Full version of Tone Practice now ready

RJBerki i missed ur post. u r absolutely right. i did notice the color change now. i initially thought it was randomly marked black n red... it's really brilliant stuff! (except that some tips could have been a bit clearer... well perhaps not in that small box) i'm absolutely lovin it

lucyirence. i hope u also noticed color change RJBerki talked abt? u should be able to see some initials and finals turn red unless if u get 100% right every time...

I agree with u. including a comment on the initials and finals would be useful; better still would be highlighting particular initials/finals giving problems

Hi Lucy

Did you notice that the initials and finals do turn red (center top of page right above the tone slash) when they are mispronounced. Once they turn red, pointing the cursor at the red letters opens a small screen that describes the proper technique to pronouncing that initial or final correctly. A lot of info is presented in a small package. So far I am finding this very helpful.

Siennea520. I’m thinking along similar lines. I noticed the learning statistics on “my home” shows how much I have learnt on a daily basis – I think it would be really cool to show my average daily score (something like that) too. Seeing my progress will certainly give me more comfort in the money I spent!

RJBerki,

Many thanks for your feedback and your kind help to other AIChinese users - we really appreciate it!

If you still have the problems of key commands and "connecting to recorder server.", could you send the below information to aichinese@aispeech.com so that we can have an analysis?

CPU model

Memory size and model

Operation system and version

Browser and version

Best regards, AIChinese team@AI Speech Ltd

AI,

btw- I was unable to get the key commands you mention to work. In any browser.

Other - the program sometimes hangs on "connecting to recorder server." Sometimes the back arrow and re-choosing the lesson will fix and sometimes I have to close the program and re-start to get it going.

Bodawei-

the flash settings (which can be reached by right clicking on the microphone detection screen that pops up (or can be reached with cog wheel in upper right speaking bar) allows you to choose to "allow" AI to use your microphone. The default on this is "no" and even if you click "allow" and "remember" it sometimes slips back to the default setting which will cause everything to gray out as you have described. A little tinkering should get you there if you really want it. I am using adobe flash 10. Maybe there is a better choice? Launching practice sessions from either the "my home" page or the "lesson center" page does not seem to matter but if one gives trouble try the other.

Im sure some will find this more useful than others. Keep in mind that this is not to teach meaning and how something is used in a sentence, but this is an initial, final, and tonal pronunciation tool. Period.

How did it go? Hope u managed to get it work without compromising your “outstanding record” ;-)

I'm going to have to go back and give it a burl, and risk my outstanding record. :)

I have aichinese website up run from google chrome + windows 7. firefox also works.

Bodawei,

one more thing. If you are still having trouble hit the cogwheel and check you microphone settings. If they are not set right you will have problems.

The way I do this exercise is when I can say a word 10 times in a row with 4 stars, correct tone, and no red flag on either the initial or the final (a perfect score) - then I can move to the next word. I think you will find it challenging.

Bodawei,

hehe, I dont watch TV, but my wife does, and I watch by "default osmosis". In my house re-runs of Earl and 2.5 men are on every night right after dinner, during my Cpod computer session. Small world.

'My Name is Earl' - I love it. Earl, Randy, Darlene, the Crab Man.. like family. Along with 30 Rock they are late viewing, or on the new digital channels. Sadly Boston Legal is no more but we can get all these shows in China on demand, on the Internet. Now you know what I do when not on ChinesePod. Ok, with two computers I can be on both.

Maybe 2.5 Men being west-coast looks a bit like Australia for me (the beach and the shorts and all), I like a bit of absurdity.

Thanks for the instructions on downloading ChinesePod material to AISpeech.

You don't like "Two and a Half Men"? hehe, Each Cast member has a different character flaw, pushed to the extreme. Kind of a life lesson for everyone. The writers are clever but I have to admit, it is getting old. The theme and characters are now over-developed and predictable, but it was funny at first, and still can be at times. Speaking of bogan TV, do you have "My Name is Earl"?

you said:

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

There are 2 ways to download cpod material. 1. Search for and pick a lesson or 2. Download all "bookmarked" lessons. To download a lesson means you get every word in that lesson's vocab list (including the supplementary vocab). Correcting or learning correct tones, initials, and finals, one lesson at a time. Im thinking this will help. Time will tell.

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?)

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?)

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, 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.

But RJ you've never heard me speak! 我可不流利。

I can see there would be demand for a tool like this. For myself, like Bodawei I think has said, where I run into problems is when sentences start getting longer; I don't think I have much trouble with words in isolation or very basic sentences. So in that sense I don't know how useful this would be to me.

If I do try it out, I'll give feedback here.

Hi er.. www.AIChinese.com - it would help if we knew your name.. :)

The site worked correctly for one expression (so all the settings are fine, my microphone works etc., it recorded my results) and then I could not get any other expressions to work at all. When it doesn't work, the playback button you refer to remains greyed-out. Hope that helps.

Hello bodawei,

Welcome to AIChinese and thanks for your comments. I'm wondering if you still have problem practicing with AIChinese.com. Before release, AIChinese have passed tests on major browsers: IE7-8, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc under Windows XP, Vista, 7 and Mac. It shouldn't have problem dealing with your system based on what I read.

Therefore please check:

1. if your microphone set properly - click setting in the practice screen and speak into your microphone and you should see the volume visualized. See if it fits into the appropriate level

2. click the microphone icon (or. use the shortcut key "R") and speak during the progress bar fulfilling.

3. if the system didn't take your input, use shortcut key "U" or click the playback button to the right of the recording bar to listen to your recording. If the volume is too low to be heard, please change the volume setting of your operating system.

That should solve the problem. However, if not, please would you help describe what happened after you record your own input? That would certainly help us to improve! Thanks!

Best regards, AIChinese Team@AI Speech

www.AIChinese.com

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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

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...

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

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.