We're just past the May 1st holidays, so our first order of business is wishing you all a Happy Chinese Labor Day. We've got a lot of news to share this month though including details on upcoming FREE lessons in Beijing and our new $49.99/year Basic PLUS subscription, so we'll get right to it.

* Basic PLUS Subscription ($49.99 / year)

For a limited time this month, we're offering an experimental Basic PLUS subscription. For only $49.99, this provides a full year of download access to all lesson MP3s, transcripts and review files like The Fix. If you don't mind printing out our transcripts and tests instead of studying them online, this is a great way to get the best Chinese learning materials out there while saving some cash. Place your order before the end of the month by visiting http://popupchinese.com/users/account, or contact us at orders@popupchinese.com if you have any questions about this special offer. And yes, it is available for a limited time only.

* Free Face-to-Face Lessons in Beijing

Starting May 10th, we'll be hosting free face-to-face language lessons on Sunday afternoons from 1:00pm to 3:00pm at the San Ke Shu (三棵树) cafe on Nanluoguxiang (南锣鼓巷). If you're in Beijing and looking for an opportunity to practice your spoken Chinese, consider yourself invited to come out and join us. We'll be announcing more details on this as we get closer to Sunday. You can also get more information by calling us here in Beijing at 13581709309.

* Firefox Plugin (importing vocabulary)

Do you know that you can add words to your Popup Chinese vocabulary lists using our Firefox plugin? Just hit the letter "A" when the dictionary popup is open and the word in question will be added to your online vocabulary list automatically. This little trick is especially useful if you live in China and deal with digital documents on a daily basis. If you haven't installed the plugin yet just fire up Firefox and visit http://popupchinese.com/tools/plugin.

OUR POPULAR LESSONS:

As always, we have some favorite lessons from the past month. Here they are::

* Absolute Beginners: Pinyin Practice (ri)

The word for sun (or day) is one of the hardest to pronounce properly. Are you saying it right? With this podcast, we introduce a new show designed to get everyone speaking difficult-to-pronounce words properly. Short, to-the-point and packed with lots of example words and sentences, this is *the* podcast you need to hear if you're struggling with pronunciation. [http://popupchinese.com/lessons/archive/absolute-beginners/pinyin-practice-ri]

* Elementary: The Missing Plunger

There are some words you really don't want to be learning "on-the-spot". Because when your toilet starts fighting back you'll have a lot more pressing concerns than looking for your dictionary. In this lesson we delve into absolute filth (literally). Listen to this podcast and you'll never forget the word for plunger. [http://popupchinese.com/lessons/archive/elementary/the-missing-plunger]

* Intermediate: They Called Me Mad, The Fools!

If you're going to be a scientist, you may as well be a mad scientist. Join us in this lesson as we resurrect Tom Hanks in our basement lab. Our dialogue isn't terribly long, but it's packed with punchy language and a great closing couplet. If you don't know how to say, "they called me mad, the fools!", you owe it to yourself to give this listen, and then practice by mumbling the phrase repeatedly out in public. [http://popupchinese.com/lessons/archive/intermediate/they-called-me-mad-the-fools]

* Advanced: The Art World

Although our sixth edition of the Dream of the Red Chamber was lovely, we're also very fond of the dialogue in this listening test at the Advanced level. The scenario is simple enough: what happens when the Chinese nouveau riche meet Jackson Pollack. Still, it can be tough to catch all of the details on first hearing. If you consider yourself fluent, check out our test and see how you do. [http://popupchinese.com/lessons/archive/advanced/the-art-world]

Special thanks as always to everyone who's supporting our work with a paid subscription. We love you guys. Regardless of whether you're a paying member though, we want to remind you that if you have any questions, comments please feel free to drop us a line or leave a comment on the site. We're always happy to hear from you guys.

祝好,

The Popup Chinese Team