User Comments - ElijahW
ElijahW
Posted on: 这红包该不该送？
September 05, 2019, 02:09 PM我的辅导老师说：他老婆生孩子的那天，他跟自己的妈妈关于送红包的争议跟这个课文基本上一样。这个对话反映生活真正的风气。
Posted on: 考试制度
September 05, 2019, 01:57 PMI had the same issue - I had a hard time typing this phrase in Pinyin because all the wrong characters kept coming up! But my tutor recognized it, and even commented that it's often used exactly as it was in one of the expansion sentences: complaining about an overbearing boyfriend / girlfriend. But I do find it uncharacteristic of lessons from this era that a relatively rare phrase is singled out for expansion sentences. A big reason I continue studying these lessons is how well they typically help me single out the more commonly used words and phrases.
Posted on: Tips on How To Prepare for the HSK
July 30, 2019, 03:41 PMHi Susanna,
The ChinesePod levels actually pre-date the current HSK 1-6 setup by two or three years, but they do have a point in common: The HSK is supposed to be modeled after the Common European Framework (CEF), which was also the inspiration for the original 6 ChinesePod levels: Newbie (A1), Elementary (A2), Intermediate (B1), Upper Intermediate (B2), Advaned (C1) and Media (C2). With the ChinesePod lessons I've done, my experience is that they do a great job of reflecting those levels: If I can talk like the dialogue of an Upper Intermediate lesson, then an oral exam would likely place me as a B2 speaker of Chinese.
There's a Reddit discussion on how well HSK corresponds to CEF. Short version: The HSK is too easy by one level.
Posted on: You Look Exhausted!
May 16, 2019, 09:21 PMYeah, this lesson is full of nostalgia! This was actually ChinesePod's very first attempt at an "Intermediate" lesson - long before John Pasden came along to whip the levels into shape. When "Pre-Intermediate" was added more recently, this lesson was re-graded down to that level.
Posted on: Tell me your business secret!
May 11, 2019, 06:00 PMHi Grace!
Actually, showing tone changes in Pinyin is not really that accepted. Beijing Language and Culture University Press has been doing it for a while with “不” and “一,” but they are more of the exception.
There is a long history behind this, and I’ve written about it on the Forum here.
Posted on: Online Shopping 网上购物
May 09, 2019, 03:12 PMThat's very cool - I had never noticed that about the ABC dictionary before.
Posted on: Online Shopping 网上购物
May 09, 2019, 12:31 PMI've had discussions with several Chinese teachers about this, and after thinking and looking, the consensus they seem to reach is that yīmúyīyàng is technically more correct, but both are commonly said.
Posted on: Are we both winners?
May 07, 2019, 05:46 PMHi there!
Every teacher and text book I've ever learned from always taught this word as cōngming, but I have on rare occasion seen it as cōngmíng. Is there a dictionary you're using that has it listed as cōngmíng?
Posted on: Are we both winners?
May 07, 2019, 05:42 PMHi there!
If you're looking for more speaking of Chinese, then you may want to look to the higher levels. This is an Elementary lesson, which (among other things) means that it will be mostly in English.
You can read about Elementary lessons at the top of this page: https://chinesepod.com/library/channels/list/elementary
If the higher levels are too difficult, you could still immerse yourself in Chinese by listening to the dialogue rather than the full lesson. I know of some students who did a great job learning with ChinesePod without ever listening to the full lessons. There are over 700 Elementary lessons, and if the average Elementary dialogue is 20 seconds, and you listen to each one 10 times, that should be close to 40 hours.
When I was at this level, I listened to the "Full Lesson" once, then the Dialogue three times a day for a month.
Posted on: Lesson 1 - The Dish
December 16, 2019, 07:55 PMThe HSK test itself is only available in Simplified, so I wouldn't expect a course on the HSK to be anything but Simplified. The TOCFL, however, is available in either Traditional or Simplified, so I would expect a TOCFL prep course to offer both.