Intermediate - 1716 - Having Spare Keys Made - Transcript - PDF

CoolP

Hi Chris,

I had intended to attach a PDF to the transcription page. However it turns out that only the original poster has the ability to attach a file to a page. Later posters can only post links to other pages. So I MUST start a new page if I want to attach a PDF, unless I want to post the PDF offsite.

I then had to decide whether to link to this page from the transcription page or from the "Catalogue of Transcripts" page. It seemed to make sense to follow the lead of others before me, and the Catalogue page seems the natural place to link from.

So sorry, but I think I will continue using the system that was already in place. But of course you are free to add extra links to or from my PDF pages.

Also, on those transcription pages which were begun by you, feel free to attach a copy of the PDF to your initial post.

Cheers

chris

Ah, understood. I didn't realise it was only possible to attach documents to an initial post.

CoolP

No worries, thanks for understanding. Do you think it would be worthwhile making PDFs of the earlier transcripts that are currently stored offsite, so that users in China are able to download them?

chris

To be honest, I'm not actually sure how much value fellow cpod users are getting from the Transcripts. Based on total number of users that have actively participated in the group in the last 2-3 years, there is not that much interest. And I've noticed in recent months a sharp fall in users participating, even from the earlier low number.

I will continue doing transcripts - but that's for more of a selfish reason, since I get a huge amount of value from going through the process (listening is my Chinese weakest skill by far). If there are people out there getting value from my efforts, then that's a nice side effect. I may of course be entirely wrong, and there may be a hidden army of lurkers out there using the transcripts.

I wouldn't bust a gut going through the old offsite ones. Also, just occurred to me while typing that these transcripts are very much a hobby for a handful of poddies and are not officially sanctioned by cpod itself, so it may be worth checking with them about making "finished" pdfs available on the site...

chris

By the way, I like the Hanzi font you've used in the PDFs, a sort of italic effect. What is it?

CoolP

I'm not sure where I got that font. It's been installed in Word for a while now. It is called 汉鼎简楷体 (don't know what it means).

I can see why creating transcripts is beneficial, but it certainly appears time-consuming. I'm thinking of instead creating summaries of each lesson, including the more difficult sentences from Jenny and Dilu, and also including important points made by John, but lacking the filler material. Something I can scan through in a couple of minutes.

Regarding the 'sanctioning' of PDFs, there seem to be a number stored onsite already, particularly by 'cinnamonfern'. I think Chinese Pod would have acted previously if it had an issue with this.

chris

Yep, certainly time consuming at first but as with anything I guess, they get quicker with practice. If I focus I can usually get through an Intermediate in an hour or two these days - but there is a lot of wasted effort typing out John's English. I should really be pushing myself with more UI lessons where it's all Chinese, but those really are time-consuming still, and there's also the fact that I still only pick up about 40% when listening normally :)

zhenlijiang

Hi Chris, I understand what you're saying to CoolP but just wanted to say CPod team members have encouraged the Transcript Group activities in podcasts and on the boards more than once that I can recall. So I would most definitely say we are legit here. Like I've said before, I think it's generous and good of them, a good faith thing because they realize it's a genuine learning effort on our part. And I like that nobody makes a big deal out of it.

zhenlijiang

Hi CoolP, repeating what Chris has already said but I think one of the reasons PDFs haven't been done for most of our transcripts is that we're aware, even after a good amount of collaborative effort and checking with teachers, that our work still must contain mistakes. We wouldn't want any new poddies to come here and think our transcripts were letter-perfect reliable.

The one or two poddies who liked to do "finished" PDFs were pretty confident I think, that they had a faultless transcript on hand.

As Chris said I always like to see the work, the process, together with the end result, which is why all the transcripts I've done I've put up in the original post (whatever is the limit on number of chars in the original post, it's less of a problem with Advanced lessons of course because they're entirely in Chinese), where people can see the process in the thread below.

In the transcript group we've kept changing, trying out different ways of working over time, adjusting as googledocs became difficult to access from China etc.

chris

Hi Zhen, I think one of my favourite innovations in the group was Baba's (i think it was baba) 30 second segment idea. It both made the thought of attempting a transcript more bearable and also made subsequent analysis and discussion of specific problem sections of the transcript more manageable.

CoolP

Hi zhenlijiang,

I do understand that the transcripts are not finished. However in most cases work has not been done on them for months so I don't think they will ever be finalized. I would have no issue about adding a rider to my posts (the ones containing the attachments) saying that the PDFs most likely contain errors and have not been verified by Chinese Pod.

The idea of seeing the 'process' is a nice ideal but, given the choice, I believe most users would prefer the 'finished' product. Take me as an example. I need to take a lesson away from my computer before I can learn. There is something about the computing environment which allows me to do only brain-dead work. I think it is because the nature of a computer is to flit between different ideas without focusing on any one of them. Most people I talk to (admittedly older folk) say the same, and the relatively small number of people using the transcript group seems to back this up.

Anyway, I see it as being about options. Users who really want to observe the process can and will still do that.

zhenlijiang

Right, I understand about preferring to work with paper, away from the computer. I'm like that myself. But I think you're really saying you want to make available a form of transcript that can be taken away from the computer, not a form of transcript that's more "finished". Because you may get a finished look with a PDF, but if the content still contains numerous question areas, those who might really be looking for a perfect text version of the lessons will be misled.

So yes there should be a note, a rider, whatever to make sure people are clear on what these transcripts are, and links to the threads in which the process can be seen.

I think what I'm trying to tell you is that I'm not comfortable with our work (again as Chris said, we do the work for ourselves, to practice our hearing and gain vocab, not because we know better than other poddies) being presented to people in a way that we didn't intend. Our transcripts are only part of the whole, the work and questions in the process being the other part.

A bit of a hassle of course, but anyone who really wanted the option to take away a printed copy of one of our transcripts has always been able to. They just have to copy and paste.

zhenlijiang

Agreed! Yes that was Baba.