I love the updates!!!
There IS something I have long wanted to request, though – additional search functionality allowing vocabulary/phrase search of the entire ChinesePod dialogue library (and maybe also of all of ChinesePod’s expansion and grammar sentences) as a corpus (actually corpora, since I think the dialogue library should be one corpus and the additional expansion/grammar example sentences another corpus, since the dialogues provide MUCH more useful context than individual example sentences are likely to).
Here are two questions I had today which could likely be answered if this search functionality were available – and that without this search functionality can probably only be answered if I can find (1) a native Chinese speaker who (2) speaks English and (3) is naturally sensitive to how language works and is good at explaining it.
In the recent ATWTI lesson on "应该的“ (and other Chinese ways of expressing something like “You’re welcome”), I wanted to get a sense of how often 应该的 is used relative to, for example, 没事. I also wondered to what extent (if at all) “应该的” connotes that what the person has done is only what they SHOULD have done (and therefore is not worth someone thanking them for). . . .or if 应该的 instead is just an automatic response like the English “You’re welcome” that may or may not express that the respondent REALLY welcomed the bother of doing whatever it is they did for the speaker?!? Given the size of the ChinesePod library, I think it’s likely some lesson DOES already exist explaining at length the nuances of 应该的 vs. other forms of “You’re welcome.” However, without corpus search functionality of the kind I’m describing, I think I have no way of locating this (probably already existing) lesson. (None of the lessons you linked in the practice tab have dialogues including 应该的.)
Similarly, I just watched the hilarious (and so very memorable) lesson on “Misunderstanding the Doctor” and was wanting to see more examples of the phrase 我是说 to get a sense of whether this sentence can ever be used by someone lower in status speaking to someone higher in status or whether that would be rude. Again, given the size of the ChinesePod library, I think there’s a good chance I could figure this out on my own if only ChinesePod’s dialogue library and example sentences were searchable as a corpus – but currently, I can only ask my Chinese roommate her thoughts. (However, I’m a little concerned that I might not, in fact, get an accurate answer from her even if I DO ask because I know from doing corpus research as an applied linguist in English that sometimes native speakers aren’t the best at answering such questions off the top of their heads because they tend only to consider the question in the one context the question-asker gives and DON’T think of potentially several other contexts where that phrasing IS indeed possible and appropriate.)
Therefore, I would very much like to request that ChinesePod-as-a-corpus search functionality be added to the search bar. Thanks VERY much for your consideration of my request!
Monica