Microphone

I'm having a problem with 1) I don't get the opportunity to talk. 2) when I do talk my voice isn't recognised. 3) All this is taking a long time to go through conversations. I'm using Safari

I am not using Safari, but I think anyone who could help you needs more information.

Are you using headphones which can be used as a Headset with a build in mic?

Or are you using a build in mic and speaker from your device?

You might have to allow your browser to use your mic, which I don't know how that works in safari, but google might help you there.

Hi DavidK-pfju,

Thanks so much for your message. We recommend a few things to get the best out of the voice recognition feature:

1. An updated version of the app, or Chrome/Safari browsers
2. A fast internet connection
3. A quiet space and compatible earphones

While voice recognition will work with Safari (assuming you are meeting the other criteria mentioned above), it is a slower process than if you were to use Chrome. It takes a few seconds to process your recording and give you a rating. If you are happy to, please try using Chrome to see if you get better results. If not, please contact the customer support team (support@rocketlanguages.com) for further help. 

All the best with your language learning!

I am having significant issues with the microphone. I am running the most recent version of chrome, have a fast internet connections, a well-reviewed microphone (Rode NT), and JBL headphones. The program increasingly does not capture my voice for words that that begin with a vowel or soft consonants.

The problems you're experiencing have nothing to do with your hardware/software. It has everything to do with the well-known shortcomings of the recorder and it's ability to interpret your speech. It's a valuable tool once you get the hang of it, but there's a learning curve associated with just getting along with it, and getting along with it really well requires some determination and puzzle solving that a lot of people might not see the point to. It's function is often referred to as “voice recognition”. Thankfully, this is not really the case, as it obviously relies very heavily upon “pattern recognition” as well. That is to say, knowing the correct answer in advance. This is why you're likely to see complete jibberish come up on your screen while you're speaking until the end when it magically updates what it's heard to 100% recognition. To see how important this is, try using the microphone to speak french to Google Translate. It's the same product, and if it didn't work infinitely better than that it would be essentially worth to us. The reason this is important is that your pattern of speech needs to “match” what it's expecting to hear in a variety of ways. Very often, things such as lilt, observing commas, as well as, hesitating or not hesitating, speaking fast or slow enough, will affect the outcome. There are even numerous examples throughout the lessons where the only way to get 100% is to leave a particular word out altogether!! Goodness knows why that is.

Anyway, more to the point of the problems you might be experiencing right now: il and elle must be pronounced as eeeeeel and ellllllllllle, especially at the beginning of a sentence. Liasons very often need to be disregarded or pronounced in very unnatural ways. It very often has problems with words like, euro. Sometimes you say them one way, sometimes you must say them another way. The list goes on.

While it can be quite frustrating, I, personally, chalk the quest for 100%'s up to just that much more practice, although it's easy to see how a lot of people might not feel the same way.

The tool really is invaluable and works great 95% of the time, and if you're really meticulous about your pronunciation and can manage it in a fluent manner, and you get the hang of its most common foibles, it works great about 99% of the time.

Soldier on.

Here's another thing that one needs to be mindful of, which is actually the responsibility of the learner. The recorder will very often let you get by with shoddy pronunciation. In fact, it sometimes requires it!! But it's your responsibility to not fall for this trap. I was just reminded of this when going through a conversation which included, “ … en hiver.” in one sentence and, “ … en été … ” in the very next. It let me get away with pronouncing en as on in the first sentence (more like “own” rather than “John”), but in the second sentence it insisted that I was saying, on était, which I was. Ultimately, it was fine with me pronouncing both instances of en correctly. (as in John)

It's unfortunate that sometimes you can't satisfy it with the proper pronunciation (especially in regards to liasons), but sometimes you just have to be a better student than it is a teacher.

And btw, in my previous post, I did not mean to suggest that one's choice of hardware/software is never the issue, but rather, that MichaelK-jfyd should have zero problems with what he described.

Hello MichaelK-jfyd, you could also check if your good Rode Mic is selected for recording.

In addition to what's been said, I try to rely more on my ears, then the procentage the speach recognition gives (which is 100% most of the time anyway, even if not perfectly pronounced). 

A great tool in this course is, that you can repeat what the native speakers say and then “listen and compare” with your own ears, which I see as VERY IMPORTANT!

This is something very unique to rocket languages and very very good for prononciation.

You will notice how you will hear more and more nuances in the prononciation of the native speakers as well as in your own prononciation, over time.

Greats

Armin

Classic example from review of Lesson 18.5:

Saying, préférer que is interpreted as préférerais que or préférerait que at least 90% of the time.  ???

fwiw, Google Translate seems to do exactly the same thing.

On the other hand, saying, préfère que is almost guaranteed to elicit  préférer que.

Too funny. Not sure what one could do if the phrase were préfère que in the first place, although it has no problem with préfère que in the context of an actual sentence. Great source of amusement while studying/practicing.

Hi everyone,

Thank you for sharing your insights and experiences with the voice recognition tool. You've all raised some excellent points. Here’s a bit more background on some of the points made:

• There is an overlap between our software and the software used by Google, which likely explains why you are seeing similar results with both.
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• We do, in broad terms, have the ability to adjust the difficulty of the voice recognition. In essence, we can make it stricter or more lenient. However, we cater to a diverse range of users with differing accents and proficiency levels in their target language. Consequently, our speech recognition software needs to be adaptable to serve a wide audience. As a result, there are situations where you may receive the correct response even if you have a slight mispronunciation. As ArminZ and RobertC106 have noted, we offer the playback feature, allowing learners to regulate this themselves.
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• Very short words, especially those with short vowel sounds, can often be challenging for voice recognition to register. This is primarily because they sound similar to background noise and, in some cases, other sounds you may make while speaking. The best way to tackle this issue is to minimize background noise as much as possible and use a high-quality headset. Keep in mind that this typically isn’t a problem when short words are part of a phrase or sentence, so it should become less of a concern as you progress through the course.
•  

That said, there are some additional factors that could be causing more severe issues for MichaelK-jfyd. I would recommend the following:

• You mentioned that it seemed the issue was getting progressively worse. Sometimes, refreshing the page between lessons can help things run a little smoother.
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• Reset your Chrome settings; you can do this from the three-dot menu in the top right corner. This will ensure that no settings that might cause issues have been adjusted.
•  
• Try using Rocket in an “incognito” window; that's “private browsing” if you're on a Mac. Often, we find that the problems with voice recognition are caused by browser extensions added for various purposes.
•  

If you are continually experiencing difficulty with the voice recognition, making it hard for you to use the course effectively, you can always reach out to us at support@rocketlanguages.com. We'd be happy to assist you over email or set up a call so we can see your setup in person and ensure everything is functioning as it should be.

I hope this is helpful! If you have any further questions about the voice recognition, please feel free to contact us.

Warm regards,

Indy

(roll eyes) tsk tsk tsk …