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 - Pinyin Practice - Xi
Aug 27, 2009
Show notes
Our pinyin practice lesson for today focuses on one of the more challenging sounds in the Chinese language. And the reason English speakers have difficulty with it is fairly simple: there is no good English equivalent. Not that we could think of, at least.In an effort to help you hunt down this sound and overpower it though, in this podcast we review this sound in all of its strange tonal glory. We first go over the sound in all four tones, and then practice putting it into words and then sample sentences. If you made improving your pronunciation a part of your New Years resolutions way back in January, we think this will come in useful. Just speak along with Echo and disregard the crazy looks your coworkers give you: they're just jealous you're speaking Chinese.On a closing note, we've enabled our recording hotline for this lesson, so if you're a premium subscriber you're invited to call us using the custom PIN number that you'll find on this lesson's text page. Practice recording our words and sample sentences back for us and we'll have one of our teachers listen to it and get back to you with one-on-one feedback about your pronunciation.
Elementary - The Upsell
Aug 24, 2009
Show notes
Developed over 5000 years of history, the traditional Chinese approach to sales involves deploying armies of salespeople to flank the merchandise, and opening a single cashier three floors away to ring up sales. Stamped receipts issued by this critical employee can hypothetically be exchanged for the actual product, although we've never heard of anyone successfully completing the transaction.Perhaps times are changing though. Along with efforts to lure the few remaining foreign factories into central Hunan, the Chinese Government has recently begun a program to encourage the import of advanced western sales techniques. Key among these is the classic upsell, whose sudden emergence this summer has turned it into the latest marketing craze to hit the streets of Beijing. Join us in this podcast and we'll introduce it to you.
Advanced - Saturday Morning Cartoons
Aug 19, 2009
Show notes
In this podcast Echo, Liu and 9527 hit our studio for a show about Saturday morning cartoons in China. And if you think they're going to chat about Superfriends or Rocket Robin Hood you're sadly mistaken. Not only is there no English in today's show, there are no non-Asian shows either. So even if you're an advanced student you may want to click through to our vocabulary section to familiarize yourself with the subject matter before listening.Why cartoons? The catalyst for this has been some good news for Liu, who just picked up a job doing voice acting for the new animated edition of The Monkey King set for release later this year. Congratulations Liu. We fully expect everyone in mainland China to know you as "that guy from Popup Chinese" in a couple of years, but don't let that go to your head....
Absolute Beginners - The Worst Joke in China
Aug 17, 2009
Show notes
One of the advantages we've found to operating out of Beijing is our ability to engage in the sort of scientific research frowned upon in much of the civilized world. Far from the oversight of university ethics committees, we carve our own way through pressing moral dilemmas, such as whether to unleash the results of our research into what is unquestionably the worst joke in all China.When we tested this on our crew in Beijing, the results were pretty bad. "That's the worst joke I've ever heard," Echo groaned before losing consciousness. Apple was knocked to the floor and later hospitalized with minor intestinal discomfort. So consider yourself warned. This podcast is dangerous. On the other hand, if you're starting to learn mandarin it is exactly the sort of risk you need to run if you want to get fluent. And how bad can a joke be anyway?
Intermediate - Your Dog Looks a Little....
Aug 12, 2009
Show notes
Growing weary of Lassie bounding into your bedroom at the very break of dawn, his innocent eyes beaming with the delight of another day? Join us in this podcast as we reveal an age-old Chinese technique for breaking your pets of their infectious enthusiasm for life. In addition to covering some unexpected vocabulary, in this addictive podcast we also highlight three common sentence patterns you'll hear all the time.
Elementary - The Hostile ATM
Aug 04, 2009
Show notes
Before you came to China, you may have thought the point of telephone banking was to save everyone a bit of time and money. Banks could avoid paying for a full teller while you could conduct your business a bit more efficiently, right? Now you know the truth. In China automated banking is less a service and more an attempt to figure out how badly you really want your money.Since this is a podcast about robots, we asked Brendan and Echo to liven things up a bit with some exciting banking stories. But they failed. Miserably. So if you're looking for exciting yarns of financial adventure you'll have to go elsewhere. But if you want to learn some useful vocabulary that will serve you well the next time you're engaged in repetitive number crunching or feel like ripping someone's head off, this is exactly the podcast you need.
Elementary - The Carlsberg Man
Jul 29, 2009
Show notes
Ever wanted to be that guy? You know the one we're talking about. The world is his oyster. And when he goes to the bar he gets served in seconds. No waiting around while the wait staff check the ice levels again. Just exceptional service. And the tips? "Not for you, sir," they say with a nod of the head. "We're just happy to be of service."Join us in this lesson and we'll teach you the magic word that will jump you to the head of the queue while the rest of your foreign brethren stare glumly at the bar. And for extra good measure, we'll also teach you three important grammar points you'll need to know to pass for native. The most important is the difference between 刚, 刚刚, and 刚才. Only one can be used in a standalone sentence, but which one and why?
Absolute Beginners - Happy Father's Day....
Jul 27, 2009
Show notes
Blithely ignoring the fact it's nowhere near Father's Day, let us address a more pressing question several of you have asked via email: yes, one of our male voice actors goes by the English name Bunny. We did a double-take the first time we heard it too: such is life in China, and you'll just have to get used to it.Moving on to more practical matters, we think you'll find this lesson fiendishly difficult, since it's probably the most difficult lesson we've released at this level to date. We still think it's worth getting through for a simple reason though: it will teach you how to answer a question with another question, a tremendously useful stonewalling tactic for when you're dealing with the Entry/Exit bureau and have a visa that expired several months ago.
Intermediate - The Music Teacher
Jul 21, 2009
Show notes
We believe our voice actors for this lesson must have had horrible memories of music lessons as a child. Nonetheless, the more musically inclined among you may wish to join us as we cover some useful vocabulary for impressing friends and intimidating rivals at KTV showdowns. In addition to the sexy new lingo, we also pay a brief visit to our old friend 了, whose occasional lack of clarity should be par for the course at this point.
Absolute Beginners - An Unexpected Interruption
Jul 14, 2009
Show notes
If you had known what was going on behind that door, you would never have opened it. We trust you there, but also caught the whole encounter on tape and feel that sharing it really is for the greater good. In addition to helping teach the Chinese word for hello, your awkward performance last week offers a perfect chance to teach the English speaking world a few simple euphemisms for dating that everyone needs to know to avoid having their own foot-in-mouth situations. Thanks for understanding....
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