News and Features - Chinese names, Avatar and Meet-ups

Eeeeeeek! We're getting an Avatar lesson! XD But like bababardwan, I'm slightly disappointed that it's going to be a Media lesson :( An Elementary lesson would be perfect for me but an intermediate I could perhaps just follow with the transcript but I think making it a Media lesson would perhaps rule out most of the 'listening audience' as the majority of listeners are probably Intermediate/Upper Intermediate. Just a suggestion.

hehe,doodlemonster,is "Eeeeeeek!" a positive sound? The second exclamation mark and the But..disappointed bit make it sound like you meant that in an excited positive way.I tend to associate that sound more with a girl spying a cockroach or something,hehe. Anyway,I completely understand your disappointment re Media level,though I wouldn't say I was personally disappointed..on the contrary I'm happy regardless of level even though it's above me too.I don't think you need be shy about coming on to the boards of a Media lesson and ask any questions you want there.I'm sure there can still be plenty of vocab that could be picked out for you.Though not as good or clear as CPod did you know you can also hear how words sound in online dictionaries such as mdbg? Why don't you just think of a list of Avatar related vocab you'd like to hear and lets see if we can either glean them from the lesson [and if possible even put them into the sentences used in the lesson] or look up any that don't turn up in the lesson.I reckon you might be surprised at what you can get out of it.It's not necessary to follow everything to still get something worthwhile out of it.Cheers :)

hehe yes, the "Eeeeeek!" was positive thing! Picture me sitting at my laptop excitedly waving my hands from side to side like when Wallace and Gromit see cheese, making excited squeals! :P hehe (I'm hoping you've seen Wallace and Gromit? If not, must be a very British thing and I've just totally confused you! :P)

Thanks for the advice ^^ That's a really good idea. If I can read a page in a book (will a dictionary close by and a few weeks to spare :P) than I'm sure I'll find a way to tackle a Media lesson ^^ I'll think of it as my challenge for the week ^^

Jiayou.That's the spirit.:) Just see what you can get out of it without feeling the need to understand it all or much at all.Be happily confused. :)

ps.lol ..excitedly waving your hands from side to side.I like your enthusiasm and it sounds just as depicted in your avatar.I am aware of Wallace and Grommit and have seen a snippet or two but that's about it.

hehe, I never noticed that, but yeah, the same excited hand waving seems to be what my avatar is doing! haha and I like the idea of being happily confused; (sounds like me on a normal day anyway :P ) as I think I spend too much time worrying about not understanding things 100%. That's probably why I haven't progressed in Chinese as fast as I would have done :( perhaps a late new-years resolution is in order? To stop being a perfectionist and to expose myself to lots of new language material! ^^

PS Glad you haven't missed out on Wallace and Grommit then! :P Also, the excitement of the lesson might have something to do with me being an Avatar fanatic! XD

pretzell,

I would absolutely love to see a return of Movie Madness.I don't think there was as much Chinese language learning in it is there is an any lesson from Intermediate and above [and thus the planned lesson I think will be very different from what it would be if it was done as a Movie Madness episode] but I loved the format which was a lot of fun and added variety to the channels.I particularly liked the way they took part of a scene and had it in Chinese and you had to guess which movie and they even made a little competition out of it.Unfortunately that Channel was finished before I ever got to participate in that fun comp aspect.But there must have been heaps of new material come out since the channel finished so may well be time to bring it back for another season at least.Here's hoping. :)

yeah, call it Cinema Corner or something, and revising the format so that we can have a pdf of cpod actors talking about key scenes in the movie that they though worked for them, or didn't work for them. Like Siskel and Ebert in Chinese or something, but only talking about 1 scene. Maybe about the entire movie, but I don't know how Cpod would have a critic lesson reduced to be simple enough to be at the intermediate level.

Thanks, Matthiask. It's IE6, though. Not a clarity problem, just the wrong characters.

are you using internet explorer 7? Here's a fix.

The trick for an Elementary or Intermediate level Avatar lesson would be keeping the language practical and high-frequency. Every ChinesePod lesson has to meet this standard.

Wow, John, that explains a lot. Does Cpod have a specific metric around how often a word/phrase/sentence is used in order for it to be considered "high frequency"?

Stupid flakes!

flaky / flakey

1. Consisting of flakes or of small, loose masses; lying, or cleaving off, in flakes or layers; flakelike.

2. (British, informal) Working only on an intermittent basis

3. (US, informal) Unreliable; intermittent or eccentric.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/flaky

I've always thought the Verb. "flake off" (to beg out of some engagement at the last minute) came first, then from that, the Adj. "flakey". Anyone else have this understanding?

I have not heard "flake off" myself. The verb is also flake. Past tense flaked. Or perhaps flake out and flaked out. Eg: "She totally flaked on me. Again." It can also be a noun: "Oh man! I am such a flake."

Ah. Might be a generational thing too ...

Glad to hear you would be interested in joining us for our next meet up! Will certainly keep you posted! ;)

John's Chinese name is 潘吉Pān Jí.