from Paris: Bravo for the alive and humorous lesson.I think I'm going to enjoy revisiting my forgotten knowledge of chinese.

Xiexie nimen.

Axelle

Brendan,

This has your fingerprints all over it. If you ever get out the of the teaching/translation business, I think you'd have a great career as a comedy writer. Is Leno or Letterman hiring? :-) How does the staff at PUC get through a recording session without dying of laughter?

Now I've thrown this term around the office, and feel I got a real winner here. I came up with this term a couple of weeks back

"铁泡 The Iron Bubble"

This refers to the current real estate bubble that is expanding to epic proportions in 1st and 2nd tier cities across China. Furthermore, this also takes into account the unrealistic view by the Government in the fact that it can slowly let the air out of the speculation. Apparently bubbles act differently in market economies with socialist characteristics "市场社会主义". There are talks of a new reality show to be shown on CCTV called "Flip this 豆腐渣"

@LanZi,@paglino9,

yeah, I will buy a room if the bubbles burst..

@trevelyan.

I should've been clearer, I was referring to the lesson write up at the top of the page. When I read it, I get the sense that it is Brendan's work. "Home Sweet Apache Helicopter" just doesn't ring Chinese. :-) I didn't mean to short change Echo, I'm certain she's very amusing too as is the tendency with lessons at PUC. Keep up the good work everyone!

@蓝大卫

I can't give you specific numbers off the top of my head, but I do know that a lot of this lending is very loose in the fact that banks have been flush with new cash from the government from their 2009 stimulus with little to no transparency.

After a quick google search I did find that lending in December 2009 was 95% more than Dec 2008.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/chinese-bank-lending-at-556-billion-in-december-2010-01-15

The current mood in Beijing and Shanghai is wild real estate speculation. Huge apartment developments lay vacant throughout town and especially on the outskirts. Right next to my apartment within the 2nrd ring road in Beijing, lies a large office park with two completely vacant office towers 30 stories high. At night you can see how empty the office is, as they have all the flourescent lights running. The only inhabitants of the building are a small army of security guards that stand around with gawking faces/

On the note of Chinese Government learning from American financial mistakes, I would not give them much credit. CCP's bottom line is keeping the economy growing at whatever the cost (usually at the cost of citizens well being).

Also I think the main culprits in this drama are the Party officials themselves. Here is a quote from an article-

"Economists say the worst offenders are often government departments, which raise cash for themselves by selling land to corporations they control at sky-high prices."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/housing-bubble-threatens-chinas-boom/article1413701/

here are some more links from a google search "China Housing Bubble"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/10/AR2010011002767.html

http://shanghaiist.com/2010/01/14/chinas_housing_bubble.php?source=patrick.net

Also check out this city in China that has the 2nd highest per capita income after Shanghai. The funny thing is no one lives there.

http://shanghaiist.com/2009/11/13/ordos_thats_where_were_off_to_next.php

Easy Lending--> Inflated GDP Statistics---> Defaulted loans payments----> Bubble POP!

There are many empty condos here in San Jose. Too much building, too quickly, so the politicos can say "we created jobs". Much of it involved building around a light rail system that isn't convenient and that few use. There's even one prominent new building down town that has no lights on when you drive past at night. I believe much of our problems here in San Jose lie in the desire to have high density housing so City could squeeze in more property taxable homes into a fixed area. City Government greed.

Hi, just wondering about the 甚麼+verb+的 construction; it seems pretty imbedded in the past, so how would you do the same for the present? As in, 'What do you mean, rob a bank? You go rob a bank!'. Would you have to use something different, like '你開甚麼笑，搶銀行’？

Awesome podcast! It would be so great if you guys also made a lesson all about renting an apartment. I'm about to look for places in Flushing, Queens and I think it would be helpful to have an arsenal of vocabulary.

-Benny