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Absolute Beginners: Friends in China

Given that Friends was such a popular sitcom in the United States, you probably won't be surprised to hear the show picked up a massive following in China as well. But how much of the show did its Chinese audience really understand? While we're not ready to say that everything got lost in translation, we'll be blunt: when we sent our voice actors into the studio to give us an intermediate dialogue inspired by the show, this is what they came up with....

Learning Chinese? While we normally like beginners, God help you if this is your first Chinese lesson ever. Our dialogue today is good for learning how to greet friends in casual mandarin, and how to make suggestions in a less formal tone than you might be used to, but if you're just getting started you might find the pace a bit fast. And yet there's no need to panic. If this is too fast for you just dig through our archive of easy Chinese lessons for something a bit slower.

Xiao Hu

said on

July 24, 2011

Even though this is not exactly my level, the Friends tie-in really enticed me, I had to see what it was all about.

HILARIOUS!

Even though it IS fast pased, it's absolutely suitable for beginners. Plus you get the awesome bonus naturalism that you can't get with Pimsleur or Rosetta Stone's stiff, unnatural dialogues. The material consists of basic asking someone "what's going on" or, to go get coffee, so, other than the speed, there's nothing that any beginner wouldn't be able to understand.

Not to mention that there's a slow paced, line by line reading along to clarify the dialogue.

Good stuff guys!

richard

said on

July 26, 2011

zongshi wanr de ke.

@echo , is there a story behind the 'echo' name . is your chinese given name with two characters?

Echo

said on

July 27, 2011

@richard,

My Chinese given name is with two characters. Yes, there is a story behind my English name -- my favorite writer San Mao (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanmao_%28author%29) named herself "Echo" inspired by a Greek fairy tale. I use her name.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com

benchannevy

said on

July 29, 2011

re San Mao's tragic life, her death reminds me of another Taiwanese songstress. One indiscreet question: are you by chance Taiwanese too？.

Sorry to bother with another unrelated question: what's the translation for

欺君大罪？

I too enjoyed the lesson, to borrow Richard's expression: 玩的课。

Echo

said on

August 1, 2011

@benchannevy,

Haha, no Taiwanese here. I'm from Beijing.

I wouldn't say San Mao had a tragic life actually. She did a lot of things other people will never do and can never do through their whole lives: like quitting school when she was around 13, 14 but still getting support by her family, spending years studying aboard in different countries, having a great time in Sahara, making great achievement in writing, almost traveling around the whole world, etc. I even respect the fact that she chose to end her own life. When her husband Jose died, her heart was dead too. She's lucky she could meet the guy she loved with her whole heart, and he was also worthy of love.