Visual feedback on tones

[Meng Lelan]

My Chinese tones are starting to fall off due to lack of Chinese conversation since February. Is there some software out there that provides visual feedback on my tones? Like showing how well (or off) my tones match with ideal tones?

[imron]

This thread might contain something useful.

[roddy]

I've never seen anything that I would consider to just 'work'. Speakgoodchinese is a freeware application, but there are issues with getting it working. That'll come up on here if you search. I think some 'teach yourself Mandarin' computer packages provide visual feedback (Rosetta Stone?) but I haven't used them and can't comment.

From other fields - vocal training software such as Singandsee provides visual feedback on pitch. I've played around with this one, but didn't find it much practical use. If I recall correctly I managed to get it drawing the expected pattern for first and third tones, but second and fourth seemed too quick for it to pick up on. Maybe worth a look, but basically you wouldn't be using it for its designed purpose so I wouldn't expect the best of results.

There are also speech therapy tools available which might do this - I remember seeing them a few years ago and thinking they looked interesting, not sure if I ever tried using them. There was one in particular designed for men who wanted to learn to talk like women (and presumably vice versa) which might have been the most useful, as there would be an emphasis on pitch.

[Meng Lelan]

roddy yes there were speech therapy tools in the school for the deaf in China developed by IBM to teach deaf Chinese kids how to say the tones. But that was 20 years ago.

How does Rosetta Stone work to help with tones, anyone have experience with that?

[roddy]

It doesn't necessarily need to be a tool designed to teach tones though - anything that will register and provide visual feedback on pitch could be helpful. The problem with the singing tools (I think, not like I've really researched this) is that they're designed to provide feedback over a longer time scale - a line in a song, for example, rather than syllable level speech, and I think over a wider pitch range. Speech therapy tools may be better equipped, I don't know.

I just had a quick look online to see if I could spot anything in use with deaf people in China - no joy, although there is a hearing aid which can allegedly distinguish the tones.

[Meng Lelan]

Uh, that's not a hearing aid, I believe the article is referring to the cochlear implant. That's a surgical procedure, extremely expensive and invasive which is usually done on very young deaf children.

I'll try SpeakGoodChinese when I figure it out.

[roddy]

Ah, sorry.

[Meng Lelan]

Heh heh, it's okay roddy. Anyway I think the software mentioned here are far less invasive than cochlear implant surgery. I can handle all those zh, sh, j, q, x etc etc but tones are really some trick to maintain esp without having a Chinese significant other in my life to help maintain them, sigh. Back to the software...