New Presenters - Has it affected the level?

mikeinewshot
March 08, 2010, 09:44 PM posted in General Discussion

I have been away from Chinesepod for 6 months, so I have missed some changes.  For example, Jenny no longer seems to participate in Advanced podcasts.  I have listened to a couple and I do enjoy have a man's voice to aspire to, but I wondered whether there was a noticable difference in language content in the banter.

My first reaction is that I am finding the banter easier to follow, and that there are less words I don't know.  This could be because I have improved (anything is possible!) but my impression is that the language is now easier.

Also the dialogues seemed a little easier too.

What do other people think? Has the level changed somewhat?

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BEBC
March 09, 2010, 07:09 PM

Mike, I don't know about the Advanced level, but at the Intermediate level I haven't noticed any change towards easier-to-follow banter over the last 5 months or so, and the dialogues seem to be pitched at the same level over this time. When I first looked at Intermediate lessons I started at the beginning, and the banter there proved very difficult to follow; in fact I found I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to follow the banter.

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mikeinewshot
March 10, 2010, 11:45 AM

Well at the intermediate level, the presenters have not changed.

Does anyone who follows the advanced podcasts have a comment here?  I would have expected some reaction from people to a change of presenters, but maybe that happened long ago and I have missed it.

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bababardwan

Mike,I can only recall two reactions. One was a welcoming of a male voice [David/xuzhou] into the mix.The other was a poddie complaining that David was speaking too rapidly in an Advanced lesson...but then I think some others rebuffed this [after David had come on and said he'd slow it down] as it was appropriate to be at speed in an Advanced level.Sorry I can't recall more than that,but I thought I should give you something in the meantime.I hope you get some better answers than mine from those in the know.

Good to see you back by the way. :)

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xiao_liang

I wonder what the takeup is on the advanced level lessons. It's to be expected for any language school that the vast majority of learners will be beginners or starters, but I don't know how that translates in terms of lessons listened.

Do you think CPod have a league table of ratings? Number of listens/downloads per podcast? I imagine it like TV studios when the "dailies" come in after each new broadcast :)

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bababardwan

yes,I do think they have that data.Yes,I think the majority of their learners are newbie/ellie.I think this is only natural and is to be found in any challenging pursuit.The same drop off happens in the different levels in martial arts for example.But at the same time I think there is a not insignificant number of advanced learners.Quite sizeable in fact is my impression and they're hungry for more lessons at that level and CPod has heard the call and been responding in the last few months.I hope this will help retain more as I know there were some who formerly hinted that there was not enough material at those levels to keep them resubscribing,so I'm optimistic we'll see more at those levels as folk progress and stay.

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bababardwan
March 10, 2010, 12:09 PM

Mike,I can only recall two reactions. One was a welcoming of a male voice [David/xuzhou] into the mix.The other was a poddie complaining that David was speaking too rapidly in an Advanced lesson...but then I think some others rebuffed this [after David had come on and said he'd slow it down] as it was appropriate to be at speed in an Advanced level.Sorry I can't recall more than that,but I thought I should give you something in the meantime.I hope you get some better answers than mine from those in the know.

Good to see you back by the way. :)

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sydcarten
March 10, 2010, 12:53 PM

I've been thinking the same thing lately.

I've been both studying Ele lessons and looking at Intermediate lessons for some time.

Just lately the Intermediate lessons have become easier for me to tackle and the Ele lessons are just not challenging me enough any more.

Ele level still offers me lots of new vocab, but otherwise is getting boring.

If I want to learn more grammar or idiom then I am turning more and more to the Intermediate level or to Qing Wen (those are really great!)

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xiao_liang

Sounds as if your level has improved, rather than anything else...

Congratulations!

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xiao_liang
March 10, 2010, 01:08 PM

Sounds as if your level has improved, rather than anything else...

Congratulations!