Where is everybody?
bodawei
April 06, 2010 at 12:52 AM posted in General DiscussionNumber of comments over the past week:
Media - 13
News & Features - 7
Qing Wen - 15
Intermediate (Monopoly) - 23
Elementary (April Fools Day) - 27
Advanced - 4
Upper Intermediate - 17
Questions: Where is everybody? (Surely not studying?) What proportion of the comments on Lesson threads are people seeking language partners?
But that raises another question - if the high % of 'spam' is affecting the discourse, should ChinesePod design a space just for messages seeking language partners?
bababardwan
April 15, 2010 at 02:45 PM
henning,
good to see you present mate.I'm not sure if you're default setting was the same as mine on the home page,but mine was set at "bababardwan" which is basically my guided class.Changing my "dashboard view" to "all groups" meant I could see the conversations below the lessons.
As an aside,interestingly if you go on the lessons tab,you can see the latest comments in the lesson discussions.
henning
April 15, 2010 at 02:20 PM
Still here, although the cold "General Discussion" icon definately feels less inviting than the personal avatars...but maybe that is temporarily (?).
I still haven't had the time to find out wether or not the selection of lessons on the dashboard is arbitrary and why there are no Conversations listed there. I guess I will find out eventually.
bodawei
April 13, 2010 at 02:00 AM
我总是点了名。 (I always do roll calls). The students answer 到！If they are sick it is 病假 (sick leave). A surprising number have leave for doing driving tests; they seem to have about three days off for this, even if they don't fail! At university you have to attend a minimum number of classes to be allowed to sit exams. It's one way to get kids to classes. :)
bababardwan
April 13, 2010 at 12:52 PM
多谢朋友。。。那，所以用“点了名”而不用“唱名”，呢？顺便，我觉得我今天听听约翰说“唱名”在今天的课程【后面我的帖子】。。。那个意思是通常的意思【在英文说Solfege】
bodawei
April 13, 2010 at 01:21 AM
Almost everybody is back, I'm pleased to say. Even if just to complain about threading. :)
xiaophil
April 13, 2010 at 12:42 PM
Baba
At my university we do roll calls. Although, sometimes teachers just pass around the class list and let them personally check off their names. It's amazing how often there is perfect attendance ;-). Seriously, students don't have jobs, so most of them are always in class. Okay, this is more than you wanted to know...
xiao_liang
April 13, 2010 at 08:43 AM
It almost as if it was the Easter holidays and now everyone is back. I wish someone had said that when you first posted the topic!
bababardwan
April 13, 2010 at 01:30 AM
Hey mate,do you know if they do roll calls in China? I presume not at the uni's though. hmm,how to say...lets see...要不。。。唱名？
bodawei
April 11, 2010 at 02:32 AM
'Where is everybody?' - Review
Or .. 'lets hear it for the noisy minority' :-)
A fortnight ago I counted the comments on the Lesson boards over 7 days - total 106 comments. In the past 7 days there were 153, an increase of 50% over a fortnight ago. Maybe this post spurred a few people into action, hee hee.
On this current thread the main discussion turned to 'threading' (although this was not specifically invited.) And although there was no invitation to vote, of 24 participants in the thread, 10 speak out against the current threading, one person is neutral and one person is mildly positive. These 24 participants are the main non-teacher posters - yes, this is a surprising 'statistic' for me.
It would seem (this is necessarily educated guess-work, obviously I don't have access to all of the numbers - but perhaps ChinesePod could post the actual numbers?) that:
- 25 customers currently make more than, say, 80% of the posts.
- say no more than 50 customers make more than 90% of the posts, with many of these making just a couple of posts a month. [This amounts to no more than ONE class of students in China!]
- and (I guess) that no more than about 100 customers in total have posted in the past month. Let's say another 30 - 50 come to the threads but never make a comment.
So when ten customers, who possibly make 50% of the posts (again just an educated guess), speak out against the current threading (unsolicited) then perhaps ChinesePod should listen. Because these people are the main users of this aspect of the ChinesePod offering.
It should also be pointed out that these 'users' also contribute to the learning of others, including the learning of the so-called 'silent majority' who never post. 'Free-riders' I call them! ;-)
*Disclosure: I did not solicit comments on 'threading'; nor did I vote or comment here on the comments. My view on the current threading is mildly negative; it has both good and bad points. My main concern is that it is more difficult than before to keep track of conversations - it needs a 'tweak' to solve this problem.
bababardwan
April 11, 2010 at 10:43 AM
thanks mate.I couldn't find that one when I looked.I came across a few such as the one I posted above,but they all seemed to refer to the literal origin of touche and not the figurative so I didn't think they conveyed the right meaning. Now that I have yours I see that it does have a figurative meaning of "to hit the nail on the head" which is close but I'm not sure if it conveys the full meaning of "touche" but if it came up under touche then I suppose it is trying to come up with that meaning
bababardwan
April 11, 2010 at 09:07 AM
I don't want to disrupt with my inane questions
...don't be silly mate...it'd be great to have more of your contributions.Lai,lai he jiayou :)
[and I reckon all questions are valid.We're all in the same boat,we all have questions that others may see as simple....who cares? ..ask away I say}
trevorb
April 11, 2010 at 08:31 AM
I thought that the activites was a good medium for promoting chatting, certainly among the twitter fans. I enjoyed going there every day and just posting a line or two about anything. A lot of people would then helpfully correct and I made a few friends.
This was actually where I first began to actually communicate using 普通话 before that I had not really interacted with CPod at all. Activites though started to break down when people stopped coming there and now its always quiet and I am assuming will disappear when the new stuff hits.
When it comes to the conversations I often read them, but less often comment in the language based ones. I see posts from so of you guys and you seem so knowledgeable that I don't want to disrupt with my inane questions! Thing is I know that it probably would not bother most of you in the least but, well hey 我是英国人！
changye
April 11, 2010 at 05:48 AM
The new threading system might be good for reading comments after discussions have been quieted, but not so good for posting comments and real-time discussion. I know you can't easily get the best of both worlds, but I think Chinesepod should at least provide a page that shows "recently posted comments", which is probably not technically difficult. I'm sure this will help very much.
bodawei
April 11, 2010 at 05:26 AM
'expect to be ignored'
Hee. Hee. There was a time in my life when I would be outraged being ignored! But I have become more 'Buddhist' about things - at my age I am actually quite happy to be ignored. Keep a low profile I say. :)
And here, by answering you, I am contradicting myself! Bumping myself to the top of the board!
Anyway RJ, it's always good to hear from you. Pull your head out of that textbook occasionally - we will all be richer for it. :)
RJ
April 11, 2010 at 05:10 AM
you are making sense bodawei but expect to be ignored. Someone has an agenda. Besides the only post that gets read anymore is the latest one. Tal is right, it isnt fun anymore and with the new crashboard filtering it is going to get even quieter. If I wanted boring I would learn Chinese from a textbook.
trevorb
April 10, 2010 at 09:09 PM
Has anyone here that has trouble with the threading seen Google Wave? I struggled with that when I first tried it then realised that there was a button that scrolled the thread to the bits I had not yet read so I could see just the new input wherever they are in the thread.
Seems like something like that would work here too allowing people to skip through the thread to the bits they haven't read.
I must say that the threads could add consistency that was missing before. I found I rarely got in at the beginning of a thread so I was often reading through it and found it difficult (especially when language focused) when I encountered and answer to a question many posts previous. With threading the questions and answers could stay together allowing a thread to wander in topic but for people to be able to follow bits of it...
One thing though I'd like to ask. The "Notify me of follow up comments via e-mail" tick box seems to have absolutely no effect whatsoever. Is this the same for me or is it 因为我有胡子?
rods
April 10, 2010 at 04:31 PM
I've been busy. Hopefully, I'll be able to get back to this within a week or so.
Tal
April 10, 2010 at 02:58 PM
Hi folks, as for me, life has been busy recently with plenty of 压力. Time to study is much tighter than in times gone by, (I rarely have time to do podcast transcripts now for example.) I do try and keep up with the latest lessons pitched at my level, mostly I succeed. But when I dip into these community boards I generally feel pretty apathetic about joining in, perhaps it's a phase I'm going through. Maybe I'm just getting to that point where study and real learning take precedence over discussions which often seem like deja-vu.
I do have to say though that I agree the 'threading' has never really turned out to be an improvement, and that generally these boards are not much fun anymore. I can recall a time (year or so back? when pete was still around?) when I looked forward to the boards almost as much as the lessons, and frequently neglected study in favor of them. At the moment what time I can give to CPod is almost entirely spent studying the lessons, learning vocab, etc. I've also been using Skritter more recently to improve my knowledge of 汉字.
paulinurus
April 10, 2010 at 02:31 PM
After participating in the postings this week, I think I see what the complains are about the threading system. Posts are so called "lost" because they do not ALL appear/listed on the Conversations page as they did before. So it is not as convenient as before to follow the goings on on a board.
Because of the complains it seems Cpod has recently responded bynot limiting the number of replies shown (see masterhaoyuhang header post here).
John's said intention forimplementing the threading system was in response to complains thatthere were too much of clique chit-chattingmaking it difficult to find lesson postings thus intimidatingthe silent majority from posting. Now that threading has been implemented, the complains boil down to that it is difficult to follow posts because not all posts are listed on the Conversation board.
Now it seems weare getting the worst of both worlds!So bothsides will now be complaining.
go_manly, you said that you're bumpingso as to put your posts on the front page to beseen by Cpod for attention. I had asked the Cpod Manager (Matt) before how Cpodstaff monitors postings. He said staff has a daily listing (some fancy management report name I now can't remember the name of) to showALL posts. They read each post so that they know when and to whom to respond to.
p.s. some words above were squeezed together after I used the edit function. /P>
tvan
April 10, 2010 at 08:59 PM
People complained for years when there was no threading. Now they complain that there is threading. I was never/am-still-not ready to commit hari-kari either way. However, though it seems to have good and bad points, overall, I prefer the current threading to the old system.
BEBC
April 10, 2010 at 07:20 PM
I think your point of view is well put, Paulinurus; I'm not inconvenienced by the new system, I'm happy with the way things are now. Don't knock those flame wars, though, they're pretty entertaining - they just shouldn't be on the lesson boards. Maybe I can start a new one sometime and ruffle a few feathers.
I don't need to see my beak on display every time I squawk.
Don't get the bird, folks. Must fly
paulinurus
April 10, 2010 at 06:49 PM
Oh OK, I thought previously all posts were listed on the Conversation Board... shows how much attention I paid to the mechanics of whereabouts of postings. Must say though personally I have not been terribly inconvenienced by threading to get to read posts on topics that I'm interested in. I simply go to the particular tread and continue reading where I last left off. However I do admit there is some inconvenience in having to go to the header thread instead of going to the end portion of the board. However, it seems to me Cpod has responded to the complains by programming the slider to move to the new posts upon your clicking a post on the Conversation Board. After you've clicked on the latest post on the Conversation Board it's quite eerie to watch the posts moving down on its own without you moving the mouse. Of course the advantage of threading is that readers can ignore a flame war (like some of mine last year ) by easily ignoring the whole tread instead of having to skip through every post (battle) to get to those posts which they are interested in. I think a large part of the lessons boards being quiet now is that the regulars routinely use the conversation boards for non-lesson community chatting instead of within a lesson board itself, which was the general case last year. I would say the credit for implementing this practice goes to Matt who apparently designed the detailed "deletion policy" and hung it below the board to warn us that posts not related to lessons risk the wrath of the big eraser. .
sebire
April 10, 2010 at 04:56 PM
Post replies were never all listed on the Conversations page, only the latest on any particular discussion. This was fine in previous times, as you just scrolled up to the last one you saw. This is not possible any more. The difficulty lies in finding the second-to-last or third-from-last post etc, as they are not necessarily in the same part of the convo.
paulinurus
April 08, 2010 at 04:15 PM
I thought I understood go_manly's post but obviously I didn't. What the heck is:
"when two comments are posted under different branches of the same thread, the first one is lost."
Instead of trying to explain the above, maybe it is better to demonstrate....couldsomeone make a post disappear (lost) on a thread on this board so that I can have the opportunity to complain with the rest ofyou, even though it'll unlikely make a difference now that the main communicator has left his post, but what the heck!
p.s. now how do you say in Chinese to tell the tech people that after editing at times some words in the original post get squeezed together.
Also, can anyone explain why natives in China writing English text in language exchange have the tendency not to space words following ,.; punctuation marks?
RJ
April 09, 2010 at 09:23 AM
Paul
Possible solutions:
1. turn the threading off -the volume doesnt justify it anyway
2. Allow individual users to turn it on or off
3. have all posts that are new since the last time you visited any given comments page highlighted in some way.
paulinurus
April 09, 2010 at 01:56 AM
go_manly,
I guess I'm using the community postings differently from some. I look at TOPICS rather than for each NEW POSTING.
When I feel the need to find out what's going on with the Cpod community, I'll first check the COMMUNITY PAGE to see if there is a new CONVERSATION TOPIC which looks interesting. Then I'll quickly browse through the posts.
For me the usefulness of threading is that if conversations are going on based on a topic/thread header which I have no interest in, I just skip the whole thread. In the old system I'd have to read and hurdle through all the posts on a topic which I have no interest in to find something which might be of interest. But I can understand for those who wish to know of every new posting, since the last read, then they have to look through each thread for new postings.
Maybe a happy medium would be not to have threading for conversation pages and threading for lessons pages. I think having threading in lesson pages is a real time saver... you can avoid having to hurdle through any heated discussions among a few individuals on say, whether a word is a verb or a noun, or say, whether a Chinese sentence has been appropriately translated in order to get to counsellors comments/explanations on the lesson at hand.
Excuse the capitalized words... but there are no italics, bold, or colored font capabilities when replying. And why not Cpod? What's the point on having text and font options on new posts and not on replies?
chris
April 09, 2010 at 01:53 AM
Ah, this is exactly what I do! Now I understand what people are complaining about. Scrolling down is not so bad if the entire thread is not too long, i.e. 4-5 spins of the mouse-roller. However, I agree, if any longer I don't tend to bother.
On the main topic of the thread, Jan-Apr are my "busy season" at work so I have not actually studied a single lesson during this period. Plan to get back into it from this weekend.
go_manly
April 08, 2010 at 11:59 PM
paulinurus
Tell me, when you click on a link from the Conversations page, do you browse through the entire thread looking for comments made between your last visit and the current post. Most people either don't think of doing that, or can't be bothered. So such comments (ones not in the latest sub-thread) are 'lost' to most of the CPod community.
There have been occasions where I have wanted to comment on 2 separate sub-threads within the same thread. But I have refrained because I know that my first comment will just not get read.
This is also one of the reasons I have to bump so many of my questions for CPod - they just never get seen. (And CPod do not seem to want to look past page 1 on the Conversations page.)
sebire
April 08, 2010 at 06:49 PM
i.e. it is impossible to identify the latest posts prior to the one displayed on the main Conversations page without checking every sub-thread within one page. No wonder conversations never get going. There are 14 sub-threads on this conversation alone. The posts don't disappear, they are just "lost" because it takes far too much effort to find them.
sebire
April 08, 2010 at 11:27 AM
I for one have been too busy to do anything except complain. However, this issue with threading is a real problem. I don't understand why it was never switched back off until a better solution was found.
go_manly
April 08, 2010 at 12:30 PM
Well, on this issue I agree with you 100%. (We will have to agree to disagree on that other one.)
waiguoren
April 08, 2010 at 10:54 AM
Moved back to Oz, so learning Chinese has become a lesser priority. When I was in China, I was totally (well, nearly) immersed in the language and I had a set routine: I would wake up just before the lesson comes out, download it, study it, and be straight into the discussions. Now, I just download and study by myself (though not as thoroughly) when I have time, might post the odd comment, but really feel 'out' of it since I've been back...
zhenlijiang
April 08, 2010 at 08:54 AM
Bodawei I've been not so much disgruntled as simply busy.
(off-topic--may I ask where your photos that you've been posting in your 牌子 group are? Not on Flickr obviously. I'd like to post a photo of mine but don't know where to put it that isn't blocked in the PRC)
bodawei
April 08, 2010 at 02:14 PM
Probably just blocked in Changye's 小区。 Changye is a marked man - he should behave himself better. :)
I will check your photo out.
zhenlijiang
April 08, 2010 at 02:07 PM
Bodawei haha, remember, as "frequenters" we're always in the tiny minority among all poddies!
I guess you discussed this before--Changye said today that Flickr is blocked in the PRC, so I suppose it is in his region at least. Huh. So are you able to see the photo I posted here today?
http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/7126
bodawei
April 08, 2010 at 11:33 AM
Hi Zhenlijiang. You have been missed - being 'busy' is vastly over-rated.
Flickr is not blocked here - in recent times I have been using Flickr to post photos at ChinesePod.
paulinurus
April 08, 2010 at 05:24 AM
Not sure what the problem is with the threading... seems to be working fine. Replies to a post are listed chronologically with the post functioning as a topic header (eg hellotherebrick's post) while new posts appear chronologically as when posted. That's how threading's supposed to work, isn't it?
sebire
April 11, 2010 at 04:04 PM
我work in IT [怎么说?], 我和我的同事这个星期讨论建立(?) IT 工会。我们问老板如果我们罢工，他就做什么？He said he'd just get contractors in! Probably from India too. Obviously, there are just too many cheap people with skills.
RJ
April 11, 2010 at 03:27 PM
Sebire,
actually that is not a bad suggestion. I have had Indian IT teams work for me several times and always I am surprised by the wonderful result. They know their stuff and they seem to grasp complex and unique logistical or data base needs very quickly. They speak great english, are cheap, and many would like a chance to live in China.
sebire
April 08, 2010 at 11:32 AM
I have to admit, I did find it mind-boggling that none of the developers could speak English. Perhaps try India for cheap developers that can speak English. My friend says they can knock up a great website for £100!
RJ
April 08, 2010 at 09:26 AM
If everyone didnt use the system, you are right it would effectively neutralize it but I dont see that happening. How stubborn does someone have to be to persist with something when clearly all the customers hate it (except you evidently)? John is concerned that the outspoken do not represent the majority? They do represent the majority of those that post. Oh, I forgot, those squeaky timid lurker voices (no offense to them) that will poke out of the silence. Well actually there have been a few. They have asked questions that for the most part are promptly ignored by cpod. I would think this is more intimidating than anything and they will quickly retreat.
Obviously you have misunderstood go manly's comment, maybe because you havent posted much lately either, you havent noticed the problem.
Somewhere you mentioned Hank's comment about an "all Chinese IT team that is difficult to communicate with". He did say that, and he also said (when prices went up) that they want to be able to hire the best talent. IT guys that speak English or have western state of the art experience cost more. They can work for international companies of great size. Maybe they should hire a couple. As a Chinese company they just dont seem to mind repeatedly losing face in the IT and web development areas.
paulinurus
April 08, 2010 at 08:45 AM
I don't see that happening... replied to Jamestheron then replied to trevorb who was replying to Jamestheron, then replied to myself and all three replies showed up. Nothing lost - see test1, test2, and test3 above.
go_manly
April 08, 2010 at 07:07 AM
The problem with this form of threading is that, when two comments are posted under different branches of the same thread, the first one is lost. Unless one routinely searches through entire threads for such lost comments.
paulinurus
April 08, 2010 at 06:00 AM
Don't like the threading system? Well then simply don't "reply" to the topic header and instead post the reply as a new topic. Then we'll be back to the old way, and back to hurdling through chit-chats of "cliques" which apparently intimidate the silent majority to post.
chanelle77
April 07, 2010 at 10:51 PM
The HSK exam is coming up in less than two weeks, maybe everyone is studying (like me :-p)? Also I'm still at uni and it is really demanding. Besides that, I try to keep up with the new podcasts (because they have proven very useful for my listening skills), but my archive grows steadily.
I will be back more actively though and will give an update on how the HSK went for those who are interested.
Sorry to say, but I agree with the threading complaints, seems like the heart is gone somehow.....
paulinurus
April 08, 2010 at 05:43 AM
Threading may be the least issue of poddies concern a few months from now with John (the heart) no longer looking after the back office. I recall Hank mentioning that an ongoing challenge at Cpod is the ability to communicate effectively to the tech employees (Chinese natives) the system designs and applications needed and that John was the key communicator.
trevorb
April 07, 2010 at 10:27 PM
I liked the soon to be gone activities because I could just post about anything and people would answer and help.
Lesson comments are okay but if you don't get in early someone else has already said what you had to offer so no point in posting. Not only that but I also feel more awkward about posting in Chinese in discussions than I did in activities. They feel more formal tome so I feel I have to do them right and alas that means I use my native tongue rather than exploring my Chinese.
Of course modifying the web pages big time takes a four amount of work so this could explain why there is less input from CPod staff at the moment.
BEBC
April 07, 2010 at 08:38 PM
I'm languishing in the Isolation Ward with what appears to be a bad case of Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, but at the moment it's hard to say. At least I have the opportunity to catch up on cataloguing my cornflake collection.
changye
April 11, 2010 at 02:36 AM
Hi batguano
That's a nice user name. It's short, impressive, and memorable, especially for me, who have the experience of importing bat guano fertilizer from the US when I worked for a trading company in Tokyo more than two decades ago. Your user name just reminds me of "the good old days", thanks.
changye
April 10, 2010 at 02:52 PM
Gee, this sub-thread is really difficult to follow (partly because I'm a little tipsy now). Incidentally, masterhaoyuhang, I would appreciate if you could choose a little shorter user name next time....
bababardwan
April 10, 2010 at 02:25 PM
其实，师傅好于行，我从你的手第一次拿卵石【而每次以后】，这就是为什么我们要继续再那么多遍拍摄这部场景，哎哟，到底我可以 出去，我马上就走了
顺便，我拿那个卵石当击掌的时候，呵呵
BEBC
April 10, 2010 at 01:56 PM
Now that you have taken the pebble from my hand, it is time for you to leave.
BEBC
April 10, 2010 at 11:01 AM
Emu eats grasshopper. Grass covers Emu, Grasshopper eats grass. Each in turn conquers the other. This is the harmony of nature.
Was that the sound of one hand clapping, or just the clap ?
BEBC
April 10, 2010 at 09:51 AM
Grasshopper, it takes many years of diligent application to attain this level of drivel. A Shaolin priest can walk through walls.
bodawei
April 07, 2010 at 11:43 PM
哈哈。
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis - 是不是清楚地？
pneu - 空气的
mono - 单的
ultra - 过分的
micro - 最小的
scopic - 眼睛的
silico - 硅的
volcano - 火山的
iosis - 生病的
空气的单的过分的最小的眼睛的硅的火山的疾病.
我们希望这个疾病可以快消灭的，对吧？
bababardwan
April 07, 2010 at 10:54 PM
顺便，虽然你住在北方英国我还不相信你有火山肺矽病，反而我觉得你有虚言癖【在英语说Pseudologia fantastica, hehe]
jamestheron
April 07, 2010 at 04:39 AM
The discussion has been a little quieter recently. There are probably several reasons.
When CPod offered their Guided Plan for the price of Premium promotion, I renewed and have since just focused only on my study plan and other classes. As my plan mostly consists of older lessons, I no longer have time to follow the current offerings.
trevorb
April 07, 2010 at 10:19 PM
I know what you mean, I know I can comment still on the older lessons but often I've answered my questions part way down the thread!
Maybe the current lesson should be a review lesson on the plans or something?
bodawei
April 16, 2010 at 09:40 AM
Jenny - alcohol & old age kill brain cells. As you are still young I take it that the GMAT classes involve a lot of drinking. ;-)
I did the test roughly thirty years ago - I wonder if it has changed much? I wonder if the one set in Shanghai is modified in recognition of Chinese culture - probably not (they take pride in standardization). Anyway, all the very best with the test. If nothing else GMAT classes should remove some potential anxiety about doing the test.
xiao_liang
April 16, 2010 at 09:33 AM
参加的时候好运！
That's probably mangled :-p Good luck when you take it!
jennyzhu
April 16, 2010 at 09:28 AM
I am here guys. I have been quite busy with teaching Virtual School classes for the past a few weeks. My GMAT classes are on the weekend, a brain cell killing exercise.
@bodawei, I actually think the class has been very useful. But I haven't taken the test yet.
bodawei
April 16, 2010 at 09:17 AM
If she is studying for the GMAT she is not okay. :-(
Xiao_liang: a lot of commerce revolves around things that are not actually needed, but that is not what I am talking about here. For GMAT you can prepare by having a look at the format of the test. There is no charge for doing that. Think of it along the lines of an IQ test that is aligned with skills used in management education - it is a good predictor of performance in an MBA course. It is not a good predictor of performance as a manager. :)
xiao_liang
April 16, 2010 at 08:02 AM
Aha, thanks. Hope Jenny is ok, and her absence isn't a sign of anything bad :)
catherinem
April 16, 2010 at 07:48 AM
The GMAT is an entrance test for business school (Graduate Management Admission Test).
xiao_liang
April 16, 2010 at 07:45 AM
I don't even know what GMAT is, if I'm honest. What's that big classroom in her blog about if you can't study for it?
xiao_liang
April 07, 2010 at 09:43 PM
Studying for GMAT?
http://jennyzhu.com/2010/03/22/americas-silent-revolution-in-china/
henning
April 06, 2010 at 05:37 PM
I'm still here, however I currently don't have the time to get sucked into the discussions so I refrain from posting...
changye
April 06, 2010 at 12:53 PM
Hi bodawei
I think that the current threading system and "language exchange" spams, at least, don't help increase comments here.
user76423
April 06, 2010 at 08:37 PM
@changye: You are right. The current threading system is awful. The threads are very, very confusing and hard to follow. And the spam posts tell me: go back studying, don't read all this garbage!
Plus: if the weather is good, I enjoy listening ChinesePod in the park.
changye
April 06, 2010 at 01:21 PM
Hi bodawei
I believe some people have already gotten tired of complaining about the new threading system and those spam comments. Exactly speaking, "language exchange" spams were not so spammy in the old threading system, but they really are spammy in the current system, where you have difficulty finding newly-posted comments, except for the newest one.
bodawei
April 06, 2010 at 01:12 PM
Hi Changye
I won't comment on the threading (maybe that has been done to death) but I am wondering if ChinesePod should design a special space for the 'language exchange' conversations. I suggest allowing people to report the success of these approaches for language partners - that might help keep out the type of approach we refer to as 'spam'. Actually I have just re-read my post and I think it may be rubbish. I was trying to suggest that even spammers give up if effort is not rewarded, but unfortunately a lot of people are inconvenienced in the process either way. My 'nurture them not nuke them' approach is going to go the way of the Hippy. :-)
orangina
April 06, 2010 at 11:21 AM
I moved and no longer have unlimited internet access. Am working on that though so I can come back more. (I also just had 2 friends complain to me about my absence.)
changye
April 07, 2010 at 02:59 PM
I have the same experience here in northeast China, where internet connection is not so stable. Actually, life without the internet is OK sometimes, isn't it?
changye
April 07, 2010 at 01:40 PM
Hi orangina
Let's look at the positive side. Without internet at home, you now have plenty of time for reading books!
orangina
April 07, 2010 at 01:30 PM
Let me rephrase, I no longer have internet access at home. It is very sad indeed!
Good tip on the receipt, thanks!
bodawei
April 06, 2010 at 12:53 PM
I thought that all home internet access in China was unlimited. My understanding with China Telecom is that there is a choice of two speeds, that's it. Okay, I do have trouble reading the brochures.
And I accidentally paid some of my bill in advance recently - instead of a receipt for what you paid, they give you a receipt for how much you are AHEAD. (Took me some time to work that one out.)
pretzellogic
April 06, 2010 at 10:59 AM
i'm entertaining relatives here from North America on easter break.
xiao_liang
April 06, 2010 at 08:52 AM
I hope that wasn't a snarky comment! I post on here while at work in breaks. I study pods on the way home in the car, and do other study while at home :-p
I don't study while I'm spending time with friends and family!
xiao_liang
April 06, 2010 at 12:58 PM
Heh! No, I sit in the back studying hard, while my chauffeur drives me home :-p Or not.
I think listening to podcasts while sitting in traffic is perfectly fine!
bodawei
April 06, 2010 at 12:33 PM
Definitely not snarky, I envy anyone who can do ChinesePod at work, even during breaks. I used to print off the odd lesson at work for the train home. You sound pretty organised by the way. I just hope you are not driving yourself while 'studying pods'. Sounds like a poor defence in case of an accident.
bodawei
April 06, 2010 at 08:49 AM
Xiao-liang. Ah, yes Easter, but I thought that was an opportunity to stay home & do ChinesePod. Wait, I've just remembered that you do yours at WORK.
Xiaophil. Your work ethic is an example to us all. :) I actually had a break with Tomb Sweeping Day, back to work in earnest tomorrow. Hope to see you back here more BTW - your contributions are missed.
I was looking for some kind of Information Age response to this question - are we in 'overload' on this site? Are there so many groups, so many conversations, that it is just not possible to keep them going? And weren't we worried, just a matter of weeks ago, about TOO MANY comments from certain people? It seems to me that this thing we know, ChinesePod, is a sensitive flower. It needs to be nourished more than regulated.
user76423
April 06, 2010 at 08:33 PM
@bodawei:
Self study is full of ups and downs.
Sometimes everything flows, you are optimistic, Anki reviews show you've learned something, you understand audios easily.
And sometimes you understand nothing, your Anki reviews are full of failures, you feel depressed because there seems to be no progress.
But you go on.
It's hard and it's mostly fun.
But sometimes you think you should stop this crazy Chinese...
bodawei
April 06, 2010 at 09:00 AM
My brain would not cope with that. I had a one hour encounter with a Chinese version of the 'Amway lady' yesterday and I think that will nearly do me for the week. 先在房子内及其干净。
xiaophil
April 06, 2010 at 03:50 AM
I have been really busy lately, so that's why I haven't been here much. I have been checking in, though, and it does seem to me that there are fewer people commenting.
bodawei
April 15, 2010 at 01:31 PMdashboard - 汽车的仪器板; (n) the structure in front of the front seat and immediately behind the windscreen of the car, housing instruments like the speedometer. These structures are ‘padded' because in a collision the driver and passengers are likely to be thrown forward and injure themselves on the dashboard and steering wheel.
It seems appropriate to ask the question 'Where is Everybody?' again.