There you'll be, ready to collapse into bed after an exhausting day doing whatever and just when you're about to drift off you'll see the first one get brave enough to buzz down from that hole in the ceiling, or out from behind the power sockets, and sooner than you know there's a group and holy $%#! if the one taking the lead is not the most massive insect you've ever seen airborne and even the dog is unnerved by it and you have a sinking feeling that maybe coming to China was a bad idea, and if the job paid a lot more than staying in Denver now at least you know why.

Hate mosquitoes? As you can tell, our Chinese lesson today is all about the repellent bloodsuckers, perhaps in part because August just happens to be the worst time of the year for them in Beijing thanks to all this humidity. That said, in the spirit of keeping our prejudices educational we also talk a bit about the past tense, and how to describe things that have already happened. If you're learning Chinese this is really useful stuff, so be sure to check out our podcast and let us know what you think.
 said on
August 25, 2011
My God! This photo is TERRIBLE! My skin gets itchy right away....

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
November 26, 2011
I don't seem to have a pdf transcript file available for this lesson. Is it possible to get one somehow please?
 said on
November 27, 2011
@nlsolutions,

Curious... our pdf system is adamantly refusing to generate one for this lesson. I'll have to take a closer look and see what the problem is. Most likely a font issue. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

--david
 said on
December 3, 2011
Way to bring up bad memories, guys. I still remember those long nights, holding a pillow in my hand, waiting for that buzz to tip me off to the little blood-sucker's location. But there was always another to take its place... Always another... *shudder*
 said on
October 9, 2012
Hello,

Why is the ne 呢 necessary after the mei si 沒死? Is the 呢 what is indicating surprise about the mosquito not being dead?
 said on
May 2, 2014
Hmm still no PDF.
 said on
July 3, 2018
@kendallmarchman I think that's a great question. It reminds me of the 呢 covered in a different lesson where they talk about noun + 呢 meaning 'what about [noun]?'/'where is [noun]?'. This leads me to think that your hypothesis might be correct, but I would like to leave it to the experts :)

Also, not sure where I should report this, but I received a vocabulary question (not related to the podcast) which asked for the meaning of 面条儿, and the correct answer shown was 'fried dough stick'. Shouldn't that be 油条 while 面条儿 is noodles?