Hello from 慢速中文 slow-chinese.com

[Weng.Xinyu]

Hi guys, how are you and your Chinese?

I've upgraded my Slow Chinese with my new designed theme and I've also sent newsletters to subscribers. Tonight I've just uploaded a new post named 地下北京, in which I introduce modern culture(art,music,literature,etc) in Beijing. Hope you like it.

BTW, I've installed a mini forum in my website, hoping it be helpful to those who nedd important vocabularies and assist in understanding in each post, I decide to start a thread for each post, if anyone has interest and just have summerized my posts (some readers have really digged into the grammar and vocabularies, could you please share with us?)I will be very grateful to your kind contribution. Another thing is, does anyone know how to rate a text into different linguistic levels in Chinese? Like intermedia, advanced, etc. Because I really have no idea of this thing. I added a rating function, but it doesn't seem like a big help. Most of the posts have similar rating results...

If you really like my website, please bother to visit it!

Yours,

Xinyu

[Ed Log]

Hi guys, how are you and your Chinese?

I've upgraded my Slow Chinese with my new designed

Still no adverts, I admire your desire for a clean site but please make some money from the people using your hardwork

[Meng Lelan]

Oh, but he does accept donations through Paypal.

[Ed Log]

Oh, but he does accept donations through Paypal.

But I prefer big business pays not me:)

[Weng.Xinyu]

But I prefer big business pays not me:)

Hi, I laugh out loud when I read your reply, I should call you Ad Log...

Thanks man. Actually, the biggest problem is my visit flow is far from enough.

I really want to make it convient for people to get the material fast, even without logging on my site. I am this kind of person. As a website owner, I hope them to stay on my site some longer. And I hate ads...

#$%^&*!@~......

I've just written to an insitution for hosting advertisement for them, hoping to get some financial support in return.

[Meng Lelan]

I hate ads too.

It would be funny if you wrote up something on Slow Chinese about Chinese ads.

[Ed Log]

Adverts serve a purpose

[jbradfor]

Another thing is, does anyone know how to rate a text into different linguistic levels in Chinese? Like intermedia, advanced, etc. Because I really have no idea of this thing. I added a rating function, but it doesn't seem like a big help. Most of the posts have similar rating results...

One issue is that there are several aspects that define the level. Choice of vocabulary is obviously one of them, but that's certainly not all. Grammar structure and complexity is another, difficulty of concept being discussed, and even how a given vocabulary is used (i.e. for a given word, if you use an uncommon meaning it's more difficult than using a common meaning of a word.)

Having users rate often works, but maybe not yet in your case.

[Meng Lelan]

If you want to rate difficulty level, you can look at a set of textbook series for foreign learners of Chinese, for example, the New Practical Chinese Readers, and compare the vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structures level by level. The set has six volumes, teachers generally consider volumes 1 and 2 to comprise beginner level, 3 and 4 as intermediate level, and so forth.

[roddy]

What might help (though it would take some time) is if you have a look at the vocabulary and grammar required for different levels of the HSK exam. I'm not sure what's available for the new versions, but for the old there are vocabulary lists divided into four levels, and also a (not too easy to find, I have a copy hidden in a vault on a remote island) graded list of grammar points.

Actually Meng Lelan's idea is a better one.

[knadolny]

I think Weng Xinyu is following the traditional internet startup strategy of URL, Users now Revenue Later. That's what they call it right? Probably the best thing you can do for Xinyu is to tell all your friends about his great site.

I rate the level of Lu Xun's stories in my book by their difficulty in relation to each other and might work for your website as well. His hardest stories would get a 5 and the easiest is a 1.

Rating your stories to an HSK level would be a good goal but might be much harder unless you become very familiar with the exam.

[Meng Lelan]

Another way to rate difficulty level is have an experienced teacher of Chinese as a Second Language --- not teacher of Chinese as a native language, as for example in a Chinese primary or secondary school --- look through the lesson and rate the difficulty level. That's probably the fastest, easiest, and more reliable way of ranking a difficulty level of a text. Someone who teaches Chinese to non native learners for at least three years is likely to know what a non native would know at a certain level - beginning, intermediate, advanced.

[gato]

I think Meng Lelan is volunteering.

[Meng Lelan]

Only if I can meet his extremely high standards.

[jbradfor]

I finished the vocab lists for lessons 1-9. In the hope that others find it useful, I'm posting them here.

These word lists were generated via taking the transcripts, running them through an automatic segmentor, looking at the output and making corrections to the segmentation as needed (this is the time consuming part), and then for each "advanced" word, getting the definition from MDBG. ["Advanced" here means not in NPCR books 1-3, not in HSK word list A or B, and not in a list of the 500 most common characters.]

I know there are errors. Please let me know of any errors you find in the segmentation. There are also "errors" in the definitions in which the definition in MDBG does not cover the meaning in the text. I'm not going to fix these, the best fix is to add a correction to MDBG.

For each lesson there are seven files:

1. .txt extension -- this is the original transcript, with spaces added as needed for proper segmentation
   
2. .txt.seg -- the segmented text
   
3. .list -- a word list in MDBG format
   
4. .list-full -- a list in MDBG format with ALL the words found
   
5. .backup -- the same as the .list file, except in ZDT backup format for easy importing
   
6. .vocab -- the list of vocab words provided with the transcripts
   
7. .vocab-list -- the words in .vocab with definitions
   

EDIT 21 June 2010: removed file, see next post for updated version

[jbradfor]

Finished generating the word lists for lessons 10-19. Also have an update for lessons 1-9 (look in the file "changes" for a list of the changes). Hope at least 1 person is finding this useful :blink:

It will probably be a while until I get any more done, so I hope these will keep you busy for a while.

SlowChinese01-09.zip

SlowChinese10-19.zip

[SiMaKe]

Hope at least 1 person is finding this useful :blink:

Besides me, I am sure others are finding this useful and are appreciative of your work.

[xianhua]

Hi Weng Xinyu. Is everything ok? I'm an avid fan and eagerly awaiting your next blog entry. If you need some subject matter I would be happy to forward a list of suggestions.

[Weng.Xinyu]

Hi guys, I'm here again! How are you been and have you been fit?

Most of you must have though where have I been...so many appologies for the really really late showing up and reply. I was kind of busy with my univeristy affairs and thus totally forgot that I can still greet you guys here in Chinese Forums. As you can see I have still been updating my podcasts although in the last time the frequency hast slowed down, now again I think I've got to do it frequently. There will be about 5-6 podcasts each month, 3 of which are mine and the rest from 外研社FLTRP. And I have also started to use twitter more frequently, to write something everyday, about anything that come to my mind. :rolleyes:

If you have interest, please just pay a visit tohttp://www.slow-chinese.com and leave your feedback to me. I know many have subscribed the content in itunes, but I hope you can still bother to visit the site, so that I have some idea how many potential users are there. I hope I can do this podcast as long as I can because it's really fun. And thank you all again for supporting me!!!

Xinyu

[UltraLaser]

Xinyu,

I just found out about your site today, but I think I'm going to be hooked. The speed is just what I need, and it's great to have a word-for-word transcript.

Excellent stuff. Keep it coming.