It was at precisely the moment Xiao Zhang was supposed to be mulling over his options and trying to find an escape from his predicament, that his mind somehow veered back to Einstein's theory of General Relativity and the conceptual experiment of the accelerating elevator. Because if gravity was the same thing as constant acceleration, then what exactly was five minutes anyway? Wasn't time relative? And if it was, then how could it ever come to an end? The thought seemed oddly comforting.Learning Chinese? Rather than assault you with more , today we're pleased to present a simpler lesson intended to help you practice all the Chinese you need to deal with time, whether it involves procrastinating at work or hectoring the overattentive wait staff at your favorite Chinese restaurant. We hope you enjoy it, and if you have suggestions on future topics you'd like to hear covered, let us know anytime at service@popupchinese.com.
elise_britton
said on August 7, 2013
I have signed up for the free services on your site. It looks to me like I should be able to view the transcript without an upgrade but anywhere that I click takes me directly to the upgrade page. I seem to only be able to listen to the dialogue. Am I doing something wrong?Elise
lguest
said on August 7, 2013
Podcasts not working properly today! Very slow to load, and they keep stopping and starting. Is it the site or my internet?
Franek
said on August 13, 2013
I feel a little frustrated about the last word 'xing bu xing'. I listened to it more than 10 times, but I am totally unable to identify it in the speakers voice.
minghan
said on August 13, 2013
Hey guys, two questions!Your grammar point on "didn't have time" to do something ...shouldn't that be "我没来得及"? Just curious, why is the line "我还来不及想呢” and not "我没来得及想呢"? I'm not sure of the difference.How do you say something like "I'll be there in 5 minutes"? Can I say "我五分钟过去”? or "我五分钟以后过去“？Franek, the voice actor is kind of mumbling his speech which is the first thing. Also I think for certain words ending with "-ing" pinyin, the "i" takes on a different pronunciation. So here "xing" is actually more similar to "xi-ung." I think Echo can probably go more into depth on this.
Echo
said on August 14, 2013
@Franek,不 is the neutral tone in the phrase 行不行, so it's pronounced very light and somehow together with the second 行. Maybe that's why you have trouble hearing it.@minghan,Q1: You can use 我没来得及想 here. The sentence of 来不及 is used to emphasize the action, and the sentence of 没来得及 is emphasizing the result. Another example for you: 吃不下去 vs 没吃下去.Q2: You can say 我五分钟就到. If you say 我五分钟以后过去, it means you will go out after 5 minutes.--Echoecho@popupchinese.com
huyilin
said on August 20, 2013
说起＂来不及＂这个说法，要是一个人对另外一个人说＂我谢你还来不及呢＂是什么意思？
Echo
said on August 21, 2013
@huyilin,这句话的意思是“我非常感谢你”，不过用的时候一般在这句话前面或者后面有一个别的句子，比如：“我谢你还来不及呢，怎么会怪你”或者“你帮了我这么大的忙，我谢你还来不及呢”。--Echoecho@popupchinese.com
huyilin
said on August 23, 2013
谢谢，太有意思！^_^
duke.villanueva
said on February 4, 2016
Haha, I love the dialogue!
duke.villanueva
said on February 4, 2016
I can't help but picture a fast-talking gangster and an "enterprising" policeman.
jaq.james
said on October 4, 2016
Argh! Another 还 I can't make sense of in the sentence 我还来不及想呢！I'm seeing this 还 popping up a lot, but it seems like it doesn't actually mean 'still' in some contexts. Is this just a meaningless sound? Like 那个？
Elementary
said on October 6, 2016
We translated this as "yet" in the manually annotated popup on the transcript page, although I don't see why you couldn't translate it using the word "still" if you wanted ("I still haven't had the time to think....").
jaq.james
said on October 6, 2016
Of course! I see it now, haha. Sorry about that... I took advantage of the recent Chinese public holiday and did a marathon listen of your podcasts during those past few days. I must have been a little exhausted when I wrote this question.
Dawn.lawson
said on April 1, 2017
Hi, I'm a new user--love this app. In this lesson, I can't parse the last phrase of the last line. Could you help me with that, please?
beaudarc
said on December 16, 2017
In the line `咱这表坏了吧' 这 is definitely 那。。nei4
beaudarc
said on December 16, 2017
@Dawn.lawson You mean the 行不行？ The way Echo pronounces it `xing 1 bu 4 xing 1' very clearly enunciating... you never ever hear. In actual use `xing' actually sound more like `xiang'.(almost two syllables, not one) In fact it sounds exactly like the recorded dialogue. the `ng' in Chinese (as used in pinyin,eg. `xing') isn't like the `ng' in English. Its a milder nasal quality at the end of the word. For speech purposes,just listen closely, record yourself,listen to yourself and then listen to the dialogue and try and make yourself sound like the native speakers. (Except this guy is slurring his words a bit) Forget about the pinyin, except as a rough guide.
