Why no names in dialogues?

Joachim
January 30, 2008, 01:38 PM posted in General Discussion

I'd like to have some names in the dialogues instead of A, B, C etc. They could be generic like baba, mama, erzi or boss, cleaner etc. Names like Xiaolong, Dashan ;-) are o.k. as well.

What do you guys think?

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henning
January 30, 2008, 01:44 PM

I just imagine The DVD Ploy with CPod staff member names instead of A and B ;) Seriously: Idea sounds good (especially for dialoges with three or four characters), but might rob valuable monitor space.

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Joachim
January 30, 2008, 01:51 PM

"Valuable monitor space"? Are you doing this on a 14" monitor?? (Just kidding.)

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sushan
January 30, 2008, 02:01 PM

Think naming the players would add a lot. For example, on EnglishPod you would always know the names of the people doing the dialogues and the hosts would refer to them by their names. (difference is the hosts often took part in the dialogues) Here, besides the soap opera series you hardly ever get to know the characters' names and it feels less like we actually know them.

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tvan
January 30, 2008, 08:54 PM

I sometimes had to do a double-take on lessons with multiple same-sex characters (e.g., beauty pageant); yeah, names sounds OK. If you do it in Chinese, it shouldn't take up too much space.

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marcelbdt
January 30, 2008, 09:33 PM

By now we do recognise several voices: but for many of them we have no name to go with the voices. It would be nice to know who they are - knowing the names of the persons doing the dialogues I mean. For the characters, A and B work fine for me.

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HannahIm
January 31, 2008, 06:17 AM

I would love to have names included. Probably the recognition and pronunciation of Chinese names is one of my weakest areas. It would help to be introduced to common names in the dialogues.

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jennyzhu
January 31, 2008, 07:12 AM

Two sides to the story as always. We'll keep a balance of names,to give exposure to Chinese names as they are an important part of the language and culture, but also not to confuse or divert focus. Incidentally, I got a user email today about introducing less common surnames, which I can also do, and I think would be a good lesson topic by itself. Did you know 死 is a surname! Thank you all for the ideas as always!

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rich
January 31, 2008, 02:59 PM

Geez...死?really? Did such a family have work in the morgue in the past? ha ha. But who would want to marry a guy named 死?He would be better of....well, you know.