Learning Chinese? Our mandarin lesson for today features a short but simple dialogue covering the way real Chinese shoppers ask for prices. We expect it will come in handy the next time you're strolling down the street and see imitation Apple products available for one-tenth of their normal retail price.
lguest
 said on
November 4, 2012
Such a great way to learn current phrases and colloquial language!
walton_206
 said on
November 7, 2012
What is the name of that song, that plays in the beginning?

Thanks in advance.
Isabelle
 said on
November 11, 2012
100% confused. How do I actually listen to the podcast? I'm certainly not paying without knowing the quality.
trevelyan
 said on
November 11, 2012
Hi Isabelle,

I'm guessing that you're using a browser that doesn't support flash, which means you can't see and won't be able to use the in-site audio player. In that case, you might want to look at our free iTunes feed, which has the most recent 200 or so lessons:

http://​itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/​popup-chinese/​id292036117

tangculiji
 said on
November 28, 2012
In Echo's examples, why 二百 instead of 两百？
Gail天堂的声音
 said on
November 29, 2012
@tangculiji,

Hi, actually nowadays in China we can say 二百 or 两百. Maybe you have learned that when 2 is used together with a measure word, the 2 will be pronounced as liang3. For big numbers such as 2百 2千 2万 2亿, we think 百千万亿are measure words. Because before Arabic numbers were introduced to Chinese language, Chines people had to write all numbers in characters. That's why 百千万亿 are taken as measure words.

However, after we have Arabic numbers, we can always write 200 instead of 两百. And we really dont think 200 is a big number. So we use both er4bai3 and liang3bai3 now.

---Gail

elizaj
 said on
December 7, 2012
Wow, what's up with the random joke about Foxconn workers killing themselves?

--Elizabeth
mengcheah
 said on
January 11, 2013
Hi Echo

Are underage workers commiting suicide funny?

Meng
Echo
 said on
January 11, 2013
@mengcheah,

Our struggle against capitalism and imperialism takes many forms.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
justin.losey
 said on
February 23, 2013
Hi Echo,

What is that song at the beginning of the episode?
Echo
 said on
February 25, 2013
@justin.losey,

Here is the song Wang Fei's nothing remains: http://www.popupchinese.com/lessons/ktv-wednesday/wang-fei-nothing-remains

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
LumiPanda爸
 said on
March 8, 2013
175 = 一百七五 or 一百七十五 or both?
Echo
 said on
March 12, 2013
@LumiPanda爸,

It's 一百七十五. If there is no "五", you can say 一百七.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
minghan
 said on
March 13, 2013
Wait, then how do you say 107?
orbital
 said on
March 13, 2013
minghan -- that would be 一百 ling2 七. The pronunciation of the zero avoids the ambiguity in cases like 一百七八 which, unless I'm mistaken, would be "around 170 or 180" rather than "178".
Echo
 said on
March 14, 2013
@orbital & minghan,

Yes, it should be 一百零七.

Actually we rarely say 一百七八, if it's around 170 or 180, we usually say 一百七一百八.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
orbital
 said on
March 15, 2013
Thanks Echo. So here's a question for you -- how would you say 100007? It seems pretty awkward if we have to say 10 wan4 ling2 ling2 ling2 qi1, but that's the only way I can imagine doing it.
murrayjames
 said on
March 15, 2013
@orbital

I think that's 十万零七. Interior zeroes beyond the first one are omitted in speech.
Echo
 said on
March 15, 2013
@orbital,

Good question! Exactly like murrayjames said :)

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
prog_frog
 said on
March 20, 2013
The first multiple choice question on the PDF reads "How do you say 3in Chinese?" but I think it should read "How do you say 350 in Chinese?"
Absolute Beginners
 said on
March 21, 2013
@prog_frog,

I'm not sure why it had problem like that. It should be fixed now. Thanks!

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
James.kingsalamon
 said on
March 5, 2015
Did she just make a joke about the Foxconn workers killing themselves???