all 190 countries or so? That would be good. I still say there's value in having 32 country names listed in a lesson about the world cup. I realize that you're not saying don't put the names in the lesson.

It's interesting that since the dashboard and site changes that some lessons/discussion threads have disappeared. A short term suggestion would be for you baba to go back through the many 00s of pages of comments you made, to the set of comments that you made on the Olympics site. Now that you mentioned this, I recall seeing that portion of the site, and I thought it was a handy way to have athletics dialogue all in one spot. If that is gone, its unfortunate, but if its not, you might be able to find the information faster than cpod can. I also realize this is not an easy task. When the site changes were being made, and community discussion threads were switched to what they are now, I think it took about 15-25 minutes to fish out the "lesson suggestions" thread from one of my earlier comments.

Doesn't mean there's not a place for it in say, the glossary.

I hear the BBC site is blocked in China (perhaps this is because they have an entry for "Taiwan" under their "Country profiles" ...) but they've got a nice section in their Chinese area on the World Cup.

On that page, click on the link (at bottom left corner with photo of the World Cup). "32强掠影" is an overview of the 32 country teams.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/indepth/cluster_2010_teams.shtml

No,I am not seeing it on the conversations page either and nor did I see last weeks N&F. It's always nice to know it's not just me ;) Guess it's just some glitch.

Thanks for the link. Thats good to see all the country names and set out like that. The CPod olympic minisite had audio for the countries as well. I guess you joined just after the olympics right,so I guess you may have missed that.

New tent platforms...that sounds interesting. New park also? Was it good and if so can I ask where it was?

yeah, I was under the impression that all the countries that were competing,pretty much all the countries in the world were listed on that CPod minisite. It had their flag, Chinese name and an audio button you could click to hear it and then all this stuff on the different sports. It was an awesome site.

I could be wrong but I don't think it's disappearance has anything to do with the dashboard changeover as while it was CPod's ,it was a separate minisite. I did find the address 2 or 3 weeks ago [as well as a post linking to it on this site....it went up before I joined CPod so I had never commented on that post as far as I recall and I don't think you could comment on the minisite] and it didn't seem to work and I also made a post about it but I don't think anyone responded.

ps, as I said I'm not seeing it on my conversations page under "all my groups" which is usually the view I use. However,if I go onto "all replies to me" I do get your reply to me from this thread.

Just found my recent comment about that minisite and the links about it and to it:

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/world-cup-and-diamonds#comment-180398

http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/2091

http://chinesepod.com/olympics/

CPod...is this a tech glitch or was it taken down?

I'd never seen the Olympics minisite. Sounds like a great resource that a lot of work went into making. Seems a waste, if it weren't kept alive and made easily accessible.

xiao_liang, I'm not sure what the Chinesepod model is anymore. I've seen plenty of lessons that repeat words and phrases, and more than one hundred lessons on food, and one lesson about farm/rural life. If we're supposed to have practical everyday Chinese, I think we hit most of that at lesson 1000, and we don't need series like "Love Tangle". I believe every word/phrase in the Love Tangle series, we've already had multiple lessons about (No, I haven't counted the words/phrases so I guess you could challenge me on it. I am making an assumption based on the number of lessons you can pull up if you use "love" as a search term (search on "love" in an advanced search, and search only on Lesson Dialogue and Vocabulary)). I'm definitely interested in Cpod teaching us new vocabulary, but i've seen others post here that (I think) would be happy with Love Tangle #250.

Further, I know Catherine posted on the Cpod blog a question around Cpod's future direction, and asked users what their take was on either of two directions. The two directions were, and i'm paraphrasing here, "Deeper vocabulary or magazine?". My take is that Cpod is quietly moving toward "magazine". If that's the case, then unfortunately for me, you might be right about cpod's model.

Not that it matters, but I'd agree, it appears that the Olympics site has been taken down. Interesting.

Cowboy Country Club. On Xishan island in Taihu, near Suzhou.

south africa 南非

uruguay 乌拉圭

argentina 阿根廷

republic of korea 大韩民国

greece 希腊

nigeria 尼日利亚

france 法国

mexico 墨西哥

germany 德国

serbia 塞尔维亚

slovenia 斯洛文尼亚

united states 美国

england 英国

algeria 阿尔及利亚

japan 日本

netherlands 荷兰

ghana 加纳

cameroon 喀麦隆

denmark 丹麦

australia 澳洲

slovakia 斯洛伐克

paraguay 巴拉圭

new zealand 新西兰

italy 意大利

brazil 巴西

portugal 葡萄牙

switzerland 瑞士

chile 智利

spain 西班牙

honduras 洪都拉斯

cote d lvoire 科特迪瓦共和国

korea dpr 北朝鲜

or

south africa NánFēi

uruguay Wūlāguī

argentina A1gēntíng

republic of korea DàhánMínguó

greece Xīlà

nigeria Nírìlìyà

france Fǎguó

mexico Mòxīgē

germany Déguó

serbia Sāiěrwéiyà

slovenia Sīluòwénníyà

united states Měiguó

england Yīngguó

algeria A1ěrjílìyà

japan Rìběn

netherlands Hélán

ghana Jiānà

cameroon Kāmàilóng

denmark Dānmài

australia Aòzhōu

slovakia Sīluòfákè

paraguay Bālāguī

new zealand Xīnxīlán

italy Yìdàlì

brazil Bāxī

portugal Pútáoyá

switzerland Ruìshì

chile Zhìlì

spain Xībānyá

honduras Hóngdūlāsī

cote d lvoire Kētèdíwǎgònghéguó

korea dpr Běicháoxiǎn

I've seen how Australia can also be 澳洲 [which seems to refer more to the continent perhaps] but the commentators were definitely using 澳大利亚 the other night.

Usually most Chinese tend to have one day outings and or stay in inside type of dwellings such as cabins or motels if staying out in the "wilderness" for short breaks of a couple of days in length.

Yes there are awesome places to visit. There are village type of places found throughout the outer suburbs of Beijing were you can choose your own fish to eat. Usually set up as a BBQ style meal. Makes for a great relaxing day.

Your traditional sense of camping in a tent on the considered cold ground in Beijing is not so popular

...thanks for confirming my suspicions.

or stay in inside type of dwellings such as cabins or motels

...this sounds more like what I'd have imagined.

Thanks for satisfying my curiousity. Xishan island is in the middle of Lake Tai I see. Looks like it could be a lovely setting. Interestingly they have western looking cowboys on their home page.

how does one say ?

quarter final

semi final

final

thanks