The most convenient way to learn Chinese the way it is actually spoken and used. Start with our basic lessons, and in no time you’ll be listening to music, watching films and television and engaging in the actual language. With free daily podcasts, a vibrant community, online study tools and much more, PopupChinese is the most powerful and personal way to learn mandarin.
Absolute Beginners - Beautiful and Mysterious
Apr 20, 2011
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Brad's heart was a wreck. The previous evening he had met a girl he could only describe as perfect. And she had seemed interested between their drinks and dancing. Yet when the party drew to a close, she simply smiled when he asked for a telephone number or email address and told him to look her up. But as best he could tell from a cursory search of the Internet, she was entirely off the grid as well. What was a man to do? Hunt through the city of Beijing door-by-door in search of a single girl?
Intermediate - A Serial Problem
Apr 18, 2011
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The first murder had seemed accidental, and would have been officially registered a suicide if not for the near imperceptible signs of break-and-enter the forensics team had found at the scene of the crime. And even then the investigation would likely have ended up as boxes of dusty papers orphaned in the police warehouse if not for the astonishing series of events which followed, events which had the local authorities floundering in denial even as the situation escalated dramatically.Learning Chinese? At the Intermediate level, our Chinese podcasts feature fast, real-life Chinese dialogues spoken at native pace and filled with emotionally rich and complex sentences. If you're just getting started these are probably above your level, but if you're working towards fluency and are looking to get past your textbook, they're the type of materials we think you need. So take a listen and let us know what you think.
Absolute Beginners - Our Nearsighted Colleague
Apr 12, 2011
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Need to express surprise or issue forceful denials? These are two things we find ourselves doing with alarming regularity when escorting a certain nearsighted colleague of ours around Beijing. But while this lesson is inspired by real life, it's fairly easy and is crammed full of useful expressions for anyone starting to learn Chinese. So if you're just starting to use Popup Chinese, listen in and let us know what you think.
Elementary - A Betrayal of Family
Apr 06, 2011
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Like Al Pacino in Coppola's rickety Godfather series, our mob boss is getting cranky as he ages, longing to pass the yoke of his responsibilities to the next generation, but torn by its lack of competence and inclination to familial disloyalty. In this Chinese podcast we delve into his struggle to keep his criminal syndicate intact, and come to terms with the fact we're only a single degree of separation from the real Chinese mob. So listen up, and feel free to let us know if you need any kneecaps broken in the comments section.This is the third podcast we've done in our Big Boss series, but the first which merits classification at the Elementary level. So if you missed our first two because they weren't at your level, listen to this and then check out the originals once you're done. Because we hear the mob is hiring, and if you want to get into the Beijing or Shanghai underworlds, it's good to sound like you belong right from the start.
Absolute Beginners - A Simple Transaction
Apr 04, 2011
Show notes
The Chinese teaching establishment had cornered us in a bar at Houhai, and was telling us it couldn't be done over shots of tequila. "Who can teach coverbs to absolute beginners," they scoffed. "You want to start with a lesson on drinking tea." The head of the Confucius Institute was nearly falling off his chair, but still chipped in something about the Great Wall. It was less a suggestion than something more forceful. "Play up the culture and make China look good, you know?"And so we nodded and finished our drinks before heading home. "And down the hatches," Brendan said heading into the studio. "If we're going out in a blaze of glory, at least it'll be a blaze of linguistic glory that illustrates the topic-oriented nature of the Chinese language when it comes to giving instructions." The rest of us nodded. The world could drink tea on its own time. In our corner of the Internet, there was an urgent need for more podcasts about coverbs and topic-oriented sentences. The Great Wall could wait.
Elementary - Improving Staff Hygiene
Mar 28, 2011
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It was a surprise visit from Xinhua last month that triggered us re-evaluating our roll-out-of-bed policy in favor of something a bit more corporate. Because while we don't particularly mind getting a reputation as the most disheveled podcasting crew in China, it's quite another thing when video rears its head and everyone has to see us on national television. Which was why we told our staff to make liberal use of the shower. And we really didn't expect the move to backfire so badly.Learning Chinese? In this elementary Chinese podcast we focus on a single word that more than any other illustrates the total contempt the Chinese language holds for what other natural languages consider the sensible distinction between past, present and future. Useful whether you're just saying hello or telling someone you're a bit busy, this word is different from anything we have in English. So listen in and master it. And we hope you like the show.
Intermediate - The Sleeping Beauty
Mar 22, 2011
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"The princess goes to sleep and wakes up again," Gail told us, making the fairy tale sound about as pedestrian as Echo's nightly routine. When pressed about this, our faithful podcaster paused, and then added mention of glass slippers and singing furniture, with the caveat that these were not "central to the plot" and may have been "made up by Disney".Regardless of how well you remember the classics yourself, once you're in China you're in uncharted waters. Which is why we've taken a few liberties ourselves this lesson. So join us for an enjoyable look at what happens when you mix a traditional Western fairy tale with the process-oriented crime-solving prowess of your local Beijing police bureau. We hope our love for the boys in blue shines through in this dialogue filled with danger, intrigue, and the requisite quota of social harmony.
Absolute Beginners - Handling the Cops
Mar 18, 2011
Show notes
While everyone starts with the what-a-lovely-uniform-you-have-officer, we find that cheerful nodding gets harder to stomach once you've been fined once too often for miscellaneous visa paperwork, or after friends or family have been dragged to local precincts to answer for their non-existing connections with international Zionist conspiracies that may or may not threaten the Chinese salt supply. Which is not to say that we're bitter. But there's a point where the entire security theater starts feeling old.So while we can't honestly recommend this way of dealing with the cops, if they happen to drop by on an early Saturday morning when you're still in bed nursing a hangover, there's absolutely nothing wrong with putting that pillow over your head and going back to sleep. If they think it's important they'll come back, and probably in about 24 hours with someone louder.
Intermediate - Strange and Unusual Erhuaization
Mar 15, 2011
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It's one of the most common misconceptions even advanced students have about Chinese: the belief that erhuaization is non-standard and that anyone who says 这儿 (zhèr) instead of 这 (zhè) is somehow speaking the "Beijing dialect". While this opinion rarely survives a run-in with the actual Beijing dialect, it's understandably persistent among people who have not traveled broadly in China. And it's hardly their fault: there are a ton of native speakers who don't know the difference either.So while we usually put our focus on standard mandarin in our Chinese podcasts, in today's Chinese lesson we take a step back and showcase some examples of more unorthodox erhuaization. These are all commonly used variants you'll start hearing once you're aware of them. And while you might not want to use them yourselves each day, they're good to know - excellent little language bombs you can drop the next time you're at a state banquet and someone asks you how your Chinese is coming along.
Advanced - Jay Chou
Mar 13, 2011
Show notes
The Taiwanese superstar's performance in The Green Hornet had not been well received. But as the singer stretched out for his afternoon massage, he was finding it hard to care. Because nothing Variety did could take away the fact he was now partying with Cameron Diaz on his new private yacht. Compared to the music industry back home, Hollywood was a breeze. Although it did make him wonder what other ways he might have to cash in on his celebrity....Note: we don't want to call this the ultimate advanced listening test, but we're pretty sure we heard Echo cackling to herself while putting it together. So you've been warned. If you're learning Chinese you should find this hard. Really hard. But it's a new office favorite and hopefully you won't mind listening to it a few times. The repetition pays off, and you never know when you need inspiration for gift ideas. Good luck!
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