iPod pinyin "lyrics" broken

changbiyuan

December 08, 2009, 05:31 PM posted in General Discussion

I notice that with John involved in the lower lesson levels he tends to put a little more focus on pinyin than we got before. He'll often spell out the pronunciation of new words. This is quite handy, but I find it ironic that this change arrived about the same time that we stopped seeing pinyin in the "lyrics" when listening to lessons on an iPod!

About two months ago (Oct 6) I wrote to support pointing out this flaw, and Gulam was quite responsive and I was hopeful. But when I saw nothing happen and tried to follow up at the end of the month, mail to Gulam was bouncing. This time (Oct 27) I wrote again and got Bill, who was also responsive, but even in the latest lessons I don't see this issue corrected.

This is how lesson lyrics look now on the iPod:

有人吗?
Is anybody there?
有人吗?
Is anyone there?
我不是人。
I'm not human.
啊，我怕！
Ah, I'm scared!
我们快跑吧！
Quick, let's run!
啊！
Ah!

Asking within iTunes for the lyrics shows even less:

A: 有人吗?
B: 有人吗?
C: 我不是人。
A: 啊，我怕！
B: 我们快跑吧！
A: 啊！

The iPod version used to include pinyin, e.g.:

有人吗?
you3 ren2 ma5?
Is anybody there?
有人吗?
you3 ren2 ma5?
Is anyone there?
我不是人。
wo3 bu4 shi4 ren2
I'm not human.
啊，我怕！
a1, wo3 pa4!
Ah, I'm scared!
我们快跑吧！
wo3men5 kuai4 pao3 ba5!
Quick, let's run!
啊！
a1!
Ah!

I found this extremely useful to be able to verify pronunciation while I listened to lessons. What use is hanzi without the pinyin to newbie through intermediate learners, especially on the first time through a lesson? It takes some deliberate study of the characters before they'll be much help; in fact having them beside the pronunciations can even be a help in learning them!

Here's hoping this can be remedied sometime soon. Thanks.