In this lesson, we get to hear the last dialogue in Season 2! Mrs. Kang (康太太) goes to get dinner ready, leaving Xiao Li, A-Ming, and Lili to talk. What do they talk about?  Request for support I started this podcast three years ago to share my passion for learning languages. I wanted to share the ways that I found most effective for learning a difficult language like Mandarin, and to talk about the challenges that I faced and how I got through them.  MFTGU has been totally self-funded since Day One. Which made total sense when I was starting out. Now, however, the podcast has grown. We are about to complete a second season of lessons. The show is reaching more and more listeners. And this presents me with an opportunity to finally put more of my time and energy into developing this project.  To do this, I need your support. Your contribution will enable me to: Afford the rising costs of podcast hosting (which go up as listener counts increase). Continue to dedicate the hours of work each day necessary to make the tools and resources to help you on your Mandarin journey.  Build an improved blog and website, plus afford better equipment and help with recording and editing.  Create more innovative lesson types.  In short, your contribution will help ensure that Mandarin From the Ground Up not only continues, but keeps getting better and better! To become a supporter, you can click here and select monthly. Choose any amount you could feel good about contributing to this project. If everyone pitches in even a small amount, the future of Mandarin From the Ground Up will be secured.  Thank you for being a part of this project. - Isaac Lesson Notes: In the introduction, I mention the Echo Method, a technique designed by my friend, NTU Professor Karen Chung, to help students train their listening and pronunciation skills. I have benefited from this technique personally, and have seen it help students become more sensitive to the sounds of foreign language. If you would like to know more about this technique, I highly recommend Professor Chung's TEDx Talk on the Echo Method.   When we first start learning a new language, we literally can't hear some of the sounds -- the ones that don't exist in our native language. Actually, it would be more precise to say we can't distinguish the sounds. Of course we can physically hear them, we just can't tell them apart because our brains automatically interpret them as being the same. A famous example of this is most Japanese speakers' inability to distinguish between the \l\ and \r\ sounds in English, but this phenomenon is universal and applies to speakers of any language.  Lesson Outline: [00:22] Introduction: Request for support [01:50] Preview of future lessons, tools, and resources [06:44] Dialogue [08:19] Useful vocabulary and phrases from the dialogue [15:50] Dialogue (repeat) Words and phrases from the dialogue, with examples (Chinese characters only):(scroll down for pinyin and the translation) 租（租房） 租房  我需要租車  這個房子是我租的  陪 你可以陪我嗎？  謝謝你陪我去看她。  你不用陪我，我自己去  畢業  你什麼時候畢業？  你有大學畢業嗎？  恭喜你畢業了！  留  我留在這  你要留著嗎？  你為什麼留下來？ 部落格 你有部落格嗎？ 酷 哇！這個很酷！ 拍照  我可以拍照嗎？  這裡不能拍照  你可以幫我拍照嗎？  寫  你會寫中文嗎？  我寫很慢  記得寫給我！  採訪  我喜歡聽採訪  記者採訪了他  我要採訪我的老師  負責  你負責拍照  我今天負責開車  他一定會負責  Words and phrases from the dialogue, with examples (w/ pinyin and translation): 租 :: zū :: to rent  租房  To rent a house or room zūfáng 我需要租車  I need to rent a car. wǒ xūyào zūchē 這個房子是我租的  This house is rented (by me). I rented this room. zhège