As a confidant of ours confessed over beer one evening, "you'd think that now I'm running my own business in Beijing, people would assume I could eat." And yet, strange as it may seem, speaking mandarin is considered one of the easier skills for foreigners to master. The real parlor trick for impressing your Chinese friends and colleagues is simple tool manipulation, or the ability to put food in your mouth with sticks.

Learning Chinese? Our elementary series starts introducing basic grammar while focusing on very high-frequency and colloquial mandarin, the sort of language you'll use everyday. This is a good level for you if you've already learned the basics, but are still struggling to really internalize the language. If you're completely new to Chinese and are looking to start from scratch, we recommend checking out our lesson series for absolute beginners. You'll be back up at this level before you know it.
 said on
January 13, 2011
OrlandoBloom能用筷子自由一个很小的JohnnyDepp.

"With the right leverage and the proper application of strength," of course.
 said on
January 13, 2011
理解错 interesting vocab...perhaps explained in absolute beginner?

不好意思 way actor said it...Beijiner way?

 said on
January 14, 2011
The MacGyver classic is to pour water into the lock, then freeze the lock. The water will expand when frozen and crack the lock, at least on TV.
 said on
January 14, 2011
@ckw4y, I think you mean pour water into the lock, freeze the lock, then smash it with a chopstick.
 said on
January 14, 2011
@malcano8,

No.

No.

No no no no no....

:)

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
January 14, 2011
I would have caused a lot of confusion had I had this lesson at hand when I first came to China. Don't seem to get asked this question as much any more though....
 said on
January 15, 2011
@MK1977,

You are lucky then. People don't consider you as "lao3wai4" anymore. I'm sure you can use chopsticks very well too :)

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
January 15, 2011
@ Brendan / Gail,

as per malcano8 how does the actor pronounce last sentence

'wo tingbudong'

just moving up to ele. level > i'm coming across many ways to say 'understand' dong/lijie/mingbai/tingdedong etc.

which is more colloquial to say 'hard/difficult to understand' or easy to understand

does understanding his speach or undrestanding his meaning necessitate particular words?
 said on
January 15, 2011
@richard,

The actor says "wo3 li3jie3 cuo4 le5" -- I understand it wrongly. I'm not sure what your specific question is.

"Ting1de5dong3" means "I hear and I can understand", so we can consider it as a more specific way of saying dong3. Among all of those words, dong3 is the most colloquial to say "nan2 dong3 -- difficult to understand" and "hao3 dong3 -- easy to understand".

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com

 said on
January 15, 2011
@Echo, sorry for ambiguous question i meant i could not understand is accent or pronunciation of the sentence ' buhaoyisi wo lijie cuo le'

perhaps it was said to fast for my comprehension level

should i listen to it many times to get use to that sound/way of speach. although i new the words i could only catch the meaning after reading and listening to the text.
 said on
January 15, 2011
It would be nice if you would please not put exclusively American references in lessons. I have absolutely no idea who Macgyver is.
 said on
January 15, 2011
I have to agree with Nowhere man's comment. My impression is that the audience of popchinese is very international, which is what makes this website so great!

^_^

 said on
January 15, 2011
I am totally fine with any reference,lol. Just want to suggest a better way: giving the explanation of who Macgyver is, within the podcast itself under section "for those who don't know." And don't get started about political correctness,guys, alright? We come here to learn language
 said on
January 15, 2011
@richard,

The dialogue is in Mandarin like most of others on the site, so no accent. Maybe he was speaking a bit fast. If that's it don't worry. You'll get there soon. :)

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
January 16, 2011
@Huyilin, Nowhere Man,

我以为, MacGyver is internationally famous.

In fact, I found the following on Wikipedia, "In 1994, the series was released in over seventy different worldwide markets.[16] Because of popular demand, two TV-movies were created, both released in 1994. The first movie MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis premiered in the United States in May. The film was shot in England and Greece. The second movie was entitled MacGyver: Trail to Doomsday. Anderson served as executive producer for both films,[16] which were filmed in Europe.[17] Re-runs of the series still air in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.[18]"

I didn't think the reference to be at all obscure, 不过我可能又错了.
 said on
January 16, 2011
@geroi_asfalta,

I agree, just kind of work it into the beginning of the podcast itself. Maybe instead of saying, "Our lesson is about MacGyver, or a Chinese knock-off of him."

Maybe say something like, "I remember that old show MacGyver from when I was a kid. It was amazing how he could use any household item to make a tool or weapon. Like soap and hairspray to make a gun or use a spoon and string to make computer. Our podcast is about MacGyver, or a Chinese 山寨 version of him."

Some kind of opening reference like that might help those in the listening audience who don't know MacGyver quickly get up to speed and understand the reference.
 said on
January 17, 2011
Is li3jie3 the same thing as liao3jie3? I've only studied Chinese in Taiwan, so I've occasionally found that there are some pronunciation differences between Popup Chinese and Taiwanese Mandarin... had a heck of a time the other day with the word cheng2shu2 that resulted in the discovery that the Taiwanese pronunciation is cheng2shou2 >.<
 said on
January 18, 2011
@davidsonlincoln,

Echo please correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understand it the two words are close but different. Both mean "to understand" in a general sense, but 理解 is a more rational understanding (think of the words 理由, 理智, etc.). 了 when pronounced (liao3) means "complete" or "finished" (忘不了 literally means one cannot complete the act of forgetting). So 了解 is used to suggest a much more penetrating and holistic kind of understanding.

So the difference, you can say something like 我了解你 when you're talking about understanding someone's position and their situation, but if you say 我理解你 you're talking about some reason they're giving ("I know what you mean....") but you don't need to be deeply familiar with them.

 said on
January 18, 2011
@orbital & davidsonlincoln,

理解 is to understand someone's feeling, thoughts or what someone says. 了解 is to understand someone's background information. For example, if someone is your old friend, you can say 我了解这个人.

There are some pronunciation or even usage of words are different between Mandarin and Taiwanese Chinese. Shou2 is more colloquial. You can use cheng2shou2 in speech in mainland China as well.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
October 9, 2013
Gail said chopsticks 'shi yi ge jian die'.

Gail, what does juan die mean?
 said on
October 9, 2013
I mean jian die.
 said on
November 14, 2013
@MAC.JAMIE

间谍 = spy

Brendan: I'm not even sure how you would open a lock with chopsticks.

Gail: 他是一个间谍。(He's a spy. [referring to the MacGyver of chopsticks])