Popup Chinese

A candlelit dinner for two at a small garden restaurant near Houhai? A romantic walk beneath the stars through ancient imperial gardens? When you find the girl (or guy) of your dreams, you'll want to know the best Beijing has for great date locations that will sweep them off their feet.
In this podcast we expose the latest date craze to hit Beijing, and we're not talking about any of the clubs listed in The Beijinger. This is a dream come true for the more budget-conscious Casanova, as well as anyone who simply likes checking email.

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"You should try one," Andy motioned for us to take a cheeze-puff. It was a brand he endorsed, and it was selling better than milk. A ray of sunlight caught a stray tooth mid-gesture, the blinding glare sending a nearby waitress into celebrity swoon. And then the sunglasses were off and he was leaning in, exposing us to the full force of his animal magnetism. "I don't usually endorse digital products, but you guys are the best."
We were floating far above Hong Kong: this was the best dream ever. Visions of the entire mainland subscribing to Popup Chinese wafted through our imaginations like milk chocolate bubbles. It wouldn't matter that they already spoke Chinese. In about a week we would have 1.3 billion customers lining up to practice hello over the phone.
"Then we've got an understanding." Another cheeze-puff disappeared into his spotless white maw. "I love you guys, I really do."

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If you don't take the routine fleecing attempts personally, haggling in China can be a lot of fun. Not only will bargaining give you a better understanding of how much markup your friends back home are paying for pretty much everything, pressing for a discount will give you plenty of opportunities for language practice with people from all over China.
After covering the must-have keywords of this and that, today's podcast goes on to review Chinese numbers and prices. And if you're new to the entire haggling scene, we close with some quick tips on getting those prices down. Once you see the savings rolling in, you can thank us by purchasing an annual subscription, or picking up an extra pair of socks the next time you're passing through Xiushui: our hutong appears to be eating them.

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It is the sound of hunger, guttural and primal and expressed in its rawest form. And more often than not we hear it from none other than Apple, and right in the middle of a recording session. "I'm on a diet," she announces apologetically after the aftershocks subside. "You look fine," we reply. And she smiles and we continue.
Occasionally, Echo force feeds her chicken to make it go away. This lesson covers everything up to the force-feeding stage. If you have to do that in mandarin, you're on your own.

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When it comes to tales of both romance and disaster, China is never far away. So in today's Intermediate podcast, we step back into history and show the Chinese connection to the Great Ship itself. Our podcast is less explicitly pedagogical than usual, but we hope you'll still find it both enjoyable and educational. We're still experimenting with recording formats, so welcome thoughts and comments as well.

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Whether you're working towards a degree or working professionally, odds are you need to pull the occasional all nighter. We feel your pain, as do about half the taxi drivers in Beijing.
In this lesson, we cover a casual way of asking after someone. How are you feeling? And the best thing about this phrase is that with a slight change it doubles as a useful way of telling others you're not at the top of your game. This is the kind of authentic Chinese that will help you break the ice with strangers. We highly recommend it.

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The district attorney gritted his teeth at the thought of another day of cross-examination. "I've questioned her type before," he told the mayor. His mind was still reeling from the circus that had been opening statements, and the defendant's appearance in a pink mink wrap and a fresh tan. Respect for the dead was not her forté. "It'll be hard to get her to crack under pressure."
At the heart of the case was a dead man, but a representative of certain entrenched interests and an old friend of the political establishment. His had been a very public death, and as the vortex of money, sex and politics proved irresistible, the evidence that had once seemed so overwhelming began to take on a distinctively circumstantial tinge in public opinion. Whether it produce justice or not, the trial would stagger to a close one way or the next. As he left for the courtroom, the district attorney just prayed it would bring justice for someone, somewhere.

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A giant shuddering sound escaped from deep within the bowels of the great industrial machine. In the pin-drop silence that followed, an ominous hiss could be heard far below the iron gangplanks where the night crew plied their trade, feeding a constant stream of waste into the ovens of the thermal plant, the engineering marvel whose energy output fed the ever-hungry city.
"Sulfur leak," bellowed the shift manager, the panic rising in his voice as he dropped his clipboard mid-check. His cry had barely subsided before the general shock gave way to panic, shift workers jostling over each other in a frenzied rush for the ventilation shaft.

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Although there may be a few unfamiliar phrases tucked in this dialogue, our clip for today should be fairly easy to understand. It's not short on clues either, so we think you've got a good chance of getting it right: Pretty Woman (1990)

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One of the advantages of being multilingual is that your asset is your mind, so many job opportunities (assuming you want them) end up being as flexible as you are. Take translation, for instance. While the average workload might veer more towards real estate contracts than film scripts, you can do your job anywhere, even on the beach. That makes up for a lot of party-of-the-first-part bits.
And on the subject of translation, doing a really top-notch job requires settling yourself down somewhere comfortable, such as a nice cafe. And then you'll need your laptop, and wireless Internet access. See where we're going here? This may only be an elementary podcast, but we're keeping our eye on the ball: with fluency comes freedom.

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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