You'd have thought we'd have stopped with the child labor jokes after that kerfuffle at the UNESCO conference in Hangzhou. Remember the one? It was the time our ragtag band of Artful Dodgers picked the crowd clean while providing an occasionally accurate interpretation service to the assembled delegates.

We've since gone generally legit with our use of underaged staffers, but as our pack of 8 year old programmers can attest, there remain many benefits to hiring young. In addition to asking fewer questions about labor rights, children eat less, learn faster and are more easily indoctrinated into online personality cults. Nothing is ever perfect though. Which is why this podcast offers practical advice on what you'll need to say in Chinese when things just don't work out.
paglino9
 said on
June 10, 2009
Not directly related to this podcast, but Having just seen the Apple WWDC presentation I am proud to say that the new Snow Leopard operating system for Apple has a new feature enabling you to draw Chinese Characters on your track pad.

Very excited, just figuring out how I'm gonna scrape together enough clams to get the software upgrade. C'mon China Welfare Lottery!
brett
 said on
June 10, 2009
excellent.
barrister
 said on
June 11, 2009
I have a lot of difficulty wrapping my head around the metric system in English, let alone in Chinese. Is the child really supposed to be eating 2400 kilograms of food each day?
toneandcolor
 said on
June 11, 2009
补充例句 Supplementary sentences from this lesson

却 is usually used after a subject to indicate strong contrast:

看来大家都已经知道了。我却 被蒙在鼓里。

(蒙在鼓里 [méngzàigǔli] is a colorful idiom that literally means to be kept in a drum; to be ignorant of something)

这么重要的会议，你却迟到了。

我一直这么爱你...你却 ...你却 ...
toneandcolor
 said on
June 11, 2009
Interesting...I almost never hear 千克. Always 公斤.
imron
 said on
June 11, 2009
The kid is only 8 years old but has been with them for 11 years? That would mean starting to work for them 3 years before being born :-/
trevelyan
 said on
June 11, 2009
@barrister and @imron - you guys heard correctly. we tossed that in to make sure you were paying attention. they work them hard. Either that or the father is an unreliable narrator.... ;)
trevelyan
 said on
June 11, 2009
@toneandcolor - me too, now you mention it.
Gail天堂的声音
 said on
June 12, 2009
@toneandcolor,

and the difference between 但是 and 却is their position in a sentence. 但是is in front of the subject, but 却is after it.
Gail天堂的声音
 said on
June 12, 2009
@toneandcolor,

in our daily life, we always use 公斤, but when we mention that in study, like physics, or chemistry, we never use 公斤. instead, we use 千克。。。
mrleosmith
 said on
June 18, 2009
I haven't been here for a long time. Wow, you guys have really improved. Clearly better than cpod now. Unless someone else has popped up in the last year or so, you guys are the new champs.

You are too good to compare to other chinese podcasts now, so let me tell you 3 things I like more about jpod101...

1) I understand your reasons for having it, but I feel 2 plays of the sentences during translation stunts it, and makes things feel more out of context. I prefer 1.

2) Teasing eachother during the bantor. I like it a lot, and you have a little, but I'd like to hear more. A little uncontrolleable laughter has a great effect.

3) I feel there is still a little too much english here. It feels like 40%, where the goal is 25%. Jpod gets around this by having the native english speaker speak a little target language.

Thanks for the great work!

Leo
Echo
 said on
June 18, 2009
@Leo,

So glad to hear your compliments :) Thanks a lot for your suggestions. I think they are really very helpful. 我们会继续努力的！

欢迎你多提宝贵意见！谢谢:)

--Echo

[email protected]
toneandcolor
 said on
June 18, 2009
@Leo @Echo

I still think playing the dialogue sentences two times during translation gives the podcast a little more punch. Hearing more than one speaker (especially both genders) say the same line is always good, and I feel that when the audio is edited in seamlessly, it's a clever way to double exposure.

orbital
 said on
June 18, 2009
agree with @toneandcolor here - I like having the extra repetition. The first time around I tend to identify the bits of the dialogue I didn't understand so I'm listening more carefully when Echo goes over it a second time.
bb_bermuda
 said on
June 18, 2009
leave it in please. the more chinese the better. maybe not too much, but twice is nice.
etbaccata
 said on
May 16, 2013
Since 2400 kilograms is equal to 5291 pounds, you probably mean 2400 kilocalories (qiān kǎ 千卡).