URL
Discussion
Let’s face it, all excuses aside, you learn Chinese to be cool – the same reason we buy gifts abroad for people, the same reason we send postcards. What’s that? You don’t know how to send a letter? By all means, let us help. In this podcast, come with us to the post office and learn how to mail a letter in China, using Mandarin Chinese.
Comments (54) 
Not sure if your comment is appropriate? Check our Commenting Policy first.
New lesson idea? Please let us know on our contact page.
Nick, Great suggestions! Noted. -John
John, Now I know the Chinese translation for fascism, racism and imperialism. I already know capitalism. Too bad you couldn't include in your blog the two other issues that the Propagandhi are against! ;) You made me curious and I googled this group to learn more about them. The question I ask now is should each member of the Propagandhi be called Propagandhus? I know this is lame but it's late here in Chicago.
VOTE FOR A BASKETBALL Cpodcast - I also would like a show on hoops. I had a very very frustrating time the other day trying to explain to a Chinese person that the Chinese team simply did not know how to pass the ball. For the life of me I can't figure out why the players are such selfish players, it's a team sport. You don't need to be tall to pass the ball! My Chinese friend said it's cause they're playboys in China and pampered like rock stars, or ...table tennis players. Point is -- how do you say 'pass the ball' in Chinese? Here was me stammering, "They don't ..guo cheng.. fa ...qiu ... tamen bu fa qiu (pass the ball)...arggh"
Hallo Ken! Klasse! Und: Hut ab! Neben flüssigem Chinesisch auch noch fehlerfreies Deutsch... Vielleicht solltet Ihr noch eine deutsche Version von Chinesepod starten.
Henning, Jahwohl. Wir konnen eine deutsche version zusammen machen . Du bist der Host. (Was bin Ich uberhaupts? ) Ken
Lantian - Right on brother.... I play hoops over here once or twice a week and I've never seen such selfishness on the court anywhere else. Its very frustrating. I think your "why" is totally accurate as well; its just a cultural thing that I think goes back to the way they're raised - "xiao huangdi" - that they don't develop this sense of sharing and teamwork. You notice it all over the place though - - they just can't seem to unite and work together in a team setting: subways, driving on the road, etc. It's all about 'me' and what I want to do. I want to go to that store on the left, so I'm going to the store on the left - - so what if I cut 5 people off on my way there. I want to score and be a superstar so I am going to dribble my way directly into 4 defenders (even though my other 4 teammates are wide open) and throw up some ridiculous prayer at the basket. Watch the Chinese national team play - - its even bad at that level. The national team never makes more than 2-3 passes on an offensive set. Pretty sad. Also, probably a pretty good reason why they are terrible at basketball. That makes 2 for the basketball lesson. 加油 Lantian - where do you play?
Jenny, sorry. I don't know where to write... I want to listen podcast about Chinese culture such as jingju (京劇). Have you seen it? Next month we will have jingju in our city. Is it worth to watch? I'm very interested in it, but maybe i will fall asleep during the performance.
I wrote wrong my website adress. Sorry again.
I'd like to see a lesson on Basketball too. On the comments about how Chinese play basketball...basketball hasn't been popular in China as long as it has in America or other parts of the world. most of the people I've played with in China haven't played for more than 2 years whereas in America you meet people who've grown up on basketball and have been playing their whole lives pretty much. if it were ping pong or badminton it'd probably be a different story and they'd probably comment on how bad our team play is. so let's cut them some slack, please.
I made a mistake again! Zhen dui bu qi!
黄绿宾, You are spot wrong on your assessment about China hoops. I am involved with the NBA professionally (hahaha, sounds like I'm a player or something...no, no, we just have a JV with them) so I'm deep into the basketball world over here. Basketball has been in China since the early 1900's and was one of the only western sports (officially soccer and basketball - - not surprisingly, the two most popular "western" sports here) not to be banned by the Chinese government from the beginning of tumultuous times (guomindang, japanese, etc.) through Communist Mao and the Cultural Revolution. Most people have been playing basketball for a long time in China, not two years. And, for the record, basketball and football (soccer) BOTH are offically significantly more popular in China than ping-pong. Yeah, yeah, sounds hard to believe, but all the big statistics (TV, government participation #s, street polls, etc.) out there say its true. Though it wasn't #1 30 years ago, basketball was still very popular even back then. Nick
That doesn't surprise me. Back in the early 80's, we were able to watch Russian TV here in Nebraska (middle of the US) because of a quirk in their satellite system (long story) and I was amazed at the almost wall-to-wall basketball coverage there. I had always assumed it was pretty much a US thing as well.
No, China is not very good at basket. Are you following the world basketball championship?, chinese team is already out. Americans stop Germany in an 85-65 victory and will play Greece next in FIBA World Championship. They face another team obsessed with defense, Greece, in the semifinals Friday. Like the other semifinalists, Argentina and Spain, the Greeks haven't been beaten in the tournament.
Where do we send the postcards to? :)
Back to the topic: Is going to the post office the only option for mailing a letter? Do they sell individual stamps at the local drug store? Can you pin letters to the mailbox for the carrier to pick up? How about a few "extra" supplimental vocab word: stamp mailbox mailman parcel package airmail
Oh, yeah ... and add "postcard" to that list above, along with "envelope".
Hi Ken & Henning, ja das mit dem Chinese POD in Deutsch wäre natürlich ein absolutes Sahnehaeubchen. Na vielleicht gibt es ja das wirklich einmal. Waere zumindest fuer viele echt Klasse!!!
Hi, another nice lesson, very basic. i'm older than many of you, and my mom has no interest in computers, so i do still write her letters, and as Jenny indicates, there is something nice about receiving a card, particularly with real handwriting on it. by the way, the third page of the review exercises seems misplaced, because I have not seen the vocabulary in it before, and it is definitely not at the newbie level.
That's hilarious... you were getting Russian satellite feeds in Nebraska??? I'm surprised Tom Osborne and the Nebraska football gods even allowed that to air.
Michael, so how old are you? I will be 59 in October. Maybe we should start a C-Pod Dinasaur Club in the forum for people who have enough optimism to tackle a "difficult" language at a slightly advanced age. Anybody else out there in this youth obsessed party crowd (other than Ken) willing to admit a few grey hairs? Mexico Bob
I have grey hairs too but my wife likes them a lot. She says 我比照片帅 (I'm not in the 50's, i'm younger). I prefer them than going thin on top, do you? :-)
Hola Senor Bob...I have grey and it sucks. Not quite approaching your senior yet, but still not a youngster anymore. Hey Bob, where are you at?? I have to be at plants in Nuevo Laredo and Chihuaha in a couple months.
BOB: I'm forty-mbmmblemmble myself. NICK: It's wasn't quite that simple, I'm afraid. Back then, because of the size of the country, the Soviets couldn't really use a geosynchronous satellite for their TV, so they had something they called "Molnya" (Lightning). This way a coordinated series of moving sats that passed off the signal at given intervals. It just so happened that they flew over Nebraska and were in a great position for us. However ... you needed more than a dish. You had to hack a circuit board to process the signal (way, way over my head) and rebuild it for US equipment. I think the first people to figure this out were at Creighton University. A good friend of mine here in Lincoln was in on that and emulated a home version. Thus: Yes, the signal was available, but only a handful of people were paying attention and capable of actually watching it. A great ride while it lasted, but this is no longer possible.
Nick, I am in Irapuato, Guanajuato which is just about the geographic center of Mexico. I invite you and all the other C-Podders to drop by for a visit and we will go out for some "Carnitas y Corona". Hey, maybe some day there will be C-Pod conventions in diferent places around the world. Please put Mexico down as the first place on the list.
After that lesson on meeting "dinosaurs" from on-line I'm amazed any of us are willing to be called dinosaurs. As far as age I'd qualify. And I grew up in Nebraska. Does that let me into the club?
There are seemingly no on topic posts... here's a question about Connie's auxillary vocab. 收件人 (shōujiànrén) addressee 寄件人 (jìjiànrén) sender In Mandarin, 件 is used as a measure word for articles of clothing and maybe even luggage (一件行李). With the auxillary words listed above, it appears to be used are a measure word for mail (or a piece of mail)... what gives? Or perhaps this is a borrowed usage from another dialect? Or is this a compound that should just be taken w/o question? Personally, I think Germany is called 德国 because it is a virtuous country =)
Andy, it's my understanding that 張 (zhang1) is the right measure word for flat objects, like a pice of mail...there are also multiple measure words for clothes, e.g. 條(tiao2) for pants (long item) and 件 (jian4) for shirts, dresses)....others too. Mexico Bob. I am 50, with a mix of brown and gray hair, and have had the delightful pleasure of being in China 9 weeks this year, 6 on business, and 3 on vacation....my home base is tucson, arizona though, so I get my share of good mexican food and cerveza. one of my remarks was on topic....i'm wondering where the screen 3 of 3 exercise information / vocabulary came from, because i haven't seen it in an earlier podcast.
Fu Dawei, In China, most letters are mailed at the post office or from public post boxes. You can buy stamps at both the post office and various stores (possibly at drug stores). The Chinese post office has no free mail pickup service. 邮票 (yóupiào) stamp 邮箱 (yóuxiāng) mailbox 邮递员 (yóudìyuán) mailman 包裹 (bāoguǒ) parcel package 航空邮件 (hángkōng yóujiàn) airmail 明信片 (míngxìnpiàn) postcard 信封 (xìnfēng) envelope -John
Andy, 件 here is not used as a measure word, but as a word that means "something being mailed." So if you really want to break it down, you should understand it as 收件人 = receive mail person = addressee; 寄件人 = send mail person = sender. The special measure word for letters is 封 (fēng). So you can say 一封信. (Don't confuse this with 信封, which means "envelope"!) We don't use 张 for letters, but we do use it for pieces of paper. So, to sum up: 一封信 (yī fēng xìn) a letter 一个信封 (yī gè xìnfēng) an envelope 一张纸 (yī zhāng zhǐ) a piece of paper -John
Banhu, Mistakes are not a thing to be worried about in the comments section. Thank God otherwise I'd have been fired a million times for my typos and grammar. 京剧/jing1 ju4/Peking opera is probably the most recognisable form of Chinese performing arts. We call it 'national essence' because it distills our cultural treasures all down to one art form. It was the equivalent of R&B back in the days with a massive fan base(peaked in 1880-1920's.) However, I guess for any art form to gain that kind of popularity it must be 'current' in some ways, in tune with the specific sensibilities of the time. That's why a lot of people myself included despite best efforts still find it hard to be immersed in 京剧. But I might be wrong since I've only watched it (or shall I say glanced) on TV. A live performance is in its own league which will surely be mesmerizing. For all basketball-crazed fans, I liked the term for air ball: 三不沾／san1 bu zhan1 which means '3 no- touches' referring to the shot failing to come close to the basket, net and board.
What is it with basketball? I don't understand the attraction. Amost monotonous scoring whenever each side has the ball, scores of 48 to 50 or so everymatch so scoring is mundane, a game where you have to be a giant to be any good .... Just about anything else is more interesting: ice hockey, football (soccer for you americans), tennis, etc etc.. Actually, I like best playing sports not watching them, so again a reason not to be interested in basketball - I'm only 5'8" ...
Back to the topic of snail mail & the post office (I'm definitely in the letter-sending & receiving age group)...the hardest thing for me to negotiate by far when I was in China (with almost no Chinese) was the culture of the post office ...with specific counters for different functions...& the rigmarole for filling in forms to accompany packages (in French & Mandarin...no English).Is that still the case?...only 3 years ago.(Take a Chinese -speaking friend with you!)... I particularly appreciated the efficiency of packaging for dispatching bulky luggage home by sea & the counters with the glue & brushes to secure your own envelopes. I also loved the postage stamps and bought a beautiful annual album sold over the counter at a city Post Office. I have very happy memories of the upbeat celebratory staff at a Shanghai Post Office just prior to closing on Chinese New Year Eve & the speed & efficiency of the process!!
Okay, maybe if people combined Peking Opera with basketball we could have some new form of culture-tainment. The only reason I bring this up as off-topic as it can be in this thread is to ask: *Does anyone know how they do that quick switch mask trick that they do in some Peking Operas? I'm sure it must be some cultural secret, but I have slowed down the tape on the tv, I still can't see them switch. There are only like less than a million Cpoders, can't someone spill the beans here? I mean sometimes they even keep their hands in plain view...how do they do this????!!!
Note to the "off topic" police: Please don't hurt me. I'm a bleeder :(
Thanks for your comments John. That really helps to understand and thank you for the measure words 一封信 and 一个信封. This is one of the most significant measure word breakthroughs since the lesson about calling ice cubes 冰塊 to the whiskey! I am jazzed whenever I find out that the measure word is the same in both Canto and Mando. I expect 90% of all measure words used in Cantonese to be not applicable to Mandarin.... this really made my day. very cool.
haha ken, your bavarian sounds pretty good! greetings from munich, bavaria
Ken, I am a Ph. D. Student comming from South America presently working at Max Planck Institute in Munich. I have started one year ago to learn Chinese and recently joined your pod courses. I has been a really interesting learning experience. Very good work. Did you know that here at the LMU (Ludwig Maximillian Universitaet) in Munich there is an enourmous interest for Chinese studies? The special Sinology department offers an incredible variety of courses including Calligraphy, History, Religion and of course a 4 year study of Modern and Classic Chinese. Every semester there are two chinese teachers which receive more than 200 students in the different language levels for Modern Chinese. The book used are from Peking University Press, XIN HANZU JIAOCHENG. The texts contains a very graduated study program, from elementary to advanced topics, divided in 3 books with 30 lessons each one. The chinese teachers here in Munich work with these english version and of course explain everything in German and Chinese, so actually the lessons are quite challenging. The courses you can take at the LMU department of Sinology for the comming semester are at: http://webinfo.campus.lmu.de/view_structure_tree.cfm?root=29493&cl=18&mode=gliederung&open=29469,29494,29495,29496,29572,29573,29574,29575,29576,29577,29578,29579 I coucil you to take a look into the book's content to enlighten your podcast topics. If you don t find them in China I can offer myself to post them by normal courier. Greetings, Cristian
Watch Satellite TV on PC Watch Satellite TV on PC from over 3000 stations with simple software. No messy hardware installation or monthly fee.
Hey there! I did a search on the word "shipping" in the podcasts, but not yet...so I have a quetion about sending some boxes to a friend, because that is the only time I would ever go to the post office!! Is this correct: 我可以發給他. 你給我的話他的電話號碼, 然後當我準備好了, 我會給他打電話. 他可以 告訴我如果他能不能領受盒子, 也告訴我多少. wo3 ke3yi3 fa1 gei3 ta3. Ni3 gei3 wo3 dehua4 ta1de dian1hua4 hao1ma, ran2hou4 dang1 wo3 zhun1bei4 hao1le, wo3 hui4 gei3 ta1 da3 dian4hua4. Ta1 ke3yi3 gao3su4 wo3 ru2guo3 ta1 neng2 bu4 neng2 ling1 shou4 he2zi, ye3 gao3su4 wo3 duo1 shao. I can send them to him. If you give me his phone number, then when I am ready, I will give him a phone call. He can tell me if he is can or cannot recieve the boxes, and also tell me how many. Your help will be most appreciated!! I have noticed three different methods to say "send" ..fa1..song4..ji4...well I hope i picked the right one for this topic! Thanks! Tim
Tim, The word for 'shipping' is 船运/chuan2 yun4 or 海运/hai3 yun4. Yes, there are several common words for 'send': 发/fa1, 送/song4 and 寄/ji4. The usage is distinguished by the means of sending. 发 is used for telecommunication transmisson, eg. 发email,发传真/chuan2 zhen1/fax,送 is used for physical delivery, eg. currier. 寄is used for sending through postal service,which seems to be the case in your scenario: I can send them to him. If you give me his phone number, then when I am ready, I will give him a phone call. He can tell me if he is can or cannot recieve the boxes, and also tell me how many. 我可以寄给他。如果你告诉我他的电话号码，等我准备好了，我会打电话给他。他可以告诉我他能不能收盒子、要多少。
Jenny Zhu Thank you so much for your help!! :) I will call my friend tomorrow and at least get half of the conversation correct!! I really appreciate the answer...I will keep recommending you to my American friends here in Hong Kong, because they find it hard to get into Mandarin with the Cantonese and English everywhere here! I like hearing the odd Aussie culural thing dropping into the podcasts! (ie.."footy" I am from Melbourne) Keep up the good work!You guys are such a HUGE help to us struggling lao wais!! My girlfriend is becoming more and more impressed with my chinese ;) Thanks again ! Tim
I am a Chinese.