I don’t know about you folks, but I sure have missed out Friday Five interviews. We had some in the works, but then V3 hit and it was utter pandemonium for our folks over at HQ. I’m sure we’ll get back to them eventually, but for today, I’d like to interview YOU, the reader. That’s right, it’s audience participation time!
Please respond in the comments section!
1) What would you rank your current level of Mandarin fluency?
2) How long did it take you to get there?
3) What was the last CPod podcast you listened to?
4) If you could be the programming director for the Saturday Show, what new content would you add?
5) Got a favorite phrase in Chinese? Let’s hear it!
Thanks, all!
Technorati Tags: chinesepod
Frank Baby,
Am interested to hear suggestions for #4 - wait, let me rephrase: Whomever is in charge of TSS will do good to listen…
A few changes as of this week - be sure and tune in tomorrow…and we’ll see you in a few weeks, bring your boots!
Aric
I’ve got a few ideas, brother, but let me listen to tomorrow’s broadcast before I throw my pennies in the pond. I’m also moving into the new digs tomorrow, so you may have to wait until Sunday for the full-court press, but I’ll deliver. Oh, yes I will.
Hiya Frank,
First post here. Really enjoy this blog, it’s one of the funniest around.
As I was loading the webpage I was just thinking, “well, it’s been a little while since Frank gave us his latest ‘Friday Five’, I wonder who he’ll feature today?”, when, lo and behold, it’s us. Hooray, our chance to hog the spotlight!
So in answer to your questions:
1 & 2:my Mandarin level is really pretty low. I subscribed to Cpod in January after taking a trial for a month. I’m esconced in Newbie, mainly just listening to the lessons over and over, trying to recall the words, forgetting basic verbs, perplexed at the strange (to my ears)order of the Mandarin sentences. I sometimes think I’m listening to too many lessons (though you can never have too much of a good thing right?)as I feel as though I’m not really nailing them down before I move on to the next one. But something is definitely working as some words ARE sticking and I’m beginning to recognise the tones before Jenny identifies them, a fact which astonishes me as I’m quite tone deaf when it comes to listening to music though perhaps the two are not analogous…
Also you see the occasional news item on the television about China and they’ll interview some Chinese and it’s a wonderful feeling when you recognise a few isolated words.
3: I generally listen to each new podcast every day. Even the advanced and intermediate stuff. Can’t say I understand them but I enjoy listening to the sound of spoken Mandarin.
4: Ha, well as Aric is obviously watching I have to be careful what I say. I used to love waking up on a Saturday morning and switching the computer on the listen to TSS, but since it was shunted over to another site, I’m less inclined to go looking for it. (There you are, Aric, let the bigwigs see comments like this). The downside is that it is moving away from the show it first seemed to be which was providing insights into Chinese culture and society. Aric should bring back his Top 5 lists. There’s too much chat about non-Chinese things and Aric hanging out with his buddies at such-and-such a gig. Still, he introduced me to Cold Fairyland and Wong Kar-wai (not literally obviously)so I’ll always be grateful to him for that.
5: I don’t have a favourite phrase but when I’m out with friends I’m constantly saying to myself or sometimes aloud “Zhen1 de ma?” It must be the easiest phrase to learn.
Well I really didn’t mean to rattle on this long. Sorry
Barry,
Hello and welcome! Thanks for answering the Friday Five! I know exactly where you’re at with your Newbie studies. I did the same exact thing. I can also tell you that drilling down mercilessly on ONE podcast won’t do you as much good as listening to a lot of them. You really will pick up this stuff through exposure and osmosis.
Thanks, especially, for the comments on the Saturday Show. It was one of the things that got me hooked on the site and I hated seeing it (and this blog!) moved off the front page.
Thanks again for playing along. Have a great weekend!
No probs Frank.
So have you noticed a decline in the number of people visiting this site? Percentage-wise (roughly) what’s the drop? It must be the same with the other bloggers. They must have their reasons, tho’ I’m scratching round trying to think of one…please don’t tell me they make the page look ‘cluttered’, or heaven forbid, ‘less professional’.
Hey Cpod please put The Saturday Show, the Cpod bloggers AND the forum on the home page! They provide absolutely VITAL interaction for us fellow students.
Enjoy your weekend too. Take care.
1. I speak in Chinese all day here but I’ve still got to say my level is just upper intermediate. I’ve got the basics down but when it comes it really advanced things like listening to news reports or watching a movie, I’m totally lost. Also, sometimes I still find elementary lessons to be really useful.
2. Combined total of about three and half years, I would say, two of which have been spent in China.
3. Upper-intermediate–resisting relocation
4. I’ve never really listened to the Saturday Show, mostly because I don’t see how it was related to language learning. I’m also just not that interested in hearing people talk–in English–about a Chinese city I’ve lived in before and that I don’t particularly like. I would listen to it a lot more if there was a lot more Chinese during the show–actually, adding a feature like “Movie Madness” to the show itself would be enough to make me listen.
5.他弄大她的肚子了！ Ta1 nong4da4 ta1de du4zi le. “He knocked her up!” (Literally–”he made her stomach big!”) This was one of the first colloquial expressions I learned just by watching TV. It definitely made understanding what was happening in the show a lot easier.
Frank, I like reading your blog. Good luck with your Chinese studying. I’ve found that the two most important things really are just time and patience.
I’m a bit late on this, but I hope not too late…
So here goes
1) What would you rank your current level of Mandarin fluency?
According to ChinesePod, I’m Intermediate (High)… I have studied all the courses available at the Uni, so I guess that would be correct. The only way for me to get better is to go to China and at the same time keep listening to CP’s lessons, I guess. I can’t do more here in Finland…
2) How long did it take you to get there?
I have been studying for 3 years.
3) What was the last CPod podcast you listened to?
Today’s podcast and some of the older intermediate ones. I try to listen every day…
4) If you could be the programming director for the Saturday Show, what new content would you add?
Well… things being as they are, I would be happy to have any kind of Saturday Show… I miss it, really.
5) Got a favorite phrase in Chinese? Let’s hear it!
你看什么看? nǐ kān shén me kān? “What are you looking at?”
So thats it for me!
Thanks again for your great blog, Frank. Love ya!
-K