Chinese language podcasts

[wushijiao]

Are you sure you need a password on iTunes? I seemed to download them without one.

[roddy]

Yep, I was constantly getting pop-ups. Have you downloaded them recently, they haven't always required a password.

[wushijiao]

Yes, I just downloaded some. If you put 锵锵三人行 into the iTunes search, four podcasts show up. I downloaded mine from the one with a brownish icon and the arabic numeral 3 (without the people), title 锵锵三人行 podcast.

In any case, it's a good podcast.

[roddy]

Ah, seems there's more than one person up to this lark. Should have checked before investing my dollar, but never mind.

RSS feed for the free 锵锵三人行 = http://feeds2.feedburner.com/qiangqiang

Can't recommend it enough - worth learning Chinese for in its own right.

[赫杰]

Just wanted to mention that while RFA mandarin is news, there is a classification/category listing, which I thought was pretty sweet.

http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/fenlei

[wushijiao]

Here’s another resource that might be helpful: Han Dongfang of China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based NGO dedicated to improving labor rights in the Mainland, has recorded hundreds of interviews with workers and farmers about all sorts of labor issues. If you’re interested, you can listen to the MP3 files with the full transcripts in Chinese at CLB’s website (the English website has translations of some of them too):

http://www.clb.org.hk/schi/node/1200015?tid=900027

Here’s the English website as well:

http://www.clb.org.hk/en/

[wushijiao]

I was just looking for podcasts, and seems like they put all the 百家講壇 series on iTunes!

Also found 聯合國電臺華語廣播。

[wushijiao]

I just went on to iTunes to search for Cantonese podcasts, but I found at least two Putonghua podcasts that might be intertestng: 1) 文涛拍案. 文涛 is one of the guys from 锵锵三人行, and this one seems to be a weekly podcast about a hot topic. 2) VOA Mandarin Vodcast- 简要新闻. This seems to be a recap of the daily news in video podcast form by the VOA Mandan division. Although it's slightly propagandistic, I think its length and the fact that it has video might make it good for some learners.

Also, I saw a whole new batch of Christian ones, of which 世外桃源 seems to be one. So, I guess if you are Christian and into Mandarin podcasts, you're in luck.

[atitarev]

Could you repost the link and some instructions if needed, please, Wushijiao?

[Meng Lelan]

VOA Mandarin Vodcast- 简要新闻. This seems to be a recap of the daily news in video podcast form by the VOA Mandan division. Although it's slightly propagandistic, I think its length and the fact that it has video might make it good for some learners.

It's in video? I will try to look at it. No captions, I suppose...

[wushijiao]

Could you repost the link and some instructions if needed, please, Wushijiao?

Well, if you have iTunes, you can copy and paste any of the names of the shows I mentoned in post #108, and you should be able to find them.

For the VOA ones, this link should do:

http://www.voanews.com/chinese/podcasts.cfm

Find the show you want, and copy and pasts the link and put it into your MP3 gadget. Or, you can click on the button "收看" to watch it online.

It's a bit of a shame that VOA, RFA, Deutschwelle, the BBC, the UN and others all have easy to use Mandarin podcasts, but not the PRC itself.

[Meng Lelan]

Find the show you want, and copy and pasts the link and put it into your MP3 gadget. Or, you can click on the button "收看" to watch it online.

wow thanks. So glad I can watch a vodcast of the day's news roundup, but I wish they would close caption it in Chinese the way they close caption the news in English here in the States.

[atitarev]

Thanks, I will explore this.

[Guest realmayo]

Also on itunes:

I came across "8 minutes reading", which sounds pretty clear and has closing music which suspiciously like a remix of the Jeeves & Wooster theme tune ....

also: 慢速中文 Slow Chinese which, well, is slow Chinese, maybe useful for some people.

Thanks for the (much) earlier recommendation of 锵锵三人行, too fast for me to make too much sense of but useful listening nonetheless.

[in_lab]

Roddy recommended "8 minutes reading" earlier in this thread. I tried it out and thought it was interesting, but even after you subscribe, you had to enter a new password everyday so I didn't think it was worth it.

It hasn't been updated recently, but "Tales from chinese idioms" is good.

[roddy]

文涛拍案 looks like a nice find. Forty minutes on one topic is a bit of a stretch though, and it means if you lose the thread there aren't many starting-again points you can jump in on. Added to my subscriptions though.

even after you subscribe, you had to enter a new password everyday so I didn't think it was worth it.

If you pay your dollar to the site that's ripping it and making it available you should get a permanent password. The 锵锵三人行 one is available on another feed, as I think Wushijiao pointed out, but that 毛豆工作室 is the only source of 8 Minutes Reading on iTunes.

慢速中文 has transcripts on their website. Will post about that on the Chinese podcasts with transcripts topic.

Princess Remy has also been a bit more active lately. Yay!

[roddy]

I listened to (most of) 文涛拍案 on the Rio Tinto case yesterday - I actually really liked the style, it's a bit like he's 评书ing current affairs. It's just a bit too long though.

Is it just me or has RFA improved sound quality lately? Some of the telephone calls are still awful, but the actual presentation bit seems to me to be better than it was.

[imron]

This has been mentioned before on the forums, but not really a podcast. 老外看点 - a radio show produced by CRI and hosted with a mix of different foreigners (plus a chinese host). They basically sit around discussing current issues/events from their point of view. A large back catalogue of shows are available for download/listening on the site linked to above, and each show has a page containing a brief summary of the topics discussed.

[Long Pan]

Any easy way to download these 老外看点 program ?

[Neil_H]

Does anyone else here also use Chinese POD?

http://chinesepod.com

They have a large selection from Beginner to Advanced.