The Honest Cabbie
Why is it that despite the enormous variety in our personal experiences, we all end up having exactly the same conversation with cab drivers? You know the drill. Where are you from? Are you used to eating Chinese food? Can you use chopsticks? Like Chinese water torture, the deadening repetition invites psychological defense mechanisms just to cope, like inventing new personal histories for each encounter.

But then, just when you're about to lose faith in humanity, you run into a cabbie who is interesting, quick on his feet, and brutally honest. Our Elementary lesson for today is about exactly this situation. Like a bracing dash of cold water, it refreshes and re-motivates. Give it a listen and see if it rings true for you too.
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If you want to learn Chinese online Popup Chinese is the best service I have found.
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Popup Chinese strikes me as having a better 'attitude' to Chinese studies, and offers a bit more depth than other providers.
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Your site is wonderful! I find your dialogs to be practical, inventive, and interesting. Furthermore, they present natural language, and are well-structured for teaching, with impressive execution (i.e. various voices, and necessary repetition for early learners). I can't say enough good things about your site. :)
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Chinese Podcasts and Lessons from Beijing, China....

Popup Chinese provides world-class podcasts and tools for learning mandarin. Our approach is different from traditional "textbook-centric" learning methods, and has made us not only the highest rated Chinese podcast series on iTunes, but also the only Chinese learning program recommended by the heads of all four major Chinese immersion programs in Beijing, as well as by the most intensive language teaching program in the United States: the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California.

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