What do native Chinese speakers say when they greet each other? You may be surprised to learn it isn't the standard "hello" you'll find taught in most textbooks. And that's why we've devoted this podcast to casual greetings in mandarin. So regardless of whether you're just starting to learn Chinese or have been working towards fluency for a while, join us in this Chinese podcast as we cover the language native Chinese speakers actually use when they want to say hello.
jhavens140
said on October 11, 2011
just opened the transcript on "Casual greetings in Chinese"...no pinyin of the dialog. Just Chinese Character and English!! What is up with that? Are all the transcripts this way? BTW, nice job on the vocabulary. Bob in Beijing.
trevelyan
said on October 11, 2011
@jhavens140,Do you have pinyin enabled for your account? You can do this by toggling the pinyin checkbox on the transcript page, or on our account customization page:http://popupchinese.com/account/customizeBest,--david
October 13, 2011
disappointing. a hook to a high priced subscription that may or may not be any good. no thanks
Xiao Hu
said on October 13, 2011
@elielmi,Actually, a subscription on Popup Chinese is not at all expensive. The Premium subscription is only $150 USD per year and the basic is only $60. I look at it this way, the basic subscription is only 3 cheap dinners at a restaurant. Heck, dinner and a movie out costs more than $60. I've been using Popup Chinese for quite a while now, and it's hands down the best Chinese language learning site that there is. This site includes several key things that others have left out, like sample HSK tests, a quiz with each podcast, dictation mode allowing you to type in what you hear, character writing sheets, just so much good stuff here. Trust me, it's awesome. And besides that, I believe that it's also guaranteed, is it not?
trevelyan
said on October 13, 2011
@elielmi,And I'm disappointed in you. I'm not sure how you found us, but there's no hook to anything and the podcasts are free as promised. If you want the supporting transcripts and/or online tools - yes - we charge for those and the people good enough to support us are the ones subsidizing your bandwidth.There's a moneyback guarantee on all subscriptions, so pay if you want or don't pay if you want. But slamming us for producing high-quality and free learning materials in an industry filled with snake-oil? That's classy behavior.--david
trevelyan
said on October 13, 2011
Xiao Hu,Thanks for the support. Two corrections just for the record: (1) the basic subscription is $49.99, and (2) there is not necessarily a quiz attached to each lesson, although we are adding them to lessons which are missing them. Anyone curious about the premium features can also see them for free on this lesson:http://popupchinese.com/lessons/intermediate/unleashing-the-cougarAlso, I wouldn't say that we're inexpensive although we're hoping to be able to lower prices as we grow. Popup Chinese should be a no-brainer for anyone working in China, but $50 is still a lot of money for students. I didn't have a lot of free cash in university and a lot of people are scraping by these days.祝好,--david
Xiao Hu
said on October 13, 2011
@Trevelyan,Sorry, I should have double checked the pricing page before I quoted the prices. Anyway, Popup is most certainly the least expensive site of its kind. I know how difficult it is when you're just scraping by in University. That being said, I think the price point is quite affordable for most anyone in the United States. I think what elielmi may be referring to is that today the servers are being extremely fickle. I can't get a single podcast to download or stream from the site.Another strange thing happened, on my HTC phone, I ran an update of some software, then tried to open a podcast that I had just been playing only hours before and a message came up saying that it was not a supported file format. I tried some other Popup podcasts and they all gave the same message. I restarted the phone and tried looking for the Popup podcasts, but they had all disappeared from the menu! I tried Real Player, the HTC media player and the QQ media player but to no avail, the podcasts can't be recognized.Do you know why this is?
trevelyan
said on October 13, 2011
No idea. There's no problem on our end, but I guess we'll have to setup this Chinese mirror.
October 13, 2011
nothing is workig at my end, includig the extra words for the iPad app. i am unable to download podcasts and when i try, i am referred to your subscription page. perhaps the podcasts are not downloading and i am being referred to your subscribe page by mistake. had i been able to download a podcast and the ipad app downloaded the 1000 characters, i might be more open to paid services. i certainly would have been morre enthusiastic in my initial comments. so, to repeat, from my end it seemed that nothing was working and yet i was being directed to pay for services based on apps not working for me. that was a bit frustrating. i am impressed that you respond to users so quickly. thay isna great sign that any problem i am experiencing will eventually be resolved. i am also glad that you are based in china. honestly, i would actually prefer to learn chinese from a chinese company benefitting chinese people in china. as to the 'hook' comment, usually a hook is a neutral concept. it can be good or bad or neither. a hook is a common sales technique. your ipad app is a hook to your paid services, in my view a potentially good one. i've gotten hooked into many transactions by offers similar to yours and been quite happy. i've also hooked into some bad transactions, but such is life.
trevelyan
said on October 13, 2011
@elielmi,Apologies if I overreacted, and thanks for the details on where you're having trouble.The only time we've had problems with the iPad, it's usually a case of someone typing in their username/password incorrectly. If you're having trouble, just unlock the application with the username/password "demo". Then enter practice mode to study a random sample of characters from the 1000 supported characters. Please note that your iPad will need to have Internet access to do this (the registration process pings our account to confirm the server exists). We do this because of future plans for iPad/site integration.To download the MP3s to your computer with your free account you'll need to use your personal RSS/iTunes feed. You should have been given instructions on doing this as part of the signup process. The short version is to select which lesson series you wish to download here:http://popupchinese.com/account/subscribeShowsAnd then click here to setup your feed and have your browser download the shows:http://popupchinese.com/account/itunesAs long as you are already logged into Popup Chinese, this link should work in every browser except Internet Explorer, which may require you to setup your feed manually through iTunes. If you have any trouble or need instructions for doing that send us an email at service@popupchinese.com and we will figure out what the trouble is and try to work around it.Best,--david
trevelyan
said on October 13, 2011
Another option for anyone who just wants to download the MP3s is to grab them from our public iTunes feed. Link here:http://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/popup-chinese/id292036117
wolfestar.echoes
said on December 9, 2011
those who are slamming the site are the ones who don't really want to learn...like anything, it takes time and practice, but this is very natural...i have been learning spanish at my job in much the same way from my spanish speaking customers and then using it as much as possible so i become comfortable...this is no different... keep up the good work and thank you for your site
megan.smith
said on March 6, 2012
Quick question about this lesson (I know it's an old one), but when brendan and echo are asking eachother "hei, zui4jin4 zen3meyang4?" and echo answers "eh, haixing" which is then translated as "eh, not bad". I didn't see "haixing" on the vocab list so I tried NCIKU and still I can't find the characters for this phrase.How does it differ from "bu2 cuo4"? Are they interchangeable?xie4xie4,~Megan
Xiao Hu
said on March 6, 2012
@Megan.smith,The characters are 还and 行. 行 xing2 is most interchangeable with 可以 ke3 yi3, which in this context doesn't mean CAN but instead means OKAY. There are quite a few ways to express being OK in Chinese. Among them are, 还好,(hai2 hao3) 还行，(hai2 xing2) 还可以 (hai2 ke3 yi3) and 还凑合 (hai2 cou4 he5)
megan.smith
said on March 7, 2012
@Xiao Hu,Thank you! wo3 dong3 le. I really appreciate the clarification and the new vocab words to try and use. :)(Also, I found it in the vocab list but it was translated as "Hey" which confused me.)
Absolute Beginners
said on March 7, 2012
@megan.smith,It should definitely be translated as "ok". Thanks for calling this to our attention. Fixed. :)
Xiao Hu
said on March 7, 2012
@Megan.Smith,你能明白就行啦！
pcyzna
said on October 24, 2012
Hi, I think I noticed a small typo in the vocab:说 說 shōu to say verb
Absolute Beginners
said on October 24, 2012
@pcyzna,Fixed. Thanks!--Echoecho@popupchinese.com
dragonfly
said on January 11, 2013
some people will be spoiled forever and never satisfied... Popup Chinese clearly went above and beyond an 'acceptable' level on delivery and buried its students in learning materials from multiple angles and dimensions. I really like your business model and am happy to support and participate!Awesome Job!Tanner (from Canada)
Echo
said on January 11, 2013
@TaiNaKuRi，Thank you Tanner :)--Echoecho@popupchinese.com
nosajliam
said on December 23, 2013
Pronunciation Question! I noticed when Echo says 最近 the 'i' sound in 近 is short rather than a long 'e' sound like "jeen" 哪一个是对的？ Thanks!
trevelyan
said on December 23, 2013
@nosajliam,What Echo says is correct. :)-david
mdubes13
said on April 17, 2014
It's funny, 怎么样 is just like 'hey wassup?' and 还好吗 is like 'you alright?', which are probably my most used greetings in English. I can't remember the last time I actually said 'hello' to someone :P
Grace Qi
said on April 17, 2014
@mdubes13,Yeah- funny how that works in both languages. Although "ni2hao3" is more commonly used in Chinese ( restaurant, hotel, taking a cab, asking for directions...) - it's like "excuse me" in English...;)
li-na
said on May 13, 2014
Hey, I am wondering if there is a common casual greeting way of asking something like "What are you doing (at the moment)?". Which would be my more common chat-greeting.Is that the infamous textbook sentence of "你忙吗？"or could I also ask "你在什么干吗？“ without sounding weird/noisy?And to add to all the praise: You rock! The episodes are fun and give a great context for memorizing vocab and i run across what I just learned all the time (in Hangzhou accent, that is...I am super thankful for voiceactress 九二七 not using the 儿 all the time, she sounds way more like people talk here)
Grace Qi
said on May 13, 2014
@li-na ,Thanks for the kind words. The most common casual way of asking"What are you doing (at the moment)?" would be "你干嘛呢（ni3gan4ma2ne5）？and yes"你忙吗" is also very commonly used. Can't say"你在什么干吗？", but "你在忙什么呢？" is good!
peterscandling
said on October 1, 2014
Hi I've just signed up to Popupchinese. I listened to my first lesson on casual greetings. My wife is Chinese but speaks excellent English so I have been lazy in my learning. Now we have a son and I'm trying to learn properly so that I can understand his school work when he is older. I thought this first lesson would be a good place to start.I regularly use Ni Hao but I was interested to hear the other more casual options. When I said Hi. Hao ma? to my wife she said I was being rude!!!! Now I'm confused.Peter
trevelyan
said on October 2, 2014
Peter,As discussed in the show, 还好吗 (hai2 hao3ma5 -- not "Hi. Hao ma") is a casual greeting. It will sound weird if you are overly formal while pronouncing it or use it with strangers, but there's no reason for your wife to consider it rude. If you have any doubts, just listen in the next time she speaks to her good friends on the phone. As mentioned in other shows, 你好 and 你好吗 are primarily formal greetings (the rhetorical equivalent of shaking hands while meeting someone) used as well more informally in commercial settings when a customer enters a shop, where staff will sometimes use it as shorthand for "welcome to the store" or "let me know if you need help." Its use classifies the relationship as one of distance and respect rather than familiarity.With that said, Chinese people will often use 你好吗 with foreigners in settings where they will not use it with other native Chinese speakers. This is basically a sort of unconscious infantilization that happens for the same reason that some adults speak baby talk to a young child. If you reply in Chinese you'll find it usually precedes their telling you how great your Chinese is....
nobulljive
said on August 19, 2015
What kind of greeting should I use if I am meeting my in-laws for the first time in person? They do not speak a lick of English.
oldgabe
said on August 20, 2015
I'm really not trying to be a smart-ass here, but wouldn't your spouse know that sort of thing? Anyway, I would go with 'nin2 hao3', which is like 'ni3 hao3' but more formal / respectful.
nobulljive
said on August 20, 2015
@oldgabe She is saying to be casual, and I would rather not like to start out on that foot. Thanks for the suggestion!
oldgabe
said on August 20, 2015
Then nihao should be perfectly acceptable, especially for a first meeting. But let's wait and see what others might think.
vallynn
said on June 28, 2018
@trevelyan I don't doubt that Echo's pronunciation is correct, but on the topic of nosajliam's question, is 今天的今 also pronounced jin with a short 'i'? （I'm thinking it is.) What about 金? I feel like I have only heard the long e sound for that character..And then what about the jing sound, such as 经、京? Fairly certain I've only heard long e's for these, but asking for good measure.
vallynn
said on June 28, 2018
Also, is there a difference between 咳 and 嗨? I've only ever seen the latter up until I looked at the podcast transcription. Is this perhaps an error?
