Glad to be here :)

Baodeng

January 29, 2011, 04:13 AM posted in General Discussion

I am fairly new to learning Mandarin. I just started my 2nd semester in Mandarin at my local university.

I am planning on going to China in 2012, and possibly staying for a while, where I will continue my studies and teach English.

I just wish there was a way that I could search for lessons by words or characters.

cinnamonfern

January 29, 2011, 07:18 AM

Well, the good news is that you can search the lessons for words and characters - it's just not intuitive.

So first search for your desired word in the search box in the upper right corner of the website.
This will go to a new screen and above the "Search Again" button, click the red words [Expand Search].
Click the checkbox for "Lesson Dialogue & Vocabulary" and search again - this should bring up related lessons at different levels.

For some reason I have much better luck using characters as opposed to English. Hope this helps!

pretzellogic

January 29, 2011, 07:20 AM

I've never tried searching for lessons by characters, but you can search for plenty of lessons in English using the search bar in the upper right corner of the cpod webpage.

cinnamonfern

Yep, but this doesn't automatically search the dialogues and vocabulary. You have to use the method above to include those.

I didn't realize you were posting at exactly the same time I was. Shouldn't you be enjoying your friend's wedding? Were the gifts helpful? Is the wedding done, and you're not going to stay with your friend until you can watch the CCTV Spring Festival Gala?

cinnamonfern

:) The wedding was two days ago - and it was very interesting, very different from the weddings I've attended in the U.S. I gave food (lots of chocolate and dried fruit from the U.S.). Although I think I should also have taken you up on the suggestion to bring gloves and scarves. Not many people wear them here.

And yep - I'll be here until after Spring Festival. This is partly because plane tickets are crazy expensive now, and partly because I don't want to pass up the opportunity to experience Spring Festival in China. This will probably be my only chance. :D

pretzellogic

Excellent! Actually, watching the CCTV Spring Gala on TV is an interesting experience. I think the first time I saw it, I wasn't all that impressed, but I was impressed with the TV audience size. But then, I suppose some Chinese person is back in the US missing the Spring Festival, and saying "the Super Bowl is a boring game, but 2/3rds of the US is watching it" :-)