Newbie - Who are You Looking For?

Although not much drama, this is a very practical lesson. I have been thinking about how we can make this kind of dialogues fun yet realistic. Any ideas guys?

Jenny,

 I know you are an incredibly well rounded person but I will still be amazed if you have heard about " Who's on first" from Abbott and Costello. Maybe John can explain. Most of the key part of the dialogue could easily be coverted to Chinese. It would be an amusing way to learn, who,what and I don't know..

Here is a link

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/humor4.shtml

That Zhang Xiansheng is never around when you need him!

Mike: I think Jenny is already familiar with Who's on First, but if not, I will make sure she listens to it!

Hi mikenotinjubei

Your comment made me think of a cute (though a little corny) video clip. Users behind the Great Bamboo Firewall, you know what you have to do!

I am looking for my love.niwa

I remember I was once looking for my Dad in a restaurant, it was a buffet actually. To my surprise, they were not letting me in! Why?

You guys are really doing good job, hence keep it up.

Jenny regarding how to make this more funny yet realistic, I think the easiest option would be to check best practices from Spanishpod. 

I have been listening to both Chinesepod and Spanishpod (at Newbie and Elementary levels), and though these languages are entirely different and I cannot make a apple to apple comparison. But there are the stuffs which I feel Chinesepod can enhance...

One of the hosts should appear less intelligent, it’s sad but it’s true and it makes the show funnier and gives the confident to the listeners that you do not need to be talented to learn a new language.

In Spanishpod, I have observed that JP does this pretty cleverly, though we all know that he is really good in Spanish and very good linguist. His dumb, not so intelligent cover-up makes the show more entertaining.

Having said that, I would like reiterate that you both are doing good work, perhaps the best in teaching Chinese language and culture. If you want to make it more entertaining for Newbies (not for Intermediate and above) then the above mentioned suggestion may help. 

i am still looking for a person who i really can contribute my love to him:)

also ,there is another one who i really eager to find him ,he is my little brother,i lost him when he was 3 years old ,someone  walked off with him .

maybe they are the same person?

@520sliena, are you still looking for him? Or do you have a picture of him, maybe you could send the picture to the local police! I think they'll help! BTW, I'm sorry to hear that! You must miss him a lot!

Thank you for the feedback guys.

@Mikenotinjubei, in fact I havn't  heard of 'Who's on First'. Thanks for the link. Good source of inspiration indeed.

@ncmuck,

Thank you for the very thoughtful comment. SpanishPod certainly balances learning and fun very well. Good for Cpod to take inspiration. And we have the teacher in house.

hola a todos

puedo leer ingles pero me resulta dificil escribir

me gustaria saber si alguien habla español

esto es una oportuninad para mejorar mi ingles al tiempo que estudio chino

espero que allguien me conteste

@wwaipoo

I've heard learning a language through another language is a great way to learn the first one that you are studying but perhaps not so efficient when it comes to learning both!

Good luck and be sure to write more in English! I had to use googletranslate to understand your post!!

haha!

@wwaipoo

Bienvenido a Chinesepod 

Hablo poco español y entienden poco. 

Aquí hay muchos como yo, todos podemos ayudar.

Here is Evan Osnos's take on the ubiquitous "Ken Ni Ji 肯尼基 (which, notably, is only one character off of Ken De Ji, the Chinese name for Kentucky Fried Chicken)" http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/2009/06/cultural-devolution.html - its about cultural devolution.

I remember when the "who's on first" joke was resurrected when Hu Jintao was named President of China - not very nice.

Nicely done and very useful!

In the expansion section, 你找什么？is translated as "Who are you looking for?" I would have guessed this to be "What are you looking for?". Are both correct?

再见，何睿林

很有用！Very useful！

@wwaipoo-

Hablo español. No hablo perfectamente, pero si te puedo ayudar en cualquier cosa.

Jenny,

I have to say that I started Cpod in February and listened to all of the newbie lessons and now I am half way through all of the elementary lessons. I really enjoy the way you'll incorporate sounds and  create a feeling that one is in that specific setting... It's hard to make it much more realistic than actually being there. Maybe just repeating the dialogue at different speed levels to keep us on our toes. I think Cpod is already the funnest and best chinese language tool i've come across!

So being a tennis player and fan myself, I was curious to know with the French Open finishing up and Wimbledon starting in a couple of weeks, who you are cheering for?

Dajia hao:  For me knowing Spanish first made me confused sometimes when studying Chinese.  For example, a few times on a quiz or test, when I meant to say "wo", I wrote down "yo", which is Spanish for "I".  When I see an object in a lesson, like a chair, I think of the Spanish name "silla" and can't remember the Chinese name "yizi". Today my mom and I went to dinner at an Italian restaurant but the busboy is Latino and we were speaking Spanish with him.  And I was thinking that I should get on Chinesepod as soon as I get home or I'll start forgetting more Chinese!

Hello Poddies:

Greetings.  Always enjoy hearing Ken and Jenny.

I think a steady diet of pepper wears thin; therefore a dramatic lesson isn't always needed, Jenny.  Thanks for the useful lesson though it did not quicken my heart.

Also, to Ken's points on taking chunks of the language and do not analyse too much as a newbie.  Just learn the sentence or phrase as one chunk.  Word by word is not efficient way of learning especially for Newbie's and can be confusing.

Here is a good example from today's lesson.

我想试一下。
I'd like to try it out. 1 (I'd like to try it out.)

Wo3 xiang3 shi4 yi1xia4.

Literally: I like is a bit.

Perhaps.

But, regardless this is a good point don't you think?

Of course, this is just my opinion based on experience.  I could and often am wrong.

very good & useful lesson thanks .My chinese name is 陈财顺。

Hola, hablo español podemos intercambiar conocimientos sobre el idiomachino si los puedo ayudar.

I'm a Chinese girl.My name is Xue Hongqian.薛宏倩 is my Chinese name. I just want to know how do you learn Chinese. But I think I just know a little English.

Of course, I want to make friend with everyone. You can e-mail me. My e-mail addresss is 827803731@qq.com . And I am a secondary school student. So I think we can learn each other.

Great proxy pete! And hilarious video. Don't know how I missed this. You might enjoy eccentric English stand-up Robert Newman's stage show The History Of Oil, which was where I first heard anyone amusingly riffing on both the names of Mr. Hu and Mr. Wen. The politics are slightly out-of-date now, but this guy is a real entertainer.

Shenyajin, when you were looking for your father, were you crossing your eyes?

I think I'm looking for the blue fairy.

bodawei,

I prefer to ask no questions but get straight to saying...jin4 JIN4 [in IN ] with a big grin like a Cheshire Cat.mwahahaha...

@shenyajin

哈哈！Maybe because you held chopsticks in your hand?

wwaipoo

Sé hablar un poco español pero es la lengua de Mexíco. Ademas es mi idoma segundo por eso no hablo muy bien y escribo lentemente. Estudié chino hace muchos años y estudio en Chinese Pod ahora para recordarlo. Mi hijo está viviendo en Taiwan y se casa a una china. Estoy viviendo in Mexíco. Buena suerte con sus estudios.

Si todos van a escribir en espanol, esto seria spanesepod!

If we start writing in Spanish, this will be Spanesepod!

Can you say this on the phone too, as in whom are you trying to reach?

Hi sushan,

You can say say 你找誰？But it's a little curt.

The more polite thing to say is 你找哪位？ But really, both are OK.

yaaay chinesepod :)

@raygu

I now have the biggest crush of my life on Robert Newman (sorry Pete).

@orangina

I know exactly what you mean, if I was female I'd feel the same. I'm male by the way.

hola yo hablo espanol y te puedo ayudar puedes usar gogle translater o con con un traductor manual te puedes ayudar

Chinese pod is great.  Jenny sounds cute.  I like how you try to church up the translations when you say them 3 times.  Sometimes boring monotone, and sometimes excitement with a slightly different translation of the same phrase.  I am looking for a chatting partner if anyone is interested.  I know very little Chinese, little bit of Spanish, and some English.  tigerjr_00@yahoo.com

请问你找谁？

Excuse me，who are you looking for?

Can I ask who you looking for?

我找张先生

I looking for Mr zhang

请等一下

please wait minute

这边请

This way please

I totally wanna have 10,000 of Robert Newman's babies! And I'm the right gender to do it!

Hi fidele,

Would that be the Robert Newman who played Butch Kid, or Sundance Cassidy?  ;-)

Ooops...that's what I get for not reading the entire thread before posting.

*snarky comment withdrawn*

(Hangs head in shame)

Ha! *raindrops are fallin' on my head...*
*timeskip*
today i'm listening to orchestral meaneuvers in the dark

you guys are crazy!

Okaaay... well if anyone else has fallen for the seemingly irresistible Robert Newman, here's his webpage, and here's a bunch more online video.

From Caliban to the Taliban has some great lines and interesting views. Worth seeing for the title alone, (surely 2 words which from the foundation of the universe were just meant to be rhymed - lol.)

And if you've no desire or time to watch video, here's a pic of the handsome devil. I look a lot like him actually. People tell me that.