One moment Xiao Liu had been suggesting a weekend retreat to Zhongshan Park, and the next his entire office had plunged into a leaden silence. As he would shortly discover, there were feelings that had been hurt, and if he hoped to paper over the situation the only thing to do was to make an apology and mend his ways.
qmmayer
 said on
June 2, 2014
很搞笑！最好的部分：不行。我想要新疆菜。

你应该告诉你的声音的演员：很精彩的表演。我几遍听了。
Grace Qi
 said on
June 3, 2014
@qmmayer,

谢谢！我们会告诉配音演员的！

还有，是“我听了好几遍”，有“好” 更地道！呵呵！：）
qmmayer
 said on
June 3, 2014
谢谢，很有帮助。那个“好”的意思是“完”吗？

我有另外的问题：“最好的部分”对不对？我想说：the best part. 可不可以说：最好的地方？
Grace Qi
 said on
June 3, 2014
@qmmayer,

“好” 用在数量词、时间词前面，表示多或久。强调作用。比如：好多、好久、好几个、好几遍。

“最好的地方”可以，但是“最好的部分”更好，你写的没问题～：）
qmmayer
 said on
June 6, 2014
谢谢Grace! 很清楚的解释。
paulo2020
 said on
June 9, 2014
Couldn't you have the actors run through the conversation slowly -- at least once, before the high-speed dialogue?

It might make it easier for learners, especially at this elementary lever
trevelyan
 said on
June 10, 2014
@paulo2020,

Yes, this is a particularly fast one - the next Elementary lesson (just published today) is as well. If it is a bit fast for you, maybe try some of the earlier shows where the difficulty level is a bit easier.

We try to keep things accessible and so normally there is a slower line-by-line that goes through the dialogue. We left it out in this case partly to mix things up, and partly because it wasn't feasible while putting the four dialogue variants into a single show.

That said, I agree that this pushes the limits of the Elementary level.

Best,

--david

philiphadlock
 said on
January 31, 2015
Hilarious dialogue. My Chinese husband told me that I was saying "Wo you zenme le?" in my sleep last night.
sarmizegetusa
 said on
February 15, 2015
Listened to it dozens of times - the part where she says 中国，北京，首都的炸酱面。 好了吗？行了吗？ still cracks me up...
dean.astley
 said on
March 3, 2016
Honestly one of my favourite lessons - hilarious, and engaging. Well done guys!
jaq.james
 said on
August 28, 2016
Also...

In the sentence 你刚才说你想吃新疆菜，shouldn't there be a 了 at the end because of the use of 刚才？

Instead of saying 我又怎么了？， can you say 我又做怎么了？
trevelyan
 said on
August 29, 2016
@jaq.james,

The statement in the dialogue is correct for the meaning as translated. Adding the 了 is also grammatically correct, but makes the statement accusatory, as if you were saying, "BUT you just said you wanted to have Xinjiang food (so why are you criticizing me for agreeing)" A third alternative is 你刚才说了你想吃新疆菜 which is also grammatically correct but uncommon.

Explaining the difference in tone in variants is above the elementary level, although we do cover this stuff more at the intermediate level. You can trust that the sentences presented are grammatically acceptable. Occasionally a speaker will do something interesting but grammatically wrong -- when this happens we'll call it out in the show.

我又做怎么了 is explictly wrong unless you use 什么 instead of 怎么. For questions like this, your best first step is checking on search engines like Bing or Google. Just surround your alternate Chinese phrase in quotations to ensure you get an exact match.
jaq.james
 said on
August 29, 2016
Thanks Trevelyan. I appreciate a response to my question, as I didn't get that service at ChinesePod for old lessons. And you responded so promptly too, so I really appreciate it. I like that you guys cover grammar points within a podcast, because ChinesePod doesn't do that as much... they prefer that you just remember "lexical chunks", but I'm the kind of language learner who needs to understand the grammar patterns.

I guess I asked that gangcai/le question because every time I leave off le when I use gangcai, my Chinese tutor corrects me.
Arckal
 said on
May 9, 2018
Hey, thanks for this lesson !

I have a question regarding the very first sentence

你能不能别伤害中国人民感情啊

Why is there no 的 between 中国人 and 感情 ? And specifically, why is not there in the first example, but it is written later on the other dialogues ?

Thanks !
duke.villanueva
 said on
March 6, 2019
I've been listening to Popup Chinese for several years now. This website is an absolute masterpiece. Though my Chinese level has advanced to some messy Intermediate level, I love going back to previous lessons. They are freakin' hilarious. I always wonder who produces these scripts. Pure genius. Kudos to the top-level voice actors as well. Ten thumbs up! haha
trevelyan
 said on
March 12, 2019
Thanks Duke, is much appreciated! :D
joecosgrove
 said on
May 11, 2019
When he says 新疆不是中国的一部分吗 in the first dialogue, does 是 sound like 'ri', or am I missing something?
trevelyan
 said on
May 13, 2019
hi @joecosgrove -- fwiw I hear 是 although it is fast and understated.
joecosgrove
 said on
May 13, 2019
OK. Hopefully I'll start to hear it with repeat listening.
christopher.pon
 said on
October 25, 2020
Hi there. I was wondering, speaking politically, if you are trying to seem educated to a Chinese person who does, or do believe something, for example, that Hong Kong or Taiwan is a part of China (I am not stating my opinion here, I am curious to see when this 中国 is used), do people often say 中国香港 or 中国台湾？

Thanks