Lesson Sets
roymaster
August 08, 2011, 08:07 PM posted in General DiscussionI know Chinesepod has some lesson sets, but has anybody else personally organised the lessons into some sort of groupings? Just suggest some groups have been useful to you.
roymaster
August 10, 2011, 06:28 PMI'm taking the position that I want to feel a 'definite sense of progress'. I want to get some concrete idea of what I've done; what exactly I can do (as in, understand and say in Chinese). Maybe this position is too limiting, and I should just take it as you do, exploratory and open.
roymaster
August 10, 2011, 06:28 PMI'm taking the position that I want to feel a 'definite sense of progress'. I want to get some concrete idea of what I've done; what exactly I can do (as in, understand and say in Chinese). Maybe this position is too limiting, and I should just take it as you do, exploratory and open.
pretzellogic
Not sure that this meets your need for a definite sense of progress, but maybe its similar enough to my 'need to accomplish a task", that you might find it helpful. My task was "getting myself around Beijing".
The following lessons were helpful:
•Elementary - Directions with a Map #1
•Elementary - Directions with a Map #2
•Newbie - Taxi Conversations: Suggesting a Route
•Newbie - Where's the bus stop?
•Newbie - Asking the Bus Destination
•Newbie - Taxi to the Airport
•Newbie - Taxi Conversations: Arriving at your Destination
•Elementary - Can't Get a Taxi
•Intermediate - Reserving a Taxi Cab by Telephone
•Elementary - The Traffic Jam
•Elementary - Help Calling a Cab
•Upper Intermediate - When the Taxi Takes the Long Way
My challenge is what to say after i've successfully said "take me to X". But that was the first issue: knowing the name of the destination in Chinese. For example, in Beijing, many expats live in "Seasons Park" but of course the name of Seasons Park is 海晟名苑 (Hai3sheng1ming2yuan4). If the driver knows Seasons Park, you're done. If he doesn't, you have to tell him how to get there, and that's when the fun begins. you have to tell him turn-by-turn. Easy after you've gone to the destination 2-3 times, and paid attention to your route.
By far, "Directions with a Map 1 & 2" were most helpful, but the other lessons were helpful to get phrases like du2che1 (traffic congestion)(forgive my crappy tone indications; they're still my weak point among many).
My approach also required me to know the major boulevards of Beijing. Knowing how to say ,"2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Ring Road" in mandarin is extremely helpful.
mark
August 09, 2011, 04:11 AMI just study the lessons as they are published. The advantage to this is that the topics Chinesepod covers are quite varied. So, I get a broader exposure to Chinese than I would, if I just studied lessons based on the topics that seemed most interesting to me. I started near Chinesepod's inception. So, catching up with the backlog wasn't too hard, except that when I started the advanced lessons were beyond me. After I was able to handle the advanced lessons, I started studying two a week, until I had gotten through them all. I imagine the same strategy would work for anyone, just study more lessons at your level than Chinesepod produces, and you'll eventually catch up.
BTW, I still listen to even the elementary and newbie lessons. Sometimes they have useful tidbits, or reminders.