Sometimes life in China doesn't make much sense. Which is why we'd like to introduce your head to this concrete wall now while everyone is still being sociable. We think you should get to know each other, and learn a bit about your hobbies and special interests, because you'll be running into each other fairly often now that you're in town. And can you use chopsticks? Yeah? Just checking.
 said on
February 25, 2013
你……好,你…是…哪个…国家…的…人?你…喜欢…吃…中国菜…吗?你…会…用…筷子…吗?

Nice to know I'm not the only one :-D
 said on
February 26, 2013
This lesson is not showing up in my iTunes feed, even after refreshing my podcasts. I was able to download the mp3 files manually, however.
 said on
February 26, 2013
@AmateurAsian,

The RSS feeds update periodically (things are run by a cron job) so it's possible there will be times when a new lesson is on the site but still not pushed to people's RSS feeds. This shouldn't last for more than a couple of hours though.

I've just checked your feed manually and can confirm that this lesson is showing up in it (top of the list). Are you still having trouble downloading it through iTunes?

Best,

--david

 said on
February 26, 2013
The file still hasn't showed up in iTunes in my Popup Chinese podcast feed, although I do see the lesson in my feed on the Popup Chinese website. Perhaps the issue with with iTunes. I'll wait a day or two and let you know if the problem persists. For the time being, manually downloading the file is a good workaround. Thank you -- James
 said on
February 26, 2013
With the 321 Chinese app, I also did not see this lesson in the RSS feed in the morning. But it appeared pretty soon in the afternoon.
 said on
February 26, 2013
Are your elementary lessons always this difficult?
 said on
February 26, 2013
My challenge with this lesson is that I cannot understand large amounts of the important parts of the key learning as they are delivered mostly in Chinese.

This one seems much more difficult elementary lesson than the other two I have been studying. I actually first thought that I have accidentally downloaded an intermediate lesson.
 said on
February 27, 2013
在网站上有没有squeek的照片?在我家我有两只猫,所以对我有意思。录音的时候他总是在演播室吗?应该给他自己的麦克风。
 said on
February 27, 2013
@LumiPanda爸,

There's always a spectrum of difficulty. I think this one is sort of on the edge as far as the length and difficulty of the dialogue goes. We ended up going with elementary largely because the vocab and subject matter (introduction) are going to be too familiar for people at the intermediate level.

On the language front, at the elementary level we try to have Echo or Sylvia speak in Chinese where possible. We just try to make sure that any key concepts discussed in mandarin are also covered in english at some point, so that even someone who misses most of what is discussed in Chinese will not be completely lost. So with that said, what did you find particularly confusing? The main point is that 上 means essentially the same thing as 起来 when used as a verb complement, and that you can - surprisingly - use the former even in situations where it would otherwise seem absurd, as with 下上雨 ("to start to rain").

 said on
February 27, 2013
@LumiPanda爸,

You can start with our earlier elementary lessons: http://www.popupchinese.com/lessons/elementary?page=8 . They are easier than the latest ones. The latest ones can be used to prepare for the next level.

@new_rizzo,

这个网站上没有Squeak的照片,不过我可以把它们放在我们的facebook group里。Squeak的毛是黄色和白色的,像一只小狮子。你说得对,他可能应该有自己的麦克风。

你家的猫是什么样子的?他们的性格怎么样?

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
March 1, 2013
@ Echo: 在家的两只猫都是灰色的,可是一只有好几隐约的斑纹。因为最近下大雪,他们在沙发上保持暖和就睡觉。很可爱,很偷懒。
 said on
March 1, 2013
@trevelyan @Echo

Thanks for your comments. I agree that it is good to have someone speaking Chinese in the lesson (and Echo has such a nice voice :-).

In this particular lesson it would have been nice that the examples Echo mentioned would have been translated so that the listener would be able to concentrate to the key learning point. (Instead of wondering what was that verb.)

But good lesson in any case.

By the way would it be possible to have some description of the difficulty level in the lesson introduction?
 said on
March 1, 2013
@LumiPanda爸,

Awww, 谢谢,我很高兴 :)

@new_rizzo,

他们听起来真可爱!

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
March 2, 2013
Wow, I wish people spoke to me really slowly in Chinese...
 said on
March 2, 2013
...and in such well pronounced Mandarin....
 said on
April 14, 2014
'太 creepy 啦' - lol! :D