User Comments - ooka

Posted on: Military Training

That was great! Thanks David!

A native speaker, just speaking, not reading well rounded sentences, not debating with confusing chengyus about really specialised topics, no, just a guy telling a story about his past.

This was missing here. I think we didn't get exposed enough to all these elements that make native speakers sound native speaker. The fillers, the pauses, all these words and phrases that are meaningless but still keep coming up in natural speech (uh, like, well, er, y'know)

To be honest we did have access to those in The Banter but I guess when you're explaining words or expressions they don't come up the same way they would while telling a story.

So again well done Cpod, more please!

(now that I think of it, these fillers are probably worth a lesson, or a Qingwen, they're immensely useful to give yourself some time and get over your fear of speaking)

Posted on: Internet is Down

Never mind; Found all I wanted to know about it in the Ele lesson; and the chinese version of John's blog is quite interesting as well; Thanks for that!

Posted on: Internet is Down

Hi!

A question on tones, in the break down Jenny read

上不了网 [shàng bu liǎo wǎng]

but in the diaolgue I think it's more
上不了网 [shàng bu liáo wǎng]

with liao3 passing to 2nd tone as it normaly should.

Is it ok to read a succession of 3rd tone as such ?

Although I've been told not to worry about it, that it will come naturally, I find it extremely frustrating not to be able to know how to read a phrase as soon as there are more than 2 3rd tone characters after the other (what do you do when there are 3,4, 5,..2n, 2n+1...). So I want to know if I should just read them all as 3rd tone, until my throat hurts.

Or are there actual rules about it somewhere ?　I'm willing to learn them even if there are obscure and sybilline. 

Thanks,

Posted on: Post-Holiday Preview

Hi Chinespod,

I have a question concerning a feature that has been deeply missed for a while now: Movie Madness!

Any plans on producing some more? That podcast was so hilarious I can't be the only one yearning for more!

Cheers!

p.s. I really like this new jingle (too short though, no?)

p.p.s i've just had a look at the MM44's comments to see that a lot of people have been asking for it to come back, it was not my intention to flood, and I apologize for the added pressure ;-)

Posted on: Using 'Almost'

So what's the difference with 几乎 jīhū ？Can you say 我几乎把寿司加热？or 我几乎认错人了 ?

Somehow I don't feel you can say, 几乎就买到票了

ooka

Posted on: Riding the Subway

Great Video !

I lived in Shanghai for about a year and I had to take that subway everyday to go to work, seeing this made me so nostalgic! And now there are 9 lines, and I think the new People's Square station is just beautiful!

I'd like to mention a useful word that was forgotten

交通卡(jiāotōngkǎ) transport card (please correct me if this is wrong!)

I think Jiaojie uses hers on the video, it looks like a thicker ticket on which you can put money. Very convenient when you don't have coins on you or when you don't want to queue at the vending machines.

Posted on: Pageant Final Episode

Hi There !

Does anyone know why the difficulty level for intermediate has fallen ? I find the lessons are recently (since around February I'd say) much shorter and easier than before. Compare " calligraphy " and for example, today's lesson, the former almost sounds like an advanced lesson!

Darylk speaks about "the lower intermediate series". Did I miss something, is it official?

Obviously now the gap between Elementary and Intermediate is probably easier, but i think the previous pace was richer. Even though John didn't have the time to review every line of the dialogue, the unexplained parts were usually easy or explained in different lessons, and were familiar enough to get the gist.

I feel it's not the case with upper intermediate level, which makes it too challenging...ah, but maybe I'm just feeling the exact same thing I was feeling when i started to find the Elementaries too easy...and intermediate too difficult...

I'm sorry if that topic has already been discussed somewhere else, if there is a thread on this I just couldn't find it :)

cheers!

Posted on: Saved by the Gong: Math class

Thanks Amber and Partygo :)

Posted on: Saved by the Gong: Math class

I loved the intro for this lesson. Simply brilliant :) Just one lesson on Math, however interesting this one was, will never suffice to cover all the vocabulary engineers do need everyday... For example today I was confronted with 2 numbers I wasn't sure how to read: 1-3/4" I think I hear " yī yòu sì fēnzhī sān " but I'm not sure which yòu it is. is that "一又四分之三" and -101°C " 摄氏度 负一百零一"Shěshìdù fù yībǎilíngyī " Can anyone help ?

Posted on: Knitting a Scarf

I would really like a lesson on 围棋wéiqí (the game of Go), or even better a lesson on how to read these Chengyu packed Weiqi books...but I'm not sure who else would be interested in this particular topic... :'(