Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Founder with an accent? Free offer from SayAfter.me

sayafter.me

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 105 posts

Re: Founder with an accent? Free offer from SayAfter.me

#51

Post by Natsu »

glurgh wrote: post #41
Natsu wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've always been uncomfortable with my pronunciations. You mean "my pronunciation." English is pretty weird about when we do and do not use the plural form and this trips up a lot of people :) I wouldn't mention it, but given that you're here for the specific purpose of improving your English, I thought you'd want to know. Speaking of which, mass nouns always trip non-native speakers up, especially in IT. Do NOT us…

You mean "my pronunciation." It's not the most natural thing to say but it can still fly: "Merriam-Webster provides a free online dictionary, thesaurus, audio pronunciations, [...]" in a way that 'softwares' and 'advices' would not. I would add 'codes' to that use as it is often misused To make this even more confusing, in some contexts, 'codes' is used as a plural in ways you never would for general purpose programm…

I would accept that usage, but not "my pronunciations." The hard part for foreign speakers is that this usage is perfectly comprehensible, so it would rarely get corrected, while sounding bad to native speakers.

Which is, of course, quite harmful to someone who wants to improve. And yes, I know of no simple answer as to when to use 'code' vs. 'codes', but I will say that I think that 'source codes' is probably always wrong. At least, I am unable to find a sentence using that which sounds right, though it might be possible for it to be correct if you were talking about something other than the source code of a computer program.

Re: Founder with an accent? Free offer from SayAfter.me

#52

Post by Killah911 »

gojomo wrote: post #48
dylangs1030 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My girlfriend works in Broadway. I wish she knew enough about the recent foreign accents thing to find this as funny as I do. Well done.

Thanks! To help those who know the recent kerfluffle moreso than My Fair Lady : "Why Can't The English Learn To Speak" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhninL_G3Fg

LOL, he says "your language is the language of Shakespeare, Milton and the Bible"... I wonder if it was meant to be funny , out of ignorance or arrogance...

As I've posted before, there is this sort of inherent imperialist bias people have with someone who does not have a good command or English. A hundred years ago, it may have been an indication of class (and to some degree still is today). But to look down and be utterly dismissive of someone because they have an accent is just plain dumb.

In PGs defense, just because someone is dumb doesn't mean people will cease to engage in such behavior. And given that the entrepreneur is the one on the selling side, it may behoove him/her to brush up on whichever accent is appealing to those to be sold.

I personally have several accents in English and I subconsciously switch from one to another depending on whom I'm speaking with. If necessary I change languages all together. Reality is, I am better able to connect with the other person this way.

Re: Founder with an accent? Free offer from SayAfter.me

#53

Post by benjamincburns »

znt wrote: post #12
billybob255 wrote: post #8

You might add something on the landing page saying what exactly you do. I read through everything and it doesn't specify how it'll improve English; is it just drills? A therapist to coach people? Pronunciation checking software?

Noted, I tried to use "simple language", so it wouldn't scare off non-technical people. I think I got it way too simple. Thanks.

See here for a library of simple prose: http://splasho.com/upgoer5/library.php

Or there's always the simple english version of Wikipedia: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

The original "Up Goer Five": http://xkcd.com/1133/

Re: Founder with an accent? Free offer from SayAfter.me

#54

Post by dsrguru »

znt wrote: post #12
billybob255 wrote: post #8

You might add something on the landing page saying what exactly you do. I read through everything and it doesn't specify how it'll improve English; is it just drills? A therapist to coach people? Pronunciation checking software?

Noted, I tried to use "simple language", so it wouldn't scare off non-technical people. I think I got it way too simple. Thanks.

If you simplify an explanation, it still needs to do the explaining, even if it's in the form of a high-level overview. I don't even see mention of the dialect you're teaching. Especially since you're targeting people in the STEM industry (people who tend to value knowledge and precision), I'd recommend having a more specific description available for those who want, even if it's not the first message that greets the viewer.

Since we're on the subject of what your software does, and since as a native English speaker, I don't want to [ab]use your free trial just to study its workings, could you please provide that explanation here? :) Do you teach the basics of English phonology or do you just provide [auto-generated] text for users to mimic. Do you provide Rosetta Stone-like pronunciation feedback? If you don't provide basic instruction in English phonology, I highly recommend you consider adding it. Being well versed in articulatory phonetics, I taught myself Chinese phonology (Standard Mandarin) from Wikipedia. Despite not having very good Chinese, I've passed for a native speaker in short telephone conversations on multiple occasions. Even if it takes weeks to give the student the phonetic background that I had (I don't know if it would), you'll then be able to give them near-native pronunciation almost instantly, and then they'll only need to iron out the kinks with your mimic drills before sounding like a native. I don't know if this is the approach used by most accent coaches, but it's highly effective.

Re: Founder with an accent? Free offer from SayAfter.me

#55

Post by glurgh »

Natsu wrote: post #51
glurgh wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean "my pronunciation." It's not the most natural thing to say but it can still fly: "Merriam-Webster provides a free online dictionary, thesaurus, audio pronunciations, [...]" in a way that 'softwares' and 'advices' would not. I would add 'codes' to that use as it is often misused To make this even more confusing, in some contexts, 'codes' is used as a plural in ways you never would for general purpose programm…

I would accept that usage, but not "my pronunciations." The hard part for foreign speakers is that this usage is perfectly comprehensible, so it would rarely get corrected, while sounding bad to native speakers. Which is, of course, quite harmful to someone who wants to improve. And yes, I know of no simple answer as to when to use 'code' vs. 'codes', but I will say that I think that 'source codes' is probably always…

I would accept that usage, but not "my pronunciations."

My filter might be a bit more lenient because I imagine an implied 'my pronunciations of some particular words" after it. I still wouldn't say it or write it but it doesn't poke me in the eye as much, especially in the middle of otherwise idiomatic-sounding casual English. So context counts as well - as do the tastes of the person reading your stuff. Someone might think you an illiterate clod for a misused "it's" or "your" or "whomever".

Anyway, I think we're actually in violent agreement, my only point is the nuances are tough and not subject to easy rules.

Oh, and you were saying

At least, I am unable to find a sentence using that which sounds right, though it might be possible for it to be correct if you were talking about something other than the source code of a computer program.

http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/#/%22source+codes...

Re: Founder with an accent? Free offer from SayAfter.me

#58

Post by WA »

reustle wrote: post #17

I watched your intro video and have 2 points to comment on * "Can I have a spaghetti" isn't the right way to say it. Drop the "a" * Have a native english speaker read it out, not a computer generated voice (if that isn't already the plan)

Really? So why should I pay 30 bucks a month if I can go to TextEdit on my Mac, paste some text (maybe even a story) and have it read out to me for free, any text I want, forever?

Re: Founder with an accent? Free offer from SayAfter.me

#59

Post by znt »

laureny wrote: post #49
znt wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are right, you have to be logged in to see the subscription page at: http://www.sayafter.me/subscriptions/subscribe . I will change it to be available for anonymous visitors. Thanks!

Please say it here or I, probably along with others, will classify your marketing tactics as shady. Is withholding the price that important that you're willing to risk a reputation black mark on your product?

I am terribly sorry if it came across like this. To be honest, the only reason I did not have a public subscription page is that I was too lazy to add logic for displaying buttons with "account signup" links, instead of "payment" ones for anonymous visitors. And now it bit me back today.

I just a deployed a fix for this issue, you can now see the prices at http://www.sayafter.me/subscribe

Re: Founder with an accent? Free offer from SayAfter.me

#60

Post by znt »

wldlyinaccurate wrote: post #57

I couldn't sign up because the email field is limited to 30 characters. Emails can be up to 256 characters long, sometimes longer.

Thanks for the report, will fix it ASAP. Apparently this issue is affecting other Django users as well:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2610088/can-djangos-auth-...

Post reply on HN