I found a very interesting CCTV 4 Chinese TV show called "Happy China", in which the female host and an American co-host travel the entire East Coast of China, teaching us Chinese and Chinese culture along the way. All 297 episodes (each 8:40 long), including full Chinese and English transcripts, are available at http://english.cntv.cn/program/learnchinese/happychina/index.shtml.

I checked out the first one; not a bad resource, especially since its fairly quick but the episodes are short enough to be manageable on a daily basis. One thing I strongly dislike, however, is the use of English subtitles - the eye is just naturally drawn to them and I'd rather not have the option (just a Chinese transcript is enough to work with).

Still, good find.

I fixed up the first transcript (see below). As sentences are split across multiple lines it was quite time consuming (45 minutes). The first episode is mainly political BS, but still quite interesting in terms of vocabulary. I am going to create a "Happy China" Skritter vocabulary list, along with Pleco flashcards. According to Chinese Word Extractor, this first episode has 758 words, of which 350 are unique. CWE makes it possible to sort the unique words by first occurrence in the text.

大家好，我是快乐的王渊源。
Hello there! I am HappyWang Yuanyuan.

大家好，我是快乐的韩佳。
Hi! I'm Merry Han Jia.

那我们现在是在河北金山岭长城。
We are now on the Jinshanling Great Wall in Hebei Province.

从今天开始，王渊源就要跟我一起正式为大家主持《快乐中国—学汉语》了。
Starting from today,　Wang Yuanyuan will be with me jointly hosting Happy China — Learning Chinese in a formal manner.
　　
我也十分高兴能够加入《快乐中国》的大家庭。
I am very pleased to join the big family of Happy China.
　　
和大家一起学汉语一直是我的梦想啊。
Learning Chinese together with our audience　has always been my dream.

不光你的梦想实现了，我们《快乐中国》也实现了一个梦想呢。
Not only has your dream come true,　but our Happy China's dream has also come true.

那是什么呀？
What is it?

就是这次的“万里海疆快乐行”系列节目。
It is our serial program, Happy Journey across China.
　　
那这个活动其实我们已经策划了很久。
It's a project　which we have planned for a long time.

看着它从一个构思慢慢地变成现实真的是很让人兴奋啊！
Seeing a concept gradually turning into reality is surely something exciting!

我能想像。
I can imagine that.

我记得今天还有一个和我们很有关系的一个新闻发布会呢。
I remember today there'll be a　press conference related with us.
　　
没错儿。
Exactly.

就是汉语国际推广北京基地揭牌仪式。
There'll be also a plaque-unveiling ceremony for the International Chinese Promotion Base in Beijing.

要在人民大会堂举行。
All these will be held at the　Great Hall of the People.

会上会正式宣布“万里海疆快乐行”的启动仪式。
The press conference will　also announce the formal kickoff of Happy Journey across China.
　　
那可太好了！
That's great!
　　
我们还是看看会议的现场吧。
Now let's take a look at the　press conference.

你看，现在进场的是国务委员陈至立和全国人大副委员长许嘉璐。
Look,now entering the conference hall are State Councilor Chen Zhili and NPC Vice Chairman Xu Jialu.
　　
今天各级领导、国内外汉语专家，还有许多媒体记者都来到了人民大会堂。
Also at the Great Hall of the People are　various other leaders, experts of　Chinese both from home and abroad　and media reporters.

嗬！人还真不少哪！
Aha! There are quite a lot of　people indeed!

汉语国际推广北京基地的成立是一件很重要的事情。
The founding of the International Chinese Promotion Base in Beijing is an important event.
　　
整个基地由教学中心、中国汉语网、多媒体创作部等部门组成。
The entire base is comprised of the Teaching Center, the Linese.com Website　and the Multimedia Production　Department.

这就能让更多的外国朋友通过各种途径掌握汉语、了解汉语的魅力了。
The base is intended to allow more　foreign friends　to learn Chinese and understand　the charms of Chinese through various means.

你看，国务委员陈至立亲自为汉语国际推广北京基地揭牌了。
Look, State Councilor Chen Zhili is unveiling the plaque for ICPB.
　　
这次会议肯定能掀起一轮学习汉语的热潮。
This press conference will definitely set off a new Chinese learning fever.

没错儿。
Absolutely.

这次新闻发布会的主要目的就是推广汉语，让汉语走向世界。
This press conference is mainly　aimed to propagate the Chinese language and make it go global.
　　
那不就是跟我们这次活动的目的一样嘛。
Isn't the aim the same　as that of our today's activity?

对啊。
Yes.

要说起来，这次活动能够顺利地进行真的是很不容易。
In fact, it wasn't easy for us to have successfully carried out this activity.
　　
我们栏目组的每一位成员都付出了辛勤的劳动。
All members of our team　have done their bit.

那我们向观众朋友们介绍介绍我们栏目组的成员，怎么样？
What about an introduction of other members of this team?

好主意！
Good idea!
　　
韩佳，咱们第一站是去哪儿啊？
Han Jia, what is our first destination?

第一站？
Our first destination?
　　
光顾着跟你说话了。
I was so preoccupied with talking to you.

授旗仪式就要开始了。
The flag presenting ceremony is about to begin.

最重要的时间已经到了！
Here comes the most important moment!

许嘉璐副委员长还要亲自为我们授旗呢。
Vice Chairman Xu Jialu is going to present us with the flag himself.
　　
那太棒了！
That's great!

嘘！仪式开始了。
Sh! The ceremony has begun.

我们《快乐中国—学汉语》“万里海疆快乐行”摄制组车队已经准备就绪。
The filming crew of Happy China's　Happy Journey across China　is ready.

请许嘉璐副委员长宣布车队启程。
Now we'd like Vice Chairman Xu Jialu to announce the start of the journey.

《快乐中国—学汉语》“万里海疆快乐行”正式启程。
I declare the formal start of Happy Journey across China of Happy China—Learning Chinese.

观众朋友们，我们快乐车队现在已经踏出了第一步，正在向辽宁前进。
Audience friends, our happy caravan has already taken its first step, heading for Liaoning Province.
　　
从北方的辽宁到南方的广西，我们将会跨越十个省份，走遍中国的海岸线。
From Liaoning in the north to Guangxi in the south, we're going to cross ten provinces along China's coastline.
　　
全程为18000公里。
The whole journey covers a distance of 18,000 kilometers.

在此期间，我，快乐的韩佳。
During this period, I, Merry Han Jia …
　　
我，快乐的王渊源。
And also me, Happy Wang Yuanyuan …

我们将带领大家以自驾车的形式来完成这次“万里海疆快乐行”。
We'll be taking you on a drive-travel trip to complete our Happy Journey across China.
　　
观众朋友们可以随着我们一起学习汉语。
Our audience friends can also learn Chinese along with us.
　　
还有呢！
And more than that!

合： 一起赏心悦目。
Enjoy a Feast for the Eyes, too.

赏心悦目：
　　
有你路途遥远都不会累
With you on my way, it won't be a tiring long journey.

只要有你相随，握着方向盘。
As long I have you with me,　I'm sitting behind the wheel.

路旁飞过的画面好像放映的就是我的从前。
The fleeting views on the roadsides seem to be a flashback of my past.
　　
如今有你坐在我身边
You're finally sitting by my side.
　　
我已经盼望了这么多年
It's a long-cherished dream come true.

沿着海岸线我看见那一片天。
Along the coastline, I see a vast open sky.

透过阳光仿佛看到梦想实现。
I see my dream come true through the sunshine.

泪水就和海水一样咸。
Our tears are as salty as seawater.

希望我们能变得勇敢一点。
I wish we could be more courageous.

你说生活有时痛苦有时美。
You say life tastes sweet as well as bitter.

快乐对我们来说就像一杯水。
Happiness to us is just like a glass of water.

你努力地追 从不后退。
We should pursue it and never back down.

尽管有时无味有时会喝醉。
Though sometimes we may feel insipid or drunk.

我说人生不仅仅概括错与对。
I believe life isn't just about right and wrong.

太多的无奈就让他它消逝变成灰。
Let the many sorrows perish into ashes.

我仔细品味沿途有你的美。
I am relishing the details of your beauty all along the way.

亲爱的观众朋友们，我们“万里海疆快乐行”活动将会持续一年半的时间。
Dear audience friends,　our Happy Journey activity　will last one year and a half.

在这段时间内，我们会和您一同分享我们的所见所闻。
During this period, we'll be sharing with you our experiences on the way.
　　
当然了，精彩的汉语教学内容也少不了。
Of course, there'll be no lack of Chinese teaching content.
　　
我们的联系方式没有改变。
The method to contact us　remains the same.
　　
不过多了一样新的内容。
But there'll be something new.

那就是我们在新浪和汉语网上的官方博客。
That is our official blog　on sina.com.cn and linese.com.

我们每天都会更新我们的博客。
We'll update our blog every day.

有兴趣的朋友，可以在博客上给我们留言，说出您的想法或者是建议。
If you are interested, you may leave a message on our blog　to let us know your thoughts or suggestions.

对。我们节目又该结束了。
Yes. But our program is about to end here.

最后还是要提醒您，口号可没有变啊。
To wrap up, we'd like to remind you that our slogan hasn't changed.
　　
合： 学说中国话，朋友遍天下！
Learn Chinese and make friends everywhere!

I created the list (http://www.skritter.com/vocab/list?list=180999728), created a first section and wanted to add the 238 words of the first episode (CWE filters out the 300 most common words) but was told that 200 words is the maximum for a section. Why on earth? Am I supposed to split each episode in half, adding "(part 1)" and "(part 2)" to each section? Guys, I'm sorry, but that just plain sucks. Really disappointed. :-/

I'm a little confused, after watching the episode you had 238 words that you didn't understand, or are you simply trying to put all unique words into a vocabulary list.

I'm trying to put all unique words into the vocabulary list. Pretty much the same thing you did with your New Practical Chinese Reader list.

The 200 word limit of sections is due to an old performance issue, and once that was fixed the Skritter team decided to keep the cap at 200. Smaller lists tend to be easier to handle, and helps encourage a little more organization within lists.

I dug up an old thread that talked a little bit more about it if you are interested.
http://www.skritter.com/forum/topic?id=39147053

Skritter usability aside, I have a question from a student/teacher standpoint. Is there any particular reason why you need to import all unique words into the list? If someone realistically does not understand 80% or more of what is being said in these episodes than they should take some time to study other material and revisit it later.

Yes, it is super easy to have a computer just spit out a bunch of information about the number of unique characters, but is it really the best option for studying? I think the work you did on the transcript is awesome (thanks for sharing!) but using this kind of material to self study seems like a very personalized experience. Rather than add a list with 200+ words couldn't we simply read the transcript and add the words we want to study to our own list?

Either that, or I would recommend taking a more "textbook" approach to list creation. Ask yourself, what words are crucial to comprehension, and also... assuming that people at an intermediate level would be looking at this list, what words will they most likely not understand. It isn't easy... textbook creation is an art form, but we need more focus than just every single word that appears once in a text.

Again, this opinion is my own, I'm curious what others have to say on the matter.

It would be the best option for me. My action plan is the same as for the NPCR series:

- Watch/listen to the episode/lesson;
- Learn all words for that episode/lesson in Skritter;
- Watch/listen to the episode/lesson again.

I am only a beginner (currently NPCR lesson 17) and want to learn non-textbook vocabulary in context, as well as learn how the textbook vocabulary is used in the real world, reinforcing that vocabulary.

I would suggest upping the limit to e.g. 300. There will eventually be some 6000 words in the list and I fail to see how an extra 38 (or 138, for that matter) per section would affect performance in this modern day and age.

I've had lists with more than 200 words, such as the NPCR volume 6. And yeah, I just split it up, example: Chapter 2 - pt.1, Chapter 2 - pt. 2.

It's really not that bad.

范博涵, got it. I'll talk to the rest of the guys about the limit, but for now it is still at 200. You'll just have to split lists into parts for the time being.

Sounds like an ambitious plan and I'm sure you'll learn a ton in the process.

Best of luck with your studies!

@SkritterJake I fully agree. I think there are quickly diminishing returns from trying to bomb yourself with 238 new words per 8 minute section of media. If I went by the same rigor I'd be adding around 300-500 new words per episode of 奋斗; if I did that my Skritter queue would be so backlogged that I'd probably either still be on episode 5, crawling slowly through, or have just given up entirely.

Instead I take the view that media is intended to be a passive, immersive approach to learning. I watch episodes of 奋斗 mostly without pausing, and only stop to take down new words when I'm absolutely lost in a sentence, or for words which repeatedly appear such as names or slang which keeps coming up again and again. Still, I limit the number of these that I'll add to Skritter to only a couple per episode. At the moment watching TV shows for me is more about building confidence that I can recognize/understand what I've already studied at native speeds and accents in a wide variety of situations, further improve my ear for full speed Chinese in general, and build a good habit for using Chinese media everyday for at least an hour or so.

Adding new words from media isn't a priority at all for me; I'm following a textbook serious and ChinesePod which already have me adding 10-15 new words per day to Skritter, and anything more would be asking for burnout. All those important words in the TV series will eventually be added - after all, if they are important enough they'll continue popping up in all avenues of study (if not until more advanced levels).

@atdlouis: You have to admit it is an eyesore. I want:

Episode 1: Departure Ceremony [238 words]
Episode 2: Dandong Port [259 words]

and not

Episode 1: Departure Ceremony (Part 1) [200 words]
Episode 1: Departure Ceremony (Part 2) [38 words]
Episode 2: Dandong Port (Part 1) [200 words]
Episode 2: Dandong Port (Part 2) [59 words]

For 297 episodes, it would be quite cumbersome to have 594 entries like this. People who want to make a word list of a specific episode would have to export both parts and concatenate them.

@icebear: If I do not know most of these 238 words and cannot understand 8 minutes of conversation because of that then why should I progress to another episode? It makes a lot more sense to me to learn those 238 words at a rate of, say, 12 per day, and progress to the next episode after 3 weeks. Given that the context will be the same throughout the entire series, there should be a lot of recurring vocabulary. Each episode will be a building block for the next. I am not yet at a level where I can just watch any TV series and pick out the few words I do not recognize.

Because spending 3 weeks learning the vocabulary for one episode isn't very fun?
If you learn stuff which is more appropriate for your level, then (a) you can enjoy the content, making it much easier to study more, and (b) you can slot new words into already built up sentence patterns - making the learning much more practical and effective.

What you are suggesting is similar to telling an intermediate learner to listen to a Chinese Pod advanced lesson and essentially learn it by rote. Of course they will pick up stuff, but is it really the best use of their time?

@范博涵 Fair enough regarding the pace you've set. As I mentioned, I don't use media as a source for adding new words, but reinforcing ones I've learned from more structured, leveled material.

I'm sure you'll learn some worthwhile Chinese from your approach, but I personally would invest more time elsewhere at early to intermediate levels (such as yours?). Having to study a word list for 3 weeks to understand a 8 minute video seems incredibly boring to me; why not find some more level appropriate material? With ChinesePod (or other podcasts) lower levels typically are such that with a dozen or so words you can understand a minute long dialogue - you could cruise through a new dialogue a day. Textbooks such as NPCR are similar, with 30-40 words for 2 dialogues and a written text - a new chapter every 5-6 days. Admittedly the conversations can be dry, and initially too slow, but at least its comprehensible on a shorter time frame.

Of course you may be doing these already... in which case I would say, why overload yourself with so much additional material? I think one should try to learn 10-15 words per day from a core source or two that is appropriate to their level (for me its ChinesePod and NPCR), and then use other materials to immerse themselves further in Chinese. Adding more words from those additional sources ends up drowning out the core needs of a learner (from level appropriate material) with nice but hardly necessary extra vocab.

--

Regarding which words to add to your lists, I'd argue that the list would be more helpful if you first filter the HSK1 or even HSK2 words (or, alternatively, NPCR1) before making the list. Given how high frequency the characters are in those lists, its very very likely that anyone stepping up to media viewing has already got a decent grasp of those; and if not, I'd argue there are other materials they should be studying besides TV shows.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, its just a difference in learning philosophies, and while it works for me its surely not the only good one.

范博涵， when you make these word lists, are they of every word mentioned in the episode? Or are they just the words you haven't learned yet?

I would think that as you progress through the episodes, the number of words in your lists will go down, until you're only adding the specialized vocabulary.

edit

@atdlouis: creating the list is a 3 step process:

1) Fix up the transcription into single sentence/English translation pairs and save it to a text file.
2) Analyze that text file using zhtoolkit.com's Chinese Word Extractor, creating a list of unique words in the text sorted by the line numbers in which they occur.
3) Copy and paste CWE's output into Excel and copy and paste the simplified Chinese column into the Skritter vocabulary list.

I agree that the number of words for every episode will likely go down due to recurring vocabulary in next episodes. However, it is difficult to say at this point whether or not they word count will drop below 200.

OK makes sense.

1) Are you reformatting for the extractor software? You said it was pretty time consuming to reformat. I'm pretty sure you don't need to; you'll still get the same results if you don't reformat it. But if you're formatting it for your own study, then nevermind.

2) Are you using the "filter" folder in the extractor software directory, to filter out the words you've already learned with Skritter? You can export your Skritter words, and paste into a notepad file in this folder (first pasting into excel & deleting the pinyin & english definition columns - you just want hanzi in the notepad file). Then select this notepad file in the extractor software using file -> preferences.

The results will filter out all of your Skritter words, which makes it much more manageable. For example, 高兴 is on your list, but I'm sure you've learned it in the NPCR by now. The filter function will remove all of those basic words that you know, so you can concentrate on the words that you don't know.

Hey 范博涵, a few more thoughts:

When I use the CWE, I still have to format the list a bit for two things:

1) Obvious words. In your list, you've got a couple obvious words like: 不少 (not few); 那是 (that is...). If you know 不 and you know 少, then you know 不少. Same goes for 那是. This may not apply to you since you are just beginning, and you may want to put all the words in your list for review. But as you start getting up there in your word count, it gets time consuming to waste review time on words that are obvious on their face. I normally delete these. The CWE offers a lot that begin with "不" and "有".

2) Missed compounds. CWE doesn't pick up everything, and the more familiar you get with Chinese, the better "feel" you have for when characters belong in compounds. I picked one up in your list: 揭牌. CWE didn't put these together, but they actually go together - it means "unveil". I didn't actually know that before, but looking at the text, I could just know they went together.

The missed compounds will be harder for you because you're just starting out, but you will get better with time. You've already finished book 1 of NPCR, you are moving fast.

3) Consider making your list for personal study. You've made these published lists, I think to offer for other people to use. But you have a very unique way of studying; you're pushing yourself harder than most other people, and I don't think it will be useful to other people. Most people who need to learn 没错儿 (not bad) aren't going to bother with 揭牌会议 (unveiling ceremony).

I close-read literary short stories, and I divide the list by how much I want to accomplish in a week. If you want to learn the first 50 words in a week, then make that a section. The next week, make another section of the words you want to learn. Anyway that's how I study, and studying is a personal thing, so if that doesn't sound like your thing, then stick with what you're doing. I find the "1 list section = 1 week's work" a lot easier to keep myself on track with my study goals. Because you're publishing the lists for the public, you might not feel you can divide the lists that way, but like I said, I don't think most people will find the lists that useful because you're including basic & advanced vocab side by side.

@icebear: I have almost completed the three first lessons of NPCR book 2 ...in less than a week. But obviously, I will not be able to keep up that pace as I am going to add Happy China and ChinesePod to the mix.

@atdlouis: I am not using the CWE filter to filter out my words that are already in Skritter. After I imported the words I noticed that Skritter is aware of which of the words I already know, so I will let Skritter's SRS take care of things. At my level and especially with my bad memory, the more repetition and exposure in different contexts, the better. Regarding fixing up Happy China's transcripts: I am doing this because I want to use them for reading practice (much like NPCR). I can probably largely automate the process in Notepad++. A simple regex replace of "[A-Za-z0-9\,\.\!\?\'\:\ \-]" by "" removes all the English text. Then I just turn the double "\r\n" into a single one and presto: properly formatted Chinese text.

I set two basic goals in Beeminder:

https://www.beeminder.com/fanbohan/skritter
https://www.beeminder.com/fanbohan/skrittertime

It is going to be tough today. I did not have much time to Skritter at work and actually went two characters down instead of up (damn you, sleep deprivation).

You might also find this interesting/helpful:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/37910-tv-challenge-for-newbieselementary-chinese-learners/

@icebear - ah, I was just looking at that and I wrote a comment, but it won't show up at once because I haven't commented on chinese-forums enough.

I had exactly the reaction mentioned above: there is a lot of vocabulary in 8 minu8tes of video, and it was more useful for me to pick up some of the vocabulary myself than to answer the questions in that 'challenge' (which looked more like notes for teaching a class to me).

@Zeppa - no comment on the questions, I didn't bother with it, but the material of the video seemed beginner appropriate...

That is true. I watched two of the cartoons. It is a shame that no transcripts are available though.

Awesome thanks!!

I found out that CCTV10Education channel on YouTube offers the first 11 episodes in HD (720p):

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2BEE4B3E516E3A97&feature=plcp

Each episode actually only has 5 to 6 minutes of limited dialogue, mostly focussed on grammar points.

Which character extraction tool are you guys using ?

Does it work with word and one note ? or just web pages ?

Alxx,

It is the Chinese Word Extractor. It analyzes a body of text, and then provides a word list.

You can download it here:

http://www.zhtoolkit.com , in the "tools" section.

If you have any questions on how to use it, go ahead and ask.