While I’ll cover the details (and secrets) of last months ChinesePod Meet-Up: London on-mike (check the Saturday show next week), I can’t stress enough how much fun it was. Admittedly, I expected 3-4 people to show up and to walk into a table of 14 (good-looking & cool) people was…to be honest, intimidating.
One came from 3 hours away (single journey), a celeb played down her status to us, another left friends in town to join and one more was kind enough to take me out in Brighton - absolutely wonderful people. Are things like making Time Mag’s Top 10 and CNN great? Of course - but nothing is nicer than meeting people who listen…especially when they’re not ugly or weird.
Video will be released on this week’s Sat Show, but pictures can be viewed now here.
Aric
Aric,
I’m sorry, but I’m of the opinion that you don’t need to be good looking or cool to be heard or listened to. You left me with the distinct impression that C-pod is a club for good-looking, cool people. Ouch!
Your comments suggested someone that is more interested in celebrity than education! Harsh words yes, but your comments compel just such a reaction..
Michael, good one, thanks!
Proudly weird, Anne M.
Guys,
Aric has a slightly offbeat sense of humor, but I’m certain he doesn’t mean to insult people with ugliness taunts. It may or may not be appropriate to joke in this way, but I’m sure it was a joke.
Ken
Aric
Finally someone besides my wife and my kids thinks I am cool! Well they would say that wouldn’t they. It must be the white socks. I am of course way ahead of the trendy setting curve.
Thank you Aric
Mike in Jubei
I think that was before I arrived.
Hey guys,
when I read Aric’s comment I just assumed that he meant that listening to CPod makes you automatically good-looking and cool
And Michael, you are in the club already so relax
开心
The pictures are great! Really wish I was there
Wow.
I would like to apologize for any comments made that offended either/or ugly and weird people.
Michael Butler - take it from a celebrity/educator, Ken…it was meant to be a joke, relax.
Anne - “proudly weird” makes you cool.
Bazza - We’ve suspected you were a hipster for over a year…now that I’ve met you, it’s confirmed.
Mike - most of the time, yes…until you take that fashion statement and put it with sandals.
Kaixin - yes, this podcast has been proven to make you attractive, as well as smell terrific.
Ron - I’m going to be in Chicago, D.C., and NYC in June, so you can make it up to us for not taking that short Transatlantic flight to meet us.
A
Didn’t you guys feel the spirits of the rest of the cpod team with you that night? (spirit/精神/jing1 shen2 doesn’t have a spooky connotation in Chinese. It in fact has a very positive meaning.) Thank you guys for the signed book! Hopefully I’ll make good use of it if I come to London. And the pages will be filled with your writing and that of many more poddies. Take care!
Hugs, jenny
I read it as “everyone that showed up was cool and good looking just for showing up -even if ugly in real life :-)”
Serge, great to see you again! Everyone else, will be lovely to see you for the first time in person.
“but nothing is nicer than meeting people who listen…especially when they’re not ugly or weird.”
I didn’t see anything offensive in this comment. Now if Aric had added “and they love to smoke cigarettes”…I would have been really upset.
Yes Jenny, it seems your spirits were visible in this photo.
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zo.....amp;size=o
Cool. Looking forward to the US tour dates. It will be very difficult to top London, but we’re gonna to try hard!
I’m happy to organize the DC one
rb
Hey,
I was going to show up at Aric’s bash but I am just too damn ugly! I got a mole on the end of my nose which I sometimes to type with woodpecker-style. I am thinking of moving to China where the I might not be thought of as ugly just foreign and unusual and it might be cheaper than going under the knife - such is my great motivation to learn Chinese at the pod. Thanks to Chinesepod I now have a place where I feel I belong and am not judged on looks just accepted for my personality. Aric comments remind me that the world is shallow and beauty-obsessed and he is not to be blamed for promoting truth (real or by CK). Anyway, the highlight of my day today is to get my new laptop - it has an anti-reflective screen, a problem I had with my old laptop which used to depress me, catching my own reflection was a bummer getting through the day.
Keep up the good work and for now I am just happy to meet up, virtually, with all my friends at Chinesepod.
Formerly Ed,
lol. Whenever you come to Berlin, I want to have a drink with you! The cool, the weird and the ugly…
I always thought that weird WAS cool. That might explain why everyone at school thought I was an idiot. Of course lots of them now work in jobs they hate for a pittance.
I’m with the ChinesePod makes you good-looking by default. Surely the phrase “I learn Chinese at ChinesePod” will become one of the great pick-up lines of the future. Not that everything’s about pick-up lines. It’s just that speaking Chinese is obviously attractive.
I’m going to stop writing now, before I embarrass myself.
Too late.
Hi Anne M,
Thanks for inviting me for a drink…in Berlin.
I don’t know whether I am dog-ugly or pig-ugly, depends which month it is I guess.
My new laptop is working out great and I can see all the beauty around without being distracted by how nature can get it oh so wrong sometimes.
Have a beautiful day and I am looking forward to Aric’s show on Saturday.
Hmm, not very flattering photos of me. Hope I look better in the video.
Josh
Video is live now, check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TGFMU2Bw10
看起来非常好玩儿！ 什么时候在加拿大要开会？ 如果开会在 Calgary，一定要帮您们组建！
Looks like the meet-up was a blast！ When are we doing it in Canada？ I can help with the organization if it were done in Calgary.
Cheers!
seAn
Nice video, wish I could’ve stayed for the meal…OK, be honest…how was the food? B/c I have to say from the somewhat grainy video, it did not really look that good….I expect a frank review from Aric on Saturday!!
Much better
Josh!
You followed through with your word - well done, it’s good to have you posting (plus, all the girls in the office were asking who the “cute boy with great hair was”.
A
Well you just tell ‘em it’s ole Joshy Rotten aka. Zhao Zheyi. (Although they’d probably be more impressed if this stupid, English computer could type characters… That’s “Zhe” as in philosophy, and “yi” as in “yi, er, san”. Okay ladies?)
Thanks again for the ciggies Aric,
J
I’m looking forward to Aric’s visit to NYC in June - hope we can have a meet-up here in the city!
(Thanks to Chinesepod, I got an A in my Mandarin class at NYU last semester!!!!!)
Oh, one more thing… I happen to really appreciate Aric’s sense of humor. I look forward to spending my Saturday mornings laughing out-loud at the Saturday Show.
Joshy Rotten - you’re more than welcome; but they don’t make you cool, kids.
Lilli - we’ll most definitely have an in-city meetup. In fact, let’s get someone to draw up a map of the biggest Chinatown’s in the world and we’ll start ticking ‘em off!
I’ll let you know the dates as soon as I do and we’ll get moving on it; should be Chicago/D.C./N.Y.C, in that order.
Cool video!
Mike - yes the food did taste better than it looks in the video! and so did the pijiu!
Speaking as the token ugly wierd one in the video, I didn’t take offense - I just assumed Aric was being polite and covering for me
All in all, it was a good night out.
Hi Kaanhi
Hope you’re enjoying Chinesepod. You must come to the next London meet-up.
I spent the first couple of months just listening and trying to speak a lot. Listened to all the Newbie, most of the Elementary and Intermediate before starting to practise writing and reading. I did know about 50 characters before from when I was little, but that’s it.
Hi Kaanhi,
The way i did it was to learn spoken Chinese at first, using pinyin. At that time I wasn’t really bothered about learning to read or write. I made progress quite quickly until I got to the point where not knowing characters became a hindrance, so I started learning them. I think doing it this way is more motivating. Don’t be in a rush to learn the characters, just have fun with the pinyin until you feel ready to move on.
I was learning in China though so I guess there was more of a necessity to pick up the characters.
So when is the next London meet up?
Josh (the first guy on the youtube clip)
Oh, and another thing…
At the London meet-up some people mentioned that they were taking evening classes in London. Which school was that? I applied to International House in Picadilly but they never got back to me and it’s quite expensive. Has anyone discovered any cheaper places to take classes?
Josh
Hi Josh - I am taking evening classes at Univerity of Westminster (I think it is around £250/year)…City Lit also has classes, that were similarly priced. I also previously took classes Saturday mornings at Ealing Chinese School (http://www.ecms.org.uk/) near Acton Town station, which was cheaper, but the class level was a bit too low for me (they had two levels, probably roughly equivalent to Chinese pod newbie and intermediate).
Personally I think you should start learning to recognise characters straight away rather than just relaying on pinyin. Pinyin should just be used as a guide to pronunication in my opinion.
Kaanhi, there was a recent discussion about this on the forum:
http://www.chinesepod.com/foru.....php?t=1105
Check out the links covered.
ChinesePod doesn’t currently have anything on writing character by hand.
There’s this book…
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Yourse.....mp;s=books
…from the ‘teach yourself’ series. Has anyone tried it?
Yeah, there’s something in Bazza’s view too. I think maybe I waited too long before starting to learn characters just cos I thought it would be too hard for little ole me. But I do think that your teacher’s right to wait until you’ve built up some enthusiasm for the spoken language before introducing the writing. Just don’t wait too long.
Does the school you’re attending do intermediate evening classes? I’m in South London too.
Josh
Hi Josh
Soas also has evening classes. Probably very good (I have a friend who teaches there - one of my first teachers and an excellent one), but probably very expensive. http://www.soas.ac.uk/languagecentre/
Best to you all
Jan
Hi Josh
I’m taking evening classes at SOAS. I find it good, but I havent tried other courses to be able to compare. Focus was on characters from the start and I think this made it easier than having to switch from pinyin later in the course. BUt yes it does some extra work at the beginning. I recommend it, only thing is it is a bit pricey.
Second meet-up? I think we have the perfect reason to do a repeat in February, thanks to celebrity guest Amber who’s coming to London! See http://blogs.chinesepod.com/ne.....chinesepod
Solublefish,
I have used the teach yourself book (just Chinese characters), but I find the Fun with Chinese Characters books more useful and, as the title suggests, fun. I see they’re very pricey on Amazon! I’m sure you can find them cheaper. I’ve found them at the library recently to my surprise!
These gave me a great foundation for writing characters as they help to explain their origin, meaning you can make sense of them. I think with language learning it’s important to build a strong foundation so that you’re pointed in the right direction.
By the way, is your username a reference to your drinking habits?
Um, by the way that last bit was meant to be a joke to prove that I have a sense of humour and not some boringly conscientious learner or something…
Jokes don’t really come across very well in text do they? =’_'=
Um, by the way that last bit was meant to be a joke to prove that I have a sense of humour and I’m not some boringly conscientious learner or something…
Jokes don’t really come across very well in text do they? =’_'=
My drinking habits are indeed prodigious.
What happened to Kaanhi? Did I imagine him/her? Kaanhi’s comments seem to have disappeared from the blog before I got the chance to check out that school he/she mentioned. Does anyone remember what it was?
Josh
SOAS
Hello anybody there?!?
This is my 37th attempt to send a message
It got through!!!
Josh - the Mandaring course I mentioned is courtesy of CETS Croydon and the intermediate course only runs on a Saturday morning. Tried to paste a link but obviously I have not earned that privilege yet!
Thank you all for the links, I had not realised about the forum otherwise I would have posed my queries there in the first instance.