The Chairman's Bao

[TheChairman'sBao]

On 7/28/2020 at 2:12 PM, Arthur said:

Hi guys, did TCB remove the function to export word bank using Anki format? I only get csv, memrise, pleco and skirtter formats when I click "export" on the flashcards...
Is there any work-around method to get these flashcards available on Anki ? 

 

Hi Arthur! 

 

Anki changed their import type but you can use CSV to import into Anki

If you need further help let me know I'll be happy to 

 

TJ

The Chairman's Bao 

 

 

[TheChairman'sBao]

On 7/27/2020 at 7:51 PM, Balthazar said:

"To find your "read" articles click on the open book icon!"

 

Maybe I was unclear, but what I wonder is how I mark an article as having been read through the app. I want to do this so that it no longer shows up when I browse articles at that level.

 

Hello!

 

So you're correct;  if you want to mark the article as "read" it would indeed be the open book icon. Then if you want to access all read articles then click the right hand side menu click, the click  "Show" and then you can alternate between all, unread or read articles . If this isn't clear I can attach some annotated screenshots for you.  Also, thank you for the great feedback about adding pop up text  - I'll pass that on today  

 

With regards to synchronisation, I've passed that onto the tech team - it may be a case that synchronisation on each device is being cancelled if not done at the same time. I'll update you as soon as I can 

 

TJ

The Chairman's Bao  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TheChairman'sBao]

On 7/27/2020 at 9:02 AM, Jan Finster said:

I wonder if the TheChairmansBaoTeam still reads this, but maybe other people may also know:

 

a) I noticed even in HSK 3 or HSK 4 lessons about 25-30% of words are non-HSK words. What is the total word and total character statistic of the entire TCB library until this date? If you have that data, could you also please break it up into the 6 levels? (e.g. total word and total character statistic of all HSK 4 lessons)

b) do the HSK 6 lessons as a whole cover all HSK 6 vocabulary?

c) are the writers only paying attention to using the words of that HSK level or do they also try to cover all grammar aspects of the respective HSK level? If so, is the grammar coverage comprehensive? 

d) is there a way to search for certain grammar points?

 Hi There, 

 

Thank you for your (really great) questions ! I'll try my best to answer :

 

Although we align with HSK we don’t strictly follow it - our listings are inclusive but also expansive. We have a HSK leveller built into the platform, as well as a comprehensive editorial process to help us grade lessons. There are often words which are vital to tell the story but fall outside the listings, so these are always mentioned in the article keywords wherever possible. We allow  for a certain amount of words which fall outside of HSK word listings or above the level for each lesson dependent on targeted level.

 

With regards to grammar, we are currently working on a way to make grammar explanations more interactive within the text (hopefully you won't have to wait long). We've also been writing articles explaining certain grammar points - we'll try our best to correlate these articles to the appropriate HSK levels. 

 

I hope this helped but if you have any other questions feel free to ask

 

TJ

The Chairman's Bao 

 

[Jan Finster]

Thank you for your reply

 

4 hours ago, TheChairman'sBao said:

Although we align with HSK we don’t strictly follow it - our listings are inclusive but also expansive.

This is great! You are right sticking rigidly to HSK would make the text very awkward.

 

4 hours ago, TheChairman'sBao said:

With regards to grammar, we are currently working on a way to make grammar explanations more interactive within the text (hopefully you won't have to wait long).

Looking forward to it. If this is at all possible, I would also appreciate a grammar search function. E.g. searching for all articles that contain a  "把 sentence". This would allow people to have instant access to plenty of examples of a certain grammar point in context.

 

4 hours ago, TheChairman'sBao said:

I hope this helped but if you have any other questions feel free to ask

 

The only unanswered question is: "What is the total word and total character statistic of the entire TCB library until this date? If you have that data, could you also please break it up into the 6 levels? (e.g. total word and total character statistic of all HSK 4 lessons)"

 

I think this data, while it may sound nerdy, would be a nice selling point especially as TCB vocabulary goes  beyond HSK. To get this data, you would probably only need to merge all the lessons into one (very) big text file and run Imron's Chinese Text Analyzer (+ add-on for character count)

[Balthazar]

@TheChairman'sBao

 

 

I appreciate the concern, but I have a pretty good data plan and I'd like to be able to sync my bookmarks even without Wifi. This definitely used to be possible in the past. I can't find a way now, there's only the "ok" option, no "I'm aware of the risks, please go ahead and do the sync anyways".

 

This is a little bit more than extremely annoying. I find it hard to believe that I'm the only subscriber that uses both the desktop and app version, and it baffles me how cumbersome syncing has become. If I forget to sync from desktop to app before leaving the apartment, I need to spend the five minutes on the bus manually removing those bookmarks only to arrive at my destination before I had the chance to get to the reading.

 

This may seem like complaints about nothing, but as someone with a Relatively Hectic Life, those five minutes of reading on the bus are pretty important. If nothing else, the rage produced by this situation gives me an opportunity to do a quick mindfulness practice ?

[TheChairman'sBao]

On 9/7/2020 at 6:24 PM, Balthazar said:

I appreciate the concern, but I have a pretty good data plan and I'd like to be able to sync my bookmarks even without Wifi. This definitely used to be possible in the past. I can't find a way now, there's only the "ok" option, no "I'm aware of the risks, please go ahead and do the sync anyways".

 Hello There, 

 

Apologies for taking so long to get back to you and the annoying situation you've found yourself in! With each refresh, will sync between mobile and web

 

Please send an e-mail to contact@thechairmansbao.com or alternatively, click on "Feedback" in the app. From here you can submit a support request and we'll look into this for you. We're always happy to help :)

 

 

On 7/29/2020 at 9:04 PM, Jan Finster said:

The only unanswered question is: "What is the total word and total character statistic of the entire TCB library until this date? If you have that data, could you also please break it up into the 6 levels? (e.g. total word and total character statistic of all HSK 4 lessons)"

 

Hello,

 

We don't have that data to hand, but you're right that would be very handy and and a greats selling point. Thank you very much for that Jan and we hope your language learning has been going well!

[rouloubole]

Hi,

 

I have purchased a subscription to The Chairman's Bao recently and I have been enjoying it very much. However I have been running into a small issue

 

I use the mobile app or the website to browse TCB, and while I have no problems with the mobile app I have an issue with the website version. Indeed, whenever I read on the website, I find the characters a little "blurry" and the strokes are very thin, which really makes my eyes hurt. I haven't found any option to change the font, even though you can on the mobile app.

It isn't too big of an issue but it is really frustrating and tiring especially if I spend half an hour or more reading stories. To make things worse, I read in traditional characters, ahah. Oddly enough, when the page is still loading, the characters are shown in bold font and they are really nice to look at, but as soon as the loading is over they get the thin font.

 

Is there any way to change the font on the website, or to make the characters "bold" ? 

 

I am attaching a picture I took on a random article to illustrate. I am also using Opera but I have found the same problem trying to read on google chrome.

 

Thanks in advance!

[PerpetualChange]

Just popping in to say that I really enjoy Chairman's Bao. Though I thought I would just stick to reading long-form novels by now, after spending last year reading several I found that a lot of times I get into a novel and wind up feeling like I simply don't want to finish it, yet I feel guilty about abandoning it. Also it takes a long time to find a novel, even with tools like CTA making it easier. In short, the whole process of finding good reading material, and then sticking with it, was feeling more like a chore. I do plan on reading some novels later this year, but while I am taking a break to read other things not in Chinese it's good to have the Chairman's Bao offering fresh and interesting articles. I really like the HSK6+ category. Am I correct that these are "native materials" that haven't been simplified for the HSK learners?

[Jan Finster]

18 hours ago, rouloubole said:

Is there any way to change the font on the website, or to make the characters "bold" ? 

 

This has little to do with TCB, but with your browser. I use Chrome and it lets you choose whichever font you like to display the text. You can use serif/sans serifs, comic, calligraphy-style, etc...

 

[rouloubole]

40 minutes ago, Jan Finster said:

This has little to do with TCB, but with your browser. I use Chrome and it lets you choose whichever font you like to display the text. You can use serif/sans serifs, comic, calligraphy-style, etc...

 

Would you mind showing me the result on your browser ? I can change the font on opera as well but it apparently doesn't change the problem.

[Jan Finster]

 

23 minutes ago, rouloubole said:

Would you mind showing me the result on your browser ?

testtcb.tif

 

Ok, I changed to traditional characters and on my screen the font is cristal clear. When I saved it as a JPG to upload it, then it got blurred. I tried saving it as .tif. Not sure if this is as clear as in real life. Let us see [may edit this if it turns out crappy].

 

 

 

[rouloubole]

Thanks, glad to see the problem comes from me then.

 

May I ask what font you're using, then ? 

[Jan Finster]

23 minutes ago, rouloubole said:

May I ask what font you're using, then ? 

 

Just Arial...

 

My Chrome says:

Standard and/or sans-serif font: Arial

Serif: KaiTi (?)

Fonts with fixed width: Consolas

[Jan Finster]

To improve my listening skills, I decided to listen to all TCB lessons. 

 

Starting with HSK 1 lessons (approx. 900) as extensive listening practice, I just completed all HSK 1 lessons in TCB.

 

The great thing about TCB is that they do not cling to the HSK levels rigidly. So, even though the lessons were supposed to be HSK 1, all HSK 1 lessons combined contained about 2687 unique words and 1418 unique characters (see stats below). 

 

The great thing about listening to them was that they were really fairly easy, but almost every lesson had 1-2 words I did not know or expressions, I was not familiar with even though I know the individual words or characters, e.g. "同桌同学" (for "classmate you are sharing your desk with"). Since the lessons were fairly easy, I completed several dozens each day, which meant, I spent several hours each day listening. So, lots of time on task and I feel my overall listening skills have improved quite a bit.

 

 

In case anyone is interested, here are the CTA stats ("known/unknown" is relative to HSK 2010-2021 vocabulary)

 

Words:

    Total    44.084
    Known    32.892
    Percent Known    74,61%
    Unknown    11.192
    Percent Unknown    25,39%
    Unique    2.687
    Known    785
    Percent Known    29,21%
    Unknown    1.902
    Percent Unknown    70,79%
 

Characters:

    Total    61.186
    Unique    1.418
 

 

Starting HSK 2 tomorrow...

 

[Jan Finster]

On my listening marathon, I just finished all lessons of TCB HSK 2 (~975). Since April 4th (I estimate) I listened actively for around 100 hours. Each lesson is around 1:30 min and I listened to almost every lesson at least 2-5 times. I did very little reading and no speaking.

 

So, with the HSK 1 lessons I listened to in March, this amounts to approximately 200 hours of TCB listening since early March and around 2000 lessons total.

 

There were several things I noticed:

• I become more "certain" of tones. So, there is less wondering if e.g. 圣诞 is 2 fourth tones or something else.
• Even though I did zero speaking during this month (apart from 2x 10 minutes or so of shadowing, or so), I come up with Chinese expressions in my head spontaneously. For instance I see a passion fruit in the super market and in my mind I go 百香果 (I did zero Anki or other flashcarding during this time)
• I do less translation in my head as I "just" understand things more. 
• Even for words I knew, I learnt lots of new combinations. For instance, I knew the words "也" and "叫", but I did not know you could use them together as in 也叫 (a.k.a. (also known as), etc.

Even though I (should) know most of the HSK 1-5 words, the genius of TCB is that they do not stick rigidly to the levels. As you can see below all HSK 2 lessons combined have approximately 4000 unique words. Since they are spread out over approximately 1000 lessons, it does not feel like "studying" at all.

 

In case anyone is interested, here are the CTA stats ("known/unknown" is relative to HSK 2010-2021 vocabulary)

 

TCB HSK 2:

 

    Total    76.603
    Known    56.591
    Percent Known    73,88%
    Unknown    20.012
    Percent Unknown    26,12%
    Unique    3.974
    Known    1.143
    Percent Known    28,76%
    Unknown    2.831
    Percent Unknown    71,24%

 

Characters:

    Total    109.911
    Unique    1.776
 

 

Here are the combined stats from all HSK 1+2 lessons (see post above) ("known/unknown" is relative to HSK 2010-2021 vocabulary):

 

    Total    120.687
    Known    89.483
    Percent Known    74,14%
    Unknown    31.204
    Percent Unknown    25,86%
    Unique    4.767
    Known    1.254
    Percent Known    26,31%
    Unknown    3.513
    Percent Unknown    73,69%

 

Characters:

    Total    171.097
    Unique    1.990
 

 

Starting TCB HSK 3 listening marathon tomorrow.
 

[roddy]

Just a quick note of congratulations to the TCB team. We've seen a LOT of start-ups come and go on these forums, and there really aren't many that come up with a business model that works and manage to keep it running. 

[Moshen]

I agree that TCB is a great learning tool, and they've made it better and better.  About half a year ago they added listening exercises after each lesson, in addition to reading exercises, and I find those quite useful in reinforcing vocabulary.

[TheChairmansBaoTeam]

Hi all,

 

Thank you for the updates and for the positive feedback on the platform/business. We are glad to know that the improvements to the platform are being well received and are happy to listen to any feedback you have in terms of suggestions/additions going forward. Remarkably, we are approaching 6.5 years of TCB being launched, which we are really grateful for. We've received great support from the Chinese-learning community and hope to continue for many years to come!

 

Big shout-out to Jan for your listening marathon! That's seriously impressive.

 

We will keep an eye on the forum but if you want to get in touch with us directly, you can also email contact@thechairmansbao.com and feel free to address the email to myself.

 

Thanks,

 

Sean (Team TCB)

[Singe]

On 5/6/2021 at 7:06 PM, Jan Finster said:

Starting TCB HSK 3 listening marathon tomorrow.

 

I really hope you keep us updated. That is indeed seriously impressive and very motivational. I've loved TCB since I paid up in January. Had a bit of a break when life got in the way but back with a gusto now.

 

49 minutes ago, TheChairmansBaoTeam said:

happy to listen to any feedback you have in terms of suggestions

 

You know the only thing that I don't like (and this is very minor) is the way it won't let you carry on when you have a word rearrangement exercise unless you get it 100% correct (except for skipping the section and getting zero). There's the odd occasion I simply can't work out what I've done wrong and then have to skip the section and get 0%. Would there be any way of allowing a partial score option? Hope this makes sense.

53 minutes ago, TheChairmansBaoTeam said:

if you want to get in touch with us directly

 

Thanks for being so approachable and you may well get the odd e-mail from me - and I promise I won't be a pain in the arse. 

[TheChairmansBaoTeam]

12 minutes ago, Singe said:

You know the only thing that I don't like (and this is very minor) is the way it won't let you carry on when you have a word rearrangement exercise unless you get it 100% correct (except for skipping the section and getting zero). There's the odd occasion I simply can't work out what I've done wrong and then have to skip the section and get 0%. Would there be any way of allowing a partial score option? Hope this makes sense.

 

We have had this feedback a couple of times recently so we are currently exploring how we can tackle this. I can appreciate it must be frustrating receiving a 0 score despite potentially getting a % of the assessment correct. Rest assured we're on with it and will look into a work-around!

 

Thanks Singe and looking forward to keeping in touch!

 

Sean