How difficult do you rate this snippet of audio?

[somethingfunny]

 

 

realmayo will be posting them weekly now. 

 

From when? 

[Guest realmayo]

Hmm well here's one I think is easier than the last & I'd be interested if others think the same -- I think it's easier simply because it's dialogue, in this case, it's from an original newspaper article with a journalist interviewing a politician. That Q & A has been read out by the 'actors' for the textbook.

 

They are discussing a wildly popular regional TV show called:

  《市长与市民》   

 

Bonus point: who is the politician? (He's not named in the snippet).

 

 

news3.mp3

[889]

Yes, easier because it's 口语.

[Guest realmayo]

Gee, compared to the very first sentence of the new chapter in the book which I just hit:

 

news5.mp3

[somethingfunny]

OK, while this is obviously much easier than the previous clips, it's still pretty difficult to get an immediate idea of whats happening without some context.  It also makes me realise how much I rely on reading introductory text/questions in order to help me anchor a lot of what I hear in listening clips like this.  I'm sure if you asked me a question about the clip I could answer it, but I don't think I could write you an English translation.  Also, understanding what you're hearing is one thing, but being able to accurately recall it after (in either language) is something completely different.

 

Sounds like the politician is the Mayor or something similar. He talks about children writing him letters, then he talks about people not doing enough work.  I only listened twice so I can't be sure about all the details, but there was one word that tripped me a little and it sounded like 'fu qi'...?

[somethingfunny]

The second clip you posted is also not too difficult to listen to in terms of speed, but I have much less idea what she's talking about as the vocabulary is more specialist.  As soon as you hit a word you don't know, it makes the whole task much, much more difficult.

 

In this case, I'm not sure what the "she hui an" is.  社会案？Society case!? 

[L-F-J]

@somethingfunny
 
Try this for news5;
 

检察机关查办的典型大案，有福建厦门远华公司走私受贿案，和公安部原副部长李纪周巨额贪污受贿案。

[L-F-J]

And for news3;

 

A：当官儿，要想让老百姓服气靠什么？

B：老百姓对我是挺好的，也挺关心。特别是一些小朋友给我写信，真让人感动。我觉得市长与市民的感情与理解主要是通过工作。如果大连不发展，老百姓对我的感觉就不一样了。现在有些干部贪污腐化，老百姓当然不服。不仅不服，还恨他们。当好领导的根本条件是使这个地区一步步发展起来。那老百姓才服你。有些干部看起来没什么毛病，但就是不干活，不出活。那老百姓是不会服气的。说什么都没用。一句话；实实在在得把活干好，让老百姓得到实惠，为国家保一方平安。这就行了。

[somethingfunny]

L-F-J, I don't know if you are a native speaker or not.  If you are, fair enough for transcribing it.  If you're not, even fairer play - but how many times did you listen to the clip?  I almost think writing it out in Chinese might be easier than translating it into English.

[L-F-J]

Not a native speaker. I started learning Mandarin in 2001 though, and work in China as a translator and have had to do transcription before. So, I do have some training.

 

Understood them first time 'round because I know all the words. Of course, to transcribe it though, I replayed several times, but for memory, not comprehension.

[Guest realmayo]

The second clip killed me because I couldn't find a 'way in', it started out as just a wall of sound with no handholds at all!

[Guest realmayo]

No one going to guess the name of this former mayor of Dalian, talking about how important it is for leaders to be good at getting things done and have a strong link with the people?

[roddy]

Uncle Bo!

[Guest realmayo]

Yep There's even a smiling photo of him alongside the text.

[Luxi]

I like 听新闻学汉语 for practice. It used to be issued by CNTV, now it is podcast by iMandarinpod

 

听新闻学汉语 consists of 3 snippets of news first read slowly and then at normal news speed. The pdf files with the transcript are available only to subscribers but the page with the news has the full text of the transcript, which I find even more useful than the pdf. The mp3 itself can be downloaded using Right Click>'Save link as' , and it's short enough for repeated listening. 

 

There are other podcasts in iMandarinpod worth listening to. The transcripts/study guides are available only to paid subscribers, but the audio is free to listen (and download) and there is a portion of the text on the page to give listeners an idea of what is in the audio.

[snowflake]

Realmayo, how do you like the material?  I bought 新闻听力教程 eons ago on clearance and then balked after seeing that the only English was in the vocabulary lists.  At that time my reading skills were pretty much non-existent. 

[Guest realmayo]

On 30/12/2016 at 9:12 PM, snowflake said:

Realmayo, how do you like the material?

 

Oops, didn't see this. I like the material. It's dry and dull and in that and other ways seems to mirror authentic news programmes very well.

[Guest realmayo]

Here's a sentence I just heard on the very standard 联播新闻 where I was puzzled over the pronunciation of one word in particular.

 

The context is 习近平 doing some 强调ing* about the Bo'an Asia Forum thing taking place at the moment, the 博鳌亚洲论坛, which is the 论坛 that's mentioned early on.

 

Here's the full sentence:

first.mp3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the bit again where the pronunciation caught me out:

yuan.mp3

 

 

*actually, at that part he was in fact 指出ing. The 强调ing came later. He rounded off with some 希望ing.