You may have been wondering what was the better long-term investment in college: finance or foreign languages? Before the Lehman Brothers imploded late last month, we believe they answered that question with an emergency call to the China Investment Corporation seeking several billion dollars in emergency capital injections.In today's podcast, we indulge in a bit of schadenfreude by way of dramatic re-enactment. And though the economic news out West may be dismal, there's never been a better time to learn Chinese. The economy here is growing at near double-digits and is expected to stay strong even in the face of a global slowdown. China is already shifting from being an export-led economy to a mixed economy with a strong consumer market and a vibrant financial services sector. This means more demand for fluent foreign speakers in the high-value international service sector.
orbital
said on October 7, 2008
Love the dialogue, and especially the snicker at the end. 死定了 indeed.Hope you're right about the changing face of the Chinese economy too, since the TED spread is insane and it looks as if things are going to get very nasty back home. This credit crisis has been brewing since 2002, and I can't say I haven't wondered at times if I'd have been better spending my time flipping houses in San Diego instead of working on building a company out here.Whatever happens, I do think there's been a major shift in American perceptions of China over the last two years, and Chinese is shifting from being a language with the vague potential to make money into a gateway to a potentially very wealthy society. At the same time, the unilingual expat crowd is thinning out even in Shanghai, and being replaced with low-paying jobs for English-only speakers. The credit crunch will probably only exacerbate that, since the best of the expat packages aren't with market-facing companies. For better or worse, no more F.I.L.T.H.K.
brett
said on October 7, 2008
F.I.L.T.H.K?
orbital
said on October 7, 2008
"Failed in London, try Hong Kong." Pretty silly, since HK is a great place to work and live.
vladimir.dutton
said on October 7, 2008
I've heard that phrase as well orbital. It's a stunning colonial mentality. People who haven't visited don't know what they're missing.
johan.helenius
said on October 7, 2008
Good job. But there's a tiny mistake in the text. It says 卖给卖给 not 卖给我们. Should be an easy fix...
trevelyan
said on October 7, 2008
got it, thanks johan. :)
trevelyan
said on October 7, 2008
It's one of my favorite cities too Vladimir. Will actually be down there later this week/weekend handling some visa issues. I love the city.
If anyone down there wants to head out for drinks or something send me an email and we can hookup over the weekend. :)
hotpotmike
said on October 13, 2008
Great lesson.
Finally saw HK myself Wednesday night but unfortunately arrived a day later than expected and had to fly out the next day.
trevelyan
said on October 14, 2008
Hong Kong was great as always. How was your trip through Hunan anyway?
hotpotmike
said on October 14, 2008
Hunan was cool. Stayed in Shunling, which in terms of air quality is like being in the middle of a forest fire. Visited a few old villages in the surrounding mountains.. drank more baijiu than I wanted to. Good times...
toneandcolor
said on December 12, 2008
Missing "那我告诉你..." in third line of the dialogue text. I only bring this up because I'm curious about the 儿化音 in it. Am I hearing it right as 告诉儿你 (with the 诉 syllable almost omitted)? Any Beijinger commentary on this phenomenon?
Thanks
Echo
said on December 12, 2008
toneandcolor,
Hi, it should be "那我告儿你". Sort of Beijing accent. Sometimes when we speak really fast, you'd heard that. It is as same as "那我告诉你", and 诉 is omitted here. It is pretty 口语, people use that in daily life.
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
gnotella100
said on January 21, 2009
Good lesson. Almost didn't gag on the arrogance.
nadasax
said on June 9, 2009
i think a really useful feature that hopefully would be really easy to add is a seperate "dialogue-only" download for each lesson for those who simply want to put the dialogue on a repeat and just listen over and over... also a few errors in the text...still missing 那我告儿你 from the 'text' page and pdf at the beginning of the third line...also 那个 should be 就是它 instead of 就是那个 in the middle of the fifth line according to what is said...like the structure alot...i think "terms" based lesson drawn from current events are a good idea along with separate "grammar" based 播客 which can help illustrate conversation and constants of the language...
nadasax
said on June 9, 2009
雷曼破产再现次贷危机冲击波 IMF认为次贷危机将造成近万亿美元损失 对话美国风头大佬中国风险投资新风向听得不错？
nadasax
said on June 9, 2009
also, this seems to be what is actually said in the dialogue...has some significant differences from what is written in the text and pdf transcript: 甲 恩，哥们儿。你知道更才谁打电话吗？ 乙 谁呀？我正忙着呢。一会儿再说。 甲 那我告儿你。就那个雷曼兄弟，那家风险投资银行。 乙 啊，就那块破产的那个？ 甲 对，就儿它。你知道他们说什么？ 乙 说什么？ 甲 他们说他们穷得快疯了。要把全都公司卖给我们。 乙 但是他们的期货，次贷款，风险太大。没有什么价值。 甲 我是当然知道，但是我告诉他们我们就是会投资。 乙 啊！你疯了吧！ 甲 我才没有呢。我还跟他们说了，我们要做至少六个月的风险评估。 乙 他们死定了。
Intermediate
said on June 9, 2009
@nadasax,
Thank you! Some of the problems you pointed out are really the lesson preparation problem, and they have been fixed.谢谢！
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
trevelyan
said on June 9, 2009
I believe there were some early lessons where we didn't get the dialogues recorded line by line for whatever reason. We should do a sweep instead of letting you do it, nadasax.... :)
It's the same with some of the KTV lessons, actually. I think we're a bit inconsistent about which ones get their sentences recorded separately and which don't. The recording seems much less necessary for something which isn't a dialogue though, so that is probably ok.
drummerboy
said on July 20, 2011
Great lesson and I like the gift at the end :-)
