User Comments - bryan

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bryan

Posted on: Arriving in China on Business
April 03, 2009, 08:22 PM

ChinesePod,

FYI, the the traditional version of the html transcript is missing for this lesson.

Posted on: Tech Fixes and Traditional Characters
February 15, 2009, 03:13 AM

Yaaaaaaaaaaaay for traditional character support. Thanks guys.

Posted on: Counterfeit Money
January 30, 2009, 04:28 AM

Attention CPod,

You may be aware of this, but I would like to point out that your Tradtional Firefox Plugin is messing with my link to a pdf in the above post. It seems that your script merely looks for anything ending in PDF and throws in the letters 'trad'. This is great when it comes to linking to your transcripts but yikes, it sure isn't a great solution.  Any word on the often-requested feature of being able to toggle traditional/simplified views from within the website across all browsers much as other websites do? Thanks.

Posted on: Counterfeit Money
January 30, 2009, 04:16 AM

Light487 said:
验 yan4 - I keep hearing this pronounced as "y-ien".. I thought it was supposed to be "y-ahn". I know I am the learner but I just want to be sure of the pronunciation and if I am doing things wrong now, I need to know so I don't keep doing it wrong.

Light487, I recommend you check out the old FSI course as it is very thorough in its pronunciation explanations. The stuff can be quite dull but it sure is thorough. The answer to your question is on page 45 of the pdf (page 39 on the original scanned page) of the course text here:

http://www.fsi-language-courses.com/Courses/Chinese/Standard%20Chinese/Resource%20Module/FSI%20-%20Standard%20Chinese%20-%20Resource%20Module%20-%20Student%20Text.pdf

The accompanying 6 "tapes" (now mp3s) from the Pronunciation and Romanization Module, which is the only module I ever really studied, as well as the rest of the course, are listed here and available for free:

http://www.fsi-language-courses.com/Chinese.aspx

 

Posted on: The Final Show
January 11, 2009, 01:23 AM

Dear Amber,

My heart feels so heavy upon hearing this news. I didn't comment much but always looked forward to hearing your voice. You are very talented and will surely be very successful in your future endeavors. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to see you up on the Times Square Billboard next time I'm in NYC. Best wishes!

P.S. If you're ever down to visit us in the Baltimore/DC area, you've got a personal tour guide at your service!

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 2: Welcome to the Team
August 20, 2008, 01:07 AM

Thank you changye, xiaoanolga and auntie68 for  your great insights.

Posted on: Buying Batteries
July 31, 2008, 07:57 PM

The traditional pdf and html files are missing.  All that shows up are the stubs.   See http://s3.amazonaws.com/chinesepod/0817/pdf/chinesepod_C0817trad.html

 

Posted on: Antiperspirant in China
July 04, 2008, 12:28 AM

I'm really surprised that nobody else has mentioned this yet, but I found speaker A to have a very interesting accent.  His inflections, sing-songiness and pacing are quite different than what I'm used to hearing.  Take for example how he holds onto xi1 and really shoots up high on (yong4) in 东西有用. Also, his exaggerated first tones almost sound like high sliding 4th tones in 很多 and 老说. Finally his pronunciation of 香水 seems quite non-standard.  Can anyone elaborate as to whether this is a regional thing? I find this very interesting and can't make myself stop listening!

Posted on: Beauty Pageant: It's a Mess
May 16, 2008, 12:19 AM

John, I guess some of the harder elementary lessons for me back in the day were: Ping Pong Volleyball Fast Food After going back and listening to them, I guess it was mostly due to the rate of speech and/or lower-frequency vocab of the olympic events. I apologize for making what I now recognize was a flat-out incorrect statement. There are challenges even in the easier Intermediates that outweigh those Elementaries. Upon listening to snippets of dozens of old Ellie dialogues on my commute home tonight I was shocked that they seemed so easy. I guess that's a good thing! It has helped remind of how far I've come (even though I have a long way to go) and how much great teaching and planning continues to go into your podcasts. Thank you guys!

Posted on: Pearl Tea
May 15, 2008, 02:53 AM

Andy, is it you? You're back! a.k.a. TheABC, 对不对?