The Lusitania story was my thing. I pitched it to Warner Brothers with a star-crossed lovers theme back in the day when Internet access was still dial-up. They signed on for financing but the project sank when Brad and Julia bailed. Which is really too bad because it would have been a smash at the box office. There was even a subplot about a secret treasure - that's why the Germans sunk the boat, didn't you know?

Anyway, I moved to Britain after the dot-com bust and started writing this book. Mostly for my kids, but maybe other people will like it. I don't usually share details about my work with strangers, but the plot is brilliant - the sort of thing that'll get kids excited about reading again. Why don't you take a look at the first few chapters? Then we can grab coffee and go over the whole thing later.

Note: Today we are pleased to bring you an intermediate listening exercise. Listen to the podcast and then test your listening comprehension with our quick quiz. If you have any questions, ask them below or check out annotated transcript on the text tab.
 said on
February 26, 2009
I got sucked into the Harry Potter books a while ago. Had never seen the films and then picked up the first book out of curiosity. Somewhat stereotypical, but really well told stories. Hopefully Wendy's will be as good. :)

 said on
February 26, 2009
That was really good! TToo often listening tests have inane, boring dialogs that seem to be designed to be hard to remember.

eg

你好!

你好!

你怎么样?

还可以!我今天买了两瓶可乐,三公斤蔬菜,一辆车。

你不是前天买了可乐?

不对,我买了水!

哦。对呀!对不起,我忘了。

Q: What day is it today?

Or something else stupid.

I hate them. My worst memories of uni in China were our teachers telling us that the only way to pass listening exams was to learn to write Chinese in shorthand...

aaargh! 讨厌!
 said on
February 26, 2009
Totally agree. There's more and more learning material out there, but the vast majority is very dry and/or covers the exact same stuff from the exact same perspective. We're trying to keep Popup Chinese different and interesting.... : )

 said on
February 27, 2009

>>>我今天买了两瓶可乐,三公斤蔬菜,一辆车。

是吗?都是在超市买的吗?听说中国的超市越来越大, 呵呵呵

:-D
 said on
February 27, 2009
@menglelan,

真有意思。这“两瓶可乐,三公斤蔬菜,一辆车”可能都是在超市买的。

因为很多中国人说“车”的时候,意思是“自行车”,不是“汽车”,所以在超市买一辆自行车就不奇怪啦!

你说对不对?
 said on
February 27, 2009
I love the way there are large supermarkets like Carrefour right in the center of the city here. Tough coming home and having to drive everywhere to pick up food.
 said on
February 27, 2009
Gail,

我住在美国德州, 什么车都不可以在超市买。买自行车要去自行车店。
 said on
February 27, 2009
对,现在我们的生活中已经离不开大型超市了。

乐岚,在中国的大型超市,你不仅可以买自行车,还可以在试车的时候在超市里骑上一两圈呢 :)

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
March 6, 2009
哈哈,虽然我是中国人,但是也很喜欢你们的播客,你们非要把哈迷哈粉气死!

 said on
March 6, 2009
@xiaoxin,

我无语。。。。
 said on
May 23, 2010
The link to the PDF doesn't work.