Newbies - I want to talk to you
kencarroll
April 22, 2009, 12:55 PM posted in General DiscussionAs you may know I'm looking closely at he Newbie exerience on ChinesePod and I plan to make some changes at that level. We've had some people come by to offer feedback - and I'd like to meet more here if possible. I'm also interested in talking to people who may be overseas. If you're a Newbie and you'd be willing to give me 15 mins I'd like to call you and chat ovfer Skype. I'm happy to talk to people who are absolutely new to ChinesePod (for first impressions) or indeed people who may be somewhat more familiar. If you're up for it you can leave your message here or message me directly.
Tell me your thoughts and I'll see if I cna help. (Comments are also still welcome here.)
bastienmw
June 20, 2009, 03:49 AMSubscribed about 1 year ago when I started making trips to China. I was just on the basic plan so I did not have any access to the tools.
A few months back I upgraded and have since moved to China.
I think that the biggest weakness is that there is no real explanation for sentence structure (maybe I am just missing something). The Grammar is somewhat difficult for me to grasp. I think that it is implied in the lessons but not really discussed. The more that I try to speak to people here in China the more I realize that I need stronger grammar skills.
Also, it would be great if there was some canned sets of flash cards with just single characters for the iphone app. I have tried adding words from the lessons but have not come up with a list that is extremely useful. Also have noticed that the shuffle function does not work so I am not sure if I am just able to recognize a pattern or if I truly remember the word (first card shuffles but the rest are in the same order). I have tried Rosetta stone and found this to be the case, I could pretty well click my way through the thing blindly after a listening a few times.
My personal opinion on the translations in the PDF files are that they are way too liberal. Just my opinion though.
Not meaning to complain, I actually love ChinesePod and have found it to be one of the best tools out there.
Keep up the good work!
Mike
amandamo
April 22, 2009, 02:16 PM呵呵！Nice to meet you！My name is Amanda and i come from china.I am a university student。
now i really want to improve my English and make friend with you !And i also can tell you many about china!If you agree with my idea you can call me ! QQ：297763904
lotsofwordsandnospaces
April 22, 2009, 03:29 PMNice to meet you！My name is Neil and i come from Scotland. I am a university student~~~
i also can tell you many about Newbie.
pm me if you agree to skype friendship
lotsofwordsandnospaces
April 22, 2009, 03:57 PMI meant that in response to Ken, but re-reading that it seems like a sincere response to amandamo.
ziggy77
June 15, 2009, 01:35 PMI'm probably not a newbie now; but just thought I would mention something about my experience with CP when I actually was one and tried listening to a couple random newbie lessons.
Honestly I was not impressed at the time at all -- luckily for me after a year or so I tried Intermediate and was instantly hooked -- the quality is really quite amazing there: the hosts are doing a wonderful job, and it is obvious that a great deal of work is done behind the scene.
As I recall the big issue I had with newbie lessons was that there was *way* too much English there for my liking -- perhaps they were oriented more towards a person who would sometimes listen to different English language podcasts as entertainment and would not mind trying another one and learning a couple Chinese words along the way. Which might well be a reasonable marketing decision given that many people probably get it from itunes; but it did not feel like a lesson to me at all, and I was feeling I was just wasting my time. Going to the next level was not possible either b/o I could not understand the hosts chatting -- I was a newbie and I had no other exposure to Chinese.
I think I would have probably preferred longer Chinese dialogue -- sort of like how an Intermediate lesson is done, but with simpler content, English explanations (either short & to the point or more technical on the grammar), and much more repetition (and with the Chinese host generally talking more). Something that one could actually listen to four or five times. Perhaps a more "intensive" newbie line could be of use to some potential listeners?
sydcarten
June 15, 2009, 01:53 PMyeah, I'd be glad to talk with you about my impressions of ChinesePod
jealousy
June 15, 2009, 03:00 PMNice to meet you.
My name is Jealousy.I come from China and I am a student.I may feel happy that if anyone can talk to me,we can learn each other!^0^
My MSN:xkurenai@hotmail.com
mikeinewshot
June 15, 2009, 03:31 PMjealousy - where did you get such an extraordinary name?
guisela
June 15, 2009, 04:16 PMni hao! im new, and im having problems to set an order in the lessons, well, i have been practice since last year, but im still a newbie, where shuld i star? lessons like whats your name are easy to me? please helm me to get an order!! i wiil be happy to talk!
pjcaparso
April 22, 2009, 01:30 PMbe happy to talk. I have started at the Newbie level and I am finding the experience good so far. I have just started however.
jealousy
June 16, 2009, 09:39 AMThe name Jealousy is a song from X Japan that is called "Silent Jealousy"
X Japan is a Japannese band,if you want to know more click herehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Japan
bababardwan
June 16, 2009, 01:06 PMjealousy,
I suspect mikeinewshot was being facetious...I think he may be a tad jealous himself [of your username].
gullak
June 16, 2009, 04:08 PMHi Ken
I'm absolutely new to chinesePod, and my first impression is good. I like listening to your newbie lessons which are straightforward, easy and have a different approach compared to my textbook. I have studied mandarin before for ten weeks when I was studying abroad in Taipei, so my skills are currently above the newbie lessons i'm listening to.
I'm no longer in Taipei, so a reason i'm listening is to have the pronounciation input, which i know from first hand is important, otherwise locals don't understand a word of what you're saying.
Another reason is to keep myself practising everyday, and your pods come in handy since they are so easy to listen to.
I will agree with other people that the newbie section can be difficult to know where to begin. I myself have used my textbook to find pods that cover the same area.
Secondly, your newbie pods doesnt cover any grammatics. (Maybe, it comes at a higher level)
So to sum up
- lack of order
- no grammatics
+ pronounciation is very good to listen to
+ lesson are short and to the point
You can always contact me if you have some questions.
P.S. It bugs me that even though my settings are set for traditional chinese, when i use the flashcard function and concentration game i get simplified characters. If anyone knows where to change that please write me.
再見
lisa_t
June 16, 2009, 07:42 PMOne of the obervations I made in the beginning was that I sometimes found the expansion sentences more confusing than helping. I think it would help if the expansion sentences would be more uniform so that it's easier to pick up the patterns.
kennethshultz
June 17, 2009, 01:29 AMi was addicted to chinese pod from the first listen. now having joined the website, i am surprised to find that the 'stars' of the pod casts are so actively involved with the listening community...way to go guys! thanks ken for the thread.
k
Purrfecdizzo
June 17, 2009, 04:24 AMKen,
I am a newbie, learning Chinese in the United States. I would be more than happy to talk with you, if you want, sent me a Chinesepod email and I will get you the specifics of my Skype info.
George
mister_linguistix
June 17, 2009, 02:23 PMI would be honored to assist Ken. It would be the least I could do to give a little payback for your great service.
I am an English teacher currently residing in Cambodia, but making my way up to China in the long-term. I am also quite well-read in various aspects of linguistics and have dabbled in ~ 5 different languages (to different degrees).
Feel free to email me at : misterlinguistix@gmail.com to set up further dialogue.
leefc
June 15, 2009, 09:01 PMfine to talk - call or email. i split my time between the San Francisco and Shanghai. So "overseas" is all relative.
Observations as a newbie:
- where to start wasn't immediately clear
- organization of lessons sets wasn't obvious to me
- explictly defined tags could help with
- i think it would be helpful to have more on lessons on writing, but i know that is just me
maybe all that was here, but i just didn't notice
light487
April 22, 2009, 01:12 PMYup yup.. happy for you to probe me any time you like Ken. If you want to call me on skype let me know. I'm a little beyond Newbie now but still in the very early stages of learning this language.