猴子团队，on the contrary I very much want to be exposed to other words and usages. Here is my concern. When you listen to 4:09 in the podcast, they indeed say that 瓦斯 is a loanword, and that some may be more familiar with 煤气。But then they explain that it depends on what kind of gas you are using. They do not indicate rather that this is a regional usage. It's not clear they even know this is a regional Taiwan usage. For them, it's the difference between natural gas and coal gas. Per lavkian, mainlanders have heard the term 瓦斯 since they watch Taiwanese TV shows and movies, but it is only commonly used on the mainland to refer to poisonous mine gas or tear gas. Contrary to the lesson, mainlanders think the Taiwanese usage of 瓦斯 is synonymous with 煤气. The lesson seemed to say that 瓦斯 means natural gas used for cooking, while 煤气 is coal gas (town gas) used for cooking. Westerners nowadays don't know the difference since we generally use natural gas, and neither do most mainlanders since they normally use coal gas (or if they just use natural gas they still say coal gas like we still say we "dial" a phone). Mainlanders say 天然气 for natural gas.
The old ChinesePod also had regionalisms, and would normally point them out as such; they understood that's an important part of language learning and had no sense of this or that way being "better". My concern is that the new ChinesePod doesn't point them out as regionalisms, and often do not seem aware that current Taiwan usage is a regionalism. This is not uncommon with many Taiwanese, as they are less exposed to mainland media and, for some, look down on mainland language variances.
One of the strengths of ChinesePod is that one could learn current usage and regional variances instead of stilted textbook language. As I early on learned Chinese using older Taiwanese textbooks, I recieved many comments that my Chinese sounded like it was from Taiwan, i.e. with a bit of child-like sing-song, and somewhat outdated. Just be aware.
Hope that's helpful and makes more clear my comment.
Posted on: I Forgot to Turn Off the Gas!
June 26, 2015 at 2:49 PM猴子团队，on the contrary I very much want to be exposed to other words and usages. Here is my concern. When you listen to 4:09 in the podcast, they indeed say that 瓦斯 is a loanword, and that some may be more familiar with 煤气。But then they explain that it depends on what kind of gas you are using. They do not indicate rather that this is a regional usage. It's not clear they even know this is a regional Taiwan usage. For them, it's the difference between natural gas and coal gas. Per lavkian, mainlanders have heard the term 瓦斯 since they watch Taiwanese TV shows and movies, but it is only commonly used on the mainland to refer to poisonous mine gas or tear gas. Contrary to the lesson, mainlanders think the Taiwanese usage of 瓦斯 is synonymous with 煤气. The lesson seemed to say that 瓦斯 means natural gas used for cooking, while 煤气 is coal gas (town gas) used for cooking. Westerners nowadays don't know the difference since we generally use natural gas, and neither do most mainlanders since they normally use coal gas (or if they just use natural gas they still say coal gas like we still say we "dial" a phone). Mainlanders say 天然气 for natural gas.
The old ChinesePod also had regionalisms, and would normally point them out as such; they understood that's an important part of language learning and had no sense of this or that way being "better". My concern is that the new ChinesePod doesn't point them out as regionalisms, and often do not seem aware that current Taiwan usage is a regionalism. This is not uncommon with many Taiwanese, as they are less exposed to mainland media and, for some, look down on mainland language variances.
One of the strengths of ChinesePod is that one could learn current usage and regional variances instead of stilted textbook language. As I early on learned Chinese using older Taiwanese textbooks, I recieved many comments that my Chinese sounded like it was from Taiwan, i.e. with a bit of child-like sing-song, and somewhat outdated. Just be aware.
Hope that's helpful and makes more clear my comment.