Full version of Tone Practice now ready

Ni hao, I just went to your website. Is the AIChinese subscription free for Chinesepod members or is it separate, meaning we have to pay?

Xie xie.

Ní hǎo, Abelle

I'm writing to confirm that AIChinese subscription is separate from Chinesepod. Meanwhile, we're running a limited period special promotion which allows registered users to have 14 days free trial. After the period, it would be changed to 7 days.

So, please feel free to try AIChinese.com out. Any comments and advices would be more than welcome!

Best regards, AIChinese Team

Well, actually they do have some sentences, see the basic Chinese lesson? Funny thing is that the lesson titles are all in Chinese! Really challenging for me to understand what they are about...

Hello Brucymilo, Basic Chinese I and II would only take you through elementary to intermediate level. It's quite basic. Meanwhile, you can import Chinesepod lessons onto AIChinese platform to practice. Yes, we only focus on listening and speaking. Best regards, AIChinese Team

RJ - tell me more.

I had a less auspicious experience. I can't get the first set of AI expressions to work at all. So I selected a ChinesePod lesson and the first expression worked fine. It recorded my effort and gave me a score; I could play it back. Then I couldn't get any more to work. When I exited the lesson it did not save my results.

I also can't find a guide to the use of the site overall. I'm not even an engineer and I like an instruction manual to refer to. Any comments?

Oh, maybe I should have given it more time - I went back in for a last look and my results are there. I am ranked first overall (1 out of 122) and my tones are ranked first (1 out of 122). All that from one word! The only expression I can get to work. I think I will quit while I am ahead. ;)

Seriously, I was surprised to see that participant's results are public - I did not see any warning that your results are for everyone else to see, nor did I see any option to keep them private.

Bodawei,

I was able to get both functions to work ok in Firefox. Cpod lessons imported as well. Either way, once you listen to a word and repeat it back into the machine, you get information on tones, initials, and finals. Under the word which is displayed at the top of the page is a graphic line representing the proper slant, along with the slant generated by your own pronunciation. The initial letters will turn red, as will the finals, if something is amiss here. By pointing the cursor at them, you get tips on how to handle this aspect of the pronunciation. There is also the 4 star rating that takes everything into consideration. In addition, you can play back your recording along with the proper one for immediate comparison by ear. This is done by clicking the double arrows. Very powerful I think. The only question is, how accurate is this? I really wish someone more proficient than me, like you or Zhen, (or a native speaker) would give it a try and share some feed back. It does seem to be telling me things that make sense though.

Using this on the vocab list of each lesson adds a powerful way to not only learn the vocab, but to learn the vocab and the proper corresponding tones simultaneously. After repeating a word several times, emphasizing the tones, it becomes part of the spelling of the word so to speak, as it should.

One is tempted to throw the computer across the room at times, but improvement does happen. If the feedback this program gives you is accurate, then this is a very powerful tool I think. Right now, this is my question. How consistent and reliable is the information given on tones, initials, and finals. It seems to me to be ok, but again, give it a try and let me know what you think.

bodawei

only the top 6 ranking folks are displayed. It goes by percentage correct so with one word you can lead the pack but it wont last hehe - or maybe it will. Show me.

I did get it to work on one expression from a ChinesePod lesson - 周末. My results are based on just that word apparently. I fed a lot more in to the system, but it did not seem to take. I am using Chrome on Windows 7, maybe that is the problem.

It did not give me all that feedback on the page where you do the recording - I just got the summary results. Maybe my Flash is not enabled properly - it is Flash I presume.

I agree with you 100% - if it works well it will be a wonderful tool, whether or not you are short on real-life feedback.

well, it only puts your name out there if you are doing well enough to be in the top 6. Its hardly like they are sharing compromising pictures of you with the world.

small chunks yes. And I figured that would be a complaint of the more accomplished. I however find it valuable to learn to pronounce ch, zh, etc correctly and to know that I hit the tones correctly. It doesn't come natural to some of us.

there is a help menu that provides a tutorial. Click the question mark. I dont know if it works in chrome. I will give it a try.

Hee hee I don't know about more accomplished (I still cannot say 女儿 and 儿子 to my satisfaction after years of practice), but there is a lot to be said for whole sentences. I suggest that as an extension to the program - it is sometimes possible to have the individual sounds down pat and miss the rhythm, and still fail to communicate.

I get your point about the lapse in privacy - I just would have liked some warning prominently displayed. I guess you can change your name on the site; I just assumed they were after real names in the registration process.

well if the privacy thing bothers you, you can change your name as you said, but its not so bad to be known for doing well. There are some sentences included in some of their pre-fab lists. I am guessing that in the future this may expand but it is probably much more difficult for the program to catch sentence rhythm issues. Downloading cpod lesson vocab lists is pretty easy and you can even load the vocab lists from every lesson you have bookmarked on your dashboard with one click. Very convenient. So far Im liking this, but the fat lady hasn't sung yet. (maybe that's a foreign expression in Oz?)

No - in Australia we are often waiting for the fat lady to sing. But yes, it is probably foreign. On the subject of foreign and my sensitivity to foreign material I recently checked the facts. Free to air TV in Australia is compelled to have 55% of all program time between 6am and 12 midnight made in Australia! The other 45% (the American part) is comprised entirely of repeats of Two and a Half Men, all screened in prime time. We are truly a nation of bogans. ;) Honestly I was almost glad to get back to Chinese television.

And you're right that it is not bad to be known for doing well, but then you have a reputation to protect. With my second word I might halve my ranking. :)

Definitely would be difficult to catch sentence rhythm, and the permutations and combinations would be large.

I must try downloading the whole vocab list (only those at the Dashboard at a point in time I imagine?)