Max was still not clear on exactly how his Volvo had ended up stuck in this patch of loose sand somewhere off-road in Utah, and Robert was not being exactly forthcoming about the details. The last thing he could remember was dozing off somewhere by Shiprock, only to be jolted awake by a sort of sliding brake that left them stranded on the side of this dirt road with two wheels spinning in the sand, no cellular signal and not another car in sight. This was a problem they would have to solve themselves.

Are you an Absolute Beginner to the Chinese language? If so, our Chinese lesson for today is designed with you in mind. In it, we cover a series of high-frequency phrases you'll hear mainlanders use when they're trying to avoid responsibility or work, and practice expanding it into a more general question asking whether something is possible.
 said on
April 29, 2012
first chinese lesson ever, really good, thank you!!
 said on
April 30, 2012
@stefan.exler,

:) 加油!

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
May 1, 2012
Thank you for great lessons.I have studied all the absolute beginners lessons and would like to study some elementary lessons.How do I change the setting? Thanks.
 said on
May 1, 2012
Try clicking on "my lessons" from the home page (upper left hand side), then you should be able to see all the different levels of lessons on your right. Click on "elementary" and you should see all the lessons from there. Hope that helps :-)
 said on
May 1, 2012
I did but it doesn't work.Thanks anyway.I use a Mac though.
 said on
May 1, 2012
I'm also on a Mac, hmmmmm....Try clicking on the logo at the top of any page you are on, that should take you to the home page, from there you should be able to access the lessons. From the home page you should see 3 headings under the logo: Chinese podcasts, study center, community forum, under that there are 4 subheadings: home, my lessons, Download podcast, upgrade account. If you see that, click on my lessons, and then you should see lessons off to the right hand side of the page.
 said on
May 1, 2012
All of the elementary lessons are here. Or... almost all of them. We meant to publish one today but it's getting a bit delayed because we're on the go. Will be out soon though:

http://popupchinese.com/lessons/elementary

The checkboxes on the right-hand side control what lessons are listed on your front page and iTunes feed by default. Note that you can toggle between unstudied and studied lessons as well.

 said on
May 2, 2012
Thank you very much drummerboy and trevelyan. I got it. You must click on the word 'elementary'(I clicked on the box and it didn't work).
 said on
May 28, 2012
去 is mistakenly written as qu2 in the vocab for this lesson.
 said on
May 28, 2012
@murrayjames,

Thanks! Fixed.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
June 15, 2012
Would it make sense to use "沒辦法" as an exclamation like the English "No way!(Unbelievable)"?
 said on
June 15, 2012
@megan.smith,

Not really. You can say “真的?” here.

If you want to say "No way (impossible)", you can say “没门儿!”.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
May 16, 2015
Due to the glorious obscurity of the pronoun "ta1" I was picturing the speakers saying 他 in my head rather than 它 and imagined the two men trying to move another, very large man. I laughed out loud at myself when I realized they were supposed to be pulling a car.

Thanks for all of the great lessons!