46 Responses to “More User Feedback”

1. 1 Chris Neale Oct 19th, 2005 at 12:23 am

   Keep up the great work. The lessons are suitably paced, easily accessible, both downloading and understanding. I’ve only gone through the first few lessons but it’s certainly making a much more productive and fun use of the 1.5hrs i spend each day commuting to work.
   Thanks!

2. 2 Kevin Nov 2nd, 2005 at 5:58 am

   I’d love to see a broader range of difficulty levels added: elementary, lower intermediate and upper intermediate.

3. 3 Ole Nov 2nd, 2005 at 5:14 pm

   Hi,
   Chinesepod is my favourite site to study Mandarin, thank you !
   I suggest that you build a review-(mp3)file with all the core texts from your lessons.

   keep growing,

   Ole

4. 4 Beirne Nov 7th, 2005 at 2:20 am

   I’ll clear out my head and make few of comments at once.

   1. It would be really nice having multiple learning tracks, in particular an intermediate one for me. Otherwise I’ll never be able to really use the podcasts because they won’t catch up with me.
   2. I do like it that some of the podcasts get away from the straight dialogue instruction. I do enjoy the ones on things like tones and dialects as well as the weekly updates.
   3. Part of the reason i learned Chinese was to solve some of its mysteries. I wanted to know why the language was tonal and how people could speak in a language where every word is one syllable. I now know where the tones came from and that each word isn’t one syllable, but these might be good topics for future podcasts.

5. 5 Jordy Nov 23rd, 2005 at 2:20 am

   This is a phenomenal website!! Keep up the fantastic work!! I’m so glad that I found this site, it has really helped me with tonal recognition, and I love how it’s presented in a sort of fun way with humour and it’s actually kind of relaxing!

6. 6 katya Nov 28th, 2005 at 3:04 am

   I’d love to see separate episodes (special editions?) with long-ish dialogs, monologues and stories using familiar vocabulary (i.e. presented in the lessons) with no translation. This would give us the opportunity to simply listen and understand, while staying in the target language. Maybe one could have a few key vocabulary notes/translations before or after the piece to allow a greater variety.

   Actually understanding a whole long section is so exhilarating

7. 7 katya Nov 28th, 2005 at 4:32 am

   1)
   I’d like to suggest a links section on the front page, and an expanded links section containing useful and interesting sites (I know several have been mentioned in the blog that don’t appear in the current links section).

   2)
   Not too familiar with WordPress, so I’m not sure if I’m asking for the moon… but here goes:
   An easier way to see what exists in the blog. Maybe ‘recent entries’, ‘recent comments’, ‘most popular (by view)’ and ‘most popular (by number of comments’… or something. Even with the categorization I find it a bit difficult to know where to look for stuff - and to appreciate what I could be looking at!

8. 8 katya Nov 28th, 2005 at 4:39 am

   Another comment to expand on 2) above:

   When reading a thread within a certain category, would it be possible to see a list in a margin somewhere with other titles in the same category (not just the ‘previous’ and ‘next’ at the top of the page)?

   Once again - I don’t want to be demanding the impossible, just mentioning stuff that comes to mind as I explore the site.

9. 9 David Nov 29th, 2005 at 11:32 pm

   I just got my broadband hooked up, hey I’m in China!, and so I’m doing a bit of catchup on this whole blog phenomenon. I echo Katya’s remarks about it being a little difficult to browse around in the blog. Albiet I have left probably too many comments. Maybe your tech guys can switch the template on Wordpress, or use another blog engine, it’s a generic open-source blog right?

10. 10 John Nov 30th, 2005 at 11:01 am

    It would be great to have a backlink from the Learning Center word bank entries to the transcript pages in which they were introduced. The flashcards could be much more useful—like have a way of proceding that allows the user to mark the word as “unfamiliar,” “weak” or “strong”. Then track that data and allow the word bank to be sorted by increasing/decreasing familiarity.

11. 11 David Dec 2nd, 2005 at 2:57 pm

    Has your management looked at satellite radio, XM and Sirius. I think you’ll soon have enough ‘content’ to market 24-hours of learning Chinese and it’s probably a good time to start talking to their reps as you’ve got a lot of popularity right now on YahooPodcasting etc., Good Luck!

12. 12 Bruce Dec 6th, 2005 at 10:40 am

    Hi ChinesePod,

    This is an absolutely fantastic site. Incredible Chinese learning tool. I have learned more so far than a semester of beginning Chinese in college. Can’t wait for the new pricing structure. I am hoping to keep my ChinesePod tuition to about $60 annually. Anyway, the following is my beginner level lesson request.

    Can you add a beginner episode to help a beginner to direct a conversation? Such as…

    1. I didn’t hear you clearly. Can you repeat that question/statement?
    2. You are talking too fast for me. Can you slow down a little?
    3. I don’t understand. Can you rephrase the (last) question/statement?
    4. I don’t know that word. What does it mean?
    5. Can you explain that word to me?
    6. How do I say…?

    Keep up the great work!

13. 13 Steven Dec 21st, 2005 at 6:06 am

    I wish I had tools like yours years ago when I started learning Chinese. But after having lived in Taiwan for a few years, I already reached a fairly fluent level of Mandarin. My problem is that now that I returned to my home country without opportunites to speak Chinese daily, I find it difficult not to lose it - or even improve on it.

    Could you please offer an advanced category with material as I would find it in regular Chinese websites, radio and TV broadcasts, magazines and newspapers, i.e. not “dumbed down” in any form? With topics from politics, economy, society, business?

    I cannot justify paying 250 US dollars a year for your “premium service” (=transcripts, anything else?) with the current content. But I might be willing to pay (although probably not 250 dollars) for advanced material.

    Also, could you separate your newbee, intermediate and any potential new advanced topics into separate podcast feeds? I imagine it is not helpful for people to download many lessons that are not appropriate for their level.

14. 14 el Jan 3rd, 2006 at 11:36 am

    This is a fantastic website and podcast. You are doing a great job. Here is one minor suggestion/criticism. The banter between Jen and Ken is always extremely entertaining, but not always enlightening - particularly when its done in English. For example, on the discussion of eating, too much time was spent discussing in English Ken’s chopstick experience in China. While entertaining, I didn’t learn much Chinese from that bit of the segment. I’d love to hear the banter in Mandarin though. Please stay on track with the Chinese teaching and avoid too much radio talk show format in English

15. 15 Llew Feb 12th, 2006 at 1:44 am

    Could you do a lesson on using the chinese post office? For example, purchasing stamps, asking for customs declaration forms, asking about different rates for example, post cards, letters, parcel post, first class, surface rate, book rate, etc. How long will it take for a package or letter to arrive? How to ask or indentify which line to wait in for service? And, do post offices in china provide services other than just mail? If so what?

    My second request is opening a bank account and the language necessary to cash a check or deal with bankers and other similar financial transactions.

    Thanks,

    Llew

16. 16 Jeremy Feb 17th, 2006 at 12:05 am

    Love your podcasts.
    Keep up the great work!

17. 17 babblefrog Feb 25th, 2006 at 3:56 pm

    you guys are doing a great job. i really appreciate it.
    have to second el’s suggestion, though. more the more advanced learners, it’s an annoyance to hear too much english-language banter. banter in chinese would be great. you have to assume that your highest-level students have been in china a while and/or have been studying chinese a while. the plateaus at this point are very hard to get past, and involve exposing yourself to a lot of chinese conversation. listening to an advanced podcast with a lot of english kind of defeats the purpose.
    banter in chinese, speak slowly if you have to, use more simple vocab if you have to but don’t keep switching to english. just a plea from a fan who wants to keep listening and have reason to subscribe.
    i mean, at this level, we might be able to do without a native english speaker like ken (sorry ken). because the idea is to hear more chinese after all, spoken in the native way….

18. 18 Rob Mar 4th, 2006 at 5:33 pm

    I have been using ChinesePod for about a week (just entered a premium subscription, so I’m committed now). I listen to the intermediate lessons.

    I will add my voice to the previous post by Jeremy–keep the English in the intermediate lessons to the bare minimum. I am a low intermediate level, and I have not spent significant time in china as he has, but even so I don’t need the English interludes and in-depth explanations that sometimes sneak into the intermediate lessons (please take no offence, just telling you what I want, as you request in every recording!).

    Hearing casual conversation is more valuable to me than understanding everything that is said the first time through. In real life, I am lucky to follow 80% of a simple chinese conversation I have with native Chinese speakers (my wife seems to think I only can understand 50% of the english she speaks to me…but that’s yet a different topic). So, if I don’t understand everything in the lesson, that’s OK…I’m already used to that.

    Also, Ken, don’t feel compelled on my account to do sentence by sentence translation of the intermediate lessons…we can look it up in the transcript and then listen a second time…it only takes a few seconds to read the english translation, but may take 2 minutes to listen to the line by line translation (and since I already understood at least the basic meaning of most of it, I find myself reaching for the fast-forward control on my iPod when I hear you suggest doing the translation…).

    That said, it is a bit helpful to give a hint about the conversation topic as Ken often does (in a real conversation there is usually some clue about the topic of a conversation that helps narrow one’s guessing, right?). Mentioning 3-4 of the (most likley) new words before the dialog is also useful. And Jenny’s practice of interjecting a single English word during the “banter” periods when the word is new (and unlikely to be in the transcript) is also very helpful.

    I also agree with Jeremy about the banter…do it in Chinese…typically it is….I pick up quite a lot just from this part of the discussion so it is a disappointment of a sort to hear either of you say more than a few words at a time in English…I can understand “how long do you think I’ve worked here?”, “not very long” in Chinese, so you didn’t need to have that “banter” in English…

    I disagree about losing Ken from the program, though. The mesh of personalities makes for an entertaining listening time and is one of the primary reasons I find the podcasts so compelling. Both of the roles are essential to the character of the presentation…definitely keep the current formula!

    OK, so there is my feedback. Thanks for a FANTASTIC concept and brilliant execution! My hat’s off to everyone involved in the program, from the voice talent to the people who edit the audio and publish the supporting material…it’s a great concept that really fills a need I have personally felt for many months now. So glad I happened to find ChinesePod!

19. 19 Matt Mar 12th, 2006 at 2:33 pm

    Dear Aric,

    Where is the bloopers episode which was mentioned on the ChinesePod News 13/11/2005? Please tell me!! I need to know!!
    Thanks!!

20. 20 Lantian Mar 20th, 2006 at 5:23 pm

    [Lug nut]

    Hi! If you ever run out of interesting story/script lines, and/or aren’t inundating us with a whole bunch of new fun and unique offerrings!, might I suggest a show on tools. I want to say wrench, screwdriver and pliers. Let’s just say it has to do with my toilet and Chinese quality levels in their interior furnishings. You know a show on, hey landlord how do I stop the water from flooding the whole floor, is there a wrench somewhere?

21. 21 Lantian Apr 10th, 2006 at 10:55 pm

    Epod

    The new English narrator seems to be trying to be hypnotizing me. He’s been in China too long, his intonation is off–it’s like–he==is talk–ing–choppy.

22. 22 Michael Apr 11th, 2006 at 9:43 am

    I’d like to hear native Chinese male speakers more often in the podcasts.

23. 23 Lao Bi Apr 11th, 2006 at 11:55 am

    Hi fold dajia hao:

    I’ve got a couple of things I’d like you to consider:

    Intermediate lessons — especially today’s on Family Life — are quite weak and thin, not enough substance. Please don’t baby-talk us at this level. Meanwhile the advance classes are too, too fast without enough explanation. These are simple conversations between native speakers that don’t provide enough help for CSL learners like myself. I, and many others I’m sure, could use an advanced intermediate. Or perhaps a little more preparation could go into the lessons. I’d like Jenny and Liv to give us the English word in mid conversation for the new Chinese word. No need to danwu/slowdown- the dialogue with explanations. I think you get my guan nian/concept. If you were to undertake /cheng dan to do this it would be very helpful when listening on the Beijing ditie/subway.

    A couple of technical points. I wish you would name your files with a word relating to the lesson topic rather than just numbers. Also the PDF’s need more key vocab that’s better organized for printing — perhaps a two column list. In Work Bank it would be good if we could better organize the list of words — can we create our own files, or by lesson. I’d also like a better, more literal translation of the dialogue so we can see how the characters and grammar flow in Chinese rather than a ‘polished’ English translation.

    As for the Concentration Game please allow the user to ‘connect with the database’ this way we can review the game results for a minute or two before they disappear. Also the two or three games you provide are pretty weak — we could use more of them per lesson please.

    And no more top-of-the-lungs “Stop what you’re doing and Listen” it’s irritating after the tenth time. Please let us know right off the top which lesson we’re listening to. Some MP3 players don’t have menus to read from so we have to wade through some chitchat (which is always nice for sure) before we get to the lesson we’re after. Lessons are also only named with numbers so unless we rename them as we save them we cannot tell which one we’re playing until we get to the topic which is sometimes a minute into the lesson. This is a problem as I carry with me a bunch of lessons at a time on my player — like others I’m sure.

    Ok… enough complaining and back to studying. Thanks for your efforts but I need you to kick it up a notch — got a translation for that?

    Lao Bi
    in Beijing

24. 24 AuntySue Apr 11th, 2006 at 3:21 pm

    Yes I too would love some vocabulary on tools. I’m not sure but I think what Lantian refers to as a wrench is what we call elsewhere a spanner? I can think of hundreds of reasons for wanting to ask for duct tape, a saw, sandpaper, or a phillips head screwdriver. But maybe I’m odd.

    Please do NOT rename the files, don’t ruin a concise naming system that allows them to be organised easily. I would welcome, though, the first two audio seconds being occupied by something like “Intermediate lesson sixty-three, Pass Me the Spanner” because my mp3 player usually has the screen saver on and it’s hard to tell how many lessons forward/backward you’ve skipped.

25. 25 Lantian Apr 11th, 2006 at 5:13 pm

    WRENCH - what’s s a spanner? Is that even English? j/k
    I bet Ken knows, he speaks 18 languages plus Cyoda. (Chinese-Yoda)

    FILE NAMES - I don’t use iTunes, I download directly from the site. When I save the file I append at the end a word that refers to the topic of the lesson. I believe with an iPod (anyone..feel free to give me one!) there is title information that shows up along with the mp3 file. People with iPods live in a different-better world.

    Does it mess the feeds up to append a ‘word’ description? It is a little troublesome for me to append that file name, but I see only two solutions–I keep doing it, or a little present shows up in the mail….

    Example: chinesepod106_C19_20060118_supermarket.mp3

26. 26 AuntySue Apr 11th, 2006 at 8:07 pm

    Actually, there is a difference.
    A spanner is approximately U shaped at the end, unless it’s a ring spanner, and you use it to undo nuts and bolts etc.
    A wrench has two adjustable large gripping jaws, and you wrench with it, anything that needs a brute force rotation. A bit like a small vice with a handle.
    If you go wrenching around with a spanner you’re likely to break the spanner and stuff the thread on the bolt.
    Now I think in the USA anything that can grab and rotate is called a wrench, in a similar way to how any kind of insect can be called a bug in the USA, whereas elsewhere a bug is one particular type of insect only.

    Which reminds me… I think in Chinese the generic term for insect is worm, is that right? I’ve got a childrens song book, and one song is about worm worm fly away. It sounds very strange.

27. 27 James Apr 11th, 2006 at 9:40 pm

    Wrenches and Spanners… Yes, two countries separated by the same language.

    To keep on topic, perhaps a Chinesepod lesson on household repair and maintenance is in order. Calling a plumber… Fixing a leaking roof… Cleaning the house… Common tools…

    Sounds like the US equivalents spanner and ring spanner are open-end box wrench and box wrench. You need one for every size nut or bold.

    An adjustable wrench has one opening and one of the jaws adjusts in or out to fit any size. The jaws are aligned almost parallel to the handle. This is probably the most common. Anther name for this type is a Cresent wrench, although this is actually a brand name.

    A pipe wrench has adjustable jaws that are perpendicular (L-shaped) to the handle and they get tighter with more force applied. Also known as a monkey wrench, Stillson wrench (also a brand name).

28. 28 Ken Apr 12th, 2006 at 12:22 am

    I think i’d better get my English vocab right before I attack the Chinese for “ring spanner” and “crescent wrench”. Forgive me for what I am about to say: I need to get a grip on those terms.

    I did a presentation today for a bunch of post-grad students of linguistics. I talked about how language is a ‘tool’, rather than and end in itself. Now I’m tempted to say that language is just a monkey wrench with a perpendicular handle.

    I just love some of the discussions we have on this forum. It’s all good!

29. 29 James Apr 12th, 2006 at 3:53 am

    If I have a 问题 with my car, my set of wrenches will come in handy. However for people problems, I’ll get better results using language skills. To do otherwise is probably just plain old-fashioned assault with some very serious consequences.

    Language not being an end in itself is very true. At first, you have quite a hurdle to get over before you can effectively use your new language tools. But after you clear that hurdle, you can do what you need and want to do.

30. 30 Ken Apr 12th, 2006 at 8:06 am

    James,

    I like the car analogy. It helps to drive home the message, as it were.

31. 31 Lantian Apr 12th, 2006 at 11:40 am

    WRENCH - One day three good friends, a spanner, monkey-wrench and screwdriver walked into a bar. The bartender asked if they’d like to try the new wingnut. The spanner said no thanks-U have it. The monkey-wrench said I can’t get a grip. So the screwdriver said screw it and threw the wingnut out the window.

    Copyright 2006 All civil suits and registered complaints reserved. Lantian.

32. 32 alan blaylock Apr 12th, 2006 at 3:09 pm

    Hi Folks,

    A great site and a fantastic way to learn. I had no hestitation signing up for the full deal even though I am also paying for seperate tuition

    One frustration though and that is with the wordbank! I am not learning chinese characters consequently I need the wordbank to be sorted alphabetically by the pin yin. This works fine for the first page but as soon as I try to move to any subsequent page it defaults back to the chinese characters preventing my full access!

    Ant chance of a fix soon?

33. 33 AuntySue Apr 12th, 2006 at 8:59 pm

    See, SEE! All this spanner talk has made someone want to join up already. (It had to be why, didn’t it?)

    When I was a skinny inquisitive 3 year old they used to call me Suzanna the goanna with a spanner.
    I’m sorry, but Suzanna the goanna with a wrench doesn’t work. Ha! That settles it.

34. 34 Conrad Apr 19th, 2006 at 9:29 am

    A selfish request - I’d love to learn some vocabulary useful for a sales meeting - Orders, Trends, Quarterly Results, Salesforce, Targets, Results. That kind of thing. Maybe if some other road-warriors chimed in we could persuade Ken to think about it…

35. 35 Administrator Apr 20th, 2006 at 8:38 pm

    Conrad,

    I think this is a possibility, but at an intermediate level. Does that suit?

    ken

36. 36 Conrad Apr 27th, 2006 at 9:29 am

    Yes, intermediate would be perfect. Thanks a million!

37. 37 Nicolas May 2nd, 2006 at 12:38 am

    Would it be possible to have a translation of the sentences in the expansion section of the review material (newbies lessons)? It seems that some appeared for a short time and have now disappeared. I usually go through the sentences and try to understand their meaning which is a way of getting familiar with Chinese syntax, so I’d rather not have the translations next to the sentences. However, in some cases (for example because certain words have several possible meanings or because of the particular structure of the sentence) the translation of individual words is not sufficient to be absolutely sure of the meaning(s) of the sentence as a whole. Review exercises may clarify the point but not always. I am reluctant to commit these sentences to memory until I am sure that I have really understood them. Could you include something like a “check your translation” link somewhere in the expansion section?

    Nicolas.

38. 38 Peter May 14th, 2006 at 4:46 pm

    Have you all considered adding a level betweeen Intermediate and Advanced? After 1 year and 9 months of study, I find the Intermediate level suits my current knowledge and understanding of the Chinese language quite well. The Advanced level is much too advanced for me however, and I would love to now graduate to a level that is somewhere between your Intermediate and Advanced. Thanks for all the great work; your site is a great tool for advancing my 中文水平！

39. 39 Administrator May 16th, 2006 at 11:44 am

    Peter,

    John Pasden is working on exactly this issue. It may take a little more time, but we’ll crack it. Thx for your patience.

    Ken

40. 40 Dan in Cleveland, OH Jul 14th, 2006 at 9:10 am

    Hey, all!
    Thanks for doing such a great job! I love all of the pop culture, and tangents you go on… I’m at a early intermediate level, and am interested in joining up officially with a membership. However, I would like to know that there will be “traditional” characters for me to read. I spend most of my time visiting Taiwan, and “simplified” chinese doesn’t help me much.

    An couple ideas for Saturday’s top 5… top 5 embarassing “communication” moments… from the chinese as a second language point of view. Also, I love tongue-twisters… maybe jenny could give us her top five? can’t wait.

    Thanks much,
    Dan

41. 41 James Jul 20th, 2006 at 9:21 pm

    Good stuff, listening back over the archive the lessons are definitely getting better too… best lessons for me are those advanced ones where Jenny and Aggie get talking outside the set dialogue on a topic they are interested in (eg film lesson was good), but also find the new 中高级 ones good with the extra explanations of grammar/sentence patterns etc. Would personally be interested in some lessons of a more economics/business/current affairs slant. Also, as someone else mentioned, would be great to have a similar service for Cantonese, although understand the difficulties with you guys being in shanghai…

    thanks

    James

42. 42 AuntySue Jul 21st, 2006 at 1:12 pm

    A couple of votes of support:

    Yep, I’d love to learn Cantonese too.

    Yep, I want to work in traditional characters, because most of my opportunities for using the language present themselves that way.

    As for the suggestion in the trackback before those last two, err, no thanks. Can someone remove it, please?

43. 43 Liz from Liverpool Jan 28th, 2007 at 4:27 pm

    I am a final year undergraduate studying Chinese in Liverpool, I can’t tell you how much I LOVE this site! (I found you on Itunes) I really wish I had it from the start of my degree…I spent the whole of last year studying in Beijing and was really concerned my spoken chinese would regress when I had to come back to the UK but then I came across these podacsts which have been a huge help to keeping up with my chinese. I mainly listen to upper intermediate and advanced but I don’t ignore the other levels just because there are always new words to learn.

    I’m a huge chinesepod enthusiast and have been going round uni promoting this site! Here is my suggestion for further expanding this site which I believe is so under-used!:

    I don’t know about other universities, but at my uni our learning hours are simply not enough (2 hours of translation, 2 hours of language comprehension, 2 hours of chinese society and culture per week) If we could use podcasts as a tool to support our lessons, it could make a huge impact on our learning system that I think has too much room for improvement. Obviously no tool or podcast can replace physical hours put in practising reading, writing and speaking but I’m more than sure that it helps! Has chinesepod ever thought about collaborating with universities offering chinese? As much as the selling point of chinesepod.com should focus on practical chinese, I would really like to see more lessons on academic topics, see more in depth discussions on topics such as politics, the chinese media, business and especially self expression on emotions or raising cultural awareness on how chinese people communicate/express themselves in certain situations - the aim being to learn how to have in depth conversations with native chinese speakers and close the gap between communication differences i.e. understand the way chinese people think!

    Also - how about an interactive game for learning sentence structure in chinese? i.e. identify where the subject, object, predacitive is, followed by explanations and more examples (quite often in my class we have problems getting round sentence structure when we have to translate chinese back to english and vice versa)

44. 44 Tom Feb 27th, 2007 at 9:14 am

    OK, I’m gonna stick my neck out here to try to entice ChinesePod into winning me as a premium subscriber. In my view a lot of the requests being made are actually covered in the FSI Standard Chinese course which can be downloaded free. It’s extremely comprehensive for spoken Mandarin and has been used to train untold numbers of US and Canadian diplomats for China duty. So why would I seemingly be shilling another course on ChinesePod? Because as good as I think the FSI structure and coverage are, the course is old, somewhat out of date and most importantly it doesn’t have ChinesePod’s hip modern approach and fresh use of technology. So, what if CPOD used their talent to essentially create a 21st century version of the FSI course? I contend they would have the best Mandarin course on the planet! And, it wouldn’t be that hard. Most of the existing CPOD podcasts would fit right into the format with little modification. The main thing CPOD would need to create is the structure (I’ve listed the FSI structure below FYI), add the grammer and usage insights that are embedded in all the FSI lessons and modify their recordings to allow for more user participation. CPOD could still offer the service they currently provide for those who like a less formal approach. Having this course would basically put Pimsleur, ChineseLearnOnline, Rosetta Stone and the rest of them out of business. CPod PLEASE at least take a look.

    FSI Structure:
    - Lesson sets include three focus areas: comprehension, production, and drills
    - Modules are groupings of 6-8 lesson sets around a particular topic: Orientation (pronunciation, tones, bassic greetings…), Biographic Info (introducing yourself, getting around, talking about your background, family, etc.), Money (buying things, dealing with money), Directions (Basically how to get around), Transportation (how to get a bus, taxi, etc.), Arranging Meetings (how to deal with personal and business meetings, appointments, gatherings), Society (more complex language and social situations), Traveling in China (Dealing with complex travel related situations), Restaurant, Hotel, Post Office, Telephone and Car modules are just what the name implies.
    More details can be gleened here: http://fsi-language-courses.com/Chinese.aspx

45. 45 Tom Feb 28th, 2007 at 5:21 am

    Forgot to clarify - in FSI lingo “comprehension” refers to recordings designed for listening only, no need to try to speak. “Production” recordings on the other hand are specifically designed for you to translate what they say in English into Chinese. Then they give the correct Chinese as a check. “Drills” give you various structures which you then have to modify on the fly in various ways. The benefit of all this is it really pushes your brain into Chinese thinking mode, which I’ve found difficult to get from CPod. Anyway I hope ChinesePod finds a way to absorb at least some of the FSI goodness into their system.

1. 1 Watch Satellite TV on PC Trackback on Apr 29th, 2007 at 11:48 am

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