We hate to be the bearers of bad news and all, but if you're coming to China for the long-term you are pretty much guaranteed to get seriously ill. And we mean ill in the call-the-doctor-to-defibrillate-my-lungs sense of the word. At least until your immune system starts taking this country seriously, life in China will be a lot like that time you tended bar at that sangria party in college, only without the wine and fruit juice.Learning Chinese? If you're an absolute beginner to mandarin, join Echo and David for a Chinese lesson that covers some critical basics of the language. Start listening now and before ten minutes are up you'll know how to ask and answer questions in Chinese, and be an expert at shunning friends and relatives who show the slightest signs of potentially contagious infection.
palafx
said on January 29, 2011
How cruelly topical. I actually am sick. Very sick. I can hardly breath. Cheers.
richard
said on January 30, 2011
@echo,
i just viewed a pre-release copy of the movie 'limitless' with bradley cooper bucuo > something for you to look forward to
Benrose
said on January 30, 2011
I think the podcast got "cut" in the end. My mp3 file sort of stops apruptly at 8:45 after David says "last but not least we've covered some adjectives..."
trevelyan
said on January 31, 2011
Thanks for the ping about this Benrose. The file was working for us on the server -- we've reuploaded it to our CDN in case this was the problem. Seems to be fixed.
Echo
said on February 2, 2011
@richard,
Tai4 xie4xie5 ni3 le5!! :)
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
kellielmt
said on March 29, 2011
I'm unable to listen to the lessons. They either do not start or if I can get one to start, it cuts off. I can access the vocabulary and get the audio part of that. Am I missing something?
trevelyan
said on March 29, 2011
kellielmt,Where are you? Our CDN is based in California. Some alternatives if you're having trouble getting the audio directly through the site is to grab it through iTunes. I'd suggest installing your personal feed, but if that doesn't work our public iTunes feed is here:http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/popup-chinese-chinese-lessons/id292036117Subscribers can download directly through the site by right-clicking on the menu and selecting "save file as..." on all of the files.Best,--david
Franek
said on June 16, 2013
I think in the vocab the two most important words of this lesson (ie. 生病 and 传染) are missing. Perhaps it would be useful to add them?
realne
said on September 3, 2014
I don't understand why the lady said "feichang" at the end. It sounds like a translation from an English conversation. May I ask where do your conversations come from? Who wrote them? Thanks!
trevelyan
said on September 3, 2014
@realne,The speaker is just answering the question -- it's proper Chinese. As far as dialogues go, normally the actors improvise around a set idea. Where things are non-native or non-standard they will either be commented on in the podcast, or pointed out in the transcript.Best,--david
Grace Qi
said on September 4, 2014
@realne,Yeah. The actor was just trying to say 非常(严重 yan2 zhong4). So 非常 is understandable from that perspective. But 当然(dang1 ran2) or 肯定(ken3 ding4) (of course/ certainly) may be more common in this circumstance. :)
