AI Chinese

[Hugh]

I'm looking at paying for a subscription to AI Chinese. I'd like to know if anyone here has tried it out and what they thought of it. $9 a month does seem like quite a lot for what it is, especially when you can set up fairly effective self-study speaking practice with Anki, for example.

[Yezze]

especially when you can set up fairly effective self-study speaking practice with Anki, for example.

There are lots of good resources on the web that are free. If i can think of any speaking, i will get back to you. (I used to use one speaking one, but i can't remember the name of it).

[James Johnston]

I hadn't heard of it, but I see it has a fourteen day free trial, so why no try it out and tell us if you find it useful.

[Hugh]

I've been playing around with it a bit already. It doesn't seem to load in Firefox in Ubuntu, so I've had to boot to windows to make it work. It's quite a nice piece of software, and would definitely be something for beginners to consider. However, I don't think it warrants the price - for the same money you can have a subscription to Skritter, which has so many more features.

[abcdefg]

I'm not sure the best way to break this to you, but $9 a month is not much money in the 21st century.

[roddy]

Yeah, I'm constantly amazed by the unwillingness of people to pay for stuff. Sure, there's a lot of good free stuff out there and by all means use it. But how much time does a product have to save you to be worth nine bucks a month?

Edit: And for heaven's sake, that's if you pay monthly. Cough up in advance and it can be less than $5 a month.

[renzhe]

$9 a month is definitely not much for a course. However, it is typically only a part of the whole cost of studying a language, and you have to also consider the money spent on dictionaries, other subscriptions, books and magazines, any real-life tutor you're studying with (even if it only costs you a couple of drinks a week), etc. An online course will not teach you everything.

Paying for a year in advance and then finding out that a resource is not very useful is unfortunate, so asking for people's experiences is OK in my book. On the other hand, if there is a free trial, then that's better than any forum poll, and you should simply give it a go.

[M.E.Townsend]

Had a quick look at the frontpage of it. It looks to focus on speaking. That's what I would like to do.

Well, it's always good to try if the site offering free trial. I would go on and have a look first. Will come back reporting any findings later...

[SararaMiller]

I think it is worth the price. $9 is quite acceptable, though it is still not so perfect.

Good on tones - on pronunciation but it would help to get other feedback eg whether the problem is with the initial or the final.

[faizard85]

I'm finding this quite useful for beginners like myself. It seems I need a lot of work on some initials. A bit frustrating actually but good to know and great that I can work on them now - it should prove worth the pain. Its free for 14 days. I would suggest giving it a try. Much more patient than a live tutor. so Im thinking if one can pay $18 an hour for a tutor, spending $9 a month on this should be ok. Thumbs up so far.

[Meng Lelan]

Mmm, I'm watching this thread. Bizarre that it's called AI Chinese, in the field of special education in the US, AI stands for Auditory Impaired.

[roddy]

What an odd little flurry of people trying out AI Chinese. I'm sure you'll all be sticking around and posting on other topics too.

[anonymoose]

I'm not sure the best way to break this to you, but $9 a month is not much money in the 21st century.

Yeah, I'm constantly amazed by the unwillingness of people to pay for stuff. Sure, there's a lot of good free stuff out there and by all means use it. But how much time does a product have to save you to be worth nine bucks a month?

I think it's unfair to take a critical tone about others' willingness, or lack thereof, to spend money on such resources.

If you have a good job in the west (correct me if I'm wrong, abcdefg, but you are/were a medical professional in the USA), then $9 per month is surely small change.

But many people here are students, without an income, and not necessarily from prosperous countries, so $9 may be a significant amount of money.

To put this in perspective (crudely), if you're earning $5000 per month, then $9 constitutes less than 0.2% of your income. On the other hand, if you're on, say 1000 RMB per month, which is the situation for many people in China, for example, then $9 per month is about 5% of your income. And of course, if both people have fixed living costs of 1000 RMB, this still leaves the person on $5000 with a disposable income of over $4800 per month, whereas the person earning a 1000 RMB is left with nothing, so $9 could be the difference between going hungry or not.

[Meng Lelan]

What an odd little flurry of people trying out AI Chinese

What do you mean, odd little flurry of people?

[jbradfor]

There were three posts in a row, all the first (and currently only!) posts from each of the three users, all taking about using Al Chinese.

Very suspicious.

Seems like Al Chinese is moving over to the dark side....

[abcdefg]

I think it's unfair to take a critical tone about others' willingness, or lack thereof, to spend money on such resources.

If you have a good job in the west (correct me if I'm wrong, abcdefg, but you are/were a medical professional in the USA), then $9 per month is surely small change.

Yes, of course it is all relative to income and other expenses. But what I've seen again and again is that someone who might be reluctant to spend a few bucks on a learning tool, will drop the same amount in a bar or coffee shop without as much as the blink of an eye. It has made me somewhat cynical.

[Iqbar]

Evil or not I'm enjoying a free trial. It's certainly not perfect; it sometimes say my initial 'r' is correct but I'm absolutely certain it's not, and a quick listen back reveals my mistake. Also, I strangely seem to be getting the native English sounds wrong almost as often as the 'zh', 'q', 'j' and 'c' so far.

[M.E.Townsend]

I guess, for them ai standing for artificial intelligence.

For me, it could also be "almost impossible".

[Matty]

I give AI to　Artificial Intelligence...

As for the product, I tried the 14 day trial, nothing loaded and forgot it even existed until this post.

If the product can't even achieve basic functionality in such a common browser as FireFox, I begin to have doubts.

I may not mind if the product is free, but something that is being paid for should at least work properly.

[Meng Lelan]

It's not working, the AI thing. It won't record my voice or do comparisons.