We'll admit, our Popup Chinese cheerleaders are probably not what you're expecting. First of all because they're all men in an industry dominated by the other gender. But also because their previous cheering experience consists mostly of mild swearing at the Beijing soccer team and the occasional caustic remark directed at Liu Xiang for selling out to Nike and letting down the hopes and dreams of the Chinese people in 2008.

Nonetheless, when we asked them to lend a hand and show us how to cheer in Chinese, our squad members were more than enthusiastic, and charged into the studio. And then silence, and a puzzled "so what do you want us to say anyway?" And the result was this podcast for absolute beginners to the Chinese language. So download it and listen as we cover the best and very possibly worst ways to cheer for almost anything in mandarin, Chinese.
 said on
December 2, 2011
Hahahah this is way too easy, could be a first lesson.... but I loved it!!!
 said on
December 9, 2011
hilarious... And the word for go or keep going is funny that it means add oil... I will be using it in my auto parts store... Love it
 said on
June 18, 2012
Can anyone explain one of the quiz answers to me? One of the questions asks how to translate "I will work hard", or something to that effect, and the correct answer is given as 我会加油 instead of another option 我会工作. Can anyone explain this usage of jiayou to me?
 said on
June 18, 2012
@dominic.jackson,

加油 is to add oil literally. You can use it basically in any situations when you want to cheer someone up to work harder. Like in sports games, you can scream 加油 to cheer the players up. If a friend is upset, you can say 加油 to him or her as well. You can use it to your colleagues to cheer them up too.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
February 7, 2013
When I was running the Hong Kong Marathon, I found they shout "gai yow" as you run by, which one local man told me is the same as shouting "jia you."

-- Peter Surowski
 said on
April 17, 2013
I was lucky enough to be in the north end of the Workers Stadium for Beijing Guaon game the other day. They certainly knew how to chant and cheer there!! :)
 said on
January 6, 2014
haha, brilliant! The out of sync 加油 cracked me up. Great work guys :)
 said on
April 17, 2014
that pause before... jia you! >_
 said on
August 9, 2015
I thought when you use hui4 you have to also use de at the end?
 said on
October 16, 2017
I couldn't stop laughing throughout the lesson! Thank you!