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Popup Chinese

Summary: The most convenient way to learn Chinese the way it is actually spoken and used. Start with our basic lessons, and in no time you'll be listening to music, watching films and television and engaging in the actual language. With free daily podcasts, a vibrant community, online study tools and much more, PopupChinese is the most powerful and personal way to learn mandarin.

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Podcasts:

 The Soul of Beijing | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 80:16

Today we're pleased to share a special live edition of Sinica recorded last Saturday at Capital-M in Beijing. Held to a standing-room only crowd, we talked all about our ongoing love-hate relationship with Beijing, and asked what on earth is happening to the city that so many of us have known since the 1980s and even earlier. As housing prices and rents soar, hutongs get ripped down and "crazy bad" air becomes the new normal, will Beijing maintain its heart as a cultural capital, or is the city losing itself and our affections? Filled with stories of pig excrement, SARS babies, and enough Chinese cursing to satiate even the Beijing Profanity Alliance, this show was a pleasure to put on and we were really glad to see everyone who came out. Joining Kaiser Kuo on stage were two Sinica stalwarts: Chinese media export Jeremy Goldkorn and David Moser, jazz pianist and head of the CET Beijing program. We were also thrilled to be joined by Zha Jianying, author of China Pop and Tide Players, and a now-expat Beijinger from New York who admits to being torn between her two homes. As always, if you'd like to have editions of Sinica stream to your computer automatically as they're released, be sure to subscribe to us using iTunes, following the instructions included with any other podcast. You can also download this podcast as a standalone mp3 file. And if you have any specific feedback or suggestions for future guests or topics you'd like to hear covered, you can send an email directly to Kaiser anytime at sinica@popupchinese.com.

 The Deaf Pickpocket Gang | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 11:50

"Enough with this small-scale stuff," Wang Zecun signed. Although the pickpocket gang had been working the railroad station for years, using their heightened observation and non-vocal communication skills to outwit the authorities, the encroachments of the local police were becoming too obvious to ignore. "If they're going to crack down on us like this, we might as well get out of petty crime completely."

 The Bears are Back in Town | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 42:45

Falling housing prices, soaring inflation and an export market peering over the brink of what seems a cataclysmic abyss. If you've been following the economic news lately, you can be forgiven for being overwhelmed by the chorus of bearish voices crying out that now - at last - the time has come for the Chinese economy to pay penance for its years of impressive economic growth. Is this really the end of good times? This week on Sinica, we're delighted to have Arthur Kroeber from Dragonomics and David Pierson from the Los Angeles Times in the studio with Kaiser Kuo. Our conversation starts with the falling real estate market before examining what is really happening on the ground in Wenzhou and with controversial local financing vehicles. If you've been concerned that Chinese economy is sick, this is the podcast that will put your thumb on the pulse of the nation. So crank up those headphones as we bring you another great episode of Sinica. Enjoy Sinica but want a more convenient way to listen to the show than our flash player on Popup Chinese? Then why not subscribe via iTunes? To have your computer download new episodes as soon as they're released, select "Subscribe to Podcast" from the Advanced file menu, and provide the URL http://popupchinese.com/feeds/custom/sinica when prompted. And please consider yourself warmly invited to download the podcast as a standalone file as well.

 The Popup Cheerleading Squad | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 13:18

We'll admit, our Popup Chinese cheerleaders are probably not what you're expecting. First of all because they're all men in an industry dominated by the other gender. But also because their previous cheering experience consists mostly of mild swearing at the Beijing soccer team and the occasional caustic remark directed at Liu Xiang for selling out to Nike and letting down the hopes and dreams of the Chinese people in 2008. Nonetheless, when we asked them to lend a hand and show us how to cheer in Chinese, our squad members were more than enthusiastic, and charged into the studio. And then silence, and a puzzled "so what do you want us to say anyway?" And the result was this podcast for absolute beginners to the Chinese language. So download it and listen as we cover the best and very possibly worst ways to cheer for almost anything in mandarin, Chinese.

 Chinese Drinking Games | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 12:31

Since there are doubtless schoolchildren reading this, let us paint a picture for you: you've just arrived in China after a series of adventures in Southeast Asia and - hungry after the eight hour cargo flight from Nepal - head out to a local canteen to grab some dinner before heading back to your hotel. You've barely walked in when a small gang of local thugs saunters over to size you up. "A foreigner," the leader smirks, "I guess it's about time to see how much milk your stomach can handle...." Learning Chinese? It doesn't take much experience socializing with almost anyone in China (but perhaps especially northern China) to realize that basically every social event is an opportunity to put this lesson into practice. Birthdays, weddings, and even official work dinners are opportunities for shared dairy consumption with your fellow Chinese friends and coworkers. In this Chinese podcast, we help you figure out what is going on. Just be careful not to die from excessive lactose consumption.

 Occupy Sinica | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 32:04

Earlier this week, the New York Times published an editorial by prominent Chinese academic Yan Xuetong claiming that China would defeat the United States on the grounds of moral superiority. While the American bafflement over this piece has died down with the advent of a national day for mass turkey slaughter, we remain puzzled enough to have invited an unbiased contingent of international journalists to Occupy Sinica and give us the skinny on how the ever-simmering Chinese-American relationship looks from an international perspective. Joining host Jeremy Goldkorn this week is an roster of journalists you've almost certainly read if you've been reading non-English language coverage of China. We are pleased to welcome Claudia Trevisan, China correspondent for the Brazilian newspaper Or Estado De San Paolo, Badr Benjelloun the Moroccan writer behind the great blog BeijingDaze, and Michael Anti, prolific Chinese blogger, and writer for the Southern Media newspapers. Want more Sinica? If you're tired of constantly refreshing Popup Chinese to see when a new show is out, subscribe to the Sinica by using our RSS feed: http://popupchinese.com/feeds/custom/sinica. If you use iTunes, just click on "Subscribe to Podcast" in the advanced menu and provide that URL when prompted. Those looking for a one-off commitment are of course still welcome to download the show directly from our site as a standalone mp3 file.

 Opportunity Knocks | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 8:39

Now that our strategic T-shirt reserves are nearly depleted, we're having to stop with the blatant bribery and lean more towards intimidation and suggestion when it comes to making new friends. Occasionally this means implanting a subliminal message in one of our podcasts, such as - say - encouraging those of you with a bit of spare time to go door to door to help spread word. And on the education front? In addition to covering some useful vocabulary we throw at the kids in our neighborhood whenever they come into sight, our Chinese podcast today covers five critical verbs you can use to describe the act of paying attention to someone or something, or - as is probably more the case - just ignoring them completely. And for bonus points, we'll even teach you the magical phrase you need to tell other people to mind their own business. Life is good.

 Is soft power always this damn boring? | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 46:02

In some ways, the latest deluge of rhetoric from the Party feels timeless. Ever since Mao's famous speech in Yan'an on literature and art in 1942, the CCP has made clear that culture ought to serve politics. But there's also something new about the renewed focus on culture, whether in the resurgent confidence in the Party's top ranks that digital media can be sculpted, or in the amazing willingness of the top-level elite to pour billions into expanding China's global media presence. This week on Sinica, join host Kaiser Kuo and Sinica regulars Jeremy Goldkorn and David Moser for a wide-ranging discussion about recent changes in the Chinese media landscape. Also in our studio is Adrienne Mong, the Beijing correspondent for NBC News, who joins us with first-hand stories of how China's push for better global press is affecting not only the domestic news but also international perceptions of China, whether through the flood of Chinese journalists who now routinely cover international events, or perhaps through rising Chinese ambitions in the English language news sphere and the increasing challenges foreign journalists have getting credentialed to report the news in China legally. Enjoy Sinica? There may be some among you who feel life would be easier if Sinica just showed up automatically on your iPhone each week. Well... those of you should consider subscribing to Sinica through RSS. If you use iTunes, you can do this simply by clicking on the "Advanced" file menu and selecting the option "Subscribe to Podcast". When prompted copy the URL http://popupchinese.com/feeds/custom/sinica into the box. Alternately, you're also welcome to download the show as a standalone mp3 file and share it with others.

 Get in Line | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 9:10

You know those stories about people lining up for hours at the Mac Store in Palo Alto? Or camping out overnight to get tickets to a movie premiere? Turns out that it doesn't tend to happen in China for a fairly simple reason: waiting in line is still something of a foreign concept in most of the country. We don't know if it's because Chinese people are on average too polite to call out people who cut in line, but as far as many people are concerned, why join the end when you can just gravitate to somewhere down front and eventually push your way in? Learning Chinese? Our Chinese podcast for today is designed for absolute beginners to the Chinese language. Our podcast centers on a dialogue that is fast but fairly short. Following a quick walk-through, Echo and David go on to talk about how to make forceful suggestions in Chinese, the sort of thing you might find useful the next time someone tries to cut into line ahead of you....

 The Unsuccessful Journey | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 10:57

Perhaps you've read Tom Friedman's paean to China's high-speed rail technology? Up until the damn things started smashing into each other, China had a fairly successful history of developing high-speed trains. But you don't hear so much about them these days.

 Donald Trump | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 13:04

When Brendan heard Echo and Sylvia were doing this podcast, he affected the motion of someone rolling over in a grave. But his complaints didn't stop the juggernaut that is this podcast, because despite Trump's bearish and often aggressive comments on China, the rest of us consider his show a must-see guilty pleasure, one that has somewhat amazingly survived replication by hordes of reality television programmers in China. Learning Chinese and new to Popup Chinese? This is an advanced Chinese podcast, so unless you can follow a mandarin-only discussion it is going to be above your level. But if you're an advanced student, and especially if you do business in China or are involved with media take a listen. Our discussion starts with Trump and heads to politics before turning to the dismal state of reality television in China. It's unfeigned, and will give you the inside scoop on what all those Chinese tourists standing outside Trump Tower really know about the man inside.

 The Extremes of China Media | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 38:00

It seems to be the consensus among long-time China watchers that the Chinese media has become more radicalized over the last five years, with both online and traditional channels now feeding the public conflicting stories of both reflexive scorn for the status quo or patriotic jingoism. But how radical are things getting? And what are the limits to how much further they can go, or will be allowed to go on either side? This week on Sinica we look at two of the extremes. First up a discussion between Jeremy Goldkorn and Brook Larmer, whose recent essay on Chinese Internet humor for the New York Times looked not only at what is being said online but who is saying it and why. And then we look the other way, talking with journalist Christina Larson and Sinica-stalwart David Moser about the Global Times, a commercial newspaper under the auspices of the People's Daily so untempered in its nationalism that many consider the paper a government mouthpiece, with Foreign Policy even comparing the publication to Fox News. As always, we hope you enjoy the show. If you're still visiting our website manually to check for updates, consider getting notified automatically whenever we release a new episode. You can subscribe through RSS either by signing up for a free account at Popup Chinese, or opening iTunes and selecting the option "Subscribe to Podcast" from the Advanced file menu. Provide the URL http://popupchinese.com/feeds/custom/sinica when prompted. Those of you who want to continue. The standalone MP3 file for this lesson is right here for those who wish to download it.

 The Marriage of True Minds | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 7:56

Now that you're getting married it's time for a short digression. Assuming you're like most people who've clawed their way to some modicum of Chinese competence through traditional language schools, you've likely been taught that 了 indicates past tense and that 过 indicates past tense too. Oddly, an astounding number of people never get past this. We've even run into intermediate and advanced students with a decent feel for mandarin who can't explain the difference between these two simple particles. So in the spirit of striking a blow for clarity and setting-things-straight-once-and-for-all, this is the lesson where Echo and Brendan wade into the morass of aspectual particles and set things right. So if you've ever been confused by the difference between the two or are just looking for a quick refresher, listen to this free Chinese podcast, and enlightenment will dawn.

 Strictly Ballroom | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 9:47

Film Friday returns this afternoon with a longer clip from a Hollywood movie that you've almost certainly seen, but that Echo hadn't by the time we recorded this show. After hearing vague mention of the general theme, she promptly cleared her schedule and declared a Popup film night that evening, and the results did not disappoint. So if you're a film buff take a listen to our show today and see if you can guess our mystery movie from nothing more than a short clip dubbed into Chinese. And if you think you can guess? Enter to win a free month of premium access to Popup Chinese by writing Echo with your answer at echo@popupchinese.com.

 Dwarf Net Epoch Park | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 10:54

The containment system had been designed by the greatest minds in the country. Keeping the animals in their pens were twin layers of barbed wire fencing with enough electricity surging through them to stun a herd of elephants. Cognizant of the dangers of reliance on the public grid, the park was powered by an off-grid system with enough reserve battery charge to keep the park operational for a week in the event of national disaster. Practically every potential security weakness had been rigorously guarded against, save for one....

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