Intermediate lesson format

Bill, All Chinese at the Intermediate level? As the host I speak in English at the Intermediate level, while Jenny speaks in Chinese. But I understand your frustration. You're not the only student that has had this problem. We are working at creating more lessons that will help bridge the gap from Elementary to Intermediate. In the meantime, I recommend you cover all the Elementary lessons if possible, and cover the old Intermediate lessons (many of which are easier). Advancing from Elementary to Intermediate takes time (much more time than advancing from Newbie to Elementary). 加油！

@ LostInAsia: Great idea! I hope CP will put this idea into reality...

In that last paragraph on my comment, I guess what I wanted to say was that I think the current formats offer plenty of variations on levels of transition between English and Chinese, but little in a progression from "easy" Chinese to "harder" Chinese during the banter. For some reason, the lesson scripted-dialogues in my mind, don't seem to function as well in doing this. Not quite sure why. Maybe it's just the process of listening to a live conversation (banter), having questions asked and answered and such, rather than just a dialogue, that makes it more engaging and memorable. (Which of course is still way more interesting that some narration! Don't get me wrong. )

I think that intermediate lessons are Good, But you do need to listen to the old podcasts so you can pick up the patterns. I listen to the Advanced, UI, media lessons , it improves my recognition and i pick up some useful listening skills too.

I tried to jump from Elementary to Intermediate (after a lot of Elementary lessons), but for me it seems nearly impossible to get any benefit from the banter. I understand about 5 % :-( . Sorry CP, but the gap is by far too big. Many guys addressed this but it seems that nobody @CP cares... Disappointed.

Hi Billzorn, Do you realize that in the intermediate lessons (not necessarily the upper-intermediate) John almost always does a word for word translation of everything that Jenny says? It's not really a banter conversation as such, more like a simultaneous translation. Unless Jenny talking to herself is an interesting conversation in itself. :) I guess if you hit pause/rewind and listen a few times you might pick up what she is saying by comparing it to John's translation. In the Upper-Intermediate John begins to do less of that translation and contributes his own thoughts and comments in Chinese during the banter. Not yet enough though IMO :) This is the format of the recent lessons, earlier lessons were a bit different. BTW, IMO I still think that at the intermediate level there is not enough 'rephrasing' by the English-dominant host into less complex Chinese or more likely familiar patterns during the banter. Ken used to do this really well. (still does in the ele's)

I tend to have trouble following the lessons, but studying just the dialogue itself usually isn't too difficult.

[@Bazza] Same with me - the banter drives me crazy because I don't understand anything. A transcript of the banter would be really nice...

大家好 Have a Lesson on Banter, we all do it! a series of lessons on this. No Fixed dialogs, Just an informal Chat between Jenny&john 1/2 English 1/2 中文. 感谢

When I first started dealing with the current-format Intermediate lessons, the banter was really difficult - but now I usually find it **easier** than the dialogue material itself. (Even more so in Upper Intermediate!) This is probably because the banter does repeat many of the same expressions, and John & Jenny are trying to speak a little more slowly and clearly (vs some of the podcast conversations, which might be faster/ distorted/ emotional, e.g. "Uncomfortable Encounter in a Bar"). Those of you who have trouble dealing with the banter are going to cringe when I repeat the cliches, but I'm afraid it's true: bear with it, and persevere. It will come. There were no "tricks" that helped me do this; or at least, the only trick was rewinding 5-10 seconds on the iPod again and again and again. That being said, I did come to ChinesePod already on the happy side of the Elementary/ Intermediate gap (and I'm starting to get QUITE concerned about how Upper-Intermediate dialogues don't seem to be getting any easier for me, even if I can handle the banter.) A suggestion for ChinesePod, and I know I'm not the first one to make it: add ten or so "Intermediate Intro" lessons, where you take a typical lowish-intermediate dialogue and do what you'd normally do, but... speak... more... slowly... and... maybe... John... can... more... literally... translate... EVERYTHING... Jenny... says. I suspect a dozen or so of these tacked on to the beginning of Intermediate will be enough to "accelerate" those who probably COULD understand the Intermediate banter but can't quite catch it yet because they haven't had much experience listening to long stretches of Chinese.

sweetwatermelon2, You're wrong if you think that nobody cares. This is my job, and I take it seriously. I am working on the problem, and if you can't tell, I will keep working on it until you can. I am still not sure how much of the problem is due to people's unrealistic expectations, though. You don't just "graduate" from Elementary to Intermediate one day. It takes time, and it's not an abrupt switch-over. When you first start on the Intermediate lessons, they should be hard, but you should still be working on the Elementary at the same time. Over time, the Intermediate will stop being such a struggle and the Elementary will start getting easy. Please hang in there!