A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
柏林有十六个月时间换新的黄信封，结果两个星期就用完，该进监狱的人留在了家里
Berlin Had Sixteen Months to Switch Envelopes. The New Ones Ran Out in Two Weeks, and People Due in Prison Stayed Home.
About this story
In Germany a prison-reporting summons is only legally served if it arrives in a specific yellow envelope. The federal justice ministry changed the spec on 31 March 2025 and let old forms run until 31 July 2026 — sixteen months of notice. Berlin procured the new envelopes on time; they were gone in two weeks, and the reorder failed on supplier shortages. Sentences stood, cells sat empty, and nobody recorded how many people stayed home. Chinese listening practice at four levels. HSK 2 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 2 Chinese listening episode that runs about 3 minutes. The full Mandarin script is shown with tap-for-pinyin and a line-by-line English translation, so you can listen and read at once — comprehensible input in the sense of Stephen Krashen's i+1 theory. It teaches 12 key vocabulary words such as 特别、已经、必须 and walks through 3 grammar patterns, each explained in English with examples. The same news story is retold at 4 difficulty levels — use the level selector above to find the version that is challenging but still understandable for you.
Read at your level
原文Read the complete story in Chinese. Reveal pinyin and English only when you need them.
English transcript reference
Today's story happened in Berlin, in Germany.
Start with the outcome: some people had already been sentenced by a court to go to prison, and they did not go.
They are still at home.
Why?
The reason is that Berlin ran out of envelopes.
They had not run away.
It sounds like a joke, but it is true.
In Germany, some letters are special.
For example, a notice telling you that you are going to prison.
A letter like that cannot simply be put in an ordinary envelope.
It has to go into a particular kind of yellow envelope.
The yellow envelope is a mark.
It shows that this letter is official, and that it counts.
A lot of court letters need it: judgments, notices, and the letters telling people to report to prison.
With no yellow envelope, the letter cannot be served.
If the letter cannot be served, the person does not know which day they are supposed to go.
If the person does not know, they do not have to go.
Last year, a German government department said this yellow envelope had to change.
The new envelope needed one more box to tick.
They gave everyone sixteen months to make the switch.
Sixteen months is a long time.
Berlin got ready too.
The new rule started on the first of August this year, and Berlin had bought the new envelopes before that date.
That part they got right.
But the envelopes they bought ran out in two weeks.
Why so fast?
Because far more of them were needed than anyone had estimated.
When you run out you order more — but this time they could not get any.
The place that makes them had none in stock either.
So Berlin ended up with a very strange picture.
There were empty beds in the prison.
The court had already passed sentence.
But the letter telling the person to report could not get out the door.
A spokesman said afterwards: this was only a short-term hiccup.
They did manage to buy some more later on.
But staff inside said: it still is not enough.
So how many people stayed at home because of this?
Nobody knows.
Because nobody counted.
Sixteen months of lead time, used up in two weeks.
A whole city was stopped by one small envelope.
If someone gave you sixteen months to do one thing, when would you start?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇HSK 2. 在德国，有些信是很特别的 — the setup for everything that follows.
HSK 2. 已经被法院判了要坐牢 — 已经 is what makes the outcome absurd rather than merely slow.
HSK 2. 它必须放进一种黄色的信封里 — no discretion, which is the whole trap.
HSK 2. 新的规定从今年八月一号开始 — and the closing question asks when you would begin.
HSK 2. 这只是短时间的一点小问题 — the official description, quoted and left to stand.
HSK 2. 柏林也准备了 — they did prepare. That is what makes this interesting.
原因是柏林没有信封了 — five characters that explain a justice system stopping.
法院的很多信都要用它 — judgments, notices, and prison summonses all take the same envelope.
Literally "sit jail" — the everyday spoken verb, more common than 入狱.
HSK 4. 这封信是正式的，是有用的 — the episode ties "formal" directly to "has effect".
判决、通知、还有叫人去坐牢的信 — the three things the yellow envelope carries.
HSK 3. 你要去坐牢了，这样的通知 — the example given before the abstract category.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法先说结果：……
Start with the outcome. A spoken structure that front-loads the surprising fact and makes the listener wait for the explanation.
先说结果：有一些人已经被法院判了要坐牢，可是他们没有去坐牢。
听起来像……，但……
It sounds like X, but. Pre-empts the listener's disbelief instead of arguing against it.
听起来像开玩笑，但这是真的。
被 + noun + verb
The 被 passive puts the affected party first. Here it lets a whole city be the object of an envelope.
一座大城市，被一个小小的信封挡住了。
Proper Nouns
专有名词Free account
Keep learning from this story
Create a free account to keep saved words and your preferred level together.
- Keep words with their story context
- Remember your preferred level
- Build your vocabulary over time