新闻酸菜馆 Podcast

Name of Podcast: 新闻酸菜馆  (pinyin: xīn wén suān cài guǎn)

What topics are covered: This is a news commentary podcast with a lot of fun. The news piece discussed in this podcast is always the most popular one for the week prior to the time of production. A male and female host comment freely on the news, give their opinions and support their opinions with ideas and examples taken from their reading, studies, experience, or observations.

Why is it good to listen to?

This is a very relaxed news commentary podcast where the hosts talk very casually. It’s just like a joyful conversation between two friends on some “words on the street”. The Chinese spoken in this podcast is Mandarin, but the male podcaster speaks in a not particularly clear manner with a slight monotone. The female broadcaster, however, speaks very clearly. It could be a challenge for Chinese learners to understand the conversation as it has a lot of slang and colloquial expressions. It’s a good opportunity for intermediate or advanced learners to practice listening comprehension and learn how to participate in an informal conversation.

To listen or subscribe to the podcast, you search 新闻酸菜馆 on iTunes Store.

How often are the podcasts updated? The podcasts are updated on a weekly basis.

Length of each podcast: Each commentary episode of the podcast is about 1 hour and 20 minutes long.

Podcast Description:

新闻酸菜馆 means “news pickled-vegetable restaurant”. You can tell it by its name that it can’t be a serious news podcast. The hosts of the podcast are 丁丁(Pinyin: dīng dīng which is the same as the Chinese name for Tintin) and 王掌柜 (Pinyin: wáng zhǎng guì, meaning Boss Wang) . 丁丁 is very polite and 王掌柜 is very jocular. As if in a local restaurant, the hosts chat and discuss on their topic. What’s interesting about this podcast is they often comment on their personal experience in a funny way.

Summary:

If you like news commentary or talk-show or both, 新闻酸菜馆 is a really good choice!

UPDATE: On the official weibo for 新闻酸菜馆  They said “一个老外写的关于新闻酸菜馆的介绍,很有意思。看不懂英文的同学可以谷歌翻译一下。” which translates as “A foreigner has written an introduction to our podcast, very interesting. If you don’t understand English you can Google a translation”