Chinese podcasts and transcripts

Z

zj

秀才
I've been searching, but haven't yet found, a really interesting Chinese news source with a great combination of audio and matching transcript. My proficiency is not where I'd like, and I really want the audio and transcript to be word-for-word, not a summary or transliteration of one or the other.

I like reading some of the material on the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Chinese website, but they have no matching audio. BBC and others also have good Chinese content, but their audio, if it exists, is also not matched to their written articles.
I love having BBC/Radio Free Asia/etc podcasts on my ipod, but I have not found any transcripts of their podcasts. I'd also like to find some Chinese audio that is more similar to a lecture or dialog in its speech speed. The professional news is delivered so quickly and without pause, I have almost no chance of really understanding much of it.

If you guys have any suggestions or ideas, they are welcome
 
garysaville

garysaville

进士
I absolutely love Chineselearnonline.com's content. Their course is progressive, so it started at 你好 and has worked its way up to a fairly advanced level now. It's a podcast so you can download their mp3's into itunes, or any RSS agrigator and then follow along on the transcripts if you want to pay for them. I don't like their website very much, so I download the transcripts and put them into Pleco's reader. www.chineselearnonline.com

Another suggestion, which is totally free, is CSLpod. CSLpod is a podcast from Beijing which is completely in Chinese. You can download the transcripts with English translation for free from their website.
www.clspod.com

Best,
Gary
 
W

westmeadboy

榜眼
Thanks for the heads-up about that CSLPod (by the way you mistyped the URL), I hadnt seen that one before.

Looks good but the website is a bit weird. I saw the lesson translation under the "content" tab although rather than it being mixed in with the transcription, it has its separate section (why!?). Also I noticed the PDF download does not include the translation. And only the dialogue is transcribed into pinyin. I tried an intermediate lesson and was surprised that the dialogue is spoken so slowly and that this is preceded by some quickly spoken introduction in chinese.
 
M

Mrcalm

Member
Hi ZJ,

Have you tried chinesepod.com? They do a lot of podcasts with transcripts at different levels. The PDF transcripts come in English, Chinese characters and PINYIN. The podcasts and transcripts used to be free ~ I don't know if they still are. I'm a paid subscriber until 2011 so I get it anyway.
Here's the site: www.chinesepod.com

Cheers
 
feng

feng

榜眼
There are a variety of Chinese language university courses at coursera.org (Dream of the Red Chamber, chemistry, etc.). I think they all have subtitles. I answer to this old thread since I think there is still not much along the lines of what you are looking for. It is something needed for learners trying to go from textbook to real Chinese.
 
alex_hk90

alex_hk90

状元
feng said:
There are a variety of Chinese language university courses at coursera.org (Dream of the Red Chamber, chemistry, etc.). I think they all have subtitles. I answer to this old thread since I think there is still not much along the lines of what you are looking for. It is something needed for learners trying to go from textbook to real Chinese.
Click to expand...

Yes - I've been looking for good audio with transcripts at intermediate level and haven't found anything (free) yet. :(
 
feng

feng

榜眼
alex_hk90 said:
Yes - I've been looking for good audio with transcripts at intermediate level and haven't found anything (free) yet. :(
Click to expand...
I am aware of nothing at the intermediate level like that, though there intermediate level textbooks with audio, but that is not likely as fun. When I taught uni English majors in China, I told them how lucky they were since they had tons of audio materials with scripts, and learner's dictionaries with 100,000 words in them.

Though there are at least a handful of textbooks specifically for advanced students transitioning to real Chinese, none of them have audio. One option for one ready or willing to try real Chinese: there are a small number of books aimed at elementary school students in Taiwan that have audio with them (well, at least up through 2003!). In the PRC, from 2005 - 2010 (on and off) I saw almost none of this.

Advanced, but I'll mention this anyway: iTunes has excellent, free recordings of classic fiction and history like 西遊記、三國演義、紅樓夢、史記、漢書、and 三國志。One can easily find those in print (often with annotations) and on the net (basically never with annotations). Audio books (有聲書) are rare in both Taiwan and the PRC . You can find some stuff searching for that term or 有聲讀物，but a casual search just now suggests that you would need to find the text separately. There are things such as 評書 (sort of adaptations of the classics of fiction) which are not so rare, but do not have texts. TV shows in Taiwan tend to have Chinese subtitles. Some stuff is available on Youtube. The PRC used to have lots of DVDs of Chinese TV shows for sale, some with subtitles, but I am told that has become much more limited.

Not audio, but if one is looking for pronunciation information, books for elementary school students in Taiwan almost always have juyin fuhao next to every single character; in the PRC some kids books have pinyin and some don't. In both places, these books are usually history, annotated (abridged) classics, fiction, or classic poetry. In Taiwan there is a daily newspaper for kids called 國語日報 with juyin fuhao next to every character, and I thought it was a blast. In Taibei it was widely available wherever newspapers were sold; in Kaohsiung it didn't seem to be, but I was at a low level then so I may have missed it and I know Kaohsiung is not the same sleepy large metropolis it once was. One can subscribe as well.

Sorry to blabber on, but I figured I would put some information here to suit a wide variety of interests and levels.

EDIT: I just found a site with a lot of audio material with scripts, but take note: it is aimed at native speakers.
http://big5.soundofhope.org/
Not all sections have both audio and a transcript. You will have to check for yourself. These sections seem to consistently have both:
http://big5.soundofhope.org/taxonomy/term/328
and
http://big5.soundofhope.org/taxonomy/term/288
There is a bit of talking before the transcript starts in both the history and news sections.
 
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alex_hk90

alex_hk90

状元
feng said:
EDIT: I just found a site with a lot of audio material with scripts, but take note: it is aimed at native speakers.
http://big5.soundofhope.org/
Not all sections have both audio and a transcript. You will have to check for yourself. These sections seem to consistently have both:
http://big5.soundofhope.org/taxonomy/term/328
and
http://big5.soundofhope.org/taxonomy/term/288
There is a bit of talking before the transcript starts in both the history and news sections.
Click to expand...

Thanks - looks a bit advanced for me at the moment but hopefully I'll be able to use them at some point.

How about TV shows with transcripts / subtitle files?
There are loads of those in English but not sure if they do it for Chinese seeing as the subtitles are already often hard-burned into the video.
 
feng

feng

榜眼
alex_hk90 said:
Thanks - looks a bit advanced for me at the moment but hopefully I'll be able to use them at some point.

How about TV shows with transcripts / subtitle files?
There are loads of those in English but not sure if they do it for Chinese seeing as the subtitles are already often hard-burned into the video.
Click to expand...

Here are my three favorites, and I was able to find them all on Youtube with subtitles. The first two were done in the last decade. The last one is from the eighties, but is still a staple of Chinese TV at Lunar New Year.

1) 大宋提刑官
This has a first and second series. I can find individual episodes from the second series on Youtube, but not a play list. The above is the first series. It's a detective series based on a historical character. You can read a short blurb about him here in English:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_Ci

2) 神探狄仁傑:
It comes in three series. This is the first which I think is the best. I didn't like the second series, but the third series was good. This series gave rise to the popular Chinese internet phrase "元芳，此事你怎麽看？" The main character is Judge Dee, for those who may have read Van Gulik's adaptations (I haven't). You can read about the main character in English here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Di_Renjie
Second series:
Third series:

3) 西遊記
The easiest language level of the three. It's aimed at kids, but not in a way that would bore an adult (at least not this adult). It is an adaptation of the classic novel of the same name (Journey to the West). There have been a number of adaptations of the novel on TV over the decades, but this series is hands down the favorite among Chinese people, mostly due to the guy who plays the monkey：六小齡童。There are a further 16 episodes with him, which some people say are too slick but I like them. I can't find them in a play list on Youtube.

I am not a fan of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三國演義), but if you are you can find it here with subtitles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vyDbs197WQ&list=PLOabfYFyTFyx6LcU0A-eRzqlUHhaQcprg
This is the newer version which I think people like, but I am not sure. There was another one made back in the 1990s for which a playlist exists on Youtube, but without subtitles. You can also watch the new version dubbed in Japanese! Speaking of which, I did enjoy the Japanese animated version which is available dubbed in Chinese with subtitles, but not in playlist form on Youtube.

Outlaws of the Marsh/The Water Margin/All Men Are Brothers (水滸傳) I found sometimes exciting and sometimes a cure for insomnia, depending on the episode. I watched the old series which is available on Youtube but not with subtitles. I watched a little of the new series which I thought lacked something compared to the first, but I hear it was popular. Here it is with subtitles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7PUwwIMeF8&list=PLFFmqub3OS5lHLSlnvVu_sWpv1tXsnP-5

As you can tell, I don't go in for sitcoms or for dramas set in a modern kitchen or whatever. There are some other good series on Youtube in playlists (e.g. 孫子兵法、孔子傳), but not with subtitles.

I almost forgot, this was the first Chinese TV series I ever watched, 康熙王朝/康熙帝國:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB9ihtitxFQ&list=PLsaMMsL7u01i3ZZA0HRNmwAYYI4RKs17n
They also made series for 雍正 and 乾隆, but I didn't like either one.

I have no doubt forgotten to look for some. If I think of others, I will try to remember to stop back. I have a lot of documentaries on DVD; if that sort of thing interests you, I could search for some of the titles on Youtube. Youku often blocks Chinese TV shows outside of China, so I didn't bother looking there for you. There's plenty of stuff on either site about calligraphy or tea, for example, but not generally with subtitles. Try looking on those two sites, in Chinese, for something not Chinese specific that interests you (mountain climbing, chess, whatever). But there's a few hundred hours of TV shows with subtitles listed above. Hope it helps!

PS Here's something modern, from Taiwan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qjkDQ78D5A
It is a nutty talk show that I can only watch for a few minutes at a time ('cause it's nutty), but it seems to usually have subtitles. You can just go to Youtube on any given day and type in the name of the show (康熙來了) and get today or yesterday's show. At least years ago when I lived in Taiwan, most TV shows had subtitles.
 
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alex_hk90

alex_hk90

状元
feng said:
Here are my three favorites, and I was able to find them all on Youtube with subtitles. The first two were done in the last decade. The last one is from the eighties, but is still a staple of Chinese TV at Lunar New Year.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the detailed and informative post! :D

The thing which I couldn't find for other Chinese TV shows were transcripts (i.e. subtitle files) so I could easily look up the words I didn't know.

Either way I'll check these out at some point. :)
 
feng

feng

榜眼
alex_hk90 said:
Thank you for the detailed and informative post! :D

The thing which I couldn't find for other Chinese TV shows were transcripts (i.e. subtitle files) so I could easily look up the words I didn't know.

Either way I'll check these out at some point. :)
Click to expand...

I'm curious, how do subtitle files help? I mean, if the video has them on screen, isn't that enough?

I found two sites from CCTV, with oodles of TV shows, but like a lot of sites in the PRC they don't fully load for me. I am not on a very fast internet connection (though Frontier Communications claims it is).
Traditonal characters:
http://big5.livechina.com/cht/dianshiju.cntv.cn/
Traditional subtitles? I don't know because I can't get any videos to play.

Simplified:
http://dianshiju.cntv.cn/list/all/index.shtml
 
alex_hk90

alex_hk90

状元
feng said:
I'm curious, how do subtitle files help? I mean, if the video has them on screen, isn't that enough?
Click to expand...

It's usually enough, yes. Though sometimes if the video quality is not great I can't read them though, and also it's just easier to use Pleco to look up definitions using a subtitle text file than having to write every character to look out.
 
feng

feng

榜眼
alex_hk90

alex_hk90

状元
feng said:
I found three podcasts on iTunes (each also with a webpage) that may be what some of you are looking for. They are all in PRC simplified characters. All seem to have a significant amount of free content. Not sure what free sign-up gets you on their website.

http://www.slow-chinese.com/
iTunes: slow chinese

http://cslpod.com/LearnMandarin/Lesson/Latest.aspx
iTunes: cslpod [only old lessons and no transcript]

http://www.imandarinpod.com/
iTunes: imandarinpod
Click to expand...

Thanks - I've been using Slow Chinese but don't think I've seen the other two before.
I've also been trying FluentU:
http://www.fluentu.com/
Not sure how much is free but seems quite good.
 
martin.

martin.

Member
Chairman's Bao appeared just 6 months ago.
I found it via these YouTube promotions : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2RzjbMLKmtDgPqoaqd9JRw
They have mainly Chinese but also some world news items each with a streamed sound file. I think there may eventually be a subscription charge but so far it's free.
I think it's very well presented. The backlog of material is growing daily, sorted under 8 topic categories :
  • Business
  • Only in China
  • Science Sport
  • Technology
  • World News
  • Funny
  • Nature
- and HSK level!

They don't provide things like grammar, translation, or vocabulary lists, but if you pick the right HSK level and slap the text into the Pleco reader, who needs all that?
If you still don't understand a word, or the way its being used, after looking up definitions and examples in PLeco, then just search for more examples in ICiBa or Jukuu until the penny drops. Finally, you can try searching for the story in English media to see if you got it right.
The sound files are streamed, but if you record them using a phone app. like Lexis Audio Editor, you'll have an MP3 file and the option of playing one sentence or phrase at a time, to listen to as you read the text. This app. also lets you slow down the tempo of all or part of the recording.
I can do most of this with one thumb now - so I can walk the dog at the same time !
 
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