Gandhi said something about being the change you want to see, and we agree. Because while you may have purchased that bottle of orangeade, and even handed over good money for it, it was a transaction made under false pretenses. So go stand up for yourself. Head back to that newspaper stand and tell the owner what you think of his business. You can insist this is not good enough and demand satisfaction.

Learning Chinese? We have more beginner lessons coming out later this week. In the meantime, our show for today is for the more wizened Intermediate crowd which already speaks some Chinese and is looking to sound even more native. And how are we going to help you with this but by teaching a number of colloquial but non-standard words you can use as drop-in replacements for high-frequency ones everyone already knows. So listen up and drop these words into conversation and in no time your friends will be looking at you with renewed respect and possibly even fear.