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With less than 24 hours before the deadline, Susan drifted in a bubble of lightheaded fatigue as she continued pecking away at her two-hundred page manuscript. She had been working sixteen hour days for the last week and was starting to despair of ever finishing this project, let alone finishing it on time. And her condition must have been obvious, because when she looked up Bryan had materialized over her looking seriously concerned.
In today's podcast, listen to a conversation between Susan and Bryan and learn how to form simple questions in Chinese using adjectives. Are you busy? Are you tired? Then answer these questions. The sentence patterns and vocabulary we teach are core building blocks for mandarin fluency, so listen up, practice our dialogue as it plays along, and you'll be speaking better Chinese in about five minutes.

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Revenge is a dish best served cold, and without any incriminating evidence linking you to the crime. That's why the heads of major criminal syndicates have to be a bit circumspect in making certain requests, and it's why we return to our mob series today with an update on the dealings of the Beijing demi-monde. In this episode, join us as our mob boss is seized with a terrible hunger which can be sated only through violence.

Our dialogue today is on the easier side for an Intermediate lesson, but don't be deceived. We have some non-obvious and non-trivial grammar tucked away here that you really need to know. So listen in and soon you'll be adept at turning adjectives into verbs, and at asking for people's heads on plates. But only figuratively, of course.

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If you've ever been through the gauntlet of ordering dinner in China, you'll know that picking your way through a menu (while avoiding the tripe) can be a challenge at the best of times. What you may not have been expecting is the added pressure of having nearly half the serving staff hover over your shoulder while you decide.
This podcast goes out to all those Chinese learners among us who prefer the sullen and unresponsive service of the average American diner. You can use the words and phrases we'll teach today whenever you want the waitress to leave you alone for a few minutes while you figure out what you want to eat. This is very useful stuff. And when you're done listening, you've got a great excuse to head out for dinner and put it all into practice. Bon appétit!

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Apple's college romances were something of a secret when she started working with us here at Popup Chinese. Like many who've been through the ups and downs of perilous love affairs, she'd just sigh philosophically when asked. "They didn't work out," was all we would get. And then she'd be back at her work after a moment of wistful introspection.
Suffice it to say, we were all in the dark about her turbulent wartime record until earlier this week when we stumbled across this recording, left accidentally on an office computer. Although fragmentary and incomplete, this recording hints at some of the veiled emotional pain we've seen flash across her face on occasion. The end of some relationships, it seems, is more painful than those of others.

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Thailand was warm, hospitable and overrun with brazen hussies. It was the perfect destination for her deadbeat lout of a spouse, thought Mary Lincoln, as the two of them rolled slowly towards Wat Mahathat wrapped in the sort of stifling heat that can only be experienced in a low-end tourist bus on a hot summer day. Sitting by her right shoulder, her husband was eagerly snapping photographs of the passing scenery.
Over the last four days the prospect of a divorce had assumed a looming certainty in her mind. For it had been a terrible vacation. First there was the airport attendant, then the cleaning staff at the hotel. Then the tour guide, the lawyer they had met over brunch, and finally the woman who ran the juice-press outside their hotel. All told, Mark was like a man out of control. Things were severalfold worse than they had been on their last disastrous trip to Canada, Mary decided. She had had enough.

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Life in China is tough for recent university graduates, especially those seeking work in major cities like Shanghai. While living expenses keep rising and housing prices are off-the-charts compared to local wages, pressure from China's rural labor force has kept compensation low, especially for women. It isn't uncommon for recent graduates to find themselves earning just over 2000 RMB a month in positions that fail to provide social insurance or other forms of support like subsidized housing.
Consequently, it isn't surprising that so many single children with working parents have simply shunned the job market. And while not needing to work makes life easier in the short run, it puts a huge strain on their relationships and long-term independence. In our listening test for today we look at the toll this sort of thing takes on a previously healthy relationship. So listen up, take our quiz to measure your listening comprehension and then consult our annotated transcript in case you missed any details. We think you'll learn something now.

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Today we delve into the messy end of a typical Chinese break-up. Despite the fact that it sounds a lot like one of Echo's Korean soap operas, this podcast has been inspired by real-life events. We have stories involving Hong Kong art smugglers, knifed fruit and death threats. We're sure you've got stories too: when you come to Beijing look us up and we'll swap them over a beer or two.
All that said, we were a bit torn about how to classify today's lesson. The Chinese in this podcast is more difficult than in our typical Elementary lesson, but also easier than our average Intermediate. We finally settled on Elementary as the vocabulary covers family relationships, pets and children. This is relatively basic stuff, but don't worry if you find it a bit challenging given the emotions involved, and the fact that plates are probably being flung through the air during the dialogue.

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The medical establishment is slowly coming around to an incontrovertible fact: Popup Chinese subscribers are better looking, smarter, thinner and generally cooler people than the rest of the population. That's what our recent t-shirt promotion suggested at least, and while correlation isn't exactly causation, it's close enough that we can all feel good about ourselves.
Which is why in this podcast we engage in some experimental and entirely unapologetic brand promotion. "I don't get it," Gail said after listening to this podcast, mere seconds before pulling out her credit card and ordering a subscription. If you also like what you hear and are looking to mix-up your own workout routine, we'd encourage you to take out one as well. Cutting the fat and keeping the Popup is healthy advice. Just ask your doctor.

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Interested in a career with the Triads? Join us today as we teach the core vocabulary you'll need to launch your career with the Chinese mob. Whether you're rooting out moles, sending people to sleep with the fishes, smuggling opium or managing a gang of surly enforcers from Guangzhou, Popup Chinese is committed to helping you communicate ambiguous hit orders in fluent mandarin without awkward pauses, malapropisms or other linguistic gaffes.

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It is our fate at Popup Chinese to be surrounded by beautiful and talented men and women. So it isn't any surprise that our camera gets whipped out on occasion and we all indulge in The Deuce. You want in the picture too? Join us today as we learn the basics of telling left from right and counting to three. Because you're a beautiful person and we're glad to have you around.

Navigate the reincarnated Popup Chinese archives, including the original customized word-to-word transcripts for this and every other lesson as PDF files:

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