"Repetition makes the master". I'd suggest you tweak the UX so I need to repeat each word / phrase a couple of times before passing to the next level.
Speaking of which... you could gamify this in like 200 different ways.
Founder with an accent? Free offer from SayAfter.me
21–30 of 105 posts
Re: Founder with an accent? Free offer from SayAfter.me
#22Great timing. Haven't tried out the product but on top of this a faster way to improve could be to just engage in conversations daily with a lot of native english speakers.
Re: Founder with an accent? Free offer from SayAfter.me
#23What is 'British' English? No such thing exists really, at least not in the spoken word form. You'll also find that regional accents are considered more favourable/likeable than 'the Queens English' so the premise of this may not be 100% correct... (Brummie is not included in the favourable dialects because it's not considered nice by anyone in the UK except those in that area.)
British English : Americans :: American English : Brits
There is only a common spelling difference in the written sense though. An American would not fully understand someone from Yorkshire speaking Yorkshire dialect, nor would they understand someone from Merseyside, Glasgow, etc. if they were speaking in their dialect.
I'm from Yorkshire originally, my dialect is totally different from those in Merseyside or the North East (for example.) How we speak and how we write is different. 'British English' only exists in the written form and I don't believe that is what this service is aiming to 'improve'.
UK regional accents/dialects are something which are favourable. The North East dialect, for example, is seen as favourable in call centres because the majority find it a 'nice' or 'friendly' dialect.
I don't understand the idea of 'if you're a start-up don't have an accent/dialect'.
Re: Founder with an accent? Free offer from SayAfter.me
#24Great timing. Haven't tried out the product but on top of this a faster way to improve could be to just engage in conversations daily with a lot of native english speakers.
Good idea, unfortunately not everyone has access to native speakers in their social circles.
Another nice hack for practising speech is calling free phone support of various companies/products and tell them about your problem with their product/service. I learnt this from an Italian guy.
Re: Founder with an accent? Free offer from SayAfter.me
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
British English : Americans :: American English : Brits
There is only a common spelling difference in the written sense though. An American would not fully understand someone from Yorkshire speaking Yorkshire dialect, nor would they understand someone from Merseyside, Glasgow, etc. if they were speaking in their dialect. I'm from Yorkshire originally, my dialect is totally different from those in Merseyside or the North East (for example.) How we speak and how we write is…
Oh, I'm not really disagreeing. The expression "a : b :: c : d" means a is to b what c is to d. There are just as many American accents as British accents, but Brits commonly refer to the conglomeration as American English, or to someone having "an American accent", and can have a similarly hard time differentiating between them.
So "British English" just refers to speaking English with one of many British accents, I'm guessing in this case approximately London English that is not Cockney.
Re: Founder with an accent? Free offer from SayAfter.me
#26What is 'British' English? No such thing exists really, at least not in the spoken word form. You'll also find that regional accents are considered more favourable/likeable than 'the Queens English' so the premise of this may not be 100% correct... (Brummie is not included in the favourable dialects because it's not considered nice by anyone in the UK except those in that area.)
Simple really: British: http://translate.google.com/translate_tts?ie=UTF-8&q=Have%20... American: http://translate.google.com/translate_tts?ie=UTF-8&q=Have%20... I know they don't sound ideal, but this is the only distinction I can make via the resources I have.
I don't know anyone who sounds like the 'British' version I also doubt that that dialect would be preferred.
It would fall under the 'Queens English' or 'received pronunciation', which, in some studies, is considered less intelligent than Yorkshire dialect - http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/apr/04/6
Re: Founder with an accent? Free offer from SayAfter.me
#27Is there any evidence this actually works? You're motivating your product by saying it helps you keep your job if you have a thick accent. Does your product work? How does it compare to competitors? Adding this information would improve credibility.
Well the only evidence I have personally seen is the improvement of my wife's pronunciation.
She doesn't mispronounce the words she practised anymore.
Also I got positive feedback from the early beta users (other students & English learners) so I assumed it was useful in its initial state.
But yes, I will add additional information with benefits and comparison with other products.
Thanks!
Re: Founder with an accent? Free offer from SayAfter.me
#28Coming this fall to the Mountain View Community Playhouse, a classic musical updated for today's Valley:
My Fair Founder
Can master symbolicist Henry Higgins (played by Paul Graham in his first musical-theater role) win a bet by coaching ambitious but crude-speaking Eliza Doolittle to be the toast of Sand Hill Road in three short months?
You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll sing along to tunes such as:
The Gain in this Domain stays Mainly with the Brain
...and...
I've Grown Accustomed to Her Viral Growth Pace
Re: Founder with an accent? Free offer from SayAfter.me
#29Great timing. Haven't tried out the product but on top of this a faster way to improve could be to just engage in conversations daily with a lot of native english speakers.
Nice theory, but even non-native people that have been living in their new country will retain their accent for a long time. Unless they make a conscious effort to get rid of it, that is; most people don't, though.
Re: Founder with an accent? Free offer from SayAfter.me
#30"Repetition makes the master". I'd suggest you tweak the UX so I need to repeat each word / phrase a couple of times before passing to the next level. Speaking of which... you could gamify this in like 200 different ways.
That is a very good idea, I will add this option to the current exercise flow. Thanks!