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 - The Third Tone
Nov 03, 2008
Show notes
Now that we've spent a few days practicing the first two tones it's time we intercede before you give everyone the impression mandarin is spoken in falsetto. Like other languages, mandarin has its dark side too. But before we plummet to the depths for good with our podcast on the fourth tone, we'll take an exploratory jaunt there first. The third tone is just like snorkeling: a brief trip down and then right back up.As an aside, while we mentioned we wouldn't get into detail on tone sandhi in the podcast, there is a grammar mutiny brewing here in the office so we feel obliged to make at least quick mention of it. The tricky thing about the third tone is that the pronunciation changes depending on context. Specifically, characters in the third tone are usually pronounced in the second tone when they precede other third tone characters. This actually makes it easier to speak and keeps listeners from getting seasick, but is difficult to remember all the time. Our advice is to focus on getting "hello" down properly and using it as a model for the pitch changes in other words and phrases. As a beginning student, you should be aware of this, but don't pull your hair out over it.
Elementary - Guitar Hero
Oct 29, 2008
Show notes
Mainlander tip: assuming you can get it back home in one piece (Air Canada considers guitar strings weapons....), a guitar is one of the best purchases you can make over here. Domestic manufacturers are still struggling with quality control, making it possible to find truly excellent instruments at every price level. The caveat is that there are more bad ones out there than good ones: you'll need an eye and ear for a good instrument to find a great deal.Now that we've got that out of the way, let's listen in on today's lesson: the story of a lovesick troubadour and his admirer. In a scant nine minutes this podcast will throw a lot of Chinese your way, including details on how to sound uncertain, and an easy way to negate questions. We also give Xiao Liu a round of applause for his solid E-minor plucking: surprisingly listenable considering that was his first time ever touching a guitar.
Intermediate - Slacking Off
Oct 28, 2008
Show notes
It's early Friday afternoon and you've just spent two exhausting hours checking your email, catching up on the latest blogs and thinking of how to start that twenty-page China Telecom report due Monday. Before putting pen to paper however, perhaps you should brush up on your Chinese with a quick test at Popup Chinese, and get a cup of coffee from the kitchen.Slacking off is an art form. So grab your headphones and listen in to this podcast to learn how to pull it off in China. In our discussion of Oriental slackfu, Brendan, David and Echo touch on effective techniques for promoting collective slacking as well as useful grammar points for steering your colleagues out of the office.
Absolute Beginners - The Second Tone
Oct 21, 2008
Show notes
Now that you've mastered the giddy highs of the first tone, it's time to move onto something a bit more challenging: tone number two. Despite the fact that many people maul the second tone (relax, you won't), the basics are pretty simple: just start near the middle of your vocal range and head up until you pass out, glass breaks, or you're mauled by a pack of dogs.We recommend listening to our podcast first and then heading to the vocabulary page to listen to and practice our new words in isolation. When you're ready to move forward, step into the text section, where we combine our new words with some of the material we learned in our lesson on the first tone, to make a number of sentences you can use right away. Cumulative and progressive lessons? Huzzah!
Intermediate - Blackout
Oct 20, 2008
Show notes
Your company is finally making a significant push onto the Chinese mainland. There are several options under consideration by the board: partnering with a local firm, looking for an acquisition, or creating a local team under your supervision to execute a winning strategy.With your track record and local contacts, you are the strongest advocate of option three, and have spent weeks laying the groundwork for tomorrow's meeting. And now the time is almost upon you. It's midnight the night before your presentation and you've just polished off your slides for the board. The text and pictures are perfect: compelling, attractive. They make the decision obvious. And so after giving it one final look, you move your mouse up to the save button and.... in less than the time it takes you to think "autosave is unreliable", the screen turns black.This has happened before, but never quite like this: for somewhere deep inside your computer, you can hear a faint sizzling sound.
Advanced - Traffic Jam
Oct 16, 2008
Show notes
Not too far from where you're melting in the summer heat, you can see a bus wrapped snugly like a fat Buddha in a nest of minivans and three-wheeled rickshaws. Further ahead, taxi drivers have clambered onto the sidewalk in the frustrated hope of escape. You secretly wonder if your own driver will show such initiative should the opportunity arise.Why is traffic so terrible? Is there an accident ahead, or is this just another day in China? Find out for yourself in this week's Advanced listening test. To take the test, just listen to our short podcast, and then head over to the quiz section to test your comprehension. A fully annotated transcript with our classic Chinese popups is available for you to check your answers against afterwards. Questions are also welcome in the discussion section below.
Advanced - Regional Dialect Party Mix
Oct 13, 2008
Show notes
In today's podcast we throw three regional dialects into one big party mix, and end up with something that reminds us a lot of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, missing only the violent cage matches, roaming bands of desert orphans, and classic Tina Turner 80's soundtrack. Our podcast also has more Wu dialect and less Mel Gibson than you might otherwise expect.OK. So we might be stretching the comparison a bit, but if you're looking for interesting Chinese-only listening material that will prove useful should you ever find yourself in a post-apocalyptic world run by Wu speakers, this is pretty much the perfect podcast for you (de lei). So take it to the gym, listen in on your way to work, or just leave it lying around to impress your monolingual friends and colleagues.
Absolute Beginners - Thanks for the Tractor....
Oct 11, 2008
Show notes
Today we give you the keys to the Middle Kingdom, in the form of two magical sounds that will amaze and baffle your conversation partners in turn. Used with judicious moderation, this disyllabic incantation will let others know you're doing just fine, and there's no problem whatsoever. Used maliciously, it can buy you enough time for a quick getaway on whatever rustabout Soviet construction equipment happens to be nearby. Not that we're advocating theft. Seriously.
Absolute Beginners - The First Tone
Oct 09, 2008
Show notes
If the tones are giving you trouble, our series explaining them tone-by-tone should be useful. In this crowded podcast Brendan, David, Echo and Bunny start from the absolute basics with tone number one. This is the high and flat tone that establishes the upper range of your pitch, so you'll need to get your voice up there and keep it there (ideally without the reedy warbling).Don't let the first tone intimidate you. In this podcast we start by introducing some critical everyday words that all use the first tone, and then start packing them into practice sentences. Brendan and David also pass along on some tricks on getting the pronunciation right, gathered over many years at great cost to personal dignity.
Intermediate - Market for Lehmans
Oct 07, 2008
Show notes
You may have been wondering what was the better long-term investment in college: finance or foreign languages? Before the Lehman Brothers imploded late last month, we believe they answered that question with an emergency call to the China Investment Corporation seeking several billion dollars in emergency capital injections.In today's podcast, we indulge in a bit of schadenfreude by way of dramatic re-enactment. And though the economic news out West may be dismal, there's never been a better time to learn Chinese. The economy here is growing at near double-digits and is expected to stay strong even in the face of a global slowdown. China is already shifting from being an export-led economy to a mixed economy with a strong consumer market and a vibrant financial services sector. This means more demand for fluent foreign speakers in the high-value international service sector.
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
Stay Connected
