Listening material i made----- hope it will help

[atitarev]

Thanks a lot!

[kudra]

This is a great service that chenpv is providing. The choice of readings is mature, and the glosses are very useful too.

If folks are finding it slightly too advanced as I am, let me suggest the audio from

David and Helen in China. Unfortunately the text is not on the web. But if you want many many hours of intermediate level educational Chinese audio this may be worth looking at.

There are 2 versions of the text sold deparately, one simplified, one traditional. Both use pinyin. They are rather expensive.

Another annoying thing about David and Helen, as opposed to chenpv's audio, is that D&H follows the usual script of American students going to China, some romance, etc.

How many times do we have to hear this story? I suppose in 2050 students of chinese will be working from texts based on the same tired soap opera.

Anyway, it's currently used in 2nd year Chinese at Columbia, where it was developed, and Yale.

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/ealac/zhang/dh/dh_audioclips.htm

I don't know if they realize that page is public, or if the publishers know, so don't hit the server all at once. On the other hand, chinese-forums traffice might be hidden in the start of semester rush, if it exists.

Also, my impression is that the speakers are at times "overpronouncing" the tones. It sounds unnatural to me. Chenpv on the other hand sounds natural.

I'd be interested in feedback, perhaps on a separate thread devoted to David and Helen bashing?

[nipponman]

Want to say thanks chenpv! I appreciate this service very much.

[chenpv]

Thank you very much for your advice. Now I am deprived of all the exam pressures, so there is enough time for me to resume this work and make up for it. I intended to post two recordings today, but it seemed that my right of posting attachments had been off. So sorry again. I will post them and many more periodically once I get the permission from Roddy.

[atitarev]

No need to apologise Chenpv, we are glad to use your files and audio recording when you post them, doesn't have to be regular. 多谢!

[necroflux]

Kudra, thanks for the link to the listening material, I just pillaged the entire site. I'm sure they aren't watching bandwidth numbers.. if the server started going down, on the other hand.

[kudra]

necroflux

I've corresponded with theD+H author Phyllis Zhang, and she seemed happy that someone was using the tapes for self study.

Actually it was a pretty smart move to put them out on the web if you ask me. I started listening to them almost a year ago, then decided I wanted the vocabulary lists. So I ended up buying the book retail after looking unsuccessfully for a cheap used one for about a month. Obviously they would never have gotten my money if the mp3s hadn't been out there on the web for the taking.

I am sure I've posted this link before, but since the Yale Chinese 130 course uses D+H also,

http://classes.yale.edu/chns130/

also has a bunch of related stuff.

[Ferno]

why can't I access the audio attachements?

[kudra]

Ferno, can you provide some more details? you can pm me.

Also, David and Helen audio is not exactly on topic for the thread that chenpv started.

If there are going to be significant numbers of intermediate self study students working from D+H here at chinese-forums, perhaps roddy can split off these posts into a separate D+H thread.

Also, I have a python program that will automate grabbing the audio files.

Perhaps roddy can advise on that too. Too late to save necroflux from RMI.

[semantic nuance]

Wierd! I cannot access the audio attachments either!

[chenpv]

Thank you very much for fixing that for us, Roddy. (The man in Zhongshanzhuang, cherubic? , I like his motto.) I understand the problem, so I am considering getting a public e-mail(maybe yahoo), uploading my recordings as well as other learning materials there so that everyone can log in and download what they want. In this way, we dont have to worry the size of the file etc. So what do you think?

OK, I have registered the e-mail:

Username: forums_materials AT yahoo.com.cn

Password: welcome

I think I will upload some listening materials, articles etc, soon.

[atitarev]

Chenpv,

Thanks for that, please edit and replace @ with another symbol or just the word AT, otherwise this box will be hit by spammers heavily. Their engines will just reap this address from this forum and flood it with spam.

[roddy]

The attachment function here will still work for files of about 1MB. Anything else I can manually upload if it's emailed to me (although there'd need to be a good reason why it can't be split into a number of 1MB files)

Roddy

[chenpv]

鲍威尔的离开是一个忠诚与否的问题，而非意识形态之争。在任职期间，鲍威尔以敢说敢做著称，常常不讳其言地表达对布什及鹰派强硬的作风的不满。这正是政坛大忌。布什最厌恶的正是部属的不团结，向外人说三道四。他更希望的是内阁坚决地执行他的意志。最终，鲍威尔成为‘忠诚之争’的牺牲品。

---------《Global Times》

The following words might be a little difficult for you:

离开(li2kai1): n. departure, dismission 忠诚(zhong1cheng2): n/a. loyalty

意识形态(yi4shi2xing2tai4): n. ideology 任职(ren4zhi2): n. tenure

敢说敢做(gan3shuo1gan3zuo4): audacious/bold in words and deeds

不讳其言(bu4hui4qi2yan2): speak without concealing anything.

忌(ji4): n. taboo 部属(bu4shu3): n. the subordinates

PS: Thank you atitarev, I have editted the e-mail.

Thank you Roddy, I am feeling a little uneasy to have pushed you to fix it in a hurry. I think atitarev made a good point, so I am wondering if you could help make the email and password available only to the members here?

[chenpv]

一位美国政界人士曾经指责电脑游戏“对我们国家的年轻一代产生罪恶的影响”，却没在社会引起太大的反响。直到美国前总统夫人希拉里日前强烈指责电脑游戏“使我们的孩子丧失理智”时，这种“可怕的影响”才引起我们的广泛关注。前不久，美国市场上畅销的电脑游戏《侠盗飞车手》被披露隐藏淫秽内容。这个问题在全美引起轩然大波。

--------《The Economist》

The following words might be a little hard for you:

指责（zhi3ze2）: a. censure, rebuke 罪恶 (zui4e4): n./a. villainous

反响（fan3xiang3）: repercussion 理智 （li3zhi4）: sense; the ability to judge;

畅销（chang4xiao1）: salable

轩然大波（xuan1ran2da4bo1）:a great disturbance

[roddy]

It was broken for months, you can't have been pushing very hard.

If you want to keep it private, I'd just remove the details from public and ask people to pm / email you for them. There's no way I can suddenly make part of a post hidden from non-members. Frankly, it might be easier to just break them down into smaller files and attach them here.

[chenpv]

That's OK, Roddy. Then I will check out that Email once in a while to clear the spams. Also thank you for your advice, while I dont think splitting record sounds coherent in meaning and mood.

[roddy]

Was converting some .wav files to .mp3, and figured I might as well do the two that chenpv had uploaded. For reference, I'm using Audacity, which is free, but to export mp3's you need to download a file (first result worked for me). I did them as 56kbs mp3 files, as opposed to the 256 wav's they were originally. Got them down to about 20 / 25% of original size. There is a difference in quality, but nothing too drastic (better than the 16kbs audio book of 围城 I'm listening to, anyway).

computer games.mp3

Powell.mp3

[chenpv]

Roddy, how did you do that? I use Audacity too, but I dont know how to compress the file size. All I can do is to change the 'project rate' from 44100 to 16000. Would you tell me more in detail? Thank you very much! BTW, the mp3s you provided there cant be opened or downloaded, I am afraid. I am getting the 'Attachment.php' files.

[roddy]

They're downloading fine for me, but I think I might know what the problem is, will have a look. If you are just clicking on them, try right-click and 'save as (保存为)'. If you are already doing that, try just clicking on them. If anyone else is having trouble, let me know. If anyone is using the Dudu download accelerator, stop.

With Audacity. First you need to download the 'lame_enc.dll' file. See link above. Then you can use 'Export mp3' under the 'File' menu, but the first time you'll need to show Audacity where you saved that file. . To change the quality / filesize, go to 'File' - 'Preferences' and then set the 'Bit Rate' under mp3 Export Setup.