brushing up Chinese via ipod

[taobenli]

Hi, all-

I'm currently an M.A. student and just found out that I got a Fulbright internship in Taipei for next year. I would be working 20-30 hours a week and have the rest of the time free to learn more Chinese or do my own research. I really want to go to Taiwan next year, but whether I'll go or not is a bit up in the air because of personal reasons, and also waiting to hear if I get off the waitlist for the top school I applied to for a PhD program, and get funding.

I've been studying Korean for a few years (and lived in Japan for a year before that) so my Chinese has gotten rusty. Chinese was my major in college and I took four years of language classes, including a term in Beijing on the ACC program, and have also taken one year at the graduate level of advanced readings (5th year). Next year if I go to Taiwan I'll need to use Chinese at my job as much as possible, and want to get really fluent just to fulfill personal goals, as well. My reading ability is pretty good (both traditional and simplified) but a lot of times I can remember what something means without remembering how it's pronounced. My listening is still okay, but my speaking has really gone to pieces- I can't string a sentence together. Next term I'll probably get a Chinese language partner through a program at my university. But here's my question:

I am looking for some advanced listening materials, possibly news radio broadcasts or books on tape kind of material, with some translations in English. I want to listen to files on my ipod to just get used to hearing and understanding Chinese again and to get my tones back up to snuff. Free programs would be best, but if there are any that have minimal cost that's okay, too. Taiwanese pronounciation would be good, since I'm really not used to that. I have always only put CDs on my ipod, never done itunes or podcasts, so I'd love to know where to look.

Thanks!

taobenli

[Shadowdh]

You could check out chinesepod.com but I am not sure if they are advanced enough for you...

[gato]

Try these

Chinese webradio

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/7572-chinese-webradio&highlight=news+broadcast

and

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/6967-will-this-work-to-develop-listening-skills&page=2&highlight=sdp

[kudra]

VOA Mandarin video news broadcasts, Windows Media Player, and Real Player.

http://www.voanews.com/chinese/program-schedule.cfm

I don't know how, but there is probably a way to strip out the audio and save it as mp3.

You get visual queues, but even so, it is a bit advance for me, so probably about right for you.

The voa page is all hanzi, so the links to pure audio may be staring me in the face, and I wouldn't know it.

Otherwise, for intermediate, there's always David and Helen.

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

Sounds like D+H might be too easy for you.

Check the bbc web site, they might have mp3 of news in Mandarin.