Anyone else having microphone problems?

When I click on the microphone icon, results vary.  
Sometimes it recognizes what I've said correctly.  
Sometimes it comes up with totally nonsensical interpretations, e.g. misses an initial consonant even when I emphasize it.  
Sometimes it goes into a spin and says it can't recognize what I've said, when the recording sounds exactly like the prompt.  
Sometimes the recording misses a group of words in the middle of a sentence.  
Sometimes when I listen to what was recorded I get a buffer dump which includes words said in the previous response.  

Most discouraging responses of all are 
(1) when it appears to record what I say, but shows no "play" button so I can't listen, 
(2) it refuses to respond in any way to a click on the microphone button, (
3) when it provides an error message as soon as the icon appears (when the icon hasn't been clicked) and 
​(4) when I can speak, voice recognition can recognize, but I CAN'T HEAR WHAT I SOUND LIKE. Nothing happens when I press the play button.

Hi Sandy - Thanks for the post, and information contained within. I will pass this onto the development team to look at.

Note that the speech recognition relies on context to a degree to figure out what you are trying to say. So, it can happen that very short words confuse it because it has no surrounding information to figure out what the word is. For example, in English, "two", "to" and "too" all sound similar, so the speech recognition considers what's around it to produce the correct answer. If it can't find a reasonable result it does sometimes return an odd result.

I appreciate the voice recognition feature very much, thanks!

I also do understand that there are limitations to a generic voice recognition, as it's focused on guessing what you're trying to say, not to checking your pronunciation. 

I also understand why the number problem might be a major issue to others, it has been straining me a bit too. So it's nice that you are trying to weed out that problem.

I've noticed that both the audio playback and the speech recognition sometimes seems to snap off the ends of a sentence. So I don't hear the article or the speech recognition doesn't catch the article.

But inspite of the small nagging issues, the voice recognition is definitely helping me and even motivating me to pronounce the words better.

Thank you so much.
 

It's been my experience that the VR is greatly improved.  I had a lot of trouble with it too.  However, for me, it was a significant improvement when I switched back to using my headset.  Jason tells me that is particularly significant on older computers.  Mine is 3 years old. 

I have grown to love the feature. It seems to be pretty accurate with German, even when using a camera microphone.

I agree with Sandy-B12 wholeheartedly. The same things are happening with me. I know it's relatively new but surely by now they have to get it improved upon
BTW I have the latest and greatest most up to date technology and the VR is a bit of a laugh and an embarrassment I must say. 
Sometimes I joke around and say something quite silly that has nothing to do with the language or word and "bang" it comes up with 100%, astonishing!!!
Other times I'm pretty sure I nailed the right word/phrase/sentence and "bang" it gives me a score of 25% or it does not pick it up at all.
Jason, it really is an embarrassing feature. Get rid of it or improve it. You can't just leave it there.
Regards, Grant

I have inconsistent results too and I'm pretty sure it's not always my pronunciation.  However, on the whole I think it's a useful feature.

Hi Grant - For most people the voice recognition works as intended. However, there is the odd case where people are experiencing difficulty getting it to work. My suggestion would be to send in screenshots of exactly what's happening to customer support.

I would also suggest using either Medium or Hard as Easy is quite loose in it's tolerance, hence odd answers can pop up.

Also, as I have mentioned elsewhere in the forum, the algorithm behind the voice recognition uses (or tries to use) context to make sense of what is being said. So, sometimes on single words or short phrases it can have difficulty getting the surrounding context.

I am having the same problem with the RocketRecord Feature. I have reset the mic a couple of times to try and solve it, even attempted to place it in different relations to my mouth, but still have trouble with it. Will someone please look into this problem?
Gracias y Hasta proxima vez!
Brittany

Umm, I don't seem to have the ability to start a new thread? Why is that??

I was going to ask why the link in my email just returns to the Dashboard and not to the forum.
Surely this could be fixed up

Jason, I have tried medium, hard and easy before and no difference.
I don't know why you ask for a screenshot. There is nothing different on the screen that I can show you. All the same stuff as per usual, please explain.
The comments in this thread alone is enough testimony to suggest to either improve it or to get rid of it

I figured I would respond to this thread as well because I'm having similar problems and I'm also using a Macbook Pro, OS X Yosemite and using the latest Chrome browser.  

I am still having problems with the playback in the testing sections.  Sometimes I can hear what I have recorded and other times not.  However, I'm having zero problems playing back what I recorded in the areas where you're repeating words and sentences that were in the the audio lesson.  I have corresponded with Tech Support in great detail explaining the problem I'm having and I have sent tons of screen shots documenting as best I can what's happening.  

I don't think there's any way it could be my computer, operating system or browser because the problem is inconsistent.  Why would I be able to record and playback perfectly in the non-testing parts of a lesson but have lots of difficulty with playing back what I recorded in all the testing sections?  The only thing that makes sense is there's a glitch in the program.  

I'm getting a lot out of the program but it is frustrating that I can't consistently play back what I recorded to see how well I'm pronouncing the Spanish I'm learning.  

Is there any hope the programmers will fix this?  Jason, I don't think there's any reason to correspond with Tech Support anymore because I believe I've explained the problem very well and the problem continues to exist.  I'll eventually just accept the program has limitations and give up trying to motivate someone to find a fix to the problem, but it's your company's reputation on the line so I'll just say the ball is in your court.  

Sincerely,
Tim 
 

Hi Grant - We have thousands of people using Rocket courses every day, the vast majority of whom don't have these issues. In saying that, it is important that we get to the bottom of the issues that there are, which is why I asked for more detail, so we can form a picture of what's happening.

If you don't want to use the voice recognition then just use a browser other than Chrome.

Hi Tim - We haven't been able to replicate your particular issue at our end. Over the holiday period we only have skeleton staff on but I will get the IT guys to revisit this in the New Year.

Jason, since Sandy and I are having some similar issues and we're both using Macbook Pro Laptops with OS X Yosemite and Chrome, maybe it does have to do with our set-up.  But, I would think hundreds and possibly thousands would have the same exact configuration as we do using Rocket Languages.  

It just doesn't make sense to me why the playback is only malfunctioning in the testing areas and not the other parts of the lessons.

Anyway, Feliz Navidad.

I went back to my lessons after taking a couple of weeks off.  I thought the VR was OK when I left it, not great but OK.  Let's say about 70% of what I had hoped it would be.  I'm sorry to say that in the meantime I haven't seen any improvements and the problems I had reported along with those of others, haven't been fixed.  I think I can live with the translations not scoring consistently, but things like the playback not working do bug me a little.  What happens is after I record the phrase, the translation is displayed and the play button comes on.  However, after I click it, the pause icon is immediately displayed without anything being played back.

I guess we all have to deal with it in our own way.  Personally, I would rather have it then not, but I'm going  to discipline myself to not let the glitchy behavior detract from my learning.  I'll use it and when it works then great and when it doesn't, I'll go on and not worry about it.  I expect someday the issues will be resolved and I have no doubts that Jason and the team are working hard on them.  

Please don't take this the wrong way because I do believe this program is good value compared to some out there and I know I've had a bit of a whinge about the Rocket Record function but I noticed another thing about it that I believe needs attention....
As a learner, although I try to keep up with the speed of the example sentence/s, but sometimes I need to go that bit slower for example: "Der BMW fährt bestimmt über 250 KMH" 
Now, the average learner I'm sure would have problems especially at first trying to say this sentence and keep up with the Rocket Record. The Rocket Record just finishes too quickly and the average learner does not stand a chance. This in my opinion has to be adjusted.
BTW, I have tried all the settings, easy, medium and hard and it makes no difference

 

Grant, I know the problem you're talking about, and I've had the same one.  I haven't found a perfect solution, but I have found a partial one.  It ends when it thinks you've finished speaking, rather than on a set timer, and it bases that on how long you've paused since the last sound it heard.  Moreover, it judges how long you've paused based on the speed you've spoken at.  So if you speak more slowly, it actually gives you longer to pause before ending.

I concur with Samuel's findings.  I have had the same experience myself.

I wonder, out of all the thousands of users, if it is really just a handful of users like ourselves that are having problems with the VR.  I worked as an IT professional my whole career (since retired) including customer support.  Bug counts are one of the standard metrics in the business along with times to resolve them.  One very interesting phenomenon is that if your service organization is unresponsive, the users will eventually stop reporting non critical issues.  They will devise their own workarounds or simply ignore them although it doesn't mean they are happy.  Conversely, if a real push is made to resolve bugs, and the users see progress the bug counts will actually rise for a time.  The reason for that being they are now reporting bugs that they previously gave up as a lost cause.

I personally regard the VR feature as usable and helpful although less so than I would like it to be and somewhat of an annoyance at times.  However, I have moved on.  All the issues I have noticed have been reported many times by others in this blog.  I've also noticed reporting directly to the support link is less than effective.  By far, the most responsive link has been this thread thanks to Jason's attention.  I will leave it to Jason to determine if the problems are more widely spread than just the handful of us who have been complaining.  I rather suspect it is.

Samuel and Byron, thank you for your most recent comments on the VR.  They were very helpful to me.  On the Play-It function, I also found the speed too fast at times.  My attempt at speaking would be cut off too early even when I had it set to the "Easy" level.  I took your advice and spoke much slower.  It did help for a large part though there were still a couple of spots where I was still cut off.  It was always in the same spot so I think it is a glitch with that spot.

Now that Christmas is over I hope to get back to longer daily sessions and will report any glitches that I come across.  I don't want a few of you to feel like you are alone with your concerns.

Thanks Samuel, I'll definitely give that a go and voice my response probably on this thread and I also find Byron's input helpful also.
What would be nice on this forum is the ability to be able to reply directly from the person giving the comment instead of having to look down the page to find a reply or accidentally coming across it
I guess this forum software does not come with this particular feature which is a shame.
Another thing that bugs me is the link I get in my email informing me of a reply does not direct me to the actual forum. It just takes me to the dashboard. I've mentioned this before without a response
 

I add my support to some of the issues addressed in this thread.

The recording feature is a nice, but imperfect feature. I always repeat the words, phrases or sentences aloud anyway, just because it helps me to learn. I know that my pronunciation is pretty good, and I know when I pronounce words correctly or incorrectly, so I don't worry too much when The Machine does not know what I am saying or interprets them incorrectly. I will give it one more chance then move on.

I have also reported the issue of email links simply going to the dashboard instead of the referenced link. This did not happen with the old system so it must be a bug in the new one that needs to be fixed.

Byron's comment based from his experience working in IT is exactly what I was thinking regarding the problems we are experiencing.  I highly doubt it's just a few of us having difficulty with the VR.  I guess it's just like other things like leaving reviews on Yelp or Amazon.  How many people actually take the time to write a review or post a problem like we are on this forum.  I'm thinking it's a very small percentage of people who do.  

Also, just like people who join a gym because it's their New Years resolution to get in better shape, I think goes for people who buy a language program because they always wanted to learn a second language.  People are motivated at first and then their motivation quickly fades because it takes too much time or they don't get quick enough results.  I'm guessing of the thousands who have purchased Rocket Language programs, only a small percentage are actively using the program.  So, I think the numbers are a little skewed and there would be more documented problems with the VR if more people were actually using the program and also those people were willing to take the time to document a problem instead of thinking somebody else will do it for them.  

I myself bought the program back in 2008.  I used it extensively at first and then lost interest. What brought me back was an injury I sustained in a bike crash at a race.  I bounced off a tree and went flying landing hard on my right hip.  I ended up cracking a chunk off the top of my femur.  Since I'm a firefighter, I couldn't go to work so I needed to find something positive to do with some of my time and that's when I remembered I still had a membership with Rocket Languages.  I'll be returning to full duty soon and I plan on sticking with my Spanish studies this time around.  I guess the key is to do a little each day and not fall off the wagon.  Even with all the complaining I've been doing regarding the VR, I really like Rocket Spanish.  I believe they have put out a very good product.  I want to like it even more and that's why I have taken the time to report the problems I've been experiencing.  I think it's very cool they give us a lifetime membership and we continue to benefit as they improve the program.

Anyway, I'll step off my soap box now.  Happy New Year everyone.

Tim

Tim: sorry to hear about your injury but glad you are ready to go back on duty. Maybe you can find a little on duty time to study...that should get some looks from your shift mates.
Best,
Dan (retired FF)

Hey Dan,  funny you should mention that.  I definitely plan on studying Spanish at work.  Luckily for me, there will be plenty of opportunities for me to practice my newly acquired language skills while working.  At least 50% of the population I serve speaks Spanish and we often find ourselves having difficulty communicating with our customers when nobody on-scene can translate for us.  I know I won't be great at translating for quite a while, but at least I'll be able to help out more with things like patient assessments and basic communication with family members who don't speak English at all.  

Hope you have a long healthy retirement Dan.

Tim

In retrospect, I kind of wish I had studied Spanish instead of German.  I chose German because it is my heritage and I studied it in college.  I've been to Germany a couple of times, but it's not particularly likely we will go back for our next big vacation.  There are so many more opportunities to speak Spanish in the U.S.  Besides, with very few exceptions, I found that nearly everyone in Germany spoke English more fluently than my broken German.  That made me feel kind of silly trying to speak German.

Oh well, it's a good way to keep the brain active or so they say.  I know what you mean about falling off the wagon through.  I've done it so many times.  Good luck with your studies, guys.

 

Tim I envy you having many opportunities to speak with native speakers. When I was working I lived in a city in Michigan that had a substantial hispanic population. But timing has never been my strong suit; I didn't start learning Spanish until I moved to Roanoke, VA where there are few Spanish speakers. Así que va...

Byron, one of the things that I love about learning Spanish is that I have yet to find a native Spanish speaker who is not extremely gracious about listening to me attempt to speak their language and patient about helping me. I wonder if you found the same thing with Germans when you attempted to communicate with them?

When two people fluently speak the same language, it doesn't seem to really work that well speaking a third language beyond polite pleasantries. My personal experience at least. Need is the driver.

It is true regarding most Germans (i.e., under say the age of 50) speaking English. The same is true going north from there: Holland, Scandinavia. I did at times find speaking with people in England to be a bit of a challenge...
 

I'm glad to read your comment about people from England. Half the time when I watch a movie with British actors I need to turn on close captioning to understand what they are saying. And also to make sense of the idioms and slang that we don't use here in the US. 

Dan, speaking as a Brit I can say that sometimes we have to do the same with Hollywood films and US TV series :-)

But back to the thread, I've encountered the same problem with the voice recognition in Rocket Italian.  I find it particularly affects the longer sentences but the shorter sentences work fine. The problem also occurs when my wife, a native Italian speaker, gives it a go so I don't think it's entirely down to my pronunciation.

I guess VR will constantly be a work in progress but it's a great additional feature to have for online language learning. I hope that some progress can be made.

Byron, I'm sort of feeling the same way with my German. I started off learning Spanish with this crew but only opting for the trial version and I don't know why I stopped (maybe because I had to pay for it next lol who knows) it was a few years back now but I really enjoyed it. A lot more than what I am with German.
My main motivation for starting up with German was ...
1. I wanted to interact with a few German native speakers that moved into my area that I don't see that much of but still wanted to impress them when I did see them and others of course
2.  I wanted to broaden my horizons with a completely different culture that I'm fairly unfamiliar with and to stimulate this lazy brain of mine.
What I'd like to do is get to a certain level and then get back to where I left off with Rocket Spanish.
I've been holding off having a lesson via Skype with one of the Italki  German  teachers or one of the other programs. I believe Rocket German or Spanish would be a good compliment for that but it's a pity the lessons cost a bit after the trial lessons of course. Our poor ol Aussie dollar is a bit weak at the moment and I don't really have the dough to splash around

I have noticed, several times, that the Rocket Record sometimes displays a "clipped-off" response from me even though it is still recording.  When I am doing a "Hear It Say It" test, the Male Instructor will say something like, "Der glückliche Gewinner bekommt fünfhundertfünfzigtausend Euro."  When I try to repeat it I am not as fluid as my native speaker counterpart.  So what gets displayed is something like this: "Der glückliche Gewinner", even though it is still recording. But when the Playback Button returns my entire somewhat "choppy" response has been recorded. Also, I noticed that when doing numbers, Rocket Record sometimes spells out the response, "fünfhundertfünfzigtausend Euro" and sometimes it doesn't "550.000 Euro".  It's disheartening to a novice Deutsch speaker to be told by the program that I only matched 25% when the only difference is how you display the numbers (refer to Einteile 2,6 und 2,7).

I am also having the same problems as Sandy-B12 above.

Other than that, I find the Rocket German Course very interesting.
 

How in the world can anyone say anything like, "Der glückliche Gewinner bekommt fünfhundertfünfzigtausend Euro." Don't native speakers ever say to themselves, "Whoa, this word is already way too long - time to throw in a few spaces..."

Come on over to Spanish, guys! We have the good taste there to use small words...
 

I agree, Steven.

Although on second thought "palabra" is longer than the German or English word for word.

All the problems you guys are noticing with the microphone are ones I've experienced and reported directly to Jason.  The one with the numbers has been there since day 1.

Rocket gives us a lot for a fair price although to be honest, it's been so long I don't actually remember what I paid.  I just know it was cheaper than Rosetta Stone by quite a bit.

The downside is there are lots of little glitchy things that can be annoying.  

Since we now have a decent conversation happening on this thread, I'm wondering if any of you are experiencing some of the problems I'm experiencing with the VR.  To start off, I agree with all of your documented glitches with the VR like getting cut off, getting a bad score when you know you pronounced everything well and the number problem. 

What I would like to know is if you guys and gals are experiencing the same trouble I'm having with the playback in the testing sections of the program.  Right now, I can record and play back all the words, phrases and sentences from the audio lesson and additional vocabulary sections without any other problems than the ones we've all noted.  The problem I'm having is being able to play back what I recorded in "Hear it Say it", "Write it", "Know it" and "Play it".  I'm not exaggerating when I say I'm probably only able to play back what I've recorded 50% of the time and that's being generous.  When I record something and click on the play button, nothing happens.  When I click on it again, an exclamation point pops up above in the area that displays your percentage of accuracy. If you put your mouse cursor on the exclamation point it says, "Whoops, there was a problem playing this audio.  Please try again or contact customer support".  The program is definitely hearing what I've recorded because it's giving me the percentage grade of how I spoke every time.  It's just that the program will only spit back what I say, like I said, at best 50% of the time.  Are any of you experiencing this problem as well?  It sounds like to me, Sandy, who started this thread is experiencing the same thing.  Jason has said they can't reproduce this problem on his end.  

Being a person with a fairly logical mind and decent trouble-shooting skills, I can't understand why I can play back what I recorded with no difficulty in the non-testing areas of the lessons, but when it comes to the testing sections,  I'm having major difficulty.  I would think if it was my computer, operating system or chosen browser, I would be having difficulty in all areas of the program.  It is interesting though that I have the exact set-up as Sandy and we both seem to be experiencing the same issues.

Regardless, I'm going to continue using the program but it would sure be nice if there was a fix in sight.

Chao,
Tim

Hi Tim:

I have been experiencing the same issues that you and Sandy have.  My system is a desktop running Windows 10.  I have 8 Mb of RAM and the latest Google Chrome (47.0.2526.106 m). I really don't think the problems are with the OSs or memory or browsers.  I think it is in their court to fix.

And I think Steve needs to mind his own business.

I can also confirm the Playback issues in the testing sections.  It must somehow be timing related.  About half the time it works and the other half I don't get a play back even if I've scored 100 %.  I get the play back button, but when I click on it nothing is played back and the button is set to pause.  I've got a pretty vanilla desktop setup with Windows 10 and Chrome.  It doesn't seem logical that this issue has anything to do with my microphone setup or my pronunciation.  As I said, it happens even when I score 100%  I would happily send in screen shots if I thought it would do any good, but I don't see how a screen shot of the pause button will be helpful.

Hi all

A little belated but I also reported most of these glitches ages ago but, exactly as Byron described four days ago, I eventually found workarounds or learned to live with them. I now usually only bother reporting simple grammar or spelling errors. 

Some of my observations (and they are really no more than that because overall I am happy with Rocket German) go unacknowledged and often the first indication that something has been fixed is when something else unexpectedly malfunctions. Other glitches just seem to remain unresolved.

I have thought for some while that there are management and communication issues here. Perhaps a list of known problems needs to be maintained somewhere and the actions proposed or taken to address the issues recorded for all to see. 



 

Thanks everyone for the responses back on Playback issues in the testing sections.  It's good to know it's something others are experiencing as well with different computer and OS's than me.  I guess we can all agree the ball is their court and it will ultimately be up to Jason and others with a vested interest in the company to want to make it better. 

I don't know about the rest of you, but part of the reason I'm taking time to comment on this forum and correspond with tech support is I'm trying to be helpful with my feedback so they can improve their product aside from my own selfish reasons of wanting a program that functions better for me.  I suspect some of you are the same as me.  I have held back on writing a review on the program because I want to see if the technical aspect of the program will come in line with the content.  I think the content is great and would give it a 5 out of 5 score.  Because of the issues with the VR, I could at best give the program a 3 out of 5 score on it's technical merits.

It kind of sounds like we've got our own little users group going.  I think I'm continuing to comment, even though I said I was moving on, is to let the rest of you know that your problems are not unique and they have been documented and reported by me. I'm sure you've done the same.  It's also, to be honest, a little satisfying to be able to vent.  It might seem like preaching to the choir, but Jason does read these posts and I know he is interested in resolving problems.

I'll say once again that overall, I like Rocket and recently recommended it to my nephew.  However, I feel that their quality control process is very poor and their tech support is pretty much a black hole.  That said, I have had wonderful support in reporting grammatical and translation errors to Margaret Gardiner.  Jason also has been supportive and I feel sincerely cares about making the product better.  But, I agree with Tim.  The ball is in his court.

For the record, I have an HP laptop (not a desktop as I erroneously stated) about 3 years old, running Windows 10 and Chrome for Rocket although I also use MS Edge for some other stuff.  I have a high speed internet connection from my cable provider.
 

Seems to work very well with Chrome

Grant, to start a new thread you have to click the "Ask it here" button. Hope this helps when you need to ask something that's unrelated to the thread.

Hi everyone (Hi Byron!),

Thanks so much for all of your feedback - it's sincerely appreciated.  Please be assured that we read all of your messages, and take everything on board.  As mentioned by Jason a week or so ago, many of the staff are on vacation at the moment, and so we are not able to address the issues as quickly as we would like.  But staff levels should be back to normal as of next week.  We do have a list of things that the IT team will be looking into, including the glitches mentioned in this thread.  Please don't hesitate to continue commenting here if there's anything else you come across that you would like us to check on.  Or you can email the Customer Support team directly.

All the best!

Hi Margaret,

I'm glad to know that you are personally monitoring incident reports.  I know that you'll give them fullest attention.  Here's a suggestion:  In every place I've ever worked, the support team catalogs incidents, assigns priorities and responsibilities, tracks and reports progress. (The support manager is a very important role in most companies and a full time job.)  I'm sure Rocket does something similar.  Obviously, not everything has equal priority and bugs versus enhancements fall into different categories.  Would it be possible for Rocket to provide the user community with a snapshot of your incident log?  I think many times we, as users, don't really know if something has been fixed or not.  I'm pretty sure your developers aren't always sure either because some of the "fixes" particularly with the VR have been of the nature that you've made a few tweaks and it should be better so try it again.

Thanks, Byron

Hi Byron :)

We do track bugs and create tasks around fixing them, yes.  We have daily meetings where we talk about what's currently being worked on, and what's already been fixed, as well as a weekly meeting to go over everything again. I like your idea of sharing information on our progress, but of course this would be Jason's call.  Jason will come back to this thread once he's back from vacation, so will also be able to read your suggestion, and I can have a chat to him about it as well.  

As I mentioned in an email to you, a colleague from the IT team is back in the office today and has already starting looking into the issues mentioned here in this thread.  Your screenshots and extra information were also very helpful, thank you! Hopefully we will have a progress report very soon.

Thanks again to you and everyone commenting here.  Rest assured, we are working on things :)

Marg

Hi Margaret,

What I will do going forward is to work with you and the support team directly.  I have resumed testing after a few weeks hiatus and I will send you the results.  What I have found so far is that the problems that have been reported by me and others have not completely gone away but the frequency is much less.  For example, at one time the play back was failing at least 50% of the time for me.  Now it's probably less than 10% although it still fails occasionally.

regards,

Byron
 

Thanks Byron, your continued feedback and support is much appreciated!  If anyone else would like to email us with their issues or findings, please don't hesitate (support at rocket languages dot com).  Feel free to address it to me.  If you prefer to comment on this thread, that's no problem - we will be checking it regularly.

Thanks again!

 

Hi Margaret, thanks for responding to our feedback.  Even though it's nice to get a response back acknowledging our problems with the program, I think what we're all looking for is some action from the company regarding what we're reporting.  Like Fred-C14 said, these issues were reported a long time ago but nothing has changed so it's hard for some of us to believe correcting these glitches in the program is a priority.  

My main complaint is the playback of what I record in the testing sections.  I don't understand how the program can play back almost perfectly what I record from the lesson dialogue and extra vocabulary but fails a high percentage of the time in the testing sections.  

Like I said before, I'm trying to be helpful by reporting these problems so you can make your product better and your customers, including myself, more satisfied.  

Hi Timmay,

Thanks for your comments, they are sincerely appreciated and are indeed very helpful.  Please be assured that we are working on the issues referred to here in this thread and hope to have them fixed very soon.  The specific problem you mentioned regarding playback in the testing was being looked into by my colleague in the IT team on Friday last week.  He believes he knows what is causing the issue and how to correct it, but we need to do some more testing from here before we can confirm that it's been fixed.  We hope to have some good news for you within the next couple of days :) 

Thanks again!

Hi everyone, me again.  I've just heard from my colleague in the IT team about the playback of recorded audio in the testing - this should now be fixed!  I have tested it in the German course, and it's working well for me.  Please feel free to give it a try, and let me know if you are still having trouble.