Audio for John DeFrancis Series to be released for free under CC

[xiaokaka]

Just stumbled upon this on http://www.shu.edu/academics/artsci/language-resource-center/chinese-audio-materials.cfm

"John DeFrancis worked at Seton Hall University in the Department of Far Eastern Studies’ Chinese Studies program, authoring a definitive series of textbooks for Mandarin Chinese.

The audio materials to accompany the John DeFrancis' Chinese textbook series (available from Yale University Press) will soon be available at no charge through the Seton Hall University’s iTunesU. The original recordings were produced at Seton Hall University in Fahy Hall on reel-to-reel tapes. Over 100 hours of audio material were recorded. Between 2008-2010, the reel-to-reel tapes were digitized to help preserve the audio materials, as the condition of the tapes began to deteriorate. As such, you may hear some background noise, clicks and other auditory imperfections in the recordings.

Currently, the audio to accompany the following texts is available:

• Beginning Chinese

(Pinyin: ISBN 9780300020588 Character text: ISBN 9780300020595)

• Beginning Chinese Reader

(Part I: ISBN 9780300020601 Part II: ISBN 9780300020618)

• Intermediate Chinese

(Pinyin: ISBN 9780300000641 Character text: ISBN 9780300000627)

• Intermediate Chinese Reader

(Part I: ISBN 9780300000658 Part II: ISBN 9780300000665)

• Advanced Chinese

(Pinyin: ISBN 9780300000566 Character text: ISBN 9780300000634)

• Advanced Chinese Reader

(ISBN 9780300010831)

Audio material will be made available at no charge for non-commercial use only.

Beginning Chinese, Beginning Chinese Reader, Intermediate Chinese, Intermediate Chinese Reader, Advanced Chinese and Advanced Chinese Reader audio materials by Seton Hall University are licensed under a

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License

.

"

I can't find the recordings yet on iTunes U but I hope they release them soon.

Sorry if this has been posted already.

[xiaokaka]

I don't know how to edit the first post, but the link should read: http://www.shu.edu/academics/artsci/language-resource-center/chinese-audio-materials.cfm

[roddy]

Edited for you. Thanks for the heads up.

[Sam Fairhall 92]

thanks for this, i'l keep a look out!

[xiaokaka]

Here is the link to the first book:

https://itunes.apple.com/se/itunes-u/beginning-chinese/id705335764?mt=10

[xiaokaka]

The audio for Beginning Chinese Reader is now available as well:

https://itunes.apple.com/se/itunes-u/beginning-chinese-reader/id712302997?mt=10

The links are to the Swedish itunes store, but if they don't work for you, you can just search for "Seton Hall University" in the Itunes U section of the iTunes Store and sort by latest published.

[wibr]

if you don't have itunes:

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/91036/how-to-view-itunes-u-without-itunes

Beginning Chinese: https://itunesu.itunes.apple.com/feed/id705335764

Beginning Chinese Reader: https://itunesu.itunes.apple.com/feed/id712302997

@xiaokaka Thanks for posting this, if you are watching the courses on iTunes anyway it would be nice if you could post the rss feeds here, the method to obtain them is described in the link, it's quite simple...

[xiaokaka]

Intermediate: https://itunesu.itunes.apple.com/feed/id714087247

Intermediate Reader: https://itunesu.itunes.apple.com/feed/id716628737

Advanced: https://itunesu.itunes.apple.com/feed/id716758957

Advanced Reader: https://itunesu.itunes.apple.com/feed/id716763840

[wibr]

awesome thanks!

[TheBigZaboon]

Can anyone provide a few tips for downloading these Defrancis files from the iTunes site.  I have downloaded iTunes, and have navigated to and  found the relevant files on the iTunes site, but I can find no way to download the files (hopefully in bulk). I can play them back with no problem, but there seems to be no obvious way to download them. Any tips for a nonApple person would be greatly appreciated.

[querido]

They should be in ...\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\iTunesU :-)

[TheBigZaboon]

querido, thank you for the quick reply.

 

I've found them all, and can play them back. I just don't know how to download them, hopefully book by book, all at once. I can play them back. and try to capture them, but for all of the Defrancis books, that would take forever.

 

I've opened an account, which was what I was told I would need by the iTunes program, but there are no obvious buttons or menus that point to a download feature.  I will have to "keep calm, and carry on," but a hint from an Apple person would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance.

[roddy]

If you can play them, they should be downloaded, no? Maybe disconnect from the Internet and play them to confirm. They should be somewhere in your filesystem - in Windows you'd right click and choose 'open file location' or similar to see where they were. 

[TheBigZaboon]

Thanks for the tip, Roddy.

I thought they were playing directly off of the website, and would require an extra step to download.

 

Hidden away in my music folder, I found two files for chapters one and twenty five of Advanced Chinese. Each one seems to be an hour in mp3 format. Those were the two I tried to play, and tried to download. It seems they download quickly and then immediately start playback from the site screen, without switching to Windows Media Player or my designated playback software.

 

I'll fiddle around with this to see what I can do. I thought there would be some way of downloading all 25 files for one volume as if it were an album. But I guess beggars can't be choosers.

Thanks again.

[roddy]

No problem, and welcome to the site. 

[TheBigZaboon]

Thank you.

 

I hope I can pull my weight and make a contribution.

[querido]

Oh, you want to know how to tell iTunes to download them all (because right-click...download on all of the links from posts 7 and 8 is inconvenient)?

Subscribe to the course:
(Open iTunes, on the left choose "iTunes Store", far upper right search the store for the course, select course, click "Subscribe")
To download the files:
On the top left choose "Library...iTunesU"
On the top right select "Courses"

Select the course in the list, slightly left of center

(Note: right-clicking that course name and selecting "Download All" does nothing at this point)
Far right select "Old Materials"
Top right click "Add All"
(Note: "Settings...Download: All Episodes" and "Settings...Defaults...Automatically Download: All Episodes" don't do anything, at least not on Windows.)
Far right edge, click on all of the little clouds with the down arrows. [EDIT: OR, when "iTunesU" is highlighted on the left, and "Courses" is highlighted on the top right, then usually you will see the list of your courses down the (slightly left of) center. NOW, you can right-click..."Download All" on the name of the course in that list.]
After they download they should be in your filesystem under ...\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\iTunesU.

The more advanced method explained at the first link of post #7 would be good to know too.

[TheBigZaboon]

querido, thanks again for another quick reply.

 

Right clicking download on the links in previous posts only brought up iTunes, which I had previously downloaded in anticipation of being required to have iTunes on my Windows system. iTunes required  that I register, then I started trying to fiddle around to get the files I found without much trouble on iTunes U.  didn't have much success. Whenever I clicked on something, it started immediate playback.

 

Roddy's tip lead to my finding out that I had already inadvertently downloaded several files. So I went back and tried a number of things I had tried before, and I found that clicking on the Free button would start a download. After downloading several files, one at  a time, I tried clicking the Free button multiple times before the first download had finished, and low and behold, I found I could download say five files or so at a time. Fiddling around with this last night, I managed to download the Advanced Chinese and the Advanced Chinese Reader files. I anticipated using the same method to get the rest.  But this morning I found your post.

 

I will follow your advice and try to download the rest, although I anticipate using the Add All option will trigger an over-write problem. So I will try to selectively add the remaining files to the list.

 

Those of us who don't use Apple systems often find the Apple way a bit trying.

 

In any case, querido, thanks again for the helpful tips.  

[Khotan]

MP3s of all the De Francis audio files can be downloaded from this thread at the "How to Learn Any Language' Forum:

 

http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=31539&PN=2

 

The URLs for the MP3s are on the third page of the thread.