Live data from Hacker News

Founder with an accent? Free offer from SayAfter.me

sayafter.me

81–90 of 105 posts

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

#81
post #62
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good job for the work. But seriously, I don't think you even have a MVP yet. If the purpose of this site is to correct people's accent, having a generate voice(huge electronic accent) is not acceptable at all.

You are right, robotic accents is not helpful (but hilarious though). This app is mainly aimed at fixing the incorrect pronunciation of words, rather than the accent. If I ever get to add real human voices, then it will be even better.

You might be able to use mechanical turk to get some cheap proper readings of text ;)

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

#82
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just use the mailcheck plugin with default settings ( https://github.com/Kicksend/mailcheck ) If this keeps happening often maybe I should use my own domain list. Thanks for the feedback.

> if this keeps happening often maybe I should use my own domain list. You probably should do it as soon as possible : > The included default top level domains are com, net, org, info, edu, gov, co.uk, and mil. Which means ... it excludes all regional non english TLDs. Pretty much a problem for a service that targets non english native speakers. :) By the way, I am an english non native speaker that writes a lot of e…

Alright I just deployed a hotfix that includes TLDs for: com, net, org, de, fr, in, ru, it, tr.

I will also be adding lots of new content soon, so if you are interested in a particular theme for words/phrases ("flowers", "dog breeds", "Flirting 101" etc) just let me know. I will give them higher priority.

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

#84
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if this keeps happening often maybe I should use my own domain list. You probably should do it as soon as possible : > The included default top level domains are com, net, org, info, edu, gov, co.uk, and mil. Which means ... it excludes all regional non english TLDs. Pretty much a problem for a service that targets non english native speakers. :) By the way, I am an english non native speaker that writes a lot of e…

Alright I just deployed a hotfix that includes TLDs for: com, net, org, de, fr, in, ru, it, tr. I will also be adding lots of new content soon, so if you are interested in a particular theme for words/phrases ("flowers", "dog breeds", "Flirting 101" etc) just let me know. I will give them higher priority.

Thanks for that.

I have no special theme right in mind, I usually speak english only when I travel, so it's mainly general purpose language. This could be as well asking for menu in restaurant, discussing tech with other developers or debating politics with foreign friends.

On the other hand, the idea of isolating words that are especially often wrongly pronounced for a given native language you mentioned in an other comment sounds really awesome : I'm less interested in getting a specific word right than getting right specific sounds used in a lot of words (but I guess this does not help you to select your first words, sorry about that).

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

#85
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The original play was by George Bernard Shaw. Any commentary on the absurdities and arrogance of the British class system is deliberate. Though by "the Bible" he's equally referring to the King James translation, which was regarded as a major literary influence, on par with Shakespeare.

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

#86
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alright I just deployed a hotfix that includes TLDs for: com, net, org, de, fr, in, ru, it, tr. I will also be adding lots of new content soon, so if you are interested in a particular theme for words/phrases ("flowers", "dog breeds", "Flirting 101" etc) just let me know. I will give them higher priority.

Thanks for that. I have no special theme right in mind, I usually speak english only when I travel, so it's mainly general purpose language. This could be as well asking for menu in restaurant, discussing tech with other developers or debating politics with foreign friends. On the other hand, the idea of isolating words that are especially often wrongly pronounced for a given native language you mentioned in an other…

> I'm less interested in getting a specific word right than getting right specific sounds used in a lot of words

Actually this is the long term goal. If I ever have the chance to work on SayAfter.me full time, I will map phonetic sounds to words, and find out which nationalities have trouble with which sounds.

More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA_number#Letters

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

#87
post #42

I'm a native American English speaker who is also into startups (and has lived in a lot of places, communicating with non-native speakers in English, as well as my really horrible Kurdish, Pashto, Dari, French, Arabic, etc. phrases...). Observations: 1) You should fully Americanize all the spellings. It is American English people want. 2) This would be far too boring for me to stick with if it is things like "I went…

Many people who don't speak English are outside the Americas, and so it doesn't make sense for them to learn the American variation of English. However, I agree that it should be an option.

Pretty much all non-native speakers who want to learn English that I've ever met do want to learn American English specifically, particularly those who want to work in America.

(I prefer South African English, personally, but I think the commercial market is strongly in favor of American English.)

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

#90
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people who don't speak English are outside the Americas, and so it doesn't make sense for them to learn the American variation of English. However, I agree that it should be an option.

Pretty much all non-native speakers who want to learn English that I've ever met do want to learn American English specifically, particularly those who want to work in America. (I prefer South African English, personally, but I think the commercial market is strongly in favor of American English.)

"Your anecdotal evidence is wrong - I want the opposite"

"No, your anecdotal evidence is wrong."

"My anecdotal evidence is right."

Post reply on HN