"And then there was the time a fight almost broke out in our studio over the Tokyo metro...."

Our advanced Chinese podcast for today another merciless onslaught of full-speed, native-level Chinese. Hosted by Nicole who you might know from our site for learning Cantonese, it showcases a mix of both northern and southern accents, and covers a topic is dear to the hearts of everyone struggling to get by in Beijing: commuting and the toll it takes on your work-life balance. Listen in and then let us know how you're coping too.
 said on
May 29, 2011
Thank you for posting a new advanced podcast; and a great topic as well. :-)
 said on
May 31, 2011
For some reason the vocabulary words audio files are not working. Don't know if anyone else noticed this.
 said on
May 31, 2011
Yes... there's a problem with this one. Seems related to our recording and uploading service. Not sure what the issue is, but will see what we can do with it tomorrow morning. Apologies for the inconvenience everyone.
 said on
May 31, 2011
@Nicole,

Nice to hear your voice on Popup Chinese. 我觉得你来到我们泡泡中文主持这个播客非常不错!关于commuting,我以前住在洛杉矶,那里的路总是很堵,当我住在那个城市的时候我工作的地方离我家40多英里,虽然我的commute的方向和商务中心是刚好相反的不过早上的commute是一个半小时,下午回家的commute的时间更长,一般是两个多小时。我只好换很多高速公路的线路而走很绕的路才能减少我commute的时间。美国发生了经济危机以后汽油贵的很拼车的人很多所以高速公路的车子大概少了一半左右。当然这样的现象对我的commute不说是好的,突然我早上的commute一下子变成了半个小时到45分钟,晚上的commute时间和早上差不多而且没有必要走绕的路,连通过商务中心的高速公路都可以很顺畅得走。

我2006年第一次去北京,那时我觉得交通情况跟洛杉矶差不多一样糟糕,我估计路上的情况比2006年糟糕的多得多吧。我听说有些住在廊坊市而每天都开车到北京中心上班的人比较多这是对的吗?

对了,how do you say "commute" and "commuter" in Chinese?
 said on
June 1, 2011
@Xiao Hu

多謝晒!

被你听出来了,你耳朵太厉害了。你说到美国的拼车,我想,如果中国这里也可以拼车就好了。北京现在采用限行,每天都有一个车牌尾号不能上路。这个一定程度上也减少了一些车。还有限购政策,现在人们得摇号才能买车了。你就会听到每天的问候语是:你摇到号了没?

commute在中文叫做 通勤,但是很少人在口语里说这个词语,都根据不同的上下文说,比如“上下班”“往返”之类的。
 said on
June 4, 2011
@Nicole

我想问什么是摇号?像抽奖一样么?还有关于在城市中心遛狗怕狗被车撞,为什么不把狗绁起来?我住在美国所以我不了解这事情。
 said on
June 4, 2011
@ketty.serene,

对,我们说“抽签”应该更合适。因为北京现在要限制汽车的数量,所以不是所有人都能在同一时间买车,需要抽签,被抽中的人可以买车。

遛狗的事我不太清楚,但是北京中心确实没什么像国外那样的中央公园或者绿地,所以没有什么地方可以让狗狗活动。

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
June 7, 2011
主持人老师,您是哪里来的,估计不是北方人,没有太多pirate,您参加我们popupchinese我想《顶》一下
 said on
June 7, 2011
@maxiewawa,

哈哈,她是我们Popup Cantonese的主持人,你应该能猜到她是哪儿的人了吧? :)

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
August 5, 2011
In my view this was one of your best lessons. Really interesting, though demanding! It would be marvellous if you could record some more similar conversations on other topics. What about something on modern literature for example?
 said on
August 6, 2011
@helen.wallimann,

Thanks :) We're working on putting up more Advanced shows like this. Thanks for your topic suggestion. We'll see if we can make a show on that.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
March 20, 2012
才到了这节课程,觉得真的很不错! 支持 将来的课能不能在PDF上包括更多词汇?:)
 said on
March 21, 2012
@maxiewawa

您参加我们popupchinese我想《顶》一下

请问,这里的“”顶”是什么意思?

逸飞
 said on
March 21, 2012
@maxiewawa @ckristiansen

“顶”本来是用头和手向上支撑一个东西的意思,但是我觉得maxiewawa在这儿应该用的是最近比较的网络词语,就是支持的意思。

--Amber

amber@popupchinese.com