This is the pilot episode of a new concept show we're developing for upper-intermediate students: a quiz game featuring mostly Chinese questions with just enough bilingual discussion thrown in to keep things intelligible. We had a good time producing this, and if you're stretching past the intermediate level we think you'll like it too -- our topics range from ancient Rome to 19th century English literature and there is plenty of useful vocab here you won't find elsewhere, if only because dialogues about malaria are generally considered to be a bummer.

And what exactly is at stake? This week we pitch China against the rest of the world in a climactic showdown that aims to establish definitively whether East or West is better at trivia. So if your Chinese is already pretty good and you're looking for a fun way to make it even better, join us and put your general knowledge to the test. And then don't forget to send us feedback by email at service@popupchinese.com so we can improve on things and hopefully turn this into a regular feature here at Popup Chinese.
 said on
April 10, 2013
As many of you know, over the last few years we've had a few commentators ask for more advanced lessons focused on low-frequency vocab acquisition. Most of these have taken the form of requests for more difficult dialogue-based lessons. As I don't think we've necessarily done a good job of explaining why we haven't done this, the problem that we are running into is that putting low-frequency vocabulary into colloquial speech is actually really challenging, and almost always requires the speakers to sacrifice at least one if not all of the three most important elements in engaging dramatic speech: creativity, natural emotion or colloquial expressiveness.

Most upper-level Chinese-teaching materials don't worry about this sort of thing, and tend to feature artificial dialogues that engage in what we call "vocab stuffing": a tendency to cram low-frequency words into dialogues in unnatural and often boring ways simply to include the words. The problem is that Chinese speakers don't talk like this, and we don't want to be producing these sorts of materials since we've never found them very useful ourselves.

But we are excited about this show, because we think it gets us close to some of the most important things we think an upper-level show needs to feature. The first is obviously the need to keep things fun and interesting. The second is broad coverage of a wide range of low-frequency but socially-useful vocabulary. And finally there is the need to frame things in a way that can help the words stick, so the materials are easier to remember and we don't end up with basically semi-random lists of thematically-related words.

Anyway, all of us at Popup Chinese like the new show very much. That said, it is still a work in progress and we want to get feedback from you about what you like and what you'd like to change. Also, if you have trivia questions you'd like us to ask in future episodes, or are in Beijing and are interested in being a contestant on the show yourself, please write us and let us know.

And good luck with the questions.

 said on
April 10, 2013
Awesome show! Offended that nobody guessed 斯坦福 for the 阿帕网 question and instead credited it to the evil school across the bay :(
 said on
April 10, 2013
@孔瑞 - looks like a typo. Your comment says "evil" when it should clearly say "better". ;)
 said on
April 10, 2013
Hm. I like this. I kinda think it's not fair to the Chinese side...when you're competing with foreigners who, like he mentioned at the end, have studied abroad and all. But just saying... :) Good idea of a podcast! I do like it! And it's a good combo of Chinese and English. Practical kinda...and definitely educational.
 said on
April 10, 2013
Is it just me or does anyone else smell Texas BBQ? :-) Seriously though, very cool concept!
 said on
April 10, 2013
@drummerboy - there is definitely a whiff of BBQ sauce around the place. And how did you like your steak? ;)
 said on
April 10, 2013
That was a cool show! For the future, you might try to concentrate on one topic for each quizz night, roughly? Like arts, literature, history, science, computers, etc. This way the presented vocab wouldnt be too random but still cover a broad range of things?
 said on
April 10, 2013
@ trevelyan, the steak was MUCH better this time! :-) I must admit that I did have fond memories of that evening while listening to this show. I love the fact that you are always striving to improve the site and provide new ways for us to learn. Kudos!

Can't wait till the next quiz night!
 said on
April 10, 2013
I'm a newbie to Popup and it's developments like this (as well as the quality, content and sheer likeability of the main presenters) that made me 'go Premium'.

This quiz is a great idea and I've learnt quite a lot of words which I agree would feel 'jammed in' if tried within a dialogue.

I also hate learning Chinese versions of Western names but it's a very necessary evil so this is also a less painful, in-context way of doing it - bravo!

Looking forward to more quizzes!
 said on
April 10, 2013
but one point - 淡水 it's not potable (assuming typo) but portable water? I thought it was freshwater?
 said on
April 10, 2013
@sekye, it's not a typo! :) Potable water means freshwater, although it may be more of a British / Canadian expression than American one.
 said on
April 10, 2013
@trevleyan - oh that's even more embarrassing then since I'm British... Thanks! I'm now learning Chinese & more technical English! ;p
 said on
April 11, 2013
Great Show!
 said on
April 11, 2013
罗马人的脑子还挺慢。谢谢大家,我真喜欢这节课!

本不用说,我也是罗马人:)

 said on
April 11, 2013
@bailan,

哈哈,不小心泄露了秘密吧~

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
April 14, 2013
@sekye @trevleyan

"Potable water" is definitely used in the US a lot too. Maybe it's a North American thing...
 said on
April 19, 2013
Good concept, and as always a pleasure to listen to the Popup Team. I second @yanuo's comment about a consistency in theme.

伊斯坦布尔不是土耳其的首都,是安卡拉。
 said on
April 20, 2013
@laubis,

谢谢!我实在是孤陋寡闻 :'(

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com