Chinese Podcasts (w/ transcripts?)

[Jimmy Conway]

Yes it was really easy! Thanks.

But now I have difficulties downloading the audio files from itunes. I would like to download them on my harddrive, but it seemed not to work for every episode in itunes. I also google the mp3 files elsewhere, but no luck with finding a site where the downloading works.

Can anybody help with a link?

[Jimmy Conway]

Now it is downloading just smoothly.

Thanks again for pointing out this talk show. I think the long search for a good (interesting, good audio quality, regular up-dated) chinese podcast with a script has come to an end.

thanks

[Jimmy Conway]

Btw, is there a pop up dictionary for pdf documents? Or for word/ text documents? That would be sweet.

[imron]

Several.

[yersi]

Lately I've been listening a lot to Gadio (机核网 GADIO 游戏广播), a Mandarin podcast targeted at core gamers. It follows the same format as most popular English gaming podcasts, meaning a roundtable format where the hosts discuss freely around news and other topics. One of the hosts has a broadcasting background, so the sound quality is great overall, and I think many of you may find the loose style refreshing.

While writing this post I also dug up a list of Chinese-language podcasts. I'll dig around and see if I find anything interesting.

[yersi]

So last night, I spent a few hours downloading and trying out new podcasts from that list. Turns out the site I linked (我爱Podcast) is a great place to find what`s known as 非官方博客, essentially amateur podcasts. Granted, most of them have stopped doing new shows, but there are still some that update regularly.

One that I think you guys might be interested in is 声行漫步. As far as I can tell, it's a collection of hand-crafted "stories" about cities in China, narrated by a girl with an absolutely fantastic, miraculously gorgeous voice. Seriously, if I could marry a voice, I would marry her's. Each cast has the transcript included so you can pull up your iPod/iPhone or whatever and look up something if you don't understand it. Updates are semi-frequent and it seems like it's gotten pretty popular too.

I also tried out an Apple fancast called Project V. It started off unceremoniously with one of the hosts almost crying about the death of Steve Jobs. The other host then went on to describe how he bowed for Dear Leader at his local Apple Store, and even bowed twice since everyone else were bowing just once. 肥猪流, indeed.

There were some others that I found intensely interesting, including one that focused on laborers and professionals, but they all stopped updating after a few months.

[roddy]

Those 听众还订阅了 recommendations at the bottom of your iTunes links might be worth exploring too.

[yersi]

I did, actually, but most of them aren't updating anymore. The only two I found that are still updating are 爱听乐读汇, a literature podcast, and one called 柔软时电光台. Would be nice if someone took a listen to them and checked back in with a trip report.

Looking at the Chinese iTunes storefront, there's actually a good number of Mandarin podcasts on there. I was half-expecting it to be only ESL and CNN (though there's a lot of that too). I'll try some of them out in the coming days, see if there's anything else I can find that is of interest.

Edit: Looks like most of them are music podcasts. English and English-learning podcasts make up roughly two-thirds of the ones with people actually talking.

[edelweis]

It seems the RFI website has some articles with audio and transcript. Not all pages have both, I am not sure how to find the ones that do.

However, in the main page, scroll down a bit and check out the articles in the 多元视角 深入报道, 一周特约记者专栏, 最新播出, 法广专访, 专题回放 columns on the left side of the page.

Actually these are way beyond my current level, but I am curious to know whether they sound native or whether they have some flaws that would make them unsuitable for listening and reading practice.

[imron]

If you're looking for something with transcripts, my recommendation would be 锵锵三人行. The language is less formal than a news broadcast, there is a range of accents, it's quite topical and talks about recent interesting events that have been happening in Greater China and around the world, it's updated almost daily and there are full transcripts. Video is available on the main site, and other places also provide MP3s.

[Gleaves]

For those that like sci-fi, the magazine 新幻界 (New Realms of Fantasy and Science Fiction) is now doing a podcast of some of their short stories. You can search the back issues for the text of each story (issues are downloadable as pdfs.) Links below.

iTunes tudou

[edelweis]

@imron: thanks for the link. The talk show format make it a little difficult to find the corresponding text but that might mean I just need to try harder

@Gleaves: looks interesting, thanks. Too bad they removed the direct MP3 download links.

Regarding RFI in Chinese (and the BBC, VOA, Autralian radio etc), I'm watching CCTV-F right now, and some of the French sounds awkward (if that roomful of censors is reading this, it might change soon ) so I was wondering whether foreign radios sound equally awkward in Chinese...

(some minor pronunciation glitches, often the rhythm of sentences is a little off, and although they use advanced vocabulary and structures mostly correctly, sometimes it sound distinctly unlike the way a native speaker would arrange words.

And at times they mix English syntax and word usage into French sentences, like it has been translated word for word from an English version... For instance, the English word "eventually" and the French word "éventuellement" have opposite meanings, so the end result is tricky to understand.)

[imron]

The talk show format make it a little difficult to find the corresponding text

The link above that says 'transcripts' should take you to the list of transcripts for each episode.

Each of these transcripts will have a short introduction to the day's episode at the top, and then get straight into it. Look for the line that says something like:

凤凰卫视11月18日《锵锵三人行》，以下为文字实录：

The transcript will begin directly beneath that.

Anyway, although there is a video at the top of each transcript, it may not be from the beginning of the show, therefore it's best to find the video from my link above that says 'Video', where they have links to the full show. The titles used for the transcripts are usually not the same as those used for the video, however if you check the date listed in the transcript (note: not the upload date but the date just before the start of the transcript e.g. 凤凰卫视11月18日《锵锵三人行》) against the date of the video title, then you'll be able to get the correct episode.

[fanglu]

I was wondering whether foreign radios sound equally awkward in Chinese

Sometimes. I've noticed expressions in 德国之声 that would probably not be used if the original had been Chinese. I assume these come from translating from German. The only example can think of of the top of my head is calling the South China Sea 南中国海 rather than 南海, but there are lots of others to do with syntax and word choice. Having said that, its still very useful for listening practise.

[jon831]

I don't know if this has been posted before, but I want to share a fabulous site that I have really found useful for my study:

http://www.laits.ute...nese/index.html

This is from University of Texas, a professor from their Business School, actually, has collaborated and put together these "Cultural Interviews with Chinese Speaking Professionals".

Each video is around 2 minutes, which seems to me an ideal length for studying. And as you'll see they are clustered around subjects - all cultural/business related - that makes repetition of certain themes and associated language really great for smooth studying.

Great for intermediate learners, I think - or anyone a bit above or below the intermediate levels.

Hope others find them as useful as I have!

[imron]

Merged.

I don't know if this has been posted before

Several times in this thread alone, plus in quite a few others too

[Meng Lelan]

It seems like Chinese Pod is starting to do Video Lessons. Well I just saw one Video Lesson. I don't know if subtitled videos qualify as podcasts with transcripts, but it's close, I guess.

[tooironic]

So have we come any closer to finding any integrated sites where you can conveniently download Chinese podcasts with transcripts?

Apart from 锵锵三人行, RTI and 野猫号 of course...

I see plenty on iTunes but I've yet to find one that has transcripts.

Edit: Skeptoid has transcripts, like this one. Very useful!

[wushucrab836]

I stumbled across this when searching for fun animated movies to use when practicing listening comprehension. Might not be the most practical thing but it is interesting and fun. It is 埃及王子。 The subtitles don't match the dialogue so someone has transcribed the entire movie into simplified chinese to match the voice actors. The link to the transcribed script is below. Enjoy!

Video:

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/o8DxSvDq0Ds/

Script:

http://blog.163.com/august_pmo/blog/static/2495781200731115438344/

[JustinJJ]

Not sure if this link has been posted before, but here you can find the national news 新闻联播 complete with transcripts. http://cctv.cntv.cn/.../20130907.shtml. The first link has the entire broadcast, the links below have the individual reports with transcripts below the video.

I've found it useful to put in the whole script into "Chinese word extractor", then learn ten words each day, ordering the words I haven't previously studied either by frequency of use in Chinese, or by frequency of use during the news broadcast.