Traditional textbooks don't usually deal with gender stereotypes. In this - the dawning of the age of the metrosexual - new language is emerging to describe male beauty in all of its MTV and beauty-parlor driven forms.

While China has already come a long way, as this week's dialogue shows it still has a way to come. Join us as we introduce some of the common language used to describe masculine beauty. This lesson also covers a core grammar pattern used for comparison purposes. We are deep into duoyinci territory here, so listen up and we'll see you to safety.
 said on
September 22, 2008
The charm of this lesson is that is short, tight, and focussed.

This might be a starter to actually connect lessons and tests: Highlight core language points and difficulties from the various HSK tests in the podcast discussion.

Not in the sense of a coupled "test to a podcast" but rather independent podcasts which coincidentally touch the very same language points as the tests (and come afterwards for purposes of repetition). With a respective level fitting of course.

Example: A lesson on [spacecrafts | submarines | noise rock | whatever] with a dialogue that includes just a few 经常, 常常, 正常 and the explanation of their differences in the discussion (as provided by Echo in the comments).
 said on
September 22, 2008
BTW: Text and PDF only contain the lesson introduction.
 said on
September 22, 2008
Hey Echo and guys,

Nice lesson and good topic. Reading the lesson title made me a)reminisce about listening to aerosmith and b)think for a split second you would take the topic a bit further than metrosexuality. Then I googled the lyrics and knew what led me to that guess;)

Good outcome, right? You set out for a Chinese lesson and once again go surfing around the net...I did look up some uses of 多, though. Is it interchangeable with 多么 in this case ?

The lesson was a good listening exercise, too, without vocab and transcript;)I listened to it a couple of times. It is a little bit difficult 'going back' on the player (sorry for the English - feels like home, but really is not).

I like Henning's suggestions and the way you all have fun in the studio :)

 said on
September 22, 2008
ha ha. We didn't actually mean to publish this one today. Looks like nothing escapes Henning's eagle eye though... 什么都逃不过henning的眼睛!

Since what's out is out, we'll just set a publication record this week. ;) We've fleshed out the transcript and vocab section and will take care of the recording work later this evening. PDF is also updated.

I also really liked the shorter format and explicit focus on grammar in this one too - we should do more of these.

--dave

 said on
September 23, 2008
Great lesson. =) Someday this might come in handy...
 said on
September 23, 2008
@Maple,

Yeah, 多 has the same meaning as 很 and 多么. However, people use 多 to express stronger feelings rather than 很. Coming to 多么, actually you can rarely hear it in spoken Chinese.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
September 23, 2008
Thanks a lot, Echo !
 said on
September 25, 2008
That was quite excellent. I'm going to repost some of the comments I made elswhere, so sorry if you've seen some of this before.

It was refreshing to hear a podcast come out with a distinct Beijing accent, since many learners are shooting for that. Playing back the dialogue sentence for the vocab example was really nice. Explaining the grammar points really well, in english, made it very clear for me. And having 2 native speakers in the dialogue and one in the explanations added a level of professionalism that a lot of podcasts don't have. And as I've said elsewhere, just because of the fact that you are the only modular intermediate podcast that uses more than a word or two of english, you are bound to become popular. The banter was superb.

Suggestions for improvement.

1) For an intermediate podcast, I feel there was too much english used in the explanations. I like to hear a lot of really easy Mandarin explanation after a short, somewhat challenging dialogue. Sure, use some english, especially regarding grammar, and in the banter. But keep in mind that many of us are trying to get listening practice from podcasts, because they are so much more comprehensible than native material. I have to listen to a lot of english to hear just a little Mandarin with this format.

2) When you progress to longer dialogues, I'd like to hear a quick line-for-line translation after the initial dialogue. No explanations, just a quickie. Then continue just as you did. It makes the dialogue much more comprehensible. One play of the quick line-for-line version is as good as 2 or 3 plays without it, IMO.

Thanks very much,

Leo
 said on
December 17, 2008
I hate to be the one to point this out, but after all that discussion of the pronunciation of 似的, you've gone and listed it as 'si de' in the vocabulary page...

Also, would it be possible to get a transcription of some of the other vocabulary that gets mentioned in the discussion? I can imagine using the words for 'metrosexual' and 'girly' coming in quite handy, but they're said a bit too quickly to catch properly.

Thanks!
 said on
December 17, 2008
@Dave,

Fixed, thank you!

We'll think about it and put those key words mentioned in the podcasts into the vocab section. Thanks for your advice :)

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
January 6, 2009
Great lesson. Is there no audio available for this lesson on the vocab tab?
 said on
January 6, 2009
Looks like we'll have to add it. Will take care of this. thx.
 said on
January 21, 2009
Watch those tones, guys. duóshuài, not duōshuài
 said on
January 21, 2009
@bryan - audio's there now. The Fix is up for this lesson too.
 said on
January 21, 2009
@gnotella100,

As what is written in 《现代汉语词典》 外语教学与研究出版社 2002年11月出版,"多" only has one pronunciation, that is duō.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
December 18, 2011
So is 多帅 really supposed to be pronounced duo2shuai4 as it is in the dialogue? Are there tone sandhi rules for 多?
 said on
December 18, 2011
@benjameno.irwin,

The standard tone should be first tone, but a lot of Chinese people say second tone in the real life.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
December 19, 2012
hi, would it be possible to give the characters for the metrosexual terms at the end of the dialogue? specicially:

他真niamer

nansi 似的

加油好男

Thank you
 said on
December 21, 2012
@cb577,

Sure, here you are:

娘们儿 niang2men5r

加油好男儿 jia1you2 hao3nan2er2

男色时代 nan2se4 shi2dai4

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
January 18, 2016
“多帅” 有一点奇怪。我一听的时候,I thought it was an imperative that meant "be more handsome" -- 你也可以说 “多聪明”吗? or does that not work because it's assymetrical (i.e., 1字跟2字)?多谢!

 said on
October 24, 2016
ji shenme ya? What's the hurry. Shuai shenme ya? What are you on/talking about?
 said on
October 24, 2016
Regarding tone changes. I find this rule prompt helpful:

1. With two or more successive 3rd Tones, the first changes to 2nd Tone when spoken (tone mark remains unchanged). wo3 xiang3 qu4 becomes wo2 xiang3 qu4.

2. When a 3rd Tone is followed by Tones 1, 2 or 4 (or neutral), it becomes a half-third tone; ie it falls but does not rise (tone mark unchanged).lao3shi1

3. When two 4th Tones appear, the final syllable is stressed: kuai4le4 (le is stressed, not kuai), shun4li4 (li is stressed), jixu (xu). Hope this helps someone.
 said on
February 1, 2018
popup chinese is so dark lol.