Do you ever share lessons with anyone?
kencarroll
July 10, 2008, 03:19 PM posted in General DiscussionSince the changes to CPod some months ago, the whole thing has become much more sharable. You can, for example, just send the url of a lesson to anyone you like. They can then see the comments and listen to the lesson.
Does anyone actually do that? I'd like to hear from anyone that does. I'd like to know how this works.
I'd appreciate your comments.
missgoldfish
July 17, 2008, 06:53 AMI definitely advocate ChinesePod!! Even though I just registered, I've been lurking around for about two months already, just listening to the episodes. I guess the catchy advertisements really got to me, haha! (I really do enjoy the ads...) I don't share through sending links though, I just (repeatedly and persistently) tell my friends about it =D! And it's worked, because I know at least one person finally jumped on the bandwagon and suddenly asked himself why he didn't give it a go earlier.
andrew_c
July 10, 2008, 04:23 PMOh I see!
scottyb
July 10, 2008, 04:36 PMI shared a couple of lessons with a Chinese colleague of mine as an example of how I was (attempting) to learn Chinese. I didn't send him the URL, however. I was unaware that was possible. I also used to consistently share movie madness with a coworker.
mayor_bombolini
July 10, 2008, 06:08 PMI've been copying the url into my e-mail to my tutor on certain lessons I'd like to review.
Also, I have forwarded the home page url to folks that are interested in learning Chinese.
Haven't used the "Share This" facility yet. I guess I noticed it before, but this thread highlights the functionality. I'll check it out.
jamestheron
July 10, 2008, 10:58 PMI frequently use CPod lessons as part of my meetup.com group and just copy and paste the URL into my announcements without issues. I never noticed the "share this" feature until now.
tvan
July 11, 2008, 12:36 AMFirst time I've noticed the feature.
kencarroll
July 11, 2008, 03:52 AMThe old version of the site was not good for sharing individual lessons, but now there are lots of options. I like to simply post the url to people who i think might like that lesson. I have been amazed at how people respond - they can experience the audio part of the lesson without any registration and see what the community is saying about it. They tend to really like it.
I would hope that people would share lessons and encourage others to connect with our lessons and our community of learners.
jane
July 16, 2008, 02:45 AMKen
You seem to think that the old version of the site was difficult to share.
I know that that I had no trouble with the old version of the site.
Since the past 46 days I have endured nothing but frustation. I have no sound any morning here in Taiwan. I have heard that there is some problem getting sound from America. This is not only incovenient but as I have a lesson every morning I study in the morning. In the afternoon I have other things to do.
This is certainly not ChinesePod on my terms. It is bad value for money paid to Praxis in good faith.
I have written post detailing all the study facillities I have lost since the new site came on line. I have sent emails to ChinesePod and indeed to your good self without response or correction to the site. In fact it is now worse because when the new site was launched I still had sound. All you seem to be concerned is that people share lessons. In my case i will be sharing silence. What a joke!
mise le meas
Jane
lordstanley
July 10, 2008, 04:18 PMI like the Share This application (green icon under "Spread the Word" on the left-hand side of a lesson's dedicated page), as it makes sharing idiot-proof as it comes with a photo, a title, description (all of which you can alter if you wish) and doesn't require any URL coding at all. I post from other sites to Facebook that way quite often, so am most likely to use it to post a Dear Amber lesson as that would have the broadest appeal to my Facebook friends, many of whom are interested in China but not yet interested in Mandarin (of course that could change once they follow the link to ChinesePod!)
kencarroll
July 16, 2008, 07:04 AMJane,
I'm not one for technical issues. I promise to look into this amd get back to you today.
johnb
July 16, 2008, 07:54 AMJane,
I'm really sorry about the problems that you've been having. I've talked to Adi, looked at your e-mails to him and his responses to you, and it seems that the problems you're having are due to connectivity problems between Taiwanese ISPs and the Amazon S3 file servers upon which our lesson content resides. We have been in contact with Taiwanese ISPs relating to the problem and they are aware of it. However, unfortunately, it is a problem beyond our ability to solve. The connectivity problems began occuring at roughly the same time the new site launched, which may be why it seems that the new site was causing the problems.
To rule out any other possibilities, I'd like you to try a few things. One, if you're using the Traditional Chinese plugin for Firefox that we previously offered, try disabling it and see if the problems persist. Also, if you're using Firefox, please upgrade to the latest version. Finally, as Henning suggested, try upgrading to the latest version of the Flash player.
However, reading back through your previous posts on the problems you're having, I strongly suspect it's the connectivity problem I mentioned earlier. The link between "lessons without photos" and "lessons without audio" (when in fact all lessons have both) shows me that you're not able to connect to the Amazon S3 servers, as both the audio and photos reside there. While there have been problems with audio in the past, there are virtually never problems with lesson graphics, particularly on new lessons. Unfortunately, this is a problem whose solution is, as I mentioned earlier, simply out of our control.
andrew_c
July 16, 2008, 02:11 PMJohnb,
I concur with your assessment of the problem.
I was trying to help Jane use my WeLoveChinesePod program, and based on the debugging log files she sent me, she was able to consistently access the ChinesePod web page just fine, but almost always failed to connect to the amazonaws server. On only one occasion did sound files from the amazonaws server download succesfully.
jane
July 17, 2008, 02:08 AMHenning many thanks for your advice. I have upgraded to Firefox 3. I do not understand what you mean by IE.
Acorrigan has tried to help me and he did say there is some problem with Taiwan. I accept that because as I said in my post I still had sound after the change of site. But that does not explain away my problems with the real study facilities lost with the new site. Acorrigan made a very good suggestion that the Traditional Characters be provided at source rather than plugins.That would solve everything. I am still trying WeLoveChinesePod program.
. I will try to get the latest version of flash
Many thanks to all who have tried to help me
jane
July 17, 2008, 02:37 AMEveryone, I took all your advice and for the first time for I don't remember how long I have sound, in the flash cards in the morning. There is just one little quirk, when I use Hanzi and show there is no audio icon, so I must use audio.
Many thanks once again.
mark
July 17, 2008, 03:36 AMI've tried to share some lesson's but most the people I know have different Chinese ability than I do (better or worse). So just pointing out the trough to the horse seems to be the best approach.
coolguy1129
July 17, 2008, 05:53 AMhow r u guys. I m a chinese guy , and want to spread our culture , our language to the world . anyone want to learn chinese can email me . I will help u .
my email and MSN ID : lc_1129@hotmail.com
kencarroll
July 17, 2008, 06:08 AMJane,
I'm happy to see that things are looking better for you. The main thing is to keep learning!!
henning
July 16, 2008, 04:11 AMJane,
have you tried upgrading to Firefox 3? That cured all problems immediately on my side. Besides: What also always worked was switching to the IE.
Actually this is not a CPod but rather a Flash problem (which for me also affects sites like YouTube) - and the new version helped a lot in that regard.
andrew_c
July 10, 2008, 03:59 PMI don't understand. I thought that we have been able to share the url of a lesson for a while. I posted a link once on my blog last year when "Death by Ninjas" came out. One of my friends arrived at the website and listened to it just fine.