I know you've been busy studying Chinese. And perhaps we haven't always been the best of friends. But was there really a need to keep this secret? I mean... it isn't as if any of my previous invective was personal. Or maybe it was a bit personal, but I'm sure you didn't take it the wrong way. I was just going through a rough time and needed time to clear my head. But I'm feeling much better now.

In most of our elementary lessons here at Popup Chinese, we focus on the relatively high-frequency vocabulary you'll need to reach communicative fluency. We define this as the point where you'll be able to talk about most ideas relatively generally. In this lesson our focus is more on emotional nuance. What's was that again, you say? Didn't quite catch that? That's exactly what we're talking about. Enjoy!
 said on
October 26, 2010
Hi! Just wanted to let you know that you've got a mistake in the transcript, where in the dialogue they are arguing about whether he looks like Brad Pitt, the transcript has them arguing about whether or not he's good looking.
 said on
October 26, 2010
thanks Susan, corrected.
 said on
October 26, 2010
你说什么来着?

他叫什么来着?

老师问什么来着?

你要买什么来着?
 said on
March 29, 2011
Would it be incorrect to ask 你的电话是什么?

I would suspect 多少 is used whenever a numerical answer is expected. However if you were to ask for the wireless password at a coffeeshop (where you didn't know if the password contained letters), would you use 无线密码是多少? or 无线密码是什么?
 said on
March 30, 2011
@bigntall147,

In this situation, both 什么 and 多少 are correct. The reason is you are asking the question from different angles. If you use 多少, you are asking about the numbers one by one. If you use 什么, you are asking what the entire group of number/password is. However, to the person you ask, he/she can think it from the different way, but the question and the answer are the same.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
May 16, 2013
Yesterday I heard 你的电话好多 from a Chinese guy picking up a girl at a bar. He got the girl, smooth fella.

Also--Should the 德 in 布拉德皮特 be third tone? That's what the vocab list says, but it sounds like second tone to me.
 said on
May 16, 2013
@murrayjames,

You are right. Fixed. Thanks!

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com