Pronuciation Practice

How about voice recognition? It looks like Windows Vista now has built-in voice recognition (http://www.microsoft.com/enable/training/windowsvista/sroptions.aspx). Unfortunately, I haven't figured out to use this for speaking Chinese (or any language other than the one you generally use to operate your computer). Any suggestions by anyone??

thanks joachim! i have windows vista so ill give it a try!

I talk to just about every Chinese person I see. I know this is probably a bit too eager, but I'm desperately learning how to speak properly. Other than that, I talk to someone on MSN that I met on Zhongwen.com. This is a Chinese person learning english and I ask for an honest opinion on my speaking skills. One more thing is that I'm constantly talking to myself in Chinese. Sorry...I only have this very obvious bit of insight. Actually...there is also this Chinese Messenger program called "Tencent QQ". This is a chinese program, but they have an English edition. There are a ton of Chinese speaking people who are also eager to talk to English speaking people. I haven't gotten very far with this program, but I think it'll be handy in the near future.

I've found that the very best way to practice pronunciation is just by mimicry! You have everything you need right here on Chinesepod. Just listen very, very carefully to the recordings, mimic the speaker and you should be okay. Also they have a pronunciation guide here that you can use to isolate any particular sound. Just remember to read the pronunciation guide sound by sound to give you some clues and helpful hints. By far though, the most helpful thing I can think of is mimicry.

Thanks guys for all the help!

Don't forget Sinosplice's tone drills. Those are helpful. I also subscribe to "Live Interactive Chinese" out of Taiwan, which has voice recognition. But my pronunciation is so bad, it rarely recognizes what I am saying!

I have found that recording your own voice and then listening to it helps you realize where the problems are. You could take a line from a CPod lesson (the section where you can hear one line at a time) and compare your own speaking to that. Also, finding a diagram of where in your mouth to put your tongue, lips, etc. is very helpful. I have some in old textbooks (one was my college professor, one was Mandarin Made Easier and another is Chinese Made Easier).