User Comments - Llorente
Llorente
Posted on: Chinese Holidays 中国的节日
October 03, 2018, 05:44 PMThere is not the usual very accurate correspondance between text and spoken dialogue. But most important of all there are no exercises. I consider exercises to be an essential part of the lesson. A lesson without excercises is a wasted lesson, a wasted opportunity to practice and encourage the learner.. I hope this lesson is republished with added excercises.
Posted on: The Characters of Ma
July 12, 2018, 09:25 AMWith a little bit of information, no one in the whole wide world would choose to study simplified Chinese, but rather traditional, from which simplified characters are just a shortened version. Simplified Chinese is no simple in any way. It's easy to defend that typing with a finger is simpler (better?, it's false) and better than typing with all your fingers, you get started immediatly, but it's all wrong. Typing with one finger is neither simpler or better than typing with all your fingers.
Simplification was not carried out (in the 50ies) with the aim of improving the script, but rather as an AVOWED first step towards the total erradication of .the Chinese script, and as part of depreciation of Chinese traditional culture, of everythng we consider Chinese (with enthusiastic support from some important Western sinologists, such as DeFrancis). Now, fortunately, there is a new appreciation for Chinese traditional legacy by the authorities. Although now no one speaks of the erradication of the script, the harm is done. It was contemplated that at first there would be opposition to simplification by the Chinese people, but that later, the inertia of simplification would make the Chinese themselves want to do away with the Chinese script.
Chinese script is beautiful, profound and logical beyond words, the problem is that is always easy to support what is simple with a total lack of understanding to what is the reality of something. Up till recently no one thought that simplifying nature, the loss o a species, had any importance, now we are fully aware that we must preserve all forms of life if we want nature to subsist. Ecology is not easy to explain. In the same it is not easy to explain what a terrible disaster for the Chinese culture the simplification of Chineser characters has meant. Fortunately, it can be reversed, the first step being to take some time to consider what Chinese characters are and what their contribution has been, and the fundamental part they have to play in understanding the world.
Posted on: The Characters of Ma
July 12, 2018, 08:31 AMDear moderator,
Thank you for your appreciation .
Could you please tell me a little bit more about what your basic idea should be about setting up such a blog?
You might as well email me, if you wish, to discuss the matter.
Thank you.
Posted on: The Characters of Ma
July 09, 2018, 05:24 PMAdditional note: Explanations should always be based on traditional characters (when they are different to simplified ones), as simplified characters can only be explained from traditional ones, from which they derived. In the case of ma, horse: traditional 馬 versus siplified 马, the cursive character in black, represented in the cover of the lesson, corresponds very closely to the traditional character, as a matter of fact it is a free cursive rendering of it. One can see that the traditional character 馬 resemble the image of a horse whereas 马, doesn't. The 4 dots in 馬 represent the 4 legs of the horse, while at the same time, the head, mane and tail of the horse are well represented in the traditional character. Most simplified characters are in reality traditional cursive simplifications of standard traditional characters. A word of warning: simplified characters are, paradoxicacally, much more "complex" and difficult to understand than traditional characters! This is because they often fall outside the system, and they lack balance and so are more dificult to write (less detail, more difficult). All the books written before the 50ties are in traditional script. And in China one can see in all types of sights Chinese characters everywhere, even carved in stone. This means that simplification has meant the complexification of the script because now any one with a basic Chinese educations MUST learn two sets of characters, traditional and simplified. Let me clarify for beginners that not all the Chinese characters were simplified, fortunately, but only a proportion. Outside of China most Chinese use the traditiona script, and in major universities learners are taught the traditional script. If you learn traditional characters you will recognize the great majority of simplified characters at a glance, it is much more diffiult the other way round, to understand, read, traditional characters when one has only been exposed to simplified ones. One little example: a tiger needs all the stripes to be recognized, if you "simplify" a tiger by removing the stripes you will not recognize the tiiger. In the same way, Chinese characters need all their strokes!
Posted on: The Characters of Ma
July 09, 2018, 03:27 PMAn extremely brilliant presentation of Chinese characters. No one on the web has dared to combine a spoken word course with the presentation of Chinese characters. I think that Chinese characters, the Chinese script, should be viewed as an essential support for learning, yes, spoken Chinese. Pinyin should never be used as a script, but as useful aid to pronunciation. Chinese character are also a great support for pronunciation, but they need a sophisticated, knowledgable approach.
Most Chinese methods of teaching Chinese characters use crazy invented mnemonics, which does not make sense and which can only burden the memory, because the lack logic and are unsistematic, where the Chinese script is a system, complex but a system. We don't need mnemonics to try to remember Chinese characters, we should use true etymology, based on the Shuowen. I strongly recommend "Fun with Chinese Characters" (3 volumes), to support your lessons, and also as a good independent introduction to Chinese characters, not only for beginners, but also for advanced students of Chinese. Fun with Chinese Characters was published, character by character, in a Chinese Times, and then took the form of a 3 books which can be freely downloaded from the web. This is one of the few books where characters are explained both in a very fun way and rigorous one.
Todays presentation, brilliant, was very daring, because it was very original, using some kind of mnemonics but in a correct way, taking seriously the shape of Chinese characters.
Finally, I feel, as many do, that the simplification of Chinese characters has been a real tragedy for Chinese script and culture. Many hope that this will be reversed, Chinese characters were simplified at the same time that there was a banned on Confucius! and traditional culture in general. Now Confucius has been fully rehabilitated with dozen of Confucius Intitutes round the world. I hope that full traditional characters will be rehabilitated in the not too long distant future. Simplifed script harms the system and the logic behind Chinese characters. This is not easily explained here. It is the same when we erraditate a species, the whole ecosystem suffers.
Again, congratulations for your courage to try to explain Chinese characters: well done.
Posted on: The New Coworker
July 03, 2018, 01:31 PMDear Moderator: you can't imagine how sad it made me your company statement regarding the company new vision and commitments (please refer to my full comment on the latest Newbie lesson):
"Fiona, Gwilym and Constance worked hard for ChinesePod for many years and did a great job. But everything comes to an end at some point. At the end of 2017, ChinesePod got a new CEO, and the old content team moved on to new opportunities. ChinesePod is moving towards a more course and curriculum-based structure".
I like to think that most Chinesepod users are running away from such a traditional approach.
Notwithstanding my criticism, I think that Chinesepod will remain for a very long time the best Chinese learning source on the web.
Posted on: The 5 "W" Questions
July 01, 2018, 06:48 PMI am an advanced student of Chinese but I never miss an opportunity to carefully review beginner level lessons or courses, not only on Chinesepod, but from many other sites. And that is because I am very interested in language teaching.
I have alread commented directly to Fiona and the old team that in my opinion there was (and still is) nothing coming close to Chinesepod on the the web for learning Chinese. It was not only the teachers, but the organization, the materials, and the philosophy that one could perceive behind the "Chinesepod system".
Regarding today's beginner lesson, I think that the beginner level is by far the most challenging for a language teacher, because lessons must be carefully adapted to the student, who needs a lot of understanding and support. It's much easier to be a teacher for advanced students.
I am very sorry to say that I find today's beginner lesson confusing in a very high degree. Too many concepts, not adequate support on the screen, spoken rapidly and somewhat nervously. Too many unnecessary grammatical terms. I love grammar, but grammar has litte relation to grammatical terms or "jargon", out of tune. So far, the Chinesepod approach was "grammar in action". I am very sorry to say that I have the feeling that the new teachers are not up to the challenging task before them. My only recommendation for them is, at the beginner level, to approach the matter in a frame of mind as if they were dealing with absolute or false beginners. And at other levels, to stick to "grammar in action" by way of examples, avoiding gramatical explanations (grammar is beautiful and makes some sense only when you master the language first).
Dear Moderator: you can't imagine how sad it made me your company statement regarding the company new vision and commitments:
"Fiona, Gwilym and Constance worked hard for ChinesePod for many years and did a great job. But everything comes to an end at some point. At the end of 2017, ChinesePod got a new CEO, and the old content team moved on to new opportunities. ChinesePod is moving towards a more course and curriculum-based structure".
I like to think that most Chinesepod users are running away from such a traditional approach.
Notwithstanding my criticism, I think that Chinesepod will remain for a very long time the best Chinese learning source on the web.
Posted on: Donald Trump Declares U.S. Exit from the JCPOA (Iran Deal)
June 17, 2018, 06:39 PMMany thanks to the moderator for his/her understanding, patience and great job!
You are truly a credit to Chinepod!
Posted on: The New Coworker
June 15, 2018, 06:33 PMI am very sorry to have hurt the feelings of anyone with my comments. What I really meant to say, I thought I made this clear but it seems I didn't, was to express my appreciation for the wonderful job Chinesepod is doing. And at the same time I was only taking advange of the occasion for triying to make my own tiny contribution to the site.
True, my comment was unnecessarily harsh. Hosts: I beg your pardon.
I also want to express my gratitude, to chrisyow122's comment about my bad English grammar, I am sure he is dead right and I take it, seriously, as a positive warning, I am a lover of languages, very particularly English and Chinese, so I wouldn't like to hurt them.
Posted on: Chinese Holidays 中国的节日
October 03, 2018, 05:47 PMI would add to my previous comment that the grammar lesson is theoretical and not practical, no usage examples are provided, This kind of approach is what students run away from.