User Comments - waterbear

Posted on: Don't You Know How To Drive!

Thanks, great lesson here. I've been driving for a year now in Tianjin and thankfully I haven't needed this type of vocabulary yet. I do agree that the Chinese bits are a bit fast for intermediate (although my listening is fairly high some of it I couldn't follow because I don't know enough words to) that being said I like the three person format you have going now, I wasn't so sure when it first started but I think it suits intermediate well, just slow down on chinese a little for those that don't live in China who don't have as much listening practice.

There was a bit of popping p's and b's, but I'm sure that can be fixed easily with a shield. 

As for the dialogue I think several more lines with new vocabulary could have been added and I have to agree, this probably belongs with pre-intermediate, I'm not so sure it's elementary though... 

Constance does sound nice, she has a good voice, It would be great to have more of a student asking questions stance with Gwylim where he asks questions an intermediate speaker may ask and then get answers from Fiona and Constance. 

One thing that concerns me is the difference in Taiwan Mandarin and Mainland Mandarin (colloquially speaking) is this being produced in a way that it teaches how people would talk in Taiwan or the Mainland (in the North to be exact) I noticed Fiona added 儿话 to a sentence, it would be nice if you touched on the differences that we would find in each major location (north, south, Taiwan) if any. 

Overall great work! 

Posted on: Put your Phone Down!

我经常带手机但在中国没人给我打电话，自从到中国我用手机很少。因为这几年丢了几个手机所以我怕带手机出去，上次打车的时候我差点儿从车作为没收手机。手机和Tablets一定改变我的生活，我和我老婆经常用手机上网工作，这样儿工作很方便但手机也可以讨厌我，吃饭的时候家人看手机不好好吃饭也不一起聊天儿。在被窝里不好好睡，睡觉的时候经常听见老婆看看手机转发微信的短信。我觉得手机让我的生活超方便但也让我浪费时间。Did I use 差点儿 correctly?

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Posted on: Put your Phone Down!

I've been at an Elementary level for several years while still living in Northern China. Now that I've started studying again I agree the gap is a bit large from Elementary to some of these intermediate courses. Make sure you're making use of All Set learning's grammar wikki, it answers most of your questions here. Although still great I think some of the new English speaking casters should do their best to emulate how John played the role of student than teacher during lessons, it was clear he often thought about what someone at the level being taught might ask, then he asked it. Examples: So that's fourth tone second tone? And after something in Chinese was explained he almost always recasted it in English as if he was genuinely seeking confirmation of what he heard but in English.