We have a love-hate relationship with the Beijing metro that comes out in this podcast. If you've lived in China we're sure you'll understand. But even if you haven't experienced Chinese public transit for yourself, you have a great reason to listen to this Chinese podcast. Because remember when we told you that the Chinese verb "to be" is a lot different from its English counterpart, and that sometimes it shows up doing really strange things? Well... our Chinese lesson for today covers exactly such a case.For those of you keeping track, this lesson is definitely at the higher end of the difficulty spectrum for our Elementary lessons. This dialogue moves quickly, but the vocabulary isn't really that difficult. So hang in there and be sure to check our online or downloadable transcripts if you have trouble. And remember that questions and comments are welcome in our discussion section below. We look forward to hearing from you!
palafx
said on January 6, 2011
I hear some new lines opened up there. Has that relieved the pressure at all?
Also, this song is smex. Who does it?
Elementary
said on January 6, 2011
@palafx,The song's by Wang Fei, you can hear the whole thing here:http://popupchinese.com/lessons/ktv-wednesday/wang-fei-nothing-remainsWhat does smex mean, btw?--dave
palafx
said on January 6, 2011
@Dave
I never recognize a Wong Faye song when I hear it, but I always like them. Also, 'smex' is a cutesy corruption of 'sex'. Never heard it?
trevelyan
said on January 6, 2011
@palafx,
Yeah, it's a great song. I've never run into smex before. Did a Google lookup and found "the Small Explorer program (SMEX) is an effort within NASA to fund space exploration missions that cost no more than $120 million." Figured you meant something different. :)
--dave
palafx
said on January 6, 2011
In this episode of SLANG FROM THE FUTURE (tm) :DNow that I think of it, I can't recall ever seeing "smexy" in writing before. 'Smex' is like the lolcat version of 'smexy', as in "Popup Chinese iz teh smex."The first google result I get for "smex" is urban dictionary, and it explains it as "Used in fangirl circles as a cooler sounding variant to "sex." Can also mean: hot, sexy, cute, cool. Other meanings vary on use."Wiktionary suggests it may be a portmanteau of 'smart' and 'sexy', but... I don't know about that...On the topic of musicians, how do you feel about 萨顶顶 (Sa Dingding)? I love her to pieces. She's like a Chinese-Mongolian Björk/Lady Gaga hybrid.
toneandcolor
said on January 6, 2011
Extra example sentences from the podcast with 是…但是：
我是没问题，但是他不同意。
我的病是好了，但是我不想上班。
我是想去看电影，但是没时间。
Echo
said on January 6, 2011
@toneandcolor,
^^
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
surfcohollic
said on January 11, 2011
我學習中文有好多年. 但是我總是忘記. 你能告訴我什麼是最好的方式來記住嗎？
barrister
said on January 11, 2011
@surfcohollic, 如果你刚注册了，我建议你下载所有的对话MP三。经常有这种情况，我听别人说一句话，然后马上想起来一个有关的对话。因为有语境所以好记。活着，你可以具体说你的问题在那儿？
Echo
said on January 11, 2011
@surfcohollic,
最好的办法就是多用你学到的新词新句子，多用就能记住，找一切机会和懂中文的人练习你新学的东西。
@barrister，
“或者” not "活着“ :)
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
awooga
said on January 11, 2011
Is it just my twisted mind that I am the only one that has seemed to notice this but at 5:57 - 6:04 of Brendans explanation, he actually says
"This is a way of emphasizing something.....even as you get ready to slip in the but(t)"
???
Brendan
said on January 11, 2011
@awooga - I just went back and listened to the podcast. Let's all agree to say that it was intentional and highly witty on my part, and then never ever speak of it again ever.
surfcohollic
said on January 12, 2011
谢谢 barrister。这是正确的。我目前正在重新学习通过听音乐和电影屏幕上的中文汉字。我可以理解，当其他一些交谈。我不能读或写中文。我用中文翻译写这一点。
surfcohollic
said on January 12, 2011
Echo--- 我想這是我的問題。我沒有使用太多我所學習。
richard
said on February 11, 2011
@ brendan / echo,
i wanted to say 'i met her yesterday' and was corrected to separate 'jianmian' with 'le' i was also told to say 'zuotian jian guo mian' for 'we have met yesterday.
have you made a lesson for beginner/elementary level on separable verbs (how/when to use them) that i can refer to?
the explanation given to me was: 'that just the way it is' > zhongwen zenme shuo?
Echo
said on February 11, 2011
@richard,
Hmmm, "jian4mian4" is actually a 离合词（really don't know how to translate it), which means the two characters have a very close relationship. You can understand the word as a verb object phrase meaning "to see someone's face". Then you can understand why you want to put zhe5, le5, guo4 after the verb.
I can't remember which particular lessons we have done basing on that, but I remember we have definitely mentioned it in previous lessons.
"That just the way it is" > you can say "(Zhong1wen2) jiu4 zhe4yang4 shuo1".
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
richard
said on February 14, 2011
echo, in another lesson the phrase 'ni neng bang wo yixia mang'
bangmang - to do a favor is a liheci right?
can you give me a small list and a few examples of common separable verbs that i can be on the look out for. perhaps a new lesson on these i call separable verb/object can be 'youzhu bu youzhu' to elem.level
Echo
said on February 14, 2011
@richard,
Yes. Sure. Other similar liheci like "帮忙" -- 洗澡、投票、中毒、冒险、干杯、出神、讨好 etc. For these words, you can put other words in between the two characters, such as 帮一个忙，刚洗了澡，中了剧毒，冒了很大的险，干两杯酒...
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
jyh
said on March 7, 2011
I have some difficulty with 可是我只能在终点站才下得了车 [and, btw, so does the the Popup trad--> simplified script switcher: the trad characters come out unchanged for me].
1) The role of 才 in this sentence. Does 才 play the same role here as in 我們還有多久才能到啊？ [from the roadtrip lesson of a while back]
2) 下得了车 ... So 下车 is to get down from the car. 下得了 is...? To "get down to completion" or something like that. Cam you also say 下不了?
Echo
said on March 7, 2011
@jyh,
The traditional script looks fine on my computer. What browser do you use?
A1: Yes. 才 is used to emphasize there. You can translate it as "until" in those two sentences.
A2: 下得了 means to be able to get down/off from the car. Yes, you can also say 下不了, which means not to be able to.
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
jyh
said on March 7, 2011
@Echo - I thought it was just my sentence that did not get converted but in fact it looks like any text in traditional characters that I enter fails to get converted to simplified by the "script switcher" in the "Chinese Tools" section. I get the same problem with Safari and Firefox on a Mac and iCab (another Webkit browser) on the iPad. Enter an text in trad. characters and it comes out unchanged.
A1-A2: OK, that's what I thought, just wanted to confirm. Thank you.
trevelyan
said on March 7, 2011
@jyh,
Looks like a bug. It's that one sentence which is giving me problems, but submitting variants fixes it. So technically, it looks like the underlying software isn't picking up the script properly -- the sentence is slipping past the script-detection bits and getting misidentified as simplified.
I'll fix this in a bit. Cheers,
--dave
Xiao Hu
said on September 3, 2011
@surfcohollic,"我學習中文有好多年. 但是我總是忘記. 你能告訴我什麼是最好的方式來記住嗎？"其实，Echo 老师说得对。你若是想学好外语你遇到什么新单词，句子，或句型就必须得马上反复的运用才能背下来。否则的话，我敢保证你永远背不了哦！
cxu2009
said on September 4, 2011
For hard to memorize characters, maybe you can create a story or riddle around it to help you remember. My daughter came up the following riddle to remember the word "flea" 如果你不常洗澡，身上就会长跳蚤。Cheers,
etbaccata
said on October 1, 2012
Is this the same as the shi...de 是。。。的 construction before the "but"? No one noted the 的 at the end of the first phrase.
Echo
said on October 2, 2012
@etbaccata,是 is used to confirm what the person's boss said to him. If we complete the entire sentence with 是, then it should be 从我家到公司是只有两站地. This kind of sentences are usually followed by a "but". It's a fixed form: 是+repeat what the other people just said ... 但是. This is a polite way to disagree with other people.--Echoecho@popupchinese.com
