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Advanced - Things We Love About China
Oct 21, 2013
Show notes
Some of our shows can be admittedly negative about China, given all of the pressures and stresses that people deal with living here. But China also remains the world's happiest nation, at least according to North Korean media. So for all of the grumbling that we do, there is plenty to love about living here. Which is why we invite everyone feeling down about life in the Middle Kingdom to join Sylvia and Echo today for an advanced podcast in which we chat about everything we really like about life in China. We keep things upbeat for a change, how about that?
Intermediate - Faking the Art of War
Oct 14, 2013
Show notes
In this Intermediate show, David, Echo and Sylvia drop into our studio to chat about The Art of War, revealing not only what the Chinese military classic has in common with Monty Python, but also our own personal favorites from among the text's celebrated 36 strategems. And our goal? Helping you seem hyper-educated: because we're all about shortcuts, and why read the original text when you can just fake it through a podcast?Learning Chinese? This lesson is a touch on the more difficult side for our intermediate series. Not only do we have a lot of native Chinese spoken in the discussion section of our podcast, but our non-dialogue focus is on some of the more commonly used strategems from The Art of War that you'll run into in daily life in China. But if you're an upper-level student, please do check it out and let us know what you think.
Elementary - Buzzing Up (and hating China)
Oct 03, 2013
Show notes
So this story is somewhat off-topic, but after you hear the podcast you'll understand. The back-story is that Amazon emailed (repeatedly) to notify us that some books we had ordered for next-day delivery were shipped and would arrive that afternoon. But then after changing plans to make sure someone was home, we were notified by a telephone call in the late afternoon that the shipper hadn't even bothered to put the books in the mail. Because they wanted to check that we really wanted them.Admittedly, this isn't a bit deal in the scheme of things, but is complaining about it unreasonable? Does it mean we hate China? Because maybe it means we've got other stuff on our plate: you be the judge.
Absolute Beginners - Ambulance Days
Sep 25, 2013
Show notes
Although we claim to be experts in basically everything involving China, we should admit that no-one at Popup Towers has ever had to call an ambulance. The one time a friend came down with a medical problem that needed one, he staggered to the local convenience store and someone took care of it for him. But since you're living in China and can't count on that, be sure to give this lesson a listen as we cover all the Chinese you should need to know to get help in an emergency. Or at least dial the right number.Learning Chinese? At our absolute beginners level, all lessons are designed for people who have no previous experience speaking Chinese. So even if you don't know any Chinese, you should be able to understand the materials we cover in this class. And when you start finding this stuff too easy? Head up to our elementary level which features more spoken Chinese in the podcast, and longer dialogues in general.
Elementary - Lost in a Parking Garage
Aug 27, 2013
Show notes
Safely ensconced on the fifth floor (5A-West) of the parking garage, the Volkswagen Beetle waited patiently for the return of its masters. Minutes passed into hours, and then hours into days. And when winter stretched into spring and spring into summer, the passage of time caused little discomfort for the unprepossessing automobile. Its owners would come, and when they did it would be time to take them and their shopping home.Learning Chinese. In this show, we cover a few words and phrases useful for getting out of just about anything in mandarin, and remind you that verbs describing thinking and feeling are always used in the present aspect. Finally, we cover a use of 又 which is impossible to translate, since the character carries almost no independent meaning into the sentence.
Advanced - Chinese Pet Stories
Aug 19, 2013
Show notes
The worst childhood pet stories we've ever heard are variants of Cujo or Pet Semetary, involving a once-beloved puppy which not only goes crazy, but massacres large portions of a small rural village in the process. And in that sense, these childhood stories of Echo and Sylvia are somewhat tame by comparison. But they also make us wonder at the sensibilities of a country which trains its children to raise worms.
Absolute Beginners - The Art of Email
Aug 12, 2013
Show notes
Xiao Luo stared at the business card with the patience and intensity of an archeologist exhuming an ancient Pharoh. Unexpectedly, the combination of her own sweat and the Shanghai summer heat had given the once cream-colored paper a greyish-blue tint, and smudged the delicate combination of numbers and letters which had previously been the email address of the most important businessman in her field. Could she reconstruct it from memory?Learning Chinese? This lesson has one of our more difficult dialogues at the Absolute Beginner level, although we try to work you up to it slowly. Nonetheless, if you are a total beginning to mandarin, you'll probably want to start with an easier show from our beginner lesson archive. If you've already got a few under your belt though, join us for this show and learn all the Chinese you need to ask for someone's email address. If you're new to China, you'll find this is oddly more difficult than it is abroad.
Intermediate - Sheep Disappointment
Aug 05, 2013
Show notes
The first month after the apocalypse was the worst, as China struggled not only with efforts to fend off its relentless onslaught of undead, but also to keep its survivors motivated and well-fed as food supplies ran low and major cities found themselves cut-off from more well-stocked regional outposts. Fortunately, it was not long before Chinese ingenuity offered a solution to the nation's predicament.Learning Chinese? In today's show we cover a pretty strange grammar pattern that appears twice in our dialogue. And it's strange not only because it fails to obey common grammar conventions, but also because we can't really explain what is happening ourselves on a fundamental level. If you think you can do better, take a listen and share your thoughts in the comments section below. We'd be curious if anyone can give us a good systematic explanation for what is going on.
Elementary - The General Relativity Ultimatum
Jul 22, 2013
Show notes
It was at precisely the moment Xiao Zhang was supposed to be mulling over his options and trying to find an escape from his predicament, that his mind somehow veered back to Einstein's theory of General Relativity and the conceptual experiment of the accelerating elevator. Because if gravity was the same thing as constant acceleration, then what exactly was five minutes anyway? Wasn't time relative? And if it was, then how could it ever come to an end? The thought seemed oddly comforting.Learning Chinese? Rather than assault you with more , today we're pleased to present a simpler lesson intended to help you practice all the Chinese you need to deal with time, whether it involves procrastinating at work or hectoring the overattentive wait staff at your favorite Chinese restaurant. We hope you enjoy it, and if you have suggestions on future topics you'd like to hear covered, let us know anytime at service@popupchinese.com.
Advanced - Flight Delays of the Gods
Jul 17, 2013
Show notes
The Beijing Capital Airport is not only the busiest airport in the world by traffic volume, but it's apparently also the most vindictive and spiteful when it comes to the treatment of non-national airlines. Or that's the most likely explanation we can think of for how a four hour flight to Beijing transformed into a thirty hour Odyssey that included a two day layover in Taiyuan while our plane was cleared for "permission to land" in the capital.Admittedly, the delay could have been an accident. Or it could have involved mechanical difficulties. But we're leaning towards corruption as the most likely answer, and if you're interested in the reasons why, Echo and Sylvia in our advanced show for today as they talk about this epic flight delay, and share some local gossip about the airline industry in China. And with that in mind, we'd be interested to hear if anyone has similar stories, so please feel invited to leave a comment in the discussion section below, or write Echo directly with your experiences at echo@popupchinese.com.
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