Lang8 for spoken language?

Japanese Language Speaking
#1

Hello minna-san :slight_smile:

I was wondering if anybody knew of a website or app where it is possible to upload audio or video recordings of yourself in Japanese and get feedback on it? Like Lang8 but for spoken language!

Such a platform would be AMAZING since I am really complexed about my Japanese speakingā€¦ I can understand and read and write at a very high levelā€¦ But my speaking, omg! x) (I heard a recording of myself today and was shocked haha. Itā€™s like itā€™s all chopped off and itā€™s overall not really clear!) I never had problems speaking with Japanese people, but still, it bugs meā€¦

So if you know of any tips or anythingā€¦ Thanks !! :smiley:

3 Likes
#2

Speechling does this (itā€™s paid after a certain limit per month).

1 Like
#3

LiveMocha! You can upload to get critiques as well as critique othersā€™ audio in your first language.

#4

HelloTalk?

1 Like
#5

Oh that seems really cool! I submitted some recordings, canā€™t wait to see the kind of feedback I will get ^^ Itā€™s a shame itā€™s not community based and a bit restricted (like, I think they only correct pronunciation and donā€™t care if you make mistakesā€¦) but oh well :slight_smile:

Thank you! :slight_smile:

#6

But it needs to stay within the course you are doing, right? I just signed up and they only let me say things like 恓悓恫恔ćÆ haha ^^ Do you actually use it for speaking practice? :slight_smile:

#7

Thank you! Do you actually use Hellotalk for speaking practice? Is it not more about text posts and then actually speaking/chatting with people?

#8

Iā€™ve barely ever used it. From what I remember, yeah it was mostly text. But you can voice call people too, and leave recordings in your posts. Remember seeing some people asking to have their pronunciations critiqued.

#9

I think one issue is it takes way longer to give feedback on speech than on other things. And it really helps if the person is also recording their voice while they listen and can immediately contrast with yours. This makes it hard to do it as a ā€œeveryone just help a bitā€ type website because doing it in a meaningful way is such a pain.

I can see someone doing a YouTube channel or something devoted to this, but then of course the output would be low.

#10

I see! Maybe Iā€™ll give it a try, thanks! :slight_smile:

#11

Right, itā€™s true that it seems difficultā€¦ But when I see the number of people who is so devoted in websites like Lang8, I donā€™t see why there couldnā€™t be the same thing for spoken language! Of course, a limit of time or something for recordings would be needed, and the corrections should be given with another audio recording or a mix of written and audio comments, but other than that I donā€™t see why correcting spoken language would take more time than for written texts really. I mean, I would love to give such feedback for people learning French if there was that kind of system! :slight_smile:

1 Like
#12

I guess if you made a site like this, you would add features to streamline getting audio on there. I was stuck on imagining correcting someoneā€™s speech by audio on a forum like this. You would need separate software and a place to upload it. But yeah, I guess such a site would take care of that for you. I still think the effort level is higher, but itā€™s not quite as bad as my first thought.

#13

You can use it for calls/ voice messages for people to correct you. I tried speaking there couple times.
(stopped doing that because i am bad :slightly_smiling_face:)

Thereā€™s italki too (never tried it tbh)

#14

tbqh, I actually havenā€™t used it in a long time. I kno in years past you could request a ā€œchatā€ pal (rather than penpal) and you could send audio messages of whatever. Have you tried the desktop website? There might be a way to do it via the full site and not the app. Iā€™m not sure though. :grimacing: