Transcription Project

[roddy]

It's maybe worth starting a new topic to discuss that, but I'm not sure that arrangement is so good for learning. It's pretty hard for an English speaker not to find their eyes drawn to the pinyin even for texts they can easily read in Chinese, so you're getting distracted from what you should be doing. 

[markhavemann]

40 minutes ago, Singing Mandarin said:

In case you're interested, I've posted my progress so far on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/singingmandarin

That's awesome! You must have spent a lot of time and energy putting that together! I'd love to add it to the project if you are willing to share. Of course I understand if you don't want traffic drawn away from your page and am happy to just include a link up top too. 

 

I'm inclined to agree with Roddy that Pinyin can be reaaaaaaally distracting. I stopped using a series of graded readers because I just couldn't ignore the Pinyin. Since you include English subs I think it could be nice to have that for people who are not too far into their studies and want to enjoy watching something while getting exposure to the language at the same time, or someone who isn't interested in learning characters at all. 

 

I'd love to see a version of the episodes with only Chinese characters for more advanced learners too (not that you would need to throw out your original stuff, but a second version could expand the scope of things to allow people of different levels to watch it for different reasons).

 

45 minutes ago, Singing Mandarin said:

P.S. After a month of doing translations for videos, I now realized why you can't really find subtitled Chinese videos where the pinyin aligns with the hanzi. It's such a time-consuming manual work since you have to manually adjust the spacing yourself! Even then, I still wish more people would do subtitles like this, since its such an effective learning tool!

That does seem like painstaking work. At the same time it seems like something that could probably be automated. PM me with an example of your sub file and I'll have a look, since it could be a fun challenge to figure out. 

[Singing Mandarin]

@roddy @markhavemann Oooh I've never thought about the distraction part! Thanks for those very insightful inputs! I might actually also do an alternate version without the pinyins for more advanced learners too...

Also, @markhavemann to answer your questions, I'll be more than happy to share the transcripts! So far I've only gotten to the first 10 minutes for the first episode, so I still have quite a long way to go. But I'll definitely share it here once I'm done! In the meantime, I'll send the first 10 minutes for you to have a look. Perhaps tomorrow, since I'll have to do a bit of touching up first. Thanks so much for your offer to help by the way! ?
 

[markhavemann]

Things are picking up... 

 

The full series (except episode 78) for 

武林外传 - My Own Swordsman (80 Episodes)

is now part of the project. 

 

There was a thread at https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/8967-武林外传-my-own-swordsman/?page=2 with the all episodes in a single file. I've separated them into individual files to make things easier. It looks like episode 78 is missing though. It's possible that I've made mistakes with the file splitting but everything seems OK. As always, please let me know if you notice any errors or clean up the files for your own use and would like to update the project files. 

[markhavemann]

鬼吹灯之精绝古城

E11

[markhavemann]

I've added another 13 episodes of 家有儿女 Season 1 to the project (thanks to @Flickserve for being part of that). That means there are now transcripts for episodes 1-23. I'm hoping to get to episode 50 this year. 

 

In the works: The full series of 潜伏 coming soon.

https://baike.baidu.com/item/潜伏/7704875

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lurk_(TV_series)

[BaneGlory]

On 3/4/2019 at 5:30 AM, markhavemann said:

In the works: The full series of 潜伏 coming soon.

Damn 9.3 rating on Douban, sounds kinda good. 

Interesting how 潜伏 browser translation can give "Hidden" or "Latency" but better as, “Lurk” a 2009 Chinese television series based on Long Yi's spy novel of the same name.

 

Oh yeah, to your question, I guess I'm most interested in readily-available-shows**, with modern-day-relevant-vocabulary***, relatively standard clear accents b/c I'm noob, and, of course, a high Douban.com rating, so we know it's something worth watching.

 

 

**(Netflix, stable YouTube playlists, Viki, torrent; playable on Amazon-FireStick, ideally)   

***(Dramas then? Suspense maybe. Historical or fantasy stuff if the vocab doesn't get too crazy??) 

[roddy]

潜伏 is a bit of a forums favourite of old. Definitely recommended. 

 

I'm going to split off your question about how to use transcripts - it's a very good question, will give it a bit of space. 

[imron]

2 hours ago, roddy said:

Definitely recommended. 

Yep, it's a great show (random boom mike appearances notwithstanding).

[markhavemann]

New content: 

 

潜伏

E01-E03

 

锵锵三人行

2014-2017 (all or most) - There really is a lot here and lots of people seem to have liked using this (not discontinued) talk show to study. These are all taken from the show's website although it seems like the dates don't quite match the dates of the videos if you search for them on YouTube. I'm not quite sure why, but if anyone figures it out please let me know. I'm not currently using these to study so it's unlikely that I will figure it out myself any time soon. 

 

 

I've also made some corrections and additions to the first 6 or 7 epsides of 北京爱情故事. 

[Guest realmayo]

If I remember right, the transcript was published one working day after transmission of the episode, hence the dating discrepancy.

[markhavemann]

15 hours ago, realmayo said:

If I remember right, the transcript was published one working day after transmission of the episode, hence the dating discrepancy.

Ah that makes sense. When I get a chance I'll redate them. 

[imron]

If I remember correctly, at the beginning of each transcript they mention the date the corresponding program aired.

[Flickserve]

@markhavemann

 

massive vote of thanks for doing this project

[markhavemann]

On 3/15/2019 at 2:17 PM, imron said:

If I remember correctly, at the beginning of each transcript they mention the date the corresponding program aired.

Ya I see that there actually is a date in each one. I never really paid attention to that and just looked at the filenames that I generated from what must have been the published date on the site. I guess I will put it on my to do list to extract these and use them as filenames instead. 

[markhavemann]

A new addition, thanks to Roddy's stroll down memory lane: 

 

我爱我家 (1993) - Full Series (120 Episodes)

 

Quoting Roddy from the First Episode Project page: 

"You should all watch this. At least give the first episode a shot. Simpler times. History being made. Casually watch this on your office computer as older colleagues walk past. "

 

and Imron: 

"This was the first Chinese sitcom, so I imagine that back in the day it was breaking all sorts of new ground. Things nowadays seem to be much more cookie-cutter."

 

Interesting stuff! 

[markhavemann]

I thought that I would slowly work my way through the Grand First Episode Project and see if I can find subtitles or transcripts online. 

 

I've found a full set of what seem to be accurate subs for 士兵突击 (Soldier's Sortie) and added them to the project. 

 

It may be worth looking at the original post as there were some mixed reactions to the show: 

https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/16916-first-episodes-1-士兵突击-soldiers-sortie/

[markhavemann]

Added the rest of 潜伏 and the series is now complete (30 episodes). I'll probably start this one myself after I've finished with 北京爱情故事.

 

I've also finished error checking 北京爱情故事 up to E14, making additions and corrections where necessary. 

[markhavemann]

After a bit of a busy semester and so many other things taking up my time I've finally gotten a chance to add a bit more to the project. 

 

This time I've added transcripts for the audio part some HSK 5 and 6 practice tests (not strictly TV shows but still useful I think). There are definitely some errors, so if you use these and find mistakes please let me know so that I can correct them. 

 

 

[markhavemann]

Added transcripts for all current YiXi talks (the TED Talks of China), around 650 twenty to thirty minute talks.