Even years after her sudden death from apoplexy, Robert's mother would haunt her son's dreams, her corpulent and open-palmed presence bellowing with outrage over his "filthy, filthy pants" and threatening to give the boy "a good scrubbing." As his court psychiatrist would later testify, this classic case of childhood trauma not only colored his relations with the opposite sex, but also affected his notions of acceptable personal hygiene.

Interested in learning Chinese? Or perhaps you're not really interested in learning Chinese at all but are still curious how exactly to speak to household cleaning staff. You know, wanting to know enough Chinese so that you can walk that fine line between being the sort of permissive employer who attracts every layabout in the Middle Kingdom, and the sort of tyrant immortalized in the oral histories of Fujian and Anhui? Then this podcast is for you.
 said on
June 12, 2013
That's a pretty song. Can you share the name of it?
 said on
June 12, 2013
The song's called "兰花草“ :)
 said on
June 12, 2013
@will.r.cameron,

Bingo!

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
June 19, 2013
Question 5, in the PDF. Should 不 not be 点?

 said on
June 20, 2013
@achim_boers, I think you meant to ask whether 下 was intended to be 点. No, it wasn't.
 said on
October 10, 2014
If I wanted to find the exact song '我从山中来 带着兰花草' as it was played during the episode, from the USA, where could I do this?
 said on
October 11, 2014
wayneseguin,

Actually, the name of the song is 《兰花草》. “我从山中来 带着兰花草” is the opening lyric.

The version you're looking for is easy to find. Search on YouTube; it's the second result:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hRQkp9NelY
 said on
March 3, 2015
Hi,

If I changed it to 今天我想要你洗衣服,would that soften it, or is it still too direct?
 said on
May 17, 2015
Hi
 said on
June 16, 2015
Why do your native Chinese speakers speak English during these? It makes no sense and is distracting to lazy ears. Would make more sense to have them speak in Chinese and the only English from the the none Chinese staff members. Similar to the koreanpod (etc) formats.
 said on
June 17, 2015
@bionara,

Shows at the Absolute Beginner level are intended for people in their first two months of language study. Your concerns are addressed here:

http://popupchinese.com/lessons/elementary

 said on
January 20, 2016
Great podcast. Please post more like this. The dialogue is so funny!
 said on
March 28, 2016
I feel like I'm in the room with you two--great podcasts. I've learned more from this web site than from all multiple textbooks I have been using. Thank you!
 said on
January 1, 2018
Shouldn't THIS one be the one titled about your husband being a A-hole?
 said on
March 11, 2018
What did Echo say at the end? 是不是"网上见"?