The Chinese teaching establishment had cornered us in a bar at Houhai, and was telling us it couldn't be done over shots of tequila. "Who can teach coverbs to absolute beginners," they scoffed. "You want to start with a lesson on drinking tea." The head of the Confucius Institute was nearly falling off his chair, but still chipped in something about the Great Wall. It was less a suggestion than something more forceful. "Play up the culture and make China look good, you know?"

And so we nodded and finished our drinks before heading home. "And down the hatches," Brendan said heading into the studio. "If we're going out in a blaze of glory, at least it'll be a blaze of linguistic glory that illustrates the topic-oriented nature of the Chinese language when it comes to giving instructions." The rest of us nodded. The world could drink tea on its own time. In our corner of the Internet, there was an urgent need for more podcasts about coverbs and topic-oriented sentences. The Great Wall could wait.
 said on
May 7, 2011
Would have liked 3 readings of the dialogue before breaking it down.
 said on
May 7, 2011
@ngk79,

Fair enough. There's not always a set format, but we try to do this pretty consistently at the Absolute Beginner level. Thanks for the reminder and feedback. :)

--dave

 said on
May 7, 2011
@dave,

I'm really enjoying the lessons. I have plenty of time to go over the dialogue in the transcript section. Thanks again.
 said on
October 5, 2011
Is it weird to say "hao3 de" instead of "hao3 ba" at the end of the conversation in this case?
 said on
October 5, 2011
@jinshakira,

"Hao3ba5" sounds more like you don't really want to do something, but you have no choice. "Hao3de5" is just a normal "ok". Therefore, "hao3ba5" is better here.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
December 26, 2011
I don't think I'm at absolute beginner level for most things, but you say 'this is just an introduction' and this 把 is something i'd like to work on up through the levels - could you point me to lessons at elementary and intermediate that deal with the same grammar point?

Is there any way of finding lessons by grammar topic for myself in future?

Thanks
 said on
December 26, 2011
@clckla,

We don't have a grammar index yet. If you're looking to get the hang of 把 at a higher level, you might want to try this song by Wang Fei. Very good song, and somewhat hammers the point home:

http://www.popupchinese.com/lessons/lesson_redirect?lesson_id=548

 said on
December 26, 2011
@clckla,

You can search for the grammar point on the website. The search box is on the top right corner on most pages. We don't have a grammar index yet, but if the word/phrase is in a lesson transcript, you will be able to find it.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com