URLLesson Introduction
“Call me at the office when you land,” your friend says. So you do… He's not in. Now unless you actually envied Tom Hanks in “The Terminal,” you might want to learn a little phone Mandarin. In this podcast you will learn how to deal with a "bu zai" in Chinese, thereby avoiding the prospect of spending the night on a luggage cart.
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greatgifts says
May 23, 2008
Opppsss, no comments yet! Guess i love Chinesepod, so much!!! Can i say: "李先生 在 不在?" Is Mr. Li there? (Lǐ xiān sheng zài bù zài?) "他 从 台湾 明天 到 中国 回来" (tā cóng Tái wān míng tiān dào Zhōng guó huí lai) I know i kind of got it all mixed up, please enlighten me.
xinjiapo2703 says
May 23, 2008
hey quick question about the downloading. i read in some other topic posts. if you download the 128kbps it also has a built in pdf file. but i downloaded the big file, downloaded it to my ipod touch and can not see it when i play the file. whats the deal? please help
jackofalltradesmasterofnone says
May 23, 2008
It seems that the download like is not working. Anyone else having this problem?
joannah says
May 23, 2008
I'm also finding it isn't downloading it to iTunes. eastcoastyankee2703, I'm not sure how to get the transcript from the ipod touch, but for next time, i download the 32kbps files and that also has the transcript but is a much smaller download.
xinjiapo2703 says
May 23, 2008
the transcript in a pdf right? i dont know how to view it. maybe someone knows on here. thanks joannah
auntie68 says
May 23, 2008
On my iPod/ iTunes, I find the transcript under the "Lyrics". Good luck!
chiongzibide says
May 23, 2008
Tech problem PDF file link does not show up, and the audio file links are there, but the files themselves are not downloading.
texastochina says
May 23, 2008
不在, not to be in, be out 不再 no more, no longer
xinjiapo2703 says
May 23, 2008
i dont think this one is finished posting yet. i get no picture as i am sure many of you do not. thanks everyone for the help. i should come on a bit more here. you all are so firendly and helpful
bill says
May 23, 2008
Lesson Downloads Podcast MP3 (64kbps, 0mb) Podcast MP3 (128kbps, 0mb) Dialogue MP3 (0mb) The Fix MP3 (0mb) 有小问题 ...
codexus says
May 23, 2008
糟糕！It's not working.
ayprof says
May 23, 2008
The exercises for this lesson seem to be linked to the upper-intermediate lesson about Confucius...
henning says
May 23, 2008
Now that hybrid's are legal now in some countries, we got a Newbie/Upper Intermediate Hybrid. Excercises and some tags come from the UI lesson, the rest is Newbie. And as you can see from the file sizes, the resulting creature is not viable. According to the universal laws of CPod lesson release, an undiluted UI lesson should be the legitimate placeholder for today.
henning says
May 23, 2008
hybrids
carorou says
May 24, 2008
Hi! I'm a green one and I guess I'm not lucky, can not download anything??? I could use a little bit of help... I do I proceed to dowload it in my Itunes?? thanks for your help!
michele says
May 24, 2008
really it seems there must be something wrong today, even the Expansion doesn't work. eastcoastyankee, I had similar problem in the past: for a long time I was not able to understand how to download the Traditional PDF, that I had selected, and my thoughts seemed to follow the same misleading path... Inside the podcast 128k you have the text embedded (I guess is a metadata, but I'm not sure od this) and you can read for istance in iTunes, or on your iPod pushing several time the centrral button. Actually this is not the real PDF. You have to download it usually from the last link on the left side of the lesson page, just below the Fix one, or you can download from your home page: each of your bookmarked lesson has all the links active (depending on you type of subscription). The last way to get the PDF, and that's my recent discover (quite late indeed..) is this: having already set your preferences in "Your Feed" you can (or not) also decide to download the selected audio material, directly as a podcast, for istance on iTunes; well then you can click on that orange link, just beside, very close, on the right of "Your Feed" link (note that they are two distinct links). In this page you can see the list of your lessons, and you can subscribe to this feed. If you do so you will have in you browser your "feed" of ChinesePod-your username. If you you click on it you always have the updated full list of your bookmarked lessons, and your PDF, Traditional and/or Simplified; in effect that's simply the list of all direct link to all these features. Hope I could help you, and not to add more confusion in this day of bugs...
changye says
May 24, 2008
Hi greatgifts, 李先生在不在？ 他明天从台湾回来。 他明天从台湾回中国。 他明天从台湾回到中国。 他明天要从台湾回到中国。
carorou says
May 24, 2008
thanks Michele for all these detailed explinations.... but unfortunatly it doesn't work... I just hope everything will be back to normal soon... tks again! Caro
michele says
May 24, 2008
hi Caro, do you mean in this lesson or in general sense? I meant to give general suggestion, it's clear that in today's lesson nothing, or nearly nothing it's working properly.
clay says
May 24, 2008
We have everything but the premium content up right now. Looks like that wont be up and running until monday. Sorry for the inconvenience everyone....
windmill says
May 24, 2008
Sometimes the lessons have the wrong audio.
joannah says
May 24, 2008
Hmm, just was able to get the correct pdf on itunes but it downloaded another lessons audio
dharkon says
May 24, 2008
the audio is from an upper intermediate lesson... probably have to wait until monday for the Newbie audio
light487 says
May 24, 2008
I thought it was a bit strange to release two newbie lessons in a row. May be it was meant to be an Upper Intermediate release in the first place and that's why the audio is for Upper Intermediate.. Oh well it will be fixed on Monday.
ekdean says
May 24, 2008
Anyone minding the store???? The lesson download is still not working.
a1pi2 says
May 24, 2008
孔子什么时候回来？ (kǒngzi shénme shíhou huí lai? -> (When does Confucius get back?)
light487 says
May 24, 2008
No one is minding the store until Monday..
yenner says
May 24, 2008
What happen? The podcast doesn't match the lesson -"When will he return?" The podcast is about Confucius?
vann0000 says
May 24, 2008
it is memorial day in the USA. THis is the USA equivalent to PRC "Tomb sweeping day". Many blessings to all!!!!!
swizeus says
May 24, 2008
just downloaded : May 24th, 23:19 GMT+7 The lesson doesn't match.... podcast about Save by the gong : Confucius... what happened ? Lost the recording ?
broadwayg says
May 24, 2008
Ditto.
brent1953 says
May 24, 2008
I never understand why people post comments in Hanzi on Newbie and Eli lessons, why would you want to be in Elementary school class if you already graduated from High school, did these people learn Hanzi before they learn how to speak?
alkrasnov says
May 24, 2008
Same here. Although I liked this lesson. I really enjoy these "Saved by the Gong" lessons. Lots of new expressions and vocabulary concerning different subjects :)
droppingmyhs says
May 24, 2008
Funny...Both (!) lessons contain really useful material. And thank you so much for messing up the podcasts - I just discovered that I can actually understand 60% of the Upper Intermediate, despite having made the transition from elementary to intermediate (though I didn't work with CP) only three months ago. That really boosts my confidence.
urbandweller says
May 24, 2008
大家好！i never understand why some newbies get upset by others posting hanzi here...isnt that all part of learning the language?? i find it interesting and challenging when the more advanced people post comments here. I've taken notes and learned a lot them. If you dont understand, then just ask them to translate or use one of the many online translators such as one located at www. mdbg.net. I acutally think the best thing to do is download a hanzi tool and start experiementing with it yourself and typing simple things...just start copying this lesson! I found that my chinese has made faster progress that way. Just my thoughts though. -亚当
jwosmun says
May 24, 2008
urbandweller What you say about hanzi is correct except for one important problem - it takes a while for a Newbie to learn about the online translators and hanzi tools. The official CPod position is that it does not directly teach through the characters, and thus does not provide a suitable means for a Newbie to learn about other resources. In actuality, these resources are necessary if one persists beyond Newbie, and if they are not acquired, the person will in all likelihood abandon CPod. Some of us would like CPod to rethink their position on this and provide a means for any user to easily acquire the tools necessary to fully use their approach, which is, after all, the best available.
light487 says
May 24, 2008
I didn't start "trying" to make up proper sentences until I started to write Hanzi.. I would definitely ask questions about the lesson and all that but my learning didn't really get off the ground until I started to put some work in to making my own sentences and trying to think in Chinese. Pinyin is required to know how to write the Hanzi on the computer, it just takes it one step further. For example, both of these characters are the same in pinyin: 是 shì 市 shì ...but of course, they mean completely different things. The first one, that many people would be used to seeing by now is 是 which roughly means "to be" (are, am, is) in many contexts but also can mean "that" and "this". The other character, which has the same 4th tone accent in pinyin, 市 means "market", "city" or "town", and "trade" depending on the context. Pinyin can only help so much.. more with the pronunciation than anything else. You still will need to know the characters, even to make up basic sentences.. otherwise you could end up making sentences that make no sense because even though the tones and sounds are the same, the characters are very wrong... 我们大吉有的中勾荚
light487 says
May 24, 2008
haha.. but I still need to learn the grammar too by the look of that sentence.. woops.. :)
a1pi2 says
May 24, 2008
Sorry if I offend anyone by using Hanzi. I'm past the Newbie level, but certainly not Intermediate. I always enter what I am saying three times: hanzi, pinyin and english. Hopefully you can ignore what you don't want to read.
jwosmun says
May 24, 2008
a1pi2 No need to apologize. You are doing exactly the correct thing for Newbie comments.
lester says
May 25, 2008
CP is not really so compartmentalized as the rating levels suggest. I am an intermediate level, but I listen to the upper intermediate, study the intermediate, review the elementary for new characters (since I am focusing on understanding and speaking first), and visit the newbie to contribute for others and to reinforce my own learning. And, not so surprising, I still learn a lot from the newbie lessons. I discovered early that there's enough variety in the comments that I could ignore what I just couldn't understand, but I also took the opportunity to "stretch" when I could understand some of the hanzi. It feels good to begin understanding the higher level stuff. Those that provide the pinyin and translation with their hanzi are doing newbies a big favor, those that don't provide greater opportunity for newbies to stretch their abilities. But, in the end we are all trying to learn.
jporta says
May 25, 2008
Newbie lessons are becoming too simple for me... and I'm transitioning to Elementary lessons! Chinesepod is working! Thank you everyone at Chinesepod!
light487 says
May 25, 2008
That's great to hear jporta! :) This has happened to me as well but I still listen to the newbie lessons because they always have something new, or expand upon something I thought I knew already. The Newbie and Elementary level is, in my mind, the same level really.. Just that the Newbie lessons are the "easy" ones, and the Elementary lessons are the "hard" ones. The format of the lessons is the same and the content doesn't get too demanding in either level.. just that the concepts and building blocks are more complex in the Elementary level. Now that you are at this point, I recommend that you begin to listen to the Intermediate lessons as well. You may not understand a lot of it but it will get your brain working at a faster speed
greatgifts says
May 25, 2008
Hi Changye, Again, thanks for the help and the expansion sentences. To the rest of the CPoddies (newbies or elems or inters) i don't mind comments written in hanzi (with pinyin or not), i am grateful that you contribute what you know to newbs. It kind of excites me to see all the hanzi comments, because i can get to familiarize it's meaning and have the feeling that i am moving on to progress plus an inspiration that someday i will be able to read, understand and write Hanzi.... To include the pinyin and the english translation is of course, very much appreciated. 我 都 喜歡讀 漢字 按語! wǒ dōu xǐ huan dú Hàn zì àn yǔ! I like reading comments in Chinese. 閱讀 漢字 按語, 很好! Yuè dú Hàn zì àn yǔ, hěn hǎo! Reading comments in chinese is very good! Hope i got it all right. c",
changye says
May 25, 2008
Hi greatgifts, I had to look up a dictionary to find the meaning of “按语” (an4 yu3, annotation). I think that 帖子 (tie3 zi, posting) or 留言 (liu2 yan2, message) should be much more appropriate in forums on the Internet. 我很喜欢看中文(zhong1 wen2)帖子。 我很喜欢看用(yong4)中文写(xie3)的留言。 I like to read comments written in Chinese.
greatgifts says
May 25, 2008
Hi Changye, Thanks, i've looked it up on my dictionary as well, I guess "按語" àn yǔ is frequently used 90% of the time. and 帖子(tie3 zi, posting) is used 100% of the time. But nevertheless, i appreciate your help so much. Please continue giving the extra effort to all cpoddies.
amber says
May 25, 2008
hi greatgifts, 先生在不在? (Xiānsheng zài bù zài?) is correct. The second part should be: 他明天从台湾回大陆来。 (Tā míngtiān cóng Táiwān huí dàlù lái.)
lolonono says
May 25, 2008
it is really wonderful
changye says
May 25, 2008
Hi greatgifts, As far as I know now, the word “按语” (an4 yu2) is commonly used in the sense of “notes, footnotes or author’s remarks in a book”, but not “comments posted to forums”. In other words, “按语” is relatively “a big word” in Chinese. Actually, my 汉英词典 also simply gives you the definition “comment” for “按语”, but the “comment” is not equal to those “comments” you see here in forums. Of course, I believe “按语” is frequently used in academic and publishing worlds. Google hit results 论坛 帖子 4,880,000 论坛 留言 2,270,000 论坛 按语… 125,000
changye says
May 25, 2008
Hi amber, > 他明天从台湾回大陆来。 Thank you for the nice example, and it is correct both grammatically and “politically.”
henning says
May 26, 2008
The lesson is now pure Newbie, most traces of the Confucius lessons have been weeded out. Except for the tags.
horsiebabe says
May 26, 2008
how does one obtain a hanzi tool?
jwosmun says
May 26, 2008
Hanzi translate plugins: ChinesePera-kun (Firefox) https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search?q=chinese&cat=1%2C37 HanziBar (IE and Firefox) small charge http://www.realimaginary.com/
architpol says
May 26, 2008
Ken and Jenny both defined 什么时候 shen2me5 shi2hou5 as "What time is it." I thought 什么时候 was more equivalent to "when" and that you would usually get a more general answer such as 下午 xia4wu3 or today. To get a precise "what time is it" shouldn't you ask 几点中？ji dian zhong?.
architpol says
May 26, 2008
oops, wrong zhong. That should be 种
greatgifts says
May 26, 2008
你好 Amber, Thanks for the example, now 大陆 is a part my short list of vocabs. There is just so much to learn. Hi Changye, I got your point now, lots of thanks! Don't give up on newbs yet, because i appreciate the help.
kaiselin08 says
May 26, 2008
Hi Chinesepod!
lavieenrose says
May 26, 2008
nice lesson
olky says
May 27, 2008
HELLO TO ALL:)
ancalagon says
May 27, 2008
Arch, just so you know (and not to be rude), the correct 'zhong' is 钟。
bazza says
May 27, 2008
Any ideas how to redownload this in itunes now it's the right lesson?
fadwa says
May 27, 2008
hi guys!
what an interesting lesson!
architpol says
May 27, 2008
Thanks ancalagon,
I appreciate the correction, but you must have missed my oops post.
a1pi2 says
May 27, 2008
@Architpol: In your "oops post" you used 种 (zhòng), instead of 钟 (zhōng). The former means to plant or cultivate, the latter means clock or time.
triphazard says
May 28, 2008
I was just wondering, when is the best time to start learning Hanzi? Is it when I am just starting, or should it be when I am more towards the Elementary/Intermediate levels?
henning says
May 28, 2008
@tiphazard,
I started when I was about Elementry level (which was before CPod), because I noticed that I didn't make any real headway without. It really helps, not only to open up the door to written material, but also to enforce vocab distinction, grouping, and retention.
If I started again, I would begin learning Hanzi right away, although in a relaxed fashion. I am convinced that it becomes crucial when trying to cross that boundary between Elementry and Intermedaite.
nikjack says
May 29, 2008
dajia hao!
19dizzy62 says
May 29, 2008
Same here. Although I liked this lesson. I really enjoy these "Saved by the Gong" lessons. Lots of new expressions and vocabulary concerning different subjects :)
wolson says
May 31, 2008
As it was pointed out to me a few months ago by a native Chinese speaker and a professor,
One should use 什么时候 when one is talking about a general time rather than a precise time. If you want to know the time of day, you need to ask a more precise question,
现在几点钟？Xian4zai4 ji3 dian3 zhong1? (What time is it now?)
caramonn says
May 31, 2008
I have been listening to all of the newbie lessons these last 2 weeks and I would like to poste a comment about this.
I liked it. I like Ken jokes. It makes it more fun to learn.
But I think you could/ should focus more on cultural aspect. Chinese culture is so special. I don't want to boast or anything. But I stayed 2 years in Hunan Province. I opened a business there. I realized that even though my Chinese is limited I know a lot more than almost all the foreigners I met who could speak Chinese (that they learned in a secured closed environment, university and such) or had been in China 10 years. Why is that so? Because most foreigners live in Shanghai, Beijing. They deal with Chinese who are themselves accustom to foreigners way. They work in western environment. They didnn't deal with Chinese local administration or police, bargained their way through local market place, hired local workers... Anyway it would be great if KEN could tell us more about some specific Chinese ways in the newbies and intermediate. He says a little but not enough. And Ken is married to a Chinese woman. He had been a teacher many years I guess in different province. He must know a lot.
For me culture was the biggest challenge in China. I made so many mistakes which I could have avoided had I been told how "Chinese think, behave, deal with situation", the impact of culture, of some local customs, of a specific behaviour, the knoweldge of a certain festival.....
triphazard says
May 31, 2008
@ henning:
Thanks a bunch! I learn them relaxed-like!
elroch says
June 5, 2008
I do not see why shen2me shı2hou is marked incorrect in the second of the dictation exercises for this lesson. As far as I can see this is identical to the form in the PDF.
connie says
June 5, 2008
Hi elroch,
You should type shen2me5 shi2hou5. Have a try!
badge says
June 7, 2008
In the sound files 喂 sounds like it is second or maybe third tone. In the vocab it is written with the fourth tone. Is this one of those words that can mean the same thing even though the tone changes - like bu (I think)? If so is there a pattern to when to use what tone, or is it just what is comfortable to say in the context of other tones?
Thanks
clay says
June 9, 2008
badge,
this is one of those words that its PinYin is officially written as a fourth tone, but is nearly always used in the second tone.