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I took a foreign language class in college where our pronunciation was corrected ruthlessly, right down to the accents and stresses we placed in our sentences.

I took a foreign language class in college where our pronunciation was corrected ruthlessly, right down to the accents and stresses we placed in our sentences. It was super helpful for having conversations later on. YMMV, I really liked it. I remember a couple cases where our teacher interrupted the lesson and kept calling on students to repeat the same phrase until we all (or mostly) got it right. This extended to vocabulary. If I forgot a piece of vocabulary, the teacher would call on me again later in the same class to either make the same mistake or remember it this time. This was one of the best classes I ever took in college, in any subject.

dazc 4y ago
I once had a short conversation with a hotel receptionist and she said my Spanish was kind of basic but OK, yet my pronunciation was perfect. I do remember feeling a lot more confident after this. I'm not sure it should be instilled as ruthlessly as you suggest but it does reinforce the fact that there are some things you just can't learn from an app alone.
- LorenPechtel 4y ago
  Flip side of this--many years ago, internet cafe in Shanghai. Turns out the clerk did know some English--but her pronunciation was so bad that I couldn't understand her even when I knew what she was saying. I never saw a spelling mistake, though.
- klodolph 4y ago
  I liked the ruthless correction because it meant that I didn’t get into the habit of pronouncing things poorly. I also play piano, and if you make a mistake when practicing a piece, it’s easy to just keep making the same mistake over and over. The more you practice making a mistake, the harder it is to fix.
poulsbohemian 4y ago
>I took a foreign language class in college where our pronunciation was corrected ruthlessly Herr Doktor Liermann absolutely grilled me day after day. Twenty-five years later, my classmates still recall vividly the "fünf" incident. So I get what you are saying, yet there's something about the way these apps are blocking that I find irritating more than helpful.
- klodolph 4y ago
  Oh, for sure. The apps don't provide good guidance for how to get you past the block.

dazc 4y ago

I once had a short conversation with a hotel receptionist and she said my Spanish was kind of basic but OK, yet my pronunciation was perfect. I do remember feeling a lot more confident after this. I'm not sure it should be instilled as ruthlessly as you suggest but it does reinforce the fact that there are some things you just can't learn from an app alone.

LorenPechtel 4y ago
Flip side of this--many years ago, internet cafe in Shanghai. Turns out the clerk did know some English--but her pronunciation was so bad that I couldn't understand her even when I knew what she was saying. I never saw a spelling mistake, though.
klodolph 4y ago
I liked the ruthless correction because it meant that I didn’t get into the habit of pronouncing things poorly. I also play piano, and if you make a mistake when practicing a piece, it’s easy to just keep making the same mistake over and over. The more you practice making a mistake, the harder it is to fix.

poulsbohemian 4y ago

>I took a foreign language class in college where our pronunciation was corrected ruthlessly Herr Doktor Liermann absolutely grilled me day after day. Twenty-five years later, my classmates still recall vividly the "fünf" incident. So I get what you are saying, yet there's something about the way these apps are blocking that I find irritating more than helpful.

klodolph 4y ago
Oh, for sure. The apps don't provide good guidance for how to get you past the block.