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Absolute Beginners: Drive Safe

You never know who's been in that taxi before, and China is a place where it pays to play it safe. So join us in this podcast as we review a couple of standard precautions you should take before getting into any foreign vehicle. Because you never know when you're going to get hit by a bus. When you're just sitting there. Not moving. At a traffic light.

toneandcolor

said on

July 10, 2009

For those of you wishing to avoid making this mistake the other way around ("Put your seat belt on!" might ruin the mood that you were hoping to establish in the bedroom), you should note that condoms are generally worn 戴 [dài] in Chinese. This is the same verb that is used with hats, rings, and other accessories. This word's complete homophony with the belt part of seat-belt (带 [dài]), may have also been the source of this particular slip.

Bruce

said on

July 11, 2009

When youre just sitting them? I think you mean When youre just sitting there.

Absolute Beginners

said on

July 11, 2009

Thanks Bruce, corrected. --dave

ameristar888

said on

July 20, 2009

Another word for condom is 避孕套. Is 安全套 the more colloquial use of condom?

imron

said on

July 20, 2009

I think it's the more modern usage of the word in order to help spread the perception that condoms not only reduce the likelihood of getting pregnant but also reduce the spread of disease. Calling them 避孕套 highlights the contraceptive side of things but not the 'you have a lower chance of catching some nasty disease' side of things.

orbital

said on

July 21, 2009

I'd back Imron in this race. Maybe worth mentioning that I've been exclusively in the mainland and have never heard anyone refer to 避孕套, but have heard 安全套 all the time. Perhaps 避孕套 is more 书面语 at this point.

Gail天堂的声音

said on

July 21, 2009

@ameristar888,

yes, i agree with orbital and imron. 安全套is better, because it tells you that you are safe.

and 避孕套(avoiding pregnancy only) sounds uncomfortable.

jimi20716

said on

August 8, 2009

This seems to be the only lesson without a downloadable transcript. Is it an oversight, or is it because this lesson is so short?

Absolute Beginners

said on

August 8, 2009

@jimi20716 - thanks for reporting this. not sure what the cause of the original being missing was (perhaps an error with pinyin on publication that was not caught immediately). there should be transcripts even for the shortest of the dialogues. republishing seems to have fixed the problem.

FuXiansheng

said on

May 19, 2011

Any idea what the Trad variant of 系好 (ji4hao3) "to fasten" is?

I'm dubious of the results I'm seeing from automatic SIMP=>TRAD converters and I'm getting conflicting answers in different online dictionaries. ( 係好 ?, 繫好 ? )

Echo

said on

May 19, 2011

@FuXiansheng,

Looks like both work. I'll confirm with our Popup Cantonese staff, and then get back to you again.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com

trevelyan

said on

May 20, 2011

@FuXiansheng,

Nicole shares word that 係 is apparently a Cantonese character, not a traditional variant. So the proper traditional character for this in mandarin should be 繫. We've updated our dictionary to make sure it's correct.