4 ms·

To me the key functionally for any language learning app is giving you feedback on your pronunciation and general understanding. I’ve been using Duolingo to lea

To me the key functionally for any language learning app is giving you feedback on your pronunciation and general understanding. I’ve been using Duolingo to learn Mandarin and when I try to speak to anyone it’s difficult for them to understand me, because my pronunciation is all wrong. The app is just feeding info to me one way, and I can try my best to recreate what I’m hearing, but there’s no way to know if I’m messing it up. They do have a speaking feature but it doesn’t work very well, certainly not to the same level as speaking with a real person who is fluent in the language and having them correct you.

throwaway4aday 3y ago
As a quick solution, you should try recording yourself speaking and then listen to it to check your pronunciation against some reference. So for example, find a YouTube video in the language you're learning that also has good subtitles (use https://filmot.com/ https://filmot.com/ ) and listen to how they say the phrase and then record yourself saying the same phrase and play it back and compare.
dog321 3y ago
I practiced for a long time using the below pronunciation trainer and I get a ton of compliments from native speakers on how accurate my pronunciation is. https://fluent-forever.com/product/fluent-forever-pronunciation-trainer/ https://fluent-forever.com/product/fluent-forever-pronunciat...
kccqzy 3y ago
It's the same struggle language learners have faced for a long time regardless of app or not. I did careful studies of the French grammar, read French books, listened to audio tapes in French, and I still got prononciation wrong often. I resisted using Duolingo because I knew their speaking feature sucks. But the only reason I need an app rather than books or audio tapes is that I need something to correct my prononciation.
addandsubtract 3y ago
There are other language learning apps, such as Busuu, which make you record and peer-review other people's pronunciations.

throwaway4aday 3y ago

As a quick solution, you should try recording yourself speaking and then listen to it to check your pronunciation against some reference. So for example, find a YouTube video in the language you're learning that also has good subtitles (use https://filmot.com/ https://filmot.com/ ) and listen to how they say the phrase and then record yourself saying the same phrase and play it back and compare.

dog321 3y ago

I practiced for a long time using the below pronunciation trainer and I get a ton of compliments from native speakers on how accurate my pronunciation is. https://fluent-forever.com/product/fluent-forever-pronunciation-trainer/ https://fluent-forever.com/product/fluent-forever-pronunciat...

kccqzy 3y ago

It's the same struggle language learners have faced for a long time regardless of app or not. I did careful studies of the French grammar, read French books, listened to audio tapes in French, and I still got prononciation wrong often. I resisted using Duolingo because I knew their speaking feature sucks. But the only reason I need an app rather than books or audio tapes is that I need something to correct my prononciation.

addandsubtract 3y ago

There are other language learning apps, such as Busuu, which make you record and peer-review other people's pronunciations.