 newbie a week seems perfect to me...
But I think Sfrrr's charecterization of the debate and comments is a little bit unfair. This isn't a situation of a person's status as newbie, intermediate, advanced, whatever being an immutable and permanent status with the different classes competing for a fixed stream of lessons.
If Chinesepod is working, then people are moving up in level, and expect to steadily do so. Thus, we weren't arguing for advanced learners to be given something at the expense of newbies - rather, it is in the newbie learner's interest to only have a reasonable number of new newbies (1 a week seems just right) so that higher level lessons are built up in the areas where they are in greater shortage, because that newbie learner will need them one day (more than they will need another new newbie lesson, since it would only displace 1 more lesson that would have been studied from the archive to fullfill the amount of study needed to go to ele).
Just as I think its in my interest to have more advanced lessons released, even though I'm only intermediate. The arguments that were made weren't really about more advanced learners being "irratable" at the newbies, and simply wanting more for themselves - they were about what is best for every learner who intends to use Chinesepod to progressivly increase their language skill.
And, from the recent stream of lessons, and John's statements, I think the right balance has been struck.
southpatt says
August 5, 2008
tezuk says
July 22, 2008
but surely it wouldnt be hard for Connie to put the sentences in one of the tabs for paying users with translations, maybe expansions too?
My thoughts exactly tezuk.
I am still working between newbie and elementary but I love the Qing wen's not only becasue the are fun to listen to but you also learn sentence structure.
Sometimes just listening though, is not enough. Even with Connies wordlist - I am still hankering for the vovcab tab and a pdf listing would not go astray either.
chris says
August 17, 2008
Would be interested to know from the more advanced members of CPod which of the level jumps they found the most challenging. I am currently stuck in the twilight zone of Ele to Intermediate. I can handle any Ele lesson, however, a majority of the Intermediates I struggle with - although they do get better when Jenny reads the dialogue since she speaks so clearly!
sanp says
August 29, 2008
08/08/08 这个数字很好
什么时候我能拥有这样好数字的手机号码该多好?
leodragoninchina says
September 3, 2008
Since this is a language website, the expression is "champing at the bit", not "chomping at the bit"!
http://www.langston.com/English/
slavestodarkness says
September 4, 2008
I still dont get how this site works...
kimiik says
September 4, 2008
It's not very nice to stop the Cpod Olympic site (http://chinesepod.com/olympics/) just before the Paralympic Games.
Btw, the Paralympic Games are called 残障奥运会 or 残废奥运会 (in the street).