It's early Friday afternoon and you've just spent two exhausting hours checking your email, catching up on the latest blogs and thinking of how to start that twenty-page China Telecom report due Monday. Before putting pen to paper however, perhaps you should brush up on your Chinese with a quick test at Popup Chinese, and get a cup of coffee from the kitchen.

Slacking off is an art form. So grab your headphones and listen in to this podcast to learn how to pull it off in China. In our discussion of Oriental slackfu, Brendan, David and Echo touch on effective techniques for promoting collective slacking as well as useful grammar points for steering your colleagues out of the office.
 said on
October 28, 2008
the bit about 就,才 and 了 was news to me too. good podcast.
 said on
October 29, 2008
I don't usually comment on websites, but wanted to let you this is a really excellent service and it's appreciated. I found my way here through Adso, and am really happy you're helping support them.

I particularly like the way you find difficult things to discuss in shorter dialogues rather than creating long, rambling discussions packed with low-frequency vocabulary.
 said on
June 9, 2009
really good lesson, clear, nice points, good organization...only thing is if the 才,就,都 point is going to be brought up probably should actually address it or leave it off completely...but still really well produced lesson...
 said on
July 27, 2009
It should be "食飯未?" or "食咗飯未?", not "食飯冇?" in Cantonese. Just picking nits. =D
 said on
July 27, 2009
Picking nits? They should hire you for Cantonese. :)
 said on
July 28, 2009
@barrister and @useful.guy,

Just to update you guys on the Cantonese situation, we looked into getting a team to record some lessons for us from Beijing late last year, but didn't make much progress finding suitable people, especially a native English host.

Cantonese is still something we're very interested in doing. We have some friends in Hong Kong who may be helping us set up a small studio to get recording work done later this year. So it is still on the agenda, we just don't want to be making public promises since we don't know how or if things will work out.

 said on
July 28, 2009
@trevelyan Glad you're looking into it!
 said on
January 25, 2011
泡泡中文是我最喜欢的偷懒办法
 said on
January 25, 2011
@crusty_138,

哈哈,什么意思呢?

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
January 25, 2011
What I meant was that Popup Chinese is my favourite way to slack off at work
 said on
January 25, 2011
@crusty_138,

哦,其实你原来的句子没有问题,我只是想问你“偷懒方法”具体指的是什么,现在明白了,原来是在工作中偷懒。

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
January 25, 2011
@ echo

oops, I meant to prefix that with "上班的时候..."
 said on
January 25, 2011
@crusty_138,

:)

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
May 28, 2012
Should the 经 in 假正经 be third tone? My dictionaries have zheng4jing1 or zheng4jing5.

Listening questions:

2:57 没吃过______?

5:41 bu dan zi jiao?

6:37 都的意思,它的时态上…(its tense?)

 said on
May 29, 2012
@murrayjames&Echo,

I say the third tone,but it sounds like the girl in podcast say the 5 tone. What do you think Echo?

2:57 没吃回家吃去

5:41 不打自招(to confess without being beaten)

6:37 肯定是表示已经发生了的,过去发生了的。

--Amber

amber@popupchinese.com
 said on
May 29, 2012
@murrayjames & amber,

It should be 5th tone according to dictionaries. However, people usually say 3rd tone instead.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
May 9, 2013
It seems the 了没 has spread down to the south. I live in 广州 and I hear people say 吃了没 and 吃饭了没 all the time. I have a friend from 湖南 who calls me at work all the time and asks: 下班了没?
 said on
May 9, 2013
@怎么BANana,

Yes, in the north, we say 吗 more. However, with the influence from the south, you'll hear 了没 sometimes too.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
May 9, 2013
@Echo,

OH? so its a southern thing? In the podcast Brenden and David seem to say is a Northern thing.
 said on
May 14, 2013
@怎么BANana,

This one is actually very tricky. A lot of people use it in Beijing, but it's also in Cantonese.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
September 22, 2020
Still listening this podcast after quite a number of years! Still learning. This podcast is gold! A cultural icon!