User Comments - Llorente

Posted on: The New Coworker

I don't recognize Chinesepod. 

There are many mistakes of all sorts all over the place.  First, I agree with dorothycowling, the dialogue is he heart of the lesson, and the spoken dialogue, low quality, does not coincide with the text. You can easily detect a non-standard Taiwanese pronunciation, for instance at 業績, where 績 is pronounced first tone, instead of 4th.The dialogue ends with an abrupt bump. 

Dictation 3 is supposed to be saying 如果你不喜歡中國菜，那我們去吃義大利菜。And what I hear is something like w如果你不選是中，那我們急著義大利菜。

There are some simplified characters in the traditional version.  In the expansion and excercises you see this wrong sentence repeated twice: 我剛好趕上最後一斑公共汽車。(一斑 for for 一般). 

It is not possible to organize the sentences in the excercise dialogue, because they are wrong, not according to the spoken word, etc. For the first time additional vocabulary is not given.  

All in all, the presentation lacks spirit and it's school like.  One sorely misses the absolutely brilliant presentations of the previous hosts, Fiona, Constance, Kwelin and the rest of the team.   I hate to complain or find fault with others, no one is perfect.  But  I am sorry to say that Chinesepod is now in a difficult predicament.  In my opinion you should find new hosts, taking as much time as necessary to prepare them, it's easy, they should be able to perform as brilliantly which is usual with Chinesepod. Or should we assume that such an important organization as Chinesepod, with so many worker, should change if a couple of hosts change?

A final most important point I like to say.  What I said does not influence me, I still think, based of what you make available in the web, that there is nothign as good as Chinesepod.  But can you imagine what the impression would be for new members?  They will naturally want to try the latest lesson additions.  And so, unfortunately they will derive a bad impression which is not fair for the sake of Chinesepod.

Posted on: Donald Trump Declares U.S. Exit from the JCPOA (Iran Deal)

First, in my opinion there is nothing like Chinesepod, on the web. And now we can see how difficult must be to keep these high stardards. Relative to previous upper intermediate level lessons I see not a few defects.

First, this can hardly be called a lesson. It is just an article on Iran nuclear deal, could be termed an opinion piece or editorial aricle. Such a topic could easily be found on the web, it takes very little effort to copy it, or elaborate on it. Formal language, too much enphasis on proper names. We, as learners of Chinese, need to be helped on lively supple colloquial Chinese.

Creating a lesson from scratch, as it seems to be the general case for Chinesepod, must involve a lot of effort and imagination. The topic is very well chosen and up to date, but it should have been dealt with in the Chinesepod Upper intermediate way, as a discussion topic with conflicting views or in the form of a dialogue. Also, the vocabulary is very limited, too simple paradoxically, and wholly unnessary in the case of this lesson. Also I think that the level should have been classified as advanced rather than upper intermediate, as shows the rather too long introduction.

Some of the features shown on Chinesepod could be found on the web, but not all of them. In short I continue to be a very satisfied premium user of Chinesepod and I have to go on beeng so: there are literally hundreds of excellent lessons. I have no doubts the new hosts will get trained properlyves and strive to maintain the excellent standards of Chinesepod.

Chinesepod 加油!

Posted on: Donald Trump Declares U.S. Exit from the JCPOA (Iran Deal)

Welcoming the new hosts, however this is not a good start. I gree with Dashu2005 above:  no expansion, grammar or, worst of all, no exercises.  I hope this is quickly redress otherwise Chinesepod will significantly lower their standard of excellence.

Posted on: How to Say This and That in Chinese using 这 and 那

Could you please some other time explain zhe vs. zhei, na vs nei.  I understand the meaning is the same, is there any other difference, for example I guess that zhei, and nei is more informal.  Please, confirm, explain.

Posted on: No Bargaining

Why do we have 鍊 on the screen while 鏈 on the Pdf? Are they interchangeble?  Is one of them wrong?

Thank you.

Eugenio.