A Clean Well-Lighted Place

Absolute Beginners: A Clean Well-Lighted Place

As Alex struggled to finish his thesis in the only Internet cafe still open in this part of Wuhan, he quietly prayed the air would clear as the evening wore on and the local chain-smoking Counterstrike guild closed shop for the night. By one o'clock, however, the omnipresent haze of smoke had settled into more-or-less permanent stormclouds over a growing mass of players who if anything were more animated than ever before.

It took another hour for the full horrific truth to hit Alex. Staggering to the service counter to stock up on caffeine, he noticed a small sign perched on the desk advertising a significant discount for overnight users. His non-stop smoking, terrorist-killing and expletive-shouting neighbors were here for the long-haul. And not only would they be playing through his morning deadline, they would be paying significantly less for the privilege too.

dragonflydanser

said on

February 18, 2010

I note an error in the transcript. The Vocab lists (in characters) guanmenr, the pinyin shows only menr, the translation is "to close for business..." The discussion on kai and guan is very illuminating, however.. thanks

Absolute Beginners

said on

February 19, 2010

@dragonflydanser,

Thanks for the correction. Corrected and re-uploaded!

--dave

paglino9

said on

February 19, 2010

Last time I went to a 网吧 I was denied service. Apparently a new law requires all users to show their Chinese ID card. There is a little machine to swipe the ID card. 没有身份证，没办法 was the response I got. Having my passport on me made no difference. This was in Inner Mongolia, so I'm not sure if this law is local or national. Mind boggling rules. But then again there weren't too many non Chines people strolling through the streets of Erlian 二连.

Brendan

said on

February 22, 2010

@paglino09 - Its been a few years, but the last time I needed to use a 网吧 in Beijing and was unable to provide a national ID number for them to input, they just used someone else's ID number instead. All the better to post radical subversive right-wing screeds online!

darryldavis2244

said on

January 16, 2016

This is one of the best "absolute beginner" lessons I have ever seen.

trevelyan

said on

January 17, 2016

Thank you darryldavis2244, we try to give the levels a span so some will be easier and others more difficult. Hopefully all of the AB shows are accessible to people with very little Chinese however.

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