Speech recognition

I'm not sure if this is the proper category in which to post this, however, for Lesson 11.6  Irregular Verbs in the Passé Simple, I cannot get a single correct response from speech recognition.

I've gotten for je - “je m'en fous” in lieu of je mourus; 

for tu - “tu l'ouvres”; 

for on I got "bonjour"  

Nous was “nous nous sommes”, which is not remotely like the recording of my voice for nous mourûtes.  There was no “s” sounding in the recording so where did it come from in the written version of speech recognition?  And why doesn't the “r” sound come through?  I hear it on the recording of my voice.  

Bonjour Patricia.

L 11.6 is quicksand. I'm obsessed with getting the recorder to give me 100's, and I can very nearly always do it one way or another - mainly because I've learned so many ‘tricks’. However, I just went back and checked, and in spite of what I'm certain must've been my best efforts, there are over two dozen words and phrases that I couldn't get the recorder to recognize. I'm finishing level 3, and that lesson stands out as the absolute worst in the entire platform in that regard. Take my advice, and let that one go.

Robert

Bonjour Robert:

It's nice to hear from someone else who has had similar problems with this lesson.  I also try very hard to get those 100's, although I realize spoken modern or street French is not so well enunciated.  I console myself that Passé Simple is indeed passé and other than in French literaure I will not encounter it.

Mille Mercis, 

Patty

Salut Patty.

Passé Simple does seem particularly tedious on top of everything else, and the fact that the recorder is at its clunkiest for that lesson is an unfortunate ‘coincidence’. Clearly, the study of French wouldn't be complete without Passé Simple, since you can't even read a fairy tale without it, but those lessons really don't need to be couched in recordings in the first place, unless there's a particular emphasis on audiobooks and/or voice-overs. 

Robert

Salut Patty et Robert !

Thank you very much for your feedback on this lesson! The voice recognition does indeed have trouble with passé simple verb forms due to the fact that they're so rarely spoken. To account for this, we've removed the voice recognition component for those verb forms where it is very difficult or impossible for the voice recognition to understand what is being said. This lesson will also be addressed in an upcoming review of the French courses.

I hope that this is helpful! Do let us know if you have any more comments or questions. 

À la prochaine,

Liss