10 Week Song Translation Challenge Ending Nov. 21, 2011

[jkhsu]

I got inspired by roddy's Grand Chinese TV Watching Challenge so I decided to start a song translation one. Here are the details:

Please read the Grand Chinese TV Watching Challenge rules to get an idea of a similar challenge:

Grand Chinese TV Watching Challenge

Please read the Translated Song of the Day thread to get the rules on translating a song.

Translated Song of the Day

10 Week Song Translation Challenge

Rules:

1. To accept this challenge, please post "I accept" in this topic.

2. Once you have accepted you need to translate one song per week. Translating more than one song per week will not gain you extra credit. If you miss a week, just continue on to the next week. The rules for translation are in the Translated Song of the Day thread.

3. On finishing a song translation please do these two (2) things:

(1) You can either post your translation in the Translated Song of the Day thread or you can start a new thread for the translated song. My preference is keeping it in the Translated Song of the Day thread so that it's easier to find all the songs later, but it's your choice.

(2) Post back to this thread and say "done" + the name of the song you translated. If you created a new thread, please post the link so that we can find it.

4. If you start late, just post "I accept" in the week that you start and continue the challenge from there. Otherwise, you can wait until the next round of this challenge begins.

5. Every week, I will post the list of participants in this challenge with the number of songs translated. At the end of 10 weeks on November 21, 2011 at 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time (this is where I am located), I will end the challenge. I will then post the results. Again, like roddy's challenge you get bragging rights and you get to look cool the next time you're dragged out to sing.

FAQ:

1. What's the point of this challenge? How is this going to help me? - Well, apart from helping you improve your listening, transcription and translation skills, you will also learn some Chinese songs. Why learn Chinese songs? First, going to karaoke and singing is one of the most popular entertainment options in China/Hong Kong/Taiwan. People will go there after dinner or for dinner with a group of friends and sing the night away. If you can sing 10 songs in Chinese you can hold your own there and make some Chinese friends in the process. Second, even if you are not planning to sing the song yourself, it's still a great way to learn more about Chinese music and pop culture.

2. What if I don't know much about Chinese songs, how do I find out about them? - This is a hard one and perhaps other forum members will have more info. You can do a couple of things:

(1) Go to http://mp3.sogou.com/ and click on the 新歌TOP100 or 歌曲TOP100 or 中国歌曲排行榜 links and listen to some songs.

(2) You can search for internet radio stations, such as live365.com, and listen to one of their Chinese radio stations (this is what I did before). They will have the name of the song available so you can note that down and find it in youtube later.

I am sure there are many other ways to find Chinese songs.

3. Can I translate non-Mandarin songs, Cantonese songs, or English songs into Chinese? - Yes, yes, yes.

4. Will you have more of these challenges in the future? - This really depends on how well this one goes and whether I or someone else has the time to manage it.

5. What if I want to translate more than one song per week? - You can translate as many songs as you like and post to the Translated Song of the Day or create your own thread. However, you can only have one song count per week for this challenge.

That's it. I'll start with the first "I accept"

Hopefully, there are more of you out there who are interested.

[feihong]

Wouldn't mp3.baidu.com be a better place to listen to music? I know it's essentially the same interface, but last time I used sogou the sound quality was so much worse.

I just want to say that I support this challenge although I won't be participating.

EDIT: As jkhsu pointed out below, mp3.baidu.com's player interface is now blocked in the US. You can still view all their pages and get useful information, but that little "play" button doesn't work anymore. This is highly lame and I wonder when it happened, since it was working fine as of last year.

[jkhsu]

@feihong, thanks for the support. The reason I didn't list mp3.baidu.com is because I'm in the USA and it's now blocked because of licensing reasons. The interface does look pretty good and I'd use it if I could access it.

[Gleaves]

I have booked myself pretty solid with challenges, so I don't think I'll have time to partake. But good luck with the challenge and I am curious what people will work up.

[jkhsu]

@Gleaves, thanks for your support as well. It's looking like I might be the only one doing this, which is cool with me. People will just have to deal with my sappy music selections.