One of the things we're proud of at Popup Towers is our hard-fought ability to wring natural dialogues out of less-than-natural voice-actors, a skill that usually involves unleashing Grace at them in varying degrees of rage. And since recording

Advanced - From the Archives of the CBC

Mar 11th, 2015 8m

Classical pianist Glenn Gould, the most improbable sex symbol in Canadian music history, set the world ablaze in the 1960s and 1970s with his emotional reinterpretations of Bach's keyboard repertoire. But what really distinguishes Gould from hi

Advanced - Intrigue at the National Gallery of London

Jan 15th, 2015 8m

The tip-off? It had come from an old landline in the basement of the National Gallery, so the caller could have been anyone associated with the institute, and possibly even the director himself. But finding out exactly who had made that call wa

Intermediate - Negotiation and Fortune

Jan 6th, 2015 8m

As a professional negotiator with more than twenty years experience on the force, Richard had dealt with hostage cases before and knew that this would be a particularly tough one to crack. And his was an impression confirmed by the grim visages

Absolute Beginners - 10 signs you may have an asshole for a husband

Nov 11th, 2014 8m

As the whirlwind romance that preceded Mary's honeymoon faded, it became increasing clear that her ill-fated marriage had thrust her into a conjugal death march. Yet despite her husband's passive aggressive hostility, Mary lived in the hope tha

Intermediate - American Hukou

Oct 27th, 2014 8m

The admission process had already taken four months. Four months of school tours, and meetings with first the principal and then every fourth grade teacher on payroll. Four months of paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork as Jonathan sat sulle

Elementary - Shattered Dreams

Sep 30th, 2014 8m

Rather than a regular podcast, today we are pleased to publish a longer Elementary dialogue designed to test your listening comprehension. The language used here is not terribly difficult, but it is spoken at native pace and with the sort of em

Absolute Beginners - The Public Security Alarm

Sep 12th, 2014 8m

Through many countries and over many seas I have come, dear brother, to this futuristic society in which you live, only to find myself astonished and humbled by its paradoxical embrace of social monitoring tools which seem to assure social orde

Intermediate - Beijing, 2015

Sep 1st, 2014 8m

The government had first dismissed rumours of the city's impending water scarcity, yet as the months dragged on and the supply trucks grew less and less frequent, public denial morphed into slow acceptance as the city baked. In time, even the m

Advanced - Zhu Jing and Her Music

Aug 14th, 2014 8m

“梦想是很单纯的”、“当你无法左右这个世界的时候，就去创作吧”、“妈妈，我希望下辈子你可以做我的女儿，这样我就可以像你爱我一样来爱你”……今天，让我们一起走近朱婧——一位才华横溢的创作歌手，去了解她与音乐的不解之缘，去聆听她歌声背后的一个个平凡、真实又感动人心的故事。那时，那人，那天籁般的歌喉……

Elementary - Travelling Light

Aug 4th, 2014 8m

Xiao Wang strained to tighten the security strap around her luggage, pressing her knee against the bulging fabric to muscle the suitcase closed. She was not sure when or how packing had become this problematic. For while she had long ago become

Advanced - Beijing Fun Life

Jul 14th, 2014 8m

是不是生活中总能遇到一些让你困惑不解、茫然无措的人和事？总有那么一些不可思议的人和事让你无语、无奈、甚至抓狂、崩溃，但也哭笑不得？很多时候我们选择了一笑而过。毕竟，林子大了，什么鸟儿都有。在这个多元化的社会里，那些奇闻趣事也不失为我们茶余饭后的谈资。也毕竟，怪圈里怎能没有奇葩？

Absolute Beginners - A Loosely Hammer-Related Lesson

Jul 7th, 2014 8m

Xiao Zhang loved his job. Even that time he fractured his arm at the water cooler, it wasn't until the pain began to trigger hallucinations that he even thought of going to the hospital. And then there was the day he had a spinal fracture and l

Intermediate - The Anarchists and the Printing Press

Jul 1st, 2014 8m

After years in the metaphorical wilderness, the Society of Anarchists had finally gathered enough funds to purchase their printing press. Tucked away covertly below the buildings of parliament, the machine stood as a symbol of intellectual resi

Elementary - A Trip to the Hospital

Jun 23rd, 2014 8m

Having spent the weekend puttering around Chaoyang hospital listening to the groans of the infected, certain members of our staff would like to suggest that a priority for the next Fifth Year Plan be fixing the vending machines in all major hea

Intermediate - Behind the Scenes at Popup Towers

Jun 17th, 2014 8m

This week at Popup Chinese, we take you behind the scenes of a recording session as Grace and Li Zhiqiang struggle to coax a decent performance out of a new voice actor. This is a fairly difficult intermediate show, but if you've been listening

Elementary - You Had One Job

Jun 9th, 2014 8m

Sarah had struggled for years with her company's internship program, which seemed to saddle her each year with marginally less competent and marginally more slack-jawed members of the local student population. Yet while the interns had never be

Advanced - The Huang Haibo Sex Scandal

Jun 2nd, 2014 8m

在这个文化多元化、经济快速发展的社会里，那条所谓的道德界限开始日渐模糊。浮躁、虚荣让越来越多的人开始迷失自己，亦或是...在找回自己？及时行乐也开始成为越来越多人的人生座右铭。只是，行乐要有度，要有道德标准和法律约束，起码要对自己负责。乐与不乐其实都有它的代价。快来加入Grace和李莉，针对嫖娼及出轨等一些敏感话题一起八卦一下，探讨一下，感慨一下...

Elementary - Hurting the Feelings of the Chinese People

May 27th, 2014 8m

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 t

Intermediate - An Invitation to Violence

May 21st, 2014 8m

A rose tucked away at the bottom of the pantry, clumsy letters wrapped in ribbons and hidden in the attic: such as these had been her efforts at concealment. Yet how brazen were their mid-day meetings in the park near the wharf, making it nonet

Elementary - Goldfinger

May 12th, 2014 8m

Auric supervised the construction of his cutting laser feeling relief laced with loathing. Procuring the damn thing from China had promised cheaper costs, but prompted endless foot-dragging from US customs over environmental standards and power

Advanced - Thoughts on Hong Kong

May 7th, 2014 8m

近期，大陆夫妻带孩子香港当街小便一事引起了热议。港人声讨内地游客素质问题，大陆人却也因当事记者拍照侵权展开了反驳。习惯、素质、理解、矛盾、文明......陷入了一场辩论战，加之网络的煽风点火与断章取义，更使得这场论战愈演愈烈！当街小便固然不对，但是背后也许另含隐情；冷眼“取证”固然有过，但是法律和规章是需要遵守的！归根结底，究竟什么是文明？文明应以何种方式发展和传承？

Elementary - The Starbucks Dance

Apr 29th, 2014 8m

Popup Towers has nothing against Starbucks. In fact, as a language training company, we admire the way they've found success getting otherwise sensible people to use made-up words like venti and trenta in normal conversation. Nonetheless, as oc

Intermediate - The Secret Room in the Attic

Apr 21st, 2014 8m

Something was hidden in the attic. That much was certain, yet how could Mark and Susan find out the secret of the orphanage? Any passage leading to the upper crawlspace was well cloaked, perhaps even sealed off years ago in the renovations that

Elementary - Office Romance

Apr 14th, 2014 8m

We strive to make Popup Towers the sort of freewheeling love nest where interoffice relationships are highly encouraged, but sometimes struggle with the consequences. After Lily's break-up with Luo Hao, we took her aside and said "relax baby, t