In the Key Vocabulary list, you have the Pinyin for 实在 as 'really' instead of shízài.

Your question reminds me of American films where a characters says that they prefer job A to job B because they 'offer dental'. This only makes sense in a country without fringe benefits tax - unless there is a tax benefit, why would anyone want their employer to provide 'health benefits'? It makes more sense to take the money and choose yourself what kind of health cover you want (or none), doesn't it? 'Health benefits' seems to be a strange artefact in the land of free enterprise - actually I suppose no one uses that expression since the taxpayer bailed out companies like General Motors - it is strange in a country that places such high value on individual choice. In China, where most people work below the income tax threshold, there would be no personal advantage in receiving 'health benefits.' Only an (American) economist would raise the possibility of there being some net social benefit in making it compulsory - I would say that a social benefit is unlikely because Chinese people in general are so risk averse (they tend to self-insure, without Government coercion.}

反正，她讨论这个：

http://www.absolutads.com/mix/absolut_vodka_family_.jpg

Another request is the abiliity to pronounce a word after hearing a native speaker and have my pronunciation recorded and played back until I can duplicate the sound.

Furthermore list the vocubulary with the parts of speech.  Noun, Verb, Adverb, Pronoun, and so on.  One of the most difficult things for CSL speakers to determine is the parts of speech in Chinese.  I helps to know the parts of speech.

A further request, when I make my comments let's say 2 days from the lesson I don't think you people read them.  I can tell this by the lack of response.  If you want people to participate you need to provide feedback.

Another issue is the number of Chinese speakers who contribute to the comments in characters.  At the Intermediate level they need to provide the Pin Yin also.  Some of us don't have the time to spend learning the characters and rely heavily on the Pin Yin.

One of the most difficult things for CSL speakers to determine is the parts of speech in Chinese

...it's funny you should write this because I was having thoughts in a similar vein yesterday.I agree it would be somewhat handy in the vocab tab,though as you then see how it is used in the lesson one can usually tell how it is being used in the lessons particular circumstance.What would be handy would be in those cases where the word can act in more than one part of speech [eg as a noun or a verb] to know all the different parts of speech it can act in. Where I find this issue more of a problem is in using mdbg which is a great online dictionary otherwise.It's interesting that they don't provide parts of speech either.Sometimes I'll look up a word,say looking for a noun and I can see a word I'm looking for that looks suitable but I get the impression that it's a verb and I wonder if it can be used as a noun as well. As I know so little about Chinese Grammar I'm not sure why even an online dictionary doesn't list it.Does anyone have any insights into this? I wonder if it just gets complicated because of the way some words will just function differently in different contexts and perhaps there is a feeling at CPod that it will confuse rather that help,but I really don't know. Similarly having measure words listed next to nouns would be helpful [and again mdbg doesn't seem to list them either....which seems more like a shortcoming,unless I'm just missing something].

我有事先走了，你们继续玩。

..could someone please explain the function of 先 in this sentence.I understand it means first or something similar,but I'm not sure how to interpret it here and the translation doesn't seem to mention it.I thought perhaps it meant the speaker had something to do first before joining in the game,but that seems a bit strange if they are in the middle of the game [as suggested by 继续】.I suppose it must mean that there is something that the speaker has to do the comes first in priority,that has to do before anything else [and if this is the correct interpretation then would it be fair to say that it's implied this person will return to the game?].Another possibility could be this person announcing that they are the first to leave the game,though that seems a bit strange and also less likely.

哎哟！

From the expansion 贡献 seems a good example.In the first 2 examples [as well as in the dialogue] it is acting as a noun,whereas in the rollover has it translated in verb form,and in the 3rd example it is being used as a verb.

I find this more of an issue when it comes to construction rather than comprehension.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRpNb0Lu0XM

"我先走了。" means “I'll go first.”

The context could be, "We are playing games. But I've got something I have to do, so I should leave first. You guys can go on playing".

From the Chinese speaker's perspective, there's no need to apologize.

From the English speaker's perspective, there's no need to specify you're leaving FIRST.

And yet these are the things we are trained to say...

I think to make it entirely clear,lets say we have a party of four and someone has already left,and half an hour later another member of the party has to leave.Would they be announcing that they are the second person to leave,or would they also be using this 先?

Sorry for being a bit slow on this one.

We do this in Japanese too. お先に失礼します o-saki ni shitsurei shimasu (I'm excusing myself now, ahead of you). It's what we say when we're leaving. Young people at the same workplace or some team or group are also heard saying お先です！ o-saki desu!

So rather than "first," it's really "ahead of you."

Got it.Thanks again for your patience.

讨价还价  ?