If you've got that box marked "other email" ticked on your profile page you should get a copy of this by email soon. Why don't we keep any discussion on features and feedback here.

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JANUARY UPDATE:

Christmas has come and gone, and Beijing is gearing up for the Chinese New Years. If our own experience is any guide, the next few weeks will bring an increasing number of jokes about the Niu Year (har har) culminating in an absolute crash in productivity and air quality on the evening of January 25. While we'll be keeping up our normal production schedule through the break, be aware that most Chinese organizations will shut down. If you have business or official paperwork you need done by early February get it done now!

We also have a public service announcement. Every year a few hardy souls make plans to vacation during the holidays. "We'll head to Guangxi," they say, "and see a bit of nature...." You may be thinking about something similar, so we are here to tell you to stop being crazy! Traveling during the Chinese New Year is known to cause premature aging, hair loss (for both men and women) and absurd levels of stress. Simply driving past by the train station puts you at elevated risk of cardiac arrest at this time of the year. We will be bunkering down in Beijing and enjoying the fireworks on Houhai. If you're also planning to be in the city and would like to head out for dinner drop a line. If there's enough interest perhaps we can organize an outing for hotpot.

And as always, in case you haven't been back to the site recently, you may have missed a few developments:

* More Awesome Software [http://popupchinese.com/words/downloads]

We'd encourage all software developers to check out the latest release of our open source Chinese analysis and translation engine. Adso provides free text segmentation, machine translation and hanzi-to-pinyin convsion, and comes with a copy of our expansive collaborative dictionary for all of your reference needs. Just like our podcasts, it is all totally free and smashingly educational. If you're not a developer and want to contribute, the best way to tell your friends, subscribe so we can put more cash into development, or help us improve the dictionary by adding and editing content.

* New Courses [http://popupchinese.com/courses]

We've added a new "Courses" section to our home page. Right now we only have one course (Absolute Beginners) and we know that most of you are beyond that. But on the off chance you signed up to learn Chinese and were intimidated by our lack of a rigid and confining pedagogical structure, we are pleased to bring you that rigid and confining structure. Our purpose with the courses section is to provide structured and goal-oriented learning materials. There has to be an "end point" where you can say that you've learned what you signed up to learn. If you have any suggestions for courses you'd like to see, get in touch.

* Trolling for Even More Features

We've got a few new features under development that are designed to make you all fabulously attractive and fluent and wealthy and younger. We're not going to tell you about them though (except for the Cantonese stuff, we're actually working on that). But we do want to take the opportunity to let you know that improving the site and developing new content and features for it is an ongoing process and a priority. If you have any suggestions on things you think should be at the top of our agenda, we'd love to hear from you about it. Send us an email.

OUR POPULAR LESSONS:

We've been releasing an average of about six podcasts and stories and texts a week for the last month. Here are our own favorites:

* Absolute Beginners: What's your Number

Put down your textbook and pick up your iPod. The magical phrases we teach in this podcast will get you dates, business contacts, language partners and more. And did we say dates? This really is one of the most important things you can learn as a newcomer to China. Not only will you want to use these phrases yourself, you'll probably end up fielding the questions too. [http://popupchinese.com/lessons/archive/absolute-beginners/whats-your-number]

* Elementary: Give me a glass of warm sugar

Now that Chinese New Years is charging at us like an angry bull, retail stores throughout China are stocking up on this perennial holiday favorite. Packaged in a distinctive red and yellow can, Wanglaoji is uniquely Chinese beverage, and makes the perfect gift for friends and relatives who may be puzzled by the fact that you are learning Chinese. Like much of China, it informs without enlightening. [http://popupchinese.com/lessons/archive/elementary/give-me-a-glass-of-warm-sugar]

* Intermediate: Merry Christmas

This is David's favorite podcast from the past month, and if you missed it during the holidays you should definitely check it out, ideally sometime in the next seven days. Consider it a holiday gift from us to you. And when you're done do everyone a favor by sharing it with a few of your friends. The Christmas spirit is the spirit of giving. And it will make you feel better, we promise. [http://popupchinese.com/lessons/archive/intermediate/merry-christmas]

* Advanced: My Father's Back

This short story by Zhu Ziqing is a genuine classic. The piece is taught in many Western university courses that focus on 20th century Chinese literature, and is suitable - in our annotated edition - for anyone who has spent at least a year working on the language. And it deserves its reputation. The story is honest, sad and lovely. It is about looking back on ourselves with love and regret. If you haven't read it yet, we think you really should. [http://popupchinese.com/lessons/archive/short-stories/my-fathers-back]

On a final note, although we skirt away from making hard sales pitches on the site, if you're not already a subscriber, we'd encourage you to take the plunge and join us as a paying supporter. We've got a special discount on six month and twelve month subscriptions this month, so it's a bargain as well. We get to eat, you get all the premium Popup Chinese goodness you can eat too.

Our best from Beijing, and have ANOTHER safe and happy Holiday Season.

祝好,

The Popup Chinese Team

(Apple, Brendan, David, Echo, Kang, Liu, Qin, and 9527)