Chinese Podcasts (w/ transcripts?)

[venture160]

you could always buy copies of talk and news shows on DVD and then extract the subtitles. I don't know how to do it but I know it can be done.

[flameproof]

The link I posted is some Xiangsheng / 相声 audios. Sound quality is not really good.

Would "Xiangsheng" be suitable? I know it's famous in China, there must be some scripted audio out there.....

you could always buy copies of talk and news shows on DVD and then extract the subtitles.

To rip the subtitles and audio from a DVD..... good idea! I will look into that!

[rherschbach]

The frustrating thing about CRI is that the files are all streaming audio and can't be downloaded. At least not as far as I can tell -- does anyone else know a way? I sure wish they would catch on to the notion of podcasting.

[ironlady]

Pretty advanced listening stuff, and focused mostly on US topics, but the Voice of America has quite a few of their short newscasts in .mp3 format with transcripts. Same with the United Nations newscasts (a bit more general in content).

[slattery]

The frustrating thing about CRI is that the files are all streaming audio and can't be downloaded. At least not as far as I can tell -- does anyone else know a way?

Using FlashGet, I just downloaded an audio from there with no problems. I also have the FlashGot plugin in Firefox, which works together with FlashGet. Hope that helps!

[imron]

The frustrating thing about CRI is that the files are all streaming audio and can't be downloaded. At least not as far as I can tell -- does anyone else know a way?

Use SDP. It works great.

[rherschbach]

Thanks for the suggestions and links, will try them out!

[Shadowdh]

Thanks for the info peop's... also Imron thanks for the SDP thingy...

[roddy]

iMandarinpod.com might be worth a look. Small number (so far) of downloadable audio files, with PDFs, etc. No awards are going to be won for production values - dialogs are acted out by a single speaker for a start - but you get a fair chunk of fairly simple Chinese spoken at a comprehensible pace.

[rherschbach]

Had a listen to them yesterday. Liked the podcasts a lot -- though you're right, the production isn't exactly state of the art. On the bright side, it's all free. Also noticed this on their website:

"We also provide private lessons and group lessons. A private lesson is good for people who want to learn Chinese systematically, especially want to speak correct Chinese fluently like a native Chinese. We will make use of the advantage of internet to conduct the lesson; so that, you don't need to travel to take part in the class personally. It is a great save of your time and money! In addition, the private lesson is customized and meet your own requirement. It is on demand service, and it is just for you!

For the small group lessons, we recommend 2 to 4 people at most. It is a great opportunity to practice speaking among classmates. We will evaluate each participant to make sure they are at the same level."

[flameproof]

I for my part for now settle down on: http://clavisinica.com/CVP/voices.html

The topics are interesting, the languages is fairly easy and the 200-600 character length is manageable. That there is no English translation is actually BETTER, have to think much deeper to work out the meaning.

To make it more fun I usually have the text printed out and translate from there. Pop-up translation with Wakan is just too easy. Writing the characters with PlecoDict is a real challenge too (can't wait for Pleco II, which should have stroke animations), whoops! Didn't I say I am not planning to write... damn me...

Actually, when the own pronunciation is workable I could just go on and look at ANY print article I am interested in. In the worst case I could then just tape it (I would post it here then!)

[roddy]

Think I've just found something that might be useful for some. I'm currently having trouble getting the website, but it is there. Also on iTunes. I've only looked at one, so I'm assuming the rest are a similar format.

Chinese Weekday. Basically you get

a) A five minute story behind a chengyu - I'm listening to the 杞人忧天 one now

B) A transcript of the story on the website. No pinyin. Some vocab highlighted

c) After the five minute story there's a few minutes of explanation, then the story is played again and then you get a few more minutes of the host discussing the story.

It's aimed at Japanese learners, but there's no Japanese spoken in the show and the website is still navigable. The host isn't the most engaging of speakers.

For ipod users it's on itunes here - it's maybe been overlooked as it seems to have been filed under Japanese language courses.

[haiying07]

hello , i am very interested in this talk. and you must very good at chinese now.

i have some these chinese podcast , if you need , i can send you some.

we recorded it by ourselves.

send a email to me : haiying83@gmail.com

[Luobot]

@haiying07

In your initial thread, gougou wrote:

Sounds like a great idea!

Why don't you make the first episode available on here, so that people can decide whether it's worth giving out their precious e-mail addresses

If you click the icon when composing a message, it should allow you to attach an MP3 file. Let me know should you have any problems with that!

I think gougou's suggestion is the best approach, as you apparently don't have a website of your own at this time.

So it would be better to just post it here rather than asking everyone for their email address. You will certainly get the feedback that you say you're looking for.

[Luobot]

@haiying07

I see it's up, now. Thanx.

[rherschbach]

Hi.

Well, the post title says it all. Does anyone have suggestions?

I was downloading them from CRI for awhile using SDP, but it doesn't seem to work anymore. Want something I can listen to in the car.

any insights appreciated.

Thanks,

Rob

[darkprince]

see this

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/10639-chinese-podcasts-w-transcripts

[WoAiJolinTsai]

Use FlashGet to download from CRi.. I've been doing it for a while.

[roddy]

Have merged two topics - there aren't so many podcasts with transcripts around that we need a separate one for news podcasts.

As an 'I know it's not what you are looking for, but . . .' aside while I'm typing, wushijiao lists some good Chinese news podcasts, but without transcripts, here.

[rherschbach]

Thank you. These look very interesting. Hope I can bring my level up to the point that transcripts aren't so important. Right now I need to go over the text first and study the terms before I can really get anything useful out of the audio.

Surprised there isn't more out there. Maybe this is a good avenue of exploration for the various podcast vendors.

CRI now also has: http://pod.inetradio.cn/. Anyone looked at this? Seems to have some useful material but not very well organized.

Also appreciate the suggestion regarding flashget -- downloaded it yesterday and will give it a try. Actually, the SDP problem seems to be at my end. Tried it on a different computer and different location and it worked just fine.