Pronunciation Errors

[nlucchesi]

I'm using Flashcards and have pronunciation (in the female voice) turned on so that it plays when the answer is displayed.

I've noticed that some pronunciations are in error or in poor condition. For example, 尾 (wei) is pronounced with a "v" sound instead of a "w" and 两 (liang) has loud static at the beginning.

Are you able to correct pronunciations? Would you like me to compile a list of pronunciations that I think are incorrect or in poor condition?

 

[mikelove]

I'm using Flashcards and have pronunciation (in the female voice) turned on so that it plays when the answer is displayed.

I've noticed that some pronunciations are in error or in poor condition. For example, 尾 (wei) is pronounced with a "v" sound instead of a "w" and 两 (liang) has loud static at the beginning.

Are you able to correct pronunciations? Would you like me to compile a list of pronunciations that I think are incorrect or in poor condition?

The 'v' sound in 'wei' is actually just an accent thing, and quite common among Mandarin speakers - since there's no 'v' syllable to get it confused with we don't really consider it a problem. Re the static, though, we've been working on ways to improve that but it's very tough to fix without also losing important details. Compiling a list isn't really necessary since we already have a pretty thorough one on our end - we've actually got an update we're almost ready to release that fixes some of the biggest errors (and increases the volume a bit too) - but thanks for the offer.

But our main plan going forward is to downplay the female audio recordings (which we've never been entirely happy with) in favor of an automated text-to-speech system which we've recently licensed; for legal reasons we can't give that away to previous purchasers for free, but we can let you credit the entire cost of the female audio module towards the purchase of that system, and set the list price low enough that it costs almost nothing that way.

 

[nlucchesi]

But our main plan going forward is to downplay the female audio recordings (which we've never been entirely happy with) in favor of an automated text-to-speech system which we've recently licensed; for legal reasons we can't give that away to previous purchasers for free, but we can let you credit the entire cost of the female audio module towards the purchase of that system, and set the list price low enough that it costs almost nothing that way.

Can you characterize when you will ship the text-to-speech audio? Real soon now? In some distant update?

I'm looking forward to it.

Thank you.

- nello

 

[mikelove]

Can you characterize when you will ship the text-to-speech audio? Real soon now? In some distant update?

Probably Q112, though some of the features that use it (flashcard auto-advance, e.g.) may take a bit longer.

 

[rhizome]

Hi,

I have a question. I bought the Audio Pronunciation (female) and Extended Audio (female), but the pronunciation is pretty bad. Is the add-on simply bad (as you seem to state above), or did I not activate it properly? And I don't understand, why are you offering it still if it doesn't work? I am quite frustrated about this.

I would gladly exchange it for the male version if possible, even though as a woman I would prefer the female version.

Thanks in advance for your response.

 

[mikelove]

I have a question. I bought the Audio Pronunciation (female) and Extended Audio (female), but the pronunciation is pretty bad. Is the add-on simply bad (as you seem to state above), or did I not activate it properly? And I don't understand, why are you offering it still if it doesn't work? I am quite frustrated about this.

In what way is it bad? We actually updated the files a few months ago (i.e., after my most recent post) to increase the volume (a common complaint) and fix a lot of errors, so aside from some background noise we're fairly happy with them now and we've had very few complaints about the new files; however, if you're dissatisfied with your purchase PM me and I can help you set up a refund.