When we relaunched Popup Chinese, we hinted at a number of new features slated for release. Today we're pleased to announce the first: new video lessons. Join Anthony and Gail in this short video as they grab a drink at a local cafe in support of our new video lessons and their more interactive features.

To get started, just click on the video player to our left. You should see a lightbox appear with our video in it. As you watch the video, you'll notice an annotated transcript appear alongside it. You can click anytime to pause the video and mouseover the transcript for our manually-edited popups. And if you're looking for an extra challenge, you can also enter dictation mode. This will play the video, but stop it occasionally to test your listening comprehension. Provide the missing Chinese characters when prompted. The video will only continue when you enter them correctly.

As always, all of our features are under active development. If you have any feedback or suggestions please send them to us at service@popupchinese.com.
 said on
September 27, 2009
这个是太酷毙了,我也喜欢

The mouseover could do with a bit bigger box in OS X Safari, otherwise 太好了

伊恩
 said on
September 27, 2009
@伊恩,

我真高兴你喜欢我们的video。你最近去新地方旅游了吗?

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
September 27, 2009
我有一个似曾相识的感觉。。。好像去过那个地方。

;)
 said on
September 27, 2009
Is there any way to download the entire video before it starts playing? I get the start-stop-start-stop behaviour which is very hard to watch.
 said on
September 28, 2009
@m.e. - we can definitely add a download link so the video can be opened in another browser window. Another option we'll try is starting the download right when the page loads so the video is somewhat pre-cached by the time it needs to start playing.

@henning - how odd.... :) In developments since you left, incidentally, the black and white kitten has found itself socially shunned ever since being caught drinking from the Amilal toilet. Further proof if any was needed that some judgment errors stick with one for life....

 said on
September 28, 2009
It doesn't help that the black and white cat was drinking from a squat toilet. Western toilet drinking can be forgiven.
 said on
September 28, 2009
而且,就在我们看到它喝完“水”几分钟以后,一个女孩抱着它,一边说“小猫真可爱”,一边亲它的脸...

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
September 28, 2009
大自然的伟大循环,没有浪费的,什么东西都再使用。
 said on
September 28, 2009
这个猫实在是太贪心了,怎么什么都要啊?
 said on
September 28, 2009
Quick note for advanced students - we've just added video to News in Chinese as well. The impetus for this was personal - I wanted us to have a place where I could go to read and watch the news.

In any event, we're still testing things out, but the video should update more or less daily. And one nice feature is that you should be served video from Youtube if you're outside China and Youku if you're in the country. We're still tightening our algorithms for figuring out which system is closer based on your IP address, so if you get the wrong video and are interested in getting that fixed fire off an email to us at service@popupchinese.com letting us know your IP address and we'll look into tweaking things.

In any event, that's for the real advanced crowd. For everyone else... we have a Speaking Practice lesson coming out in a few hours. Bear with us as we put on the finishing touches!
 said on
September 28, 2009
@henning - lol. great post.
 said on
September 28, 2009
@Gail,

不是贪心,是恶心...

 said on
September 29, 2009
@ Echo

我没有最近, 但是, 瑞士是很漂亮在秋天和冬天

祝好

伊恩
 said on
September 30, 2009
lol, in my experience squat toilets usually contain more than just water, the kitten may have been eating from the toilet :0
 said on
September 30, 2009
@derek - dude! I literally just sat down to eat when I read your comment. Hilarious, but also a contender for the grossest thing I think anyone has ever said on this site.

Staring at my barely eaten brown Korean soup, I think we need a gentleman's agreement of sorts where everyone politely refrains from making jokes about cat feces or fecal consumption during (my) lunch hours. Especially since that last comment is dead on. Those things don't flush.
 said on
September 30, 2009
@trevelyan - sorry about that, I shall refrain from making feces jokes in future, but the brown Korean soup...(uugghhh)
 said on
October 3, 2009
我喜欢这片新的video, 不过, 我听到Anthony  在说“老板”的时候声调不对。应该是lao2ban3, 而不是lao3ban1.

如果我听得不对,请原谅我!

 said on
October 3, 2009
@xiaodou - I hear 3-1 as well. we like to keep everyone speaking (mostly) their native language for this sort of reason. Not going to lose sleep over a single word, but good catch. :)
 said on
October 3, 2009
@xiaodou,

你是对的,看来小虎(Anthony)要好好学习啦 :) 好好学习,天天向上!

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
October 8, 2009
I like the new video format. Very cutting edge.
 said on
February 1, 2010
ola bom dia,

gostaria que alguem traduzisse e me ajudasse a arrumar um emprego na china, precisando trabalhar e estudar na china, realização de um sonho , acredito na historia , principalmente na china antiga. sds.bide.

pedrodinamica@gmail.com
 said on
February 2, 2010
@bide - Welcome! If you're coming to China for the first time, you may want to look into language-teaching jobs. I don't know much about the job market, I'm afraid: it's still dominated by English-teaching jobs, but I'd be very surprised if there weren't a growing number of positions for Portuguese teachers as well.