There is either a problem with all of the sound files at http://www.speaking-japanese.com, or the problem is with me. I get a server problem whenever I try to access those files. The bummer is that I had already downloaded the sound file that go with "Breaking Into Japanese Literature" once already. But with a harddrive crash and so forth, those files are gone. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be anybody to contact listed on the webpage to alert to the "server problem". Can someone else check the site for me? To see if it is just something with my PC?

BTW, that's a pretty cool site. They have something called ACID Kanji that's pretty entertaining, and they have another video thing called "IF...the adventures of a Gaijin in Tokyo" that was fun too.

zazen666 Wrote:update on winds of gath.
It appears that it is not complete, only contains first 10 chapters(out of 15).
However I can say that his reading is very good, very professional, and the translation seems to be spot on.

I might contact him to see if the audio for the rest of the book is available. (I was already considering contacting him to see if you would consider readin Frank Herberts Dune!).

Please do contact him to get him to read 'Dune' - I'd love to get that!

Mark

CharleyGarrett Wrote:Can someone else check the site for me? To see if it is just something with my PC?

The sound files (at least for "Breaking into Japanese Literature") seem to work fine for me. Maybe the server was just down for a bit?

I'm still getting the same error message. It says error #412, which is some sort of a "precondition" check in the header of the download request (doesn't that sound like I know what I'm talking about?) Anyway, since I don't know what I'm talking about, I'm at a loss to know how to modify the header to satisfy the precondition. There was some web pages when I googled 412 that suggested that the site had stuff in place to defeat "bots" from harvesting their output. I must somehow look like a bot.

Later: So, I tried both IE7 and Firefox 2.0.0.11 and it seemed the same problem. Then I thought, y'know both of these are going thru GetRight Pro, so I tried it again after disabling this download manager. Then I got all the files I wanted. So, it seems that the site has done something that seems to break the GetRight DL manager, but still allows the IE7 and Firefox DL wizards to work.

Go figure. Anyway, the audiobooks don't have any problem after all.

http://hummingpark.yamaha.co.jp/

There are supposed to be free audios + texts of children stories on that site. Since the old link is dead though, and my japanese is not good enough jet, I can't tell if this is still true. I get the feeling (of better Rikaichan gave me that idea), that you have to become a member or something like that.

For those that want to quickly grab all the audio and put it on an mp3 player. There is a firefox extension called scrapbook (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/427). It allows you to download websites and all the files.

You can point it at page 1 of this thread and tell it to download all audio files (you have to add ram and rm files yourself if you want them as well but I don't think they will work on any mp3 players). Then get it to go 1 link depth. So it downloads all the audio linked directly and audio linked from pages linked. They all sit in the one folder so you can easily copy them onto your mp3 player. All up it was just under 4 gig.

The other bonus of doing this is that you can now access everything including all the transcripts when you are not connected to the internet.

Sheetz if you think this info is useful enough please edit initial post to include it.

http://hukumusume.com/douwa/pc/jap/itiran/01gatu.htm
This is a list of children's stories both of Japanese and International origins (though all in Japanese). Many of the stories have audio.

http://www3.u-toyama.ac.jp/niho/song/song_jplevel.html
56 japanese children's song, divided into levels of difficulty. They include audio, song sheet and a pop up for translations.

Nukemarine Wrote:http://hukumusume.com/douwa/pc/jap/itiran/01gatu.htm
This is a list of children's stories both of Japanese and International origins (though all in Japanese). Many of the stories have audio.

I can't listen to the audio because it stops and starts, especially when other people are using the internet connection. Is there any way to download the sound file to my computer?

Often it is possible to save the sound file that the browser keeps in cache memory (I use Firefox and CacheViewer).

The texts provided certainly seem great, and their numbers astonishing, but since they were mostly (if not always) written in 19th- beggining of 20th century I got a little afraid. Do you think it is save to read them without being afraid of learning Japanese that is no more used, a "dead language"? Are the kanji used still used the same way? Or were the stories "rewritten" and I'm just wasting your time ?

Thank you, anyone

It wouldn't really matter either way, in the end. Just don't learn from only one source, no matter what that source is, and you'll be fine.
PS. You can listen to girls too

Ok, in that case, I will trust you, choose Wagahai wa neko de aru and hope I won't start talking like an old-fashioned cat

P.S.

Girl talk in literature is much more comprehensible than mens', anyways- unless they start talking in real, because then I sometimes have trouble understanding them even in Czech, and THAT is my native language. *-*

Is there anyway to get any of these on iPod? I'd love to listen to an old Japanese horror story.

QuackingShoe Wrote:It wouldn't really matter either way, in the end. Just don't learn from only one source, no matter what that source is, and you'll be fine.
PS. You can listen to girls too

Quoted for truth.

I've read quite a few times (not on this forum much though) how we shouldn't watch this (shouldn't read that, shouldn't listen to so and so, etc) as it's not good (modern, polite, masculine, feminine, etc).

Hello!
I recommend this site.

http://www.geocities.co.jp/HeartLand-Gaien/7211/
This site contains lots of old stories of Japan.
They can be read both in Japanese and English.
Each story is pretty short and simple.

Have fun!

Can anyone recommend a good streaming 24 hour station - through iTunes or whatever? Ideally, something that had relatively casual speech and not just business news, but anything is okay. Otherwise I download a 20 minute podcast and have it on in the background and then forget to play something else. I'd rather keep getting new input than listen to the same thing on repeat.

A radio station that played music and had casual DJs would be good if they weren't too over the top sounding.

haplology Wrote:Can anyone recommend a good streaming 24 hour station - through iTunes or whatever? Ideally, something that had relatively casual speech and not just business news, but anything is okay. Otherwise I download a 20 minute podcast and have it on in the background and then forget to play something else. I'd rather keep getting new input than listen to the same thing on repeat.

There are no Japanese streams in Shoutcast/iTunes, just some jpop streams run by anime fans (with really bad music focused on Tsunku/Johnnys stuff).

There is this though:
http://www.multilingualbooks.com/online-...anese.html

Get keyholetv. (find out more @http://xorsyst.com/japan/watch-japanese-tv-online/). It takes up almost no room on your computer, it's free, and it's awesome. There are a whole bunch of Japanese TV stations (terebi tokyo, terebi asahi, fuji terebi, tbs, and lots of others) that stream live in a little window on your computer. There's anime, dramas, news, and lots of other things. The audio and video quality are far from hidef, but it's still great. I often have it on in the background so I get new input besides the stuff in my itunes library. It's cool because it's actually what Japanese people are watching in Japan at that moment. And you can tell which stations have good stuff on them because it shows the amount of current viewers. You should get it.

I knew there *had* to be a way to find Japanese streaming podcasts in iTunes. It's so obvious that I never found it.

At the bottom of the iTunes Store main page, just click on the dropdown list for store location and choose 日本語. Now when you click on Podcasts - all Japanese stuff comes up.

News, comedy, kids stuff (written キッズ instead of 子供), etc.

haplology Wrote:I knew there *had* to be a way to find Japanese streaming podcasts in iTunes. It's so obvious that I never found it.

At the bottom of the iTunes Store main page, just click on the dropdown list for store location and choose 日本語. Now when you click on Podcasts - all Japanese stuff comes up.

News, comedy, kids stuff (written キッズ instead of 子供), etc.

Didn't you say that you didn't want podcasts?

I strongly recommend the natsume souseki in this thread.
Some time ago, when I first saw I tought "aw, it must be so old that it is rotting". But it is not the case. If you did the same as me, bother to give it a second chance.

Anyone had success using Keyhole TV on a Mac?

yukkuri_kame Wrote:Anyone had success using Keyhole TV on a Mac?

Yup, I run it with Crossover. The channel menu is buggy (I can't fix the mojibake and it flickers like mad, but it works fine for watching). It also of course works fine under parallels.

The key to make it work under crossover is to add a dll override with a copy of gdiplus.dll from windowsxp.

I just figured something out that is going to make a huge difference to how I read Japanese.

If you have an iPhone or iPod touch (maybe others too) you can do this. In the properties of each track copy the transcript and paste it in the lyrics section. Then select it as an audiobook. Now you can read along while you listen really easily all within one file! Works really well with the only drawbacks being that the text is a little small and it doesnt retain your position in the lyrics (story) if you close out of the ipod section.

Since we dont just use one massive file but have it split up into chapters this isnt a problem. It would even be possible to do duel text in there with english following the japanese if you were keen. I havent found a limit to the amount of characters in there yet.

This is not an audiobook, but if anyone could tell me how good the audio on this site is...?

http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~heha/j/b.../Index.htm

Expand "Lektionen 1..10" on the left side and then click on the loudspeaker left to Text.

Is this good audio stuff for a beginner? Too slow? Lemme know please. Thanks!

Edit: This is lesson #1...

Quote:第一課　日本語の勉強

フンボルト大学はベルリンにある。大学の建物は大きい。そして、立派だ。フンボルト大学は学生の数が多い。

私は学生だ。フンボルト大学で日本語を勉強する。中村先生が私たちの日本語の先生だ。中村先生は日本人だ。中村先生は私たちに毎日、日本語を教える。私たちは教室で日本語を話す。日本学科の教室は小さい。しかし、きれいだ。

私は毎日、大学に行く。バスで行く。きょうの午前中は、日本語の授業に出席する。午後は、図書館で本を読む。大学の図書館には、学生がたくさんいる。しかし、静かだ。今晩は、家で日本語の単語を覚える。それから、日本語で作文を書く。そのあと、日本の友だちに日本語で手紙を書く。日本語はむずかしい。しかし、日本語の勉強は楽しい。