They’re Baaaaaaaaack… The VideoHotpot guys have created their best edition yet! The team at ChinesePod.com has continued pioneering this field of on-demand education with the forth edition of video language lessons.
VideoHotpot IV– Mr. Cab Driver
The newest edition of VideoHotpot is a high-speed adventure from one side of Shanghai to the other; an up-close and personal trip sitting shotgun with some of the coolest Shanghai Cabbies. The lesson intends to show the viewer all the important phrases and commands to get to your desired destination. As well as some great Chit-Chat phrases to befriend your driver. This is our rendition of “Driving Mr. Wai-Guo-Ren”.
What is VideoHotpot?
VideoHotpot is an entertaining video which shows how beginners of the language practice in an authentic situation. The situational format of the lesson aims to provide the student with an arsenal of phrases and vocabulary to utilize and improvise with a person who is not your teacher and has no idea what level of Chinese you’re at. The video has a whole lot of valuable information, so to enhance your learning experience, we’ve created a PDF document.
WARNING! Yet Again…
This is video is jam packed full of accurate tonal Chinese, however, when the Western hosts try to speak, there are some mistakes. This is counter-balanced with multiple repetitions by native Chinese speakers with incredibly sexy voices. With attentive listening they may be recognized as “Ms. Banana” and “Busy-Chinese-Lao-Ban-Man”, from the last episode.
[download in MOV format] | [download in MP4 format]
Like a New Puppy, We Need Love and Attention!
This is still a very new format for us here at ChinesePod.com, and your input is enormously appreciated! We are ecstatic so far with the response from the viewers, more videos are in progress as we speak, so keep the comments rolling in! So, with that in mind, leave your bland educational expectations at home, and get ready to learn, laugh and enjoy!
Another excellent episode.
BTW the link to the PDF file isn’t working, it should be: http://chinesepod.com/blog/img.....otpot4.pdf
Great fun. How about something at a more challenging level?
Great stuff. Any chance of adding the characters to the videos in addition to the pinyin?
Haha… did you run that poor driver all over town giving him random commands?
I recall previous videos covered both sides of the conversation. It would be nice to at least have subtitles for any responses.
Ryan and Tayhler have been in China for how long?
I LOVE your videos. You guys are so much fun. Next time include both sides of the conversation. My favorite part of the videos is the response to you guys comments. You are doing great. Keep it up. And including the actual chinese characters would be a plus.
Great stuff yet again, thanks. Even though Shanghai taxis are few and far between around here, I pick up a lot of general language learning from these podcasts.
I suspect this driver’s responses were too florid for a general audience and had to be censored. All is not lost, though. Watch his hands. Notice how every time he is annoyed by a question he thrusts some fingers into the air? I rest my case.
In a future video, perhaps we could have a victim who speaks strong Shanghainese (or is eating a peanut butter sandwich, or whatever), so the perfect Mandarin voice over could enjoy pre-correcting both parts of the conversation!
James,
Ryan and Tayhler have been around for about 3 months.
谢谢。他们到中国以前学习中文学习了什么时间？
Recently, I realized many situations are really basic transactions and any response I get will likely be canned phrase. I can be ready for this. One could probably go to several stores and buy what they need without speaking at all.
However sometimes you will get a response you wern’t expecting. When I order food at a drive-through window, I can expect phrases like “will that be all?”, “anything else?”, “would you like fries with that?”, “your total will be $5.34″, “your change is…” There is one resturant chain where you are also asked “are you going to eat in your car?” When I first heard this, I didn’t catch what was said the first or even the second time.
With the unscripted responses in the VideoHotpot, I’m sure there will be responses that will need a fair amount of explaination.
Hi all, the VideoHotPot segments should be interesting! But for this episode, the PDF link is (today at least) http://chinesepod.com/blog/img.....otpot.pdf, and should it not be http://www.chinesepod.com/blog.....tpot4.pdf?
Cheers!
Ai-ya! I guess columnlar (justify both left & right) justification doesn’t work well with long strings in the message!
Ryan and Tayhler !!!!
Its Friday where is my Video Hotpot? Do you think you could do one asking Zhang Ziyi out on a date? I wonder who’s career it would help more ?
Mike in Jubei
This is the first time I’ve seen Chinese spoken in a video. It’s terrific. As a newbie, it’s just right. I am really looking for a video that will help me learn how letters are pronounced, so I can see how the speaker’s mouth moves. But I enjoyed the “taxicab” lesson very much!
Mary, that’s exactly what I’ve been mulling over the past few days! Come and join the discussion about visual pronunciation here
http://www.wushu.be/ChinesePod/viewtopic.php?p=368
The video is good, but I’d like to vote again for having the Chinese characters on screen too as soon as you are able.
I tried clicking on the pdf file link, but I’m getting a 404 error.
Corey, there is another link. Glance through the comments above, it’s mentioned twice. Let us know if you still can’t get it.
Thanks AuntySue, yes, that other link worked. Guess I should read all the comments next time first. *cheers*
I’m a new Newbe (New2Be)who is absolutely loving this site. I just discovered the Video Hotpot. Fantastic. Absolutely the best. It’s great to see that Americans are being understood by the locals. Thats my bigest fear in using my limited language in China. It’s also refreshing to be able to understand the locals when they respond. I would like to see more verbal interaction between Westeners and the local Chinese people. My experiances in China were great, but I was a bit intimitated when using my limited Chinese. I am getting more confident with ChinesePod. Thanks for a great site.