Listening to Your Own Pronounciation

[HerrPetersen]

I just made a test and recorded some phrases of me speaking mandarin. I was really shocked. I did not think I would be sounding so "off" - while I guess I didnt really miss so much tones, it still felt very forced, also there is a very hearable German accent to be made out.

So here is something I feel would improve a lot: Is there a programm which records what you say and instantly plays it back to you with maybe a 3-4 seconds delay? This instant feedback (for instance while doing anki-reviews with sound in the question/answer field) would probably be very effective.

I once used a programm called "speedlingua" for French (which does pretty much just what I described above), which helped my pronounciation quiet a lot, but while it is available in Chinese it unfortunatly is only to be found in special language labs. (you cannot buy it as a private customer).

Thanks for reading.

[imron]

Maybe not quite what you want, but Audacity does a good job of recording and playing back sounds. That's what I use for listening to my own pronunciation.

[HerrPetersen]

I already use Audacity for cutting out sound-samples for Anki. So while it would be possible, it would be quiet a hassle to always switch between anki and audacity. Thanks for looking into it though.

[roddy]

There are a couple of tools mentioned here which I think should be what you are looking for.

[HerrPetersen]

Sorry roddy for not finding, and thanks for linking me there

[dpotter]

The most obvious one is Rosetta Stone...quite a sophisticated breakdown of the pronunciation...shows every detail.

[md1101]

The most obvious one is Rosetta Stone..

i've heard good things about this software but is it suitable for intermediate/advanced speakers? from advertisements i've seen i get the impression its for beginners.

[HerrPetersen]

I once tried out Rosetta stone, and it was nothing like you are describing: It just read me a phrase:"i ge ren" and I had to choose one of four pictures (on with a person in it). When the phrases got a little more complicated using different measuring words for different things, I then (I then was still complete newbie), gave up on it pretty fast. So my impression was that pronounciation-practice in Rosetta Stone Chinese was close to non-existant, but then again maybe I missed something?

[imron]

Rosetta stone has a section where you record your voice saying the phrase, and they compare it to their recording and give you a rating.

[dpotter]

The software itself is effective to a point, but then it gets frustrating to use given the fact that there are no translations provided...you have to use a fair amount of deductive logic to figure out what the photo is about. Anyway, the voice recognition software seems good...I don't use it much, but I am not sure it matters whether you are advanced or not since the pronunciation of initials/finals is always constant.

[Xander]

If youre in China, you might want to buy one cassette player that has this function. I can listen to a tape, record my own voice and than listen to the tape again. Sure, you find something similar on online. Even though that would not work for Anki.

[ux0042]

At the request of my 中文老师 I tried recording myself reading. It was alarming to me to hear how I paused at the wrong places, and how long my pauses are. I think it also made me more aware of my own poor pronunciation (my pronunciation of the pinyin 'x' gets lazy and sounds like 'sh'). Does anybody find that recording your voice provides any help?

[imron]

Moved the above question to the thread containing the answer.

[hebaoli]

Sinolingua publishes a PC program (and CD) called "Standard Chinese Phonetics" - it plays the correct pronunciation, then gives you the opportunity to record your voice, and hear it back. It also provides direction on where to put your tongue, lips etc to get the sounds right.

http://www.speakgoodchinese.org/ is also pretty good (and free) for analysing whether or not your tones are correct. Speaking of which, I have written up a method for how to remember the correct tones.

good luck - hope these suggestions help

he baoli