User Comments - pretzellogic
pretzellogic
Posted on: Do you like China?
August 30, 2010 at 9:19 AMPeople with dry senses of humor like me should not be allowed to post on bulletin boards.
Pretzellogic's evil twin brother, Spaghettilogic
Posted on: Ordering Food for the Group
August 29, 2010 at 7:09 AMIn the grand scheme of things, I guess I didn't really expect a reply from Cpod. But remember, just because you like food lessons, doesn't mean that the content provided in this one isn't repetitive of other food lessons, or that Cpod could work harder to provide food content they haven't already provided.
Posted on: Ordering Food for the Group
August 26, 2010 at 5:31 PMwell, if there's a rule, we haven't been following it with friends and family at Chinese restaurants. eat what you want, pick what you want and have at it. This is of course for casual events. If you're entertaining a new business partner, you might want to consult the rulebook.
Posted on: Ordering Food for the Group
August 26, 2010 at 2:57 PMActually, if people were actually not interested in using the search function, then a subscriber could merely click on the links below to get access to food lessons that really interested them:
Elementary - Hungry Traveler: Inner Mongolia
Elementary - That's Not Your Food
Shanghainese - Food Flavors, Shanghai Style
Elementary - Having Food Delivered
Newbie - Buying Bread and Butter
Newbie - Intro 5: Do you have a menu?
Newbie - Chinese Green Eggs and Ham
Newbie - What Would You Like to Eat?
Intermediate - Shanghai Expo Pavilions
Elementary - American Breakfast
Elementary - Hungry Traveler: Xinjiang
Newbie - Can You Use Chopsticks?
Newbie - Noodles without Cilantro
Newbie - How do you take your coffee?
Upper Intermediate - Choosing a Wine
Intermediate - Fighting over the Bill
Elementary - How embarrassing!
Elementary - Ordering Xiaolongbao
Elementary - Chinese Seasonings
Elementary - Hungry Traveler: Hainan
Elementary - Hungry Traveler: Shanghai
Elementary - Dinner with Friends
Vocab Tour - Street Food Buffet
Elementary - Discussing Eating
Elementary - How is this sold?
Elementary - Hungry Traveler: Hong Kong
Elementary - Hungry Traveler: Macao
Elementary - Hungry Traveler: Hangzhou
Elementary - Hungry Traveler - Dongbei
Elementary - Not Cooked Enough
Elementary - Hungry Traveler: Sichuan
Elementary - Do you have vegetables?
Elementary - Hungry Traveler: Hunan
Elementary - Clearing the Table
Elementary - Hungry Traveler: Beijing
Elementary - Office Lunch Options
Elementary - Hungry Traveller:Yunnan
Intermediate - Going on a Diet
Intermediate - Making Dumplings
Intermediate - How was your flight?
The Menu Stealer - Guilin Mifen
Upper Intermediate - Bad Service Restaurant
Upper Intermediate - Rating Restaurants on Dianping
Upper Intermediate - Dog Meat and Animal Rights
Intermediate - Sheep, Wolves, and Fruit: a Riddle
Intermediate - Ordering Chinese Take-out
Upper Intermediate - All You Can Eat and Drink
Intermediate - The Perfect Sandwich
The Menu Stealer - Kungpao Chicken
Upper Intermediate - Outdoor Survivor(Part 1)
Intermediate - Sydney, Australia
Intermediate - Fortunate Cookies
Intermediate - Sweet Roasted Chestnuts
Elementary - Li Yan's Diary: Love and Italian Food
Elementary - Wang Wei's Diary: Food and Girls
Qing Wen - Measure Words for Food
Dear Amber - Buying a Pet and Food Poisoning
Dear Amber - Food Regions of China
Dear Amber - Food Oddities and Eye Exercises
News and Features - Fingers, Food and a Mystery Video
Dear Amber - Chinese Hospitality and Finding Vegetarian Food
Posted on: Ordering Food for the Group
August 26, 2010 at 2:54 PMThat's why I put up the lesson titles; so that people could be aware that they could get more information in other lessons if they're really interested in learning about food. Plus, there's a search function on this website as well. I would hope users knew they could use the search function to look for "food".
Further, I guess I would take issue with your statement anyway. My niece has food allergies, and I'm sure she would use the search function to see if there are lessons about this (there are). What about someone who's a vegan, or other people with different eating requirements?
Gee, i've heard the "repetition is good" argument multiple times. Is there anything else?
Posted on: Ordering Food for the Group
August 26, 2010 at 1:56 PMOr maybe if Cpod could go through the existing food lessons and just ensure that it's providing us with new food vocabulary,in addition to the vocabulary already in multiple food lessons, that might be helpful.
Posted on: Ordering Food for the Group
August 26, 2010 at 1:34 PMI certainly agree about repetition, but if you're interested in repetition, then at least listenening to "Do you have a Menu", "Choosing a Wine", and "Ordering a Steak" 200 times each, instead of 100, should give plenty of repetition. Plus, you have the benefit of hearing them now, instead of waiting a few weeks for Cpod to create a lesson with the same content. Plus, with those three lessons, you get more variety in sentence patterns and words/phrases than you do with this single "Ordering Food for the Group".
But, isn't learning about acquiring new knowledge? and learning to use/master new content in different ways and in different contexts? Isn't learning also about creating brand new things that haven't already been created or addressed? Or filling in the gaps where existing knowledge doesn't go far enough?
Posted on: How was your flight?
August 26, 2010 at 11:16 AMI've heard "how was your flight?" and "how was the trip?" more often than "how was your journey?" but none of these are wrong. Maybe the frequencies of occurence are due to the difference between Americans and the British.
Posted on: Ordering Food for the Group
August 25, 2010 at 4:17 PMI tend to talk about other things beside food, and see other things around me here in Beijing (like 10 construction cranes in my neighborhood alone), so i'd like some lessons to describe them. The annoying thing was that I had a conversation last night at a networking dinner, and a dude from New York was noticing how different Beijing was from New York. He pointed out the constant construction around Beijing as a major difference, while New York is pretty much done.
Actually, we should have a McDonald's, Burger King, Starbucks, QuanJuDe, KFC, Pepsi (not Coke!), Diet Pepsi, diet drinks in general, every mom-and-pop restaurant if necessary, if we're talking about spending time in places more often than a village. Now that I think about it, i've spent more time sleeping through my entire life than I have spent in a small Chinese village. But cpod has had 5 years to talk about these places and doesn't seem interested in giving us that content. But I suppose a language curriculum should not just be about things you spend time directly doing, shouldn't it?
I was really happy to have spent time in a village getting to know a family and their lives in a rural part of Gansu Province. It certainly does make me aware of the advantages of living in a big city. It also reinforced why I didn't like farming. It would be nice for the Cpod subscribers interested in spending time in rural places off the beaten path to hear more lessons around rural life.
Posted on: Do you like China?
August 30, 2010 at 9:19 AMOh, then I guess I should stop saying things like "I like eating Chinese people, but i've switched to eating Americans because they are a bit more tender", because Chinese will think I'm a cannibal. Gotcha. Thanks.
Pretzellogic's evil twin brother, Spaghettilogic