We are working on a script which goes something like this: when a new iPad moves into the neighbourhood, Lionel Cormac (played by Willem Dafoe) can't help but have second thoughts. His neighbours dismiss his concerns but before long the trolls and addicts appear, and then we're knee-deep in a zombie-killing Internet fest, with Dafoe pumping shotguns and dragging electronics into the street to expose them to direct sunlight and God's wrath.

"I don't think the story really flows," Brendan commented after reading our first draft. "We go from a nice parable about how electronics fuel our need for constant contact to... well... frankly I don't know where the zombies come from." So we're re-writing the script to make it a bit less of an art film. And in the meantime, we hope you enjoy this more family-friendly and somewhat navel-gazing lesson about the perils of Internet addiction.
 said on
August 10, 2010
hooked on phonics

good one
 said on
August 11, 2010
我对汉语真上瘾。不高兴的时候一听汉语就过瘾
 said on
August 11, 2010
@crusty_138,

哈哈,你这个习惯非常好!欢迎你多来泡泡中文听。

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
August 14, 2010
I am trying to figure out the above conversation

Crusty_138: Wǒ duì hànyǔ zhēn shàngyǐn. Bù gāoxìng de shíhou yī tīng hànyǔ jiù guòyǐn

I am addicted to Chinese. Sad whenever I hear Chinese listening not an addiction.

Echo: Hāhā, nǐ zhège xíguàn fēicháng hǎo! Huānyíng nǐ duō lái pào pào zhōngwén tīng.

"laugh", your habit is very good one. welcome to lots of popupchinese listening.

am i even close?
 said on
August 14, 2010
@walid.shaari -- Very close! The only issue would be with the first sentence:

"Wǒ duì hànyǔ zhēn shàngyǐn. Bù gāoxìng de shíhou yī tīng hànyǔ jiù guòyǐn"

That second sentence actually breaks down like this:

[Bù gāoxìng de shíhou] [yī tīng hànyǔ jiù guòyǐn]

That is, "At times when [I'm] not happy" (or "when I'm not happy"), "when I hear Chinese, I just get my fix." The sentence splits nicely into two halves.
 said on
August 31, 2010
@Brendan, Echo dui qiaokeli shangyin ma?

i hope it's for the proper style of 'qiaokeli' That is, artisan dark with min.70% cacao. not only for her taste buds but also for some health benefits.

'taste buds'(or equivalent) and 'health benefits' zhongwen zenme shuo

can't help but have a small bite every day. does 'bude buyao' sound right . can you translate that sentence.
 said on
August 31, 2010
@richard,

Haha, thanks, Richard! Actually I like milk chocolate (niu2nai3 qiao3ke5li4) the best :( Dark chocolate is too bitter for me.

Taste buds is wei4lei3 味蕾, and health benefits, you can say dui4 jian4kang1 you3yi4 对健康有益.

Can't help but have a small bite every day -- Mei3tian1 dou1 bu4de2bu4 chi1.每天都不得不吃。

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
August 31, 2010
A slight correction - 对健康有益 would be "to have health benefits."

I'm on your side, Richard. Every time I visit the States, I pick up a few bars of fair-trade chocolate at a store not far from my parents' house. Really high-quality stuff. I have fond memories of some milk chocolates (my family used to spend summers in Ireland, where candy technology was far more advanced than in the States), and there's one kind of milk chocolate with crunchy toffee bits in it that I try to get every time I'm back Stateside as well -- but for the most part, my preference is for dark chocolate. If Echo wants to continue in her ignorance, it just means more proper chocolate for us.
 said on
September 14, 2010
Another good example of 'bu de bu...' that my Chinese friend just wrote on QQ:

"wo bu de bu shuo ni de zhong wen tai hao le"

...and thanks to this lesson I know what she means!

wo bu de bu weixiao!

Frances

(and who says you can only like one kind of chocolate?!)
 said on
September 16, 2010
@frances553,

Yes, it's a very good example! Bu4ke4qi5!

Haha, what you said about chocolate is true, and I also like white chocolate! No one knew.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
September 16, 2010
@frances553,

'and who says you can only like one kind of chocolate?!" > didn't mean to imply that

this is what i send to her.

@Echo, do a little research and you will realize that you are not eating much chocolate at all with milk-chocolate but rather a mixture of additives, mainly sugar and other fillers to reduce the price of cacao. unfortunately because of the added ingredients this chocolate barely resembles the cacao that was initially the target of consumption. milk has none of the helpful benefits of dark chocolate including a high level of antioxidants.

if you really enjoy the taste of cacao then you will be a dark chocolate connoisseur, if you enjoy the taste of sugar with your cacao then you will like milk chocolate. i understand the bitterness of an 85% cacao dark it's an acquired taste but the distinction between the two is most important when discussing the benefits of chocolate. most people read a study on how small amounts of chocolate can be good for your health and generalize those benefits to any chocolate, when in reality those studies are centered around 70% or higher concentrated dark chocolates. 'suixinsuoyu' (what is the common expression for 'do as you please')

good to have included extra 'bu de bu' examples.

 said on
October 4, 2010
Hi! I have a question about bu4de2bu4. In the transcript vocab section the translation is "have no choice but". And the example in the dialogue describes a situation where one's own feelings are the controlling factor: You don't really want to do the thing, but your inner cravings compel you to do it. What about situations where it's outside factors that compel you do something, like, "I hate staff meetings, but I have no choice but to go."? Up to now I've been using "Wo3 mei2you3 xuan3ze2", but it's one of those things where I have never actually gotten around to ascertain whether that's the best way to say it.
 said on
February 10, 2011
Since the podcast mentions 韓劇/韓剧, any chance of a future podcast dealing with the mechanism of abbreviation in Chinese? Sometimes the character that is retained is not the one I would expect. For example the university in Taiwan that I collaborate with, which is a university of technology, abbreviates 科技大學 as 科大. I am not sure whether that is standard; I would have expected 學 to be retained, but maybe it's the context? (we know that we are talking about a study place). Are Chinese speakers often tripped by abbreviations (as opposed to just tech words) used in a field they are not specialized in?
 said on
February 17, 2011
Hi, I have a couple of questions about the dialogue.

I'm not quite clear about the 所有 in the sentence "它就是所有学中文的人的毒品". Is 所有 explained in another podcast? Actually, I'm not quite sure what the 就 is doing either, but 就 often perplexes me.

Also, the sentence "它就是这么吸引人". I guess it's the 这么 that is throwing me. Would the sentence still work without it? And what would be the difference? Just a difference of tone, perhaps?

Sorry if these are stupid questions! 谢谢你!

Sebastian
 said on
February 18, 2011
@Sebastian,

所有 means all, and it is usually used before an object. It the sentence above, it is used to describe "all the Chinese learners". 就 means exactly or just there, using to emphasize the subject is exactly the poison.

In the sentence "它就是这么吸引人", 就 is emphasizing 这么(so, such). This sentence could be used to conclude after you say "so many" different good things about Popup Chinese. If you drop 这么, 就 is used to emphasize 吸引人——它就是吸引人. The basic meaning is almost the same, but you can use it without first describing the advantages of using Popup Chinese. You can say 我喜欢它,没有原因,它就是吸引人!

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
February 18, 2011
Thanks Echo. :)
 said on
May 24, 2012
At 3:15, does Brendan say that Popup Chinese (like heroine) is slimming and "moreish"? I'd never heard that word before. On the first three listens, I kept hearing "Moorish", which sounds the same but of course makes no sense whatsoever.
 said on
May 24, 2012
@murrayjames -- It is indeed "moreish." Not US usage, but I'm doing my best to change that. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRS41-7MTSs for the canonical usage example. "Popup Chinese is slimming and Moorish" is intriguing, but would be physiologically and geopolitically unfeasible.
 said on
January 28, 2013
@jyh--

I'm just a beginner at Chinese, but it does seem that when speaking of universities, it is always the da4 that is retained. In Japanese Todai is the standard abbreviation for Tokyo University (Tokyo Daigaku), and I've heard Beijing University abbreviated as Beida. I think context tells the listener that you're talking about a school.
 said on
September 28, 2014
Hilarious. And prolly trueu