This App Fixes Your Japanese Pronunciation

[@Dogen]

Pricing (listed below and covered from 28:13) added to course landing page! $5.99/month $29.99/6-months $49.99 one year. Apologies this wasn't front and center on the website; we got tunnel vision leading up to the launch-focused on functionality and bugs-and failed to realize that while price was covered in the video it wasn't clearly listed on the homepage. 100% on us; thanks to everyone who pointed this out. Currently working on a dark mode, a lifetime subscription option, and additional word lists. Reminder use 'launch' for 10% off 6-month and annual plans!

[@corey777]

Is there no free plan that covers at least a handful of free lessons to try it out? Doesn't need to be a big amount, but this is a popular way to reel users in.

[@soluna2252]

yeah i'm very interested, but i never spend money on language apps and courses untill i can at least try it. also comes across as not being confident in your product (even tho that may not be the case at all).

[@jf8050]

​@@corey777Good point.

[@ellisnachtregen]

You said the lessons are based on your phonetic course. As someone who didn't take it I have no idea what to expect. Which level of Japanese should I have to make use of Emurse? Does it go according the vocabs in the JLPT (5>4>3>2>1) or is it after most often used words in daily life or something else? Thanks for your answer and sorry if I missed the info somewhere in the video.

[@Dogen]

@ellisnachtregen Hi! If I had to put things simply, the phonetics course is less about learning new words, and more about learning how to correctly say the words and phrases you've already learned. It's designed to be usable for people of all levels, though people who have already studied for a bit may benefit more. Here is a sample lesson! kzbin.info/www/bejne/n4q0fmp4na99pNU

[@kaemincha]

i love the acceptance of constructive criticism in the comments, transparency speaks to a good and improving product! i imagine this would be very helpful for those trying to enhance their Japanese speaking skills (and in turn, their ability to be understood by other native Japanese speakers)

[@Dogen]

thank you very much kaemincha!

[@Dogen]

Update: lifetime plans coming soon!

[@PotatoBandana]

Please consider a lifetime subscription. This is exactly the kind of tool I'd use in bursts with large gaps between that calls out for lifetime subscription.

[@oscarnilsson5779]

I second this. I'd slam a lifetime subscription, even if it's 2 years up front.

[@Dogen]

Discussing this right now-appreciate the feedback!

[@parnmatt]

Absolutely agree. I'm the same.

[@alaylva]

@@Dogen yes please! if there's a lifetime purchase i'd buy it right now. i did the same for wanikani and migaku so i could use them at the right time and at my own pace. subs for learning tools stress me out 😅

[@oscarnilsson5779]

@@Dogen Cheers man! Looks like an awesome tool though. Looking forward to try it 😃 I have some feature requests I’d like to share with you later, one being the ability to integrate this with a tool I’ve been putting together to aggregate info (my kanji/vocab reviews, books I’ve read, past homework etc) for my teacher. I’ll send you an email later with some more details later :)

[@theracat8626]

I dont like that the emurse site forces you to create an account before being able to view any pricing or any other info about the course. Thats going to make a lot of people instant close the site and never bother again.

[@酗]

There should be a top-level menu item for Pricing. When comparing options for any service, I usually just disregard those that make me jump through hoops to see how much it costs.

[@indexonce]

I agree 100%, although he does mention the pricing at the end of the video $49.99 / 12 months $29.99 / 6 months $5.99 / month

[@酗]

My issue is not about him or this video, it's about the website. The pricing isn't unfair, the fact that potential learners may never bother seeing the price if they have to make an account.

[@emurseio]

Thanks for the suggestion. The reason for that is because you need to have an account before you create a subscription, but it's a valid point. We've already discussed it briefly, and we'll be looking to roll out this change shortly.

[@emurseio]

@@酗 It's good feedback, thanks. I described above why it's done that way. We'll definitely get the pricing on there for users that haven't created an account yet.

[@NateBerkopec]

As a web dev, I think you've done an incredible job here for the first launch of a new product! Congratulations dogen! This obviously is the result of a lot of work, experience and care. The spectrogram in particular is such a great idea.

[@Dogen]

Appreciate the kind words Nate!

[@Hoffnung7558]

ive never seen more life in your eyes than when you are talking about this Pitch accent tool. This is truly a game changer, can't wait to try it out.

[@Dogen]

Appreciate it Hoffnung!

[@flaviospadavecchia5126]

Not Dogen pretending not to recognize N5 Japanese words 💀

[@SandTiger42]

Luckily I learned Japanese in Southern Kyushu. Rain vs Candy? SAME. Bridge vs Chopsticks? SAME. There's no rising or lowering or any strange intonation. It's flat. Sadly I learned from elementary school kids I taught. So I sound like a kid from the middle of the country side. Meh.

[@matheus-ub3tg]

Actually, SAME means shark

[@SandTiger42]

@@matheus-ub3tg Dad?

[@EvgenyUskov]

that's not tested on jlpt anyway

[@larryhanya]

Rain and candy (ame), bridge and chopsticks (hashi)-they may sound the same to non-Japanese speakers, but they’re completely different! The accent falls on different parts.

[@SandTiger42]

@@larryhanya Let me elaborate a bit more, as not all hougen's are the same. Where I live, there's no difference. When used in a sentence, most speakers in my spouse's family, and coworkers, it's the same. When pressed to say the word itself, you can get a little intonational stress, but it's very subdued and they can't hear it between each other. I'm a linguist and can hear it, even though it's very very light. But once again, in a sentence it's the same. Inaka accents are the best.

[@computerfan1079]

A small improvement would be to trim the silent parts in front of and after the recorded sound, so that it lines up better with the native speakers recording

[@Dogen]

Will relay this to Brian, thanks!

[@emurseio]

That's a good idea, thanks for the suggestion.

[@five-toedslothbear4051]

Thanks for the great intro/demo video. I’m so excited for Emurse! Congratulations on the launch!

[@Dogen]

Appreciate the kind words slothbear!

[@sharkmanw]

dark theme for this web site would be highly appreciated

[@Dogen]

Working on it! Appreciate the feedback 鮫男!

[@SuparNerd]

Something I noticed (and it's a very minor complaint) but when you were doing the "connect the dots for the correct pitch-accent" thing, the "correct" sound comes off as negative instead. I offer the friendly suggestion of literally just flipping it so that it starts with a low beat and ends on a high instead of beginning with a high and ending on a low. Again, a minor thing but, with how our brains work, I think it would drastically change the overall feel and even the effectiveness of that portion of the app.

[@anachromaly]

not sure what you mean, as it is already as you describe. the "correct" sound that plays @9:19 goes low to high from a C to an F, and the "incorrect" sound @9:43 goes high to low from slightly below a G to an F#.

[@randxalthor]

Super cool. Getting close to where I want to be to start studying pitch accent. Looking forward to trying it out when I get there. Glad more resources are taking advantage of your expertise.

[@Dogen]

Appreciate the kind words Randxal!

[@danielhawley2504]

The rare Wheel of Time username. You love to see it. Good luck on your studies!

[@cesartalvez-learning]

Hey! Will try the app for my Japanese Speedrun. Sounds interesting! Thank you so much for the Contributions to the 日本語 Learning Community!

[@Dogen]

My pleasure! Thank you for signing up!

[@Lunariant]

Research shows that visual aids like spectrograms can be highly effective in improving second language pronunciation - so this is exciting to see. The simple interface looks very effective

[@emurseio]

We added this functionality while building out the Japanese Phonetics course, but it also turned out to be REALLY HELPFUL in helping me correct some issues with my Thai pronunciation. With Thai specifically, there are a lot of irregular words so seeing the graph is a big help if you don't know that the word has an irregular pronunciation.

[@noah1502]

i just subscribed for a month to try it out. i am very intrigued by the "mimic" drill section, as it allows me to shadow native speakers and compare my pronunciation in graph format. so far i like it. i needed to do shadowing, but havent gotten around to it.

[@Dogen]

Appreciate it Noah! We'd also like to add more sentence level phrases-will work on adding these over the next few months. Cheers!

[@fishonrice_]

The way Dogen said "go" at 20:42 sounds like we're clicking on a button to play a japanese board game

[@dodomemester5932]

So cool...but I'm too broke. I'm good being 上手 for now

[@southcoastinventors6583]

Channel Game Gengo is still free and way more fun way to learn Japanese

[@usbgamers123]

I can't look at the pricing without creating an account

[@ThrowawayModeller]

Premium pricing is: 6$/month 30$/6 months 50$/12 months not actually that bad, considering Duolingo premium is like 35€....

[@southcoastinventors6583]

Working as intended Dogen wants to be payed in money that actually has value

[@ashoka7273]

​@@southcoastinventors6583 What you said makes no sense. Read what they said again

Pricing starts at 28:13

[@emurseio]

We added it to the course description, so you should be able to see it now.

[@andrewkrahn2629]

28:13 $5.99/month (recurring) $29.99/6 months (once, ~15% off monthly) $49.99/year (once, ~30% off monthly)

[@Prince8927]

so to really benefit from this you would preferably need to pay for both the app and his patreon course... hmm Idk how to feel about that but it is very amazing learning tool that I'll definitely consider using.

[@Dogen]

To get the maximum amount of benefit from Emurse, going through the Patreon course at the same time is definitely the way to go. That said, if you just want to check your speech against that of a native and aren't necessarily interested in learning the various pitch-accent and pronunciation rules, Emurse is great for that as well. Would say a lot of it comes down to exactly what your Japanese language goals are!

[@SR-kh6yq]

This is great! Wishing you success with this site! I have no need for it myself since I'm already a native speaker, but if there was something like this for Mandarin it would be a dream come true!

[@emurseio]

We'd like to do a Mandarin course, right now we're looking for teachers that have a presence on social media and a course curriculum they'd like to enhance. If you know of anyone that might be a good fit, I'd be happy to reach out. Cheers!

[@SR-kh6yq]

@@emurseio One that comes to my mind is Grace Mandarin Chinese. She's passionate about linguistics and phonetics and has made a lot of video on tones pronunciation, based on academic sources and research. The style of her youtube videos is also pretty cool. I don't know if she would be interested, but I think she would be an amazing fit. Alternatively, Shuoshuo Chinese is one who has a pretty extensive course curriculum already and might be interested in enhancing it. Like I said, I don't know them personally and don't know if they might be interested, just recommending teachers who seem like a good fit^^

[@emurseio]

@@SR-kh6yq Thanks so much! We'll take a look.

[@jin5325]

It would be great if there would be a combo deal with the patron to see the videos. Perhaps with a lifetime subscription? Looking forward to seeing how you refine the website and services (I could definitely see an app version being super helpful)! I'll definitely be subscribing.

[@emurseio]

We're actively working on getting lifetime subscriptions rolled out. I'll let Dogen know about your Patreon questions. Patreon-specific benefits are usually announced on Patreon first, so please consider signing up for the free tier if you haven't already.

[@Hoffnung7558]

Serious question, do you think there will there be a Kansai-ben addition/add-on in the future? Please consider making that addition if your able, if so I will throw my money at you very quickly lol

[@kuroneko9757]

Awesome software! So what I would love to see is the words that I've marked as "Needs improvement" to be automatically saved in a word list somewhere, rather than having to manually select what my favorites are after completing the lesson.

[@emurseio]

Thanks for the suggestion. We have something like this in the app already. If you go down to the bottom of the Course Dashboard you will find a section called "Terms" there you can find an overall score for each type of activity (Reading, Meaning, Listening, Speaking). Putting these fields in the display within the lesson or word list might be a good addition for the future. Please take a look and let us know how it works for you and if you have additional suggestions.

[@Trazaeth]

Man launched an entire app to flex his perfect pronunciation. J/k great project and if I was looking to learn Japanese, I'd have bought this immediately.

[@ChazzX93]

your privacy policy seems to be truncated prematurely "If you wish to disable cookies,---"

[@emurseio]

Thanks for pointing that out. The copy has been updated to reflect that cookies are required for using the interactive content like courses, lessons and drills. Cheers!

[@ChazzX93]

@@emurseio of course! I was also glad to read that the audio data is processed locally on device :)

[@TrTai]

I'm actually super glad to see this product, the spectrograph was actually something I was experimenting with for myself for a bit but having reliable points of comparison vs eyeballing what my pitch was like was a bit of a an issue (But I did realize I cannot for the life of me raise my pitch on 'o', one step at a time) but this looks really nice to add into the practice repertoire. Definitely be trying it out, and the price doesn't seem unreasonable for a lot of what it seems to provide. Honestly bonus points for me actually getting on the platform because Thai has just been an interesting language on my peripheral in language learning too, even with Japanese being my main focus. We'll see how it goes!

[@Dogen]

Appreciate the kind words Tai! Hope that it makes a big difference in your Japanese and Thai studies!

[@kimdavis2433]

The pitch accent from memory practice is really cool and I was excited to try this, but I was disappointed that the rest of the exercises were too easy to be helpful and the vocabulary selection seems small and basic. If it ever becomes suitable in the future for an N1-level speaker trying to ferret out and unlearn bad pitch accent habits, I'd love to check it out again.

[@emurseio]

What would make the exercises more challenging for you? Are you looking for longer phrases to practice with? Have you tried the Pitch Curve Recorder app? If you have your own audio clips, you can use the Pitch Curve Recorder to check your pitch on any word or short phrase you feel is difficult. This gets me thinking, maybe it would be helpful to be able to upload multiple files so you could quickly test yourself on a bunch of recordings. 🤔

[@shotasdg3679]

Wow good job!!

[@n1m4r35]

This as Anki-Addon or Migaku-Feature would be truly gamechanging.

[@bureboburebo4188]

I have the intuition that this would be more valuable with more natural, less fragmented utterances (ditch the isolated fragments and instead go for utterances that are natural and complete by themselves).

[@corey777]

Great MVP. Can definitely use some work on the design/UX, but good start. Congrats!

[@devinlauderdale9635]

Wow a language course that's ACTUALLY innovating??? 10/10

[@sweetsingin]

Brilliant!

[@runningriot7963]

As a native English speaker I always struggle to change pitch whithout increasing the stress. My JPN friends say my pitch is good, but sometimes I put too much emphasis "stress" on certain words. Any tips to reduce over stressing words?

[@emurseio]

In Emurse, we have the capability to display waveform data on top of the pitch curves. So, that could help you to visualize where you're putting the stress. Presently this is available in the Pitch Curve Recorder - you can access it with the "Pitch & Waveform" option. It might be a configuration option that we add to Drills in the future.

[@lumbaracres3587]

I tried it. I have to exagerate my high pitch to make any kind of difference in the pitch graph, to the point my voice sounds unnatural. This may be due to my having a lower pitch voice, overall. It would be good if the amplitude of the graph could be changed to get better looking plots without having to artificially raise my high pitch. That change would greatly encourage me to subscribe.

[@Dogen]

Appreciate the feedback lumbaracres!

[@Kaarssteun]

Going through the first sample lesson, the pitch detection doesn't seem to work at all for me. I have a rather deep voice, but a mid-tier XLR studio microphone. It just consistently wrongly places pitch, or doesn't detect parts well.

[@Dogen]

Making a follow up that will release in the not too distant future that will hopefully address some of this!

[@TheDudlydude]

I found that speaking at a higher pitch helps with detection, but I'm mostly comparing them by ear right now. I like this course and i subscribed to the site, very helpful thanks dogen

[@zynera]

The voice graphs could have a thicker or thinner line to emphasize how much stress and where the stress needs to be

[@emurseio]

Having something like that is a great idea. We've experimented with a few things like that. There is a plot available in the Pitch Curve Recorder that shows the waveform data stacked on the pitch curve. It's definitely something we want to make available as a selectable option in the drills.

[@aayushmankhanna6319]

Since the possibility of a lifetime subscription has been thrown in the discussion, I hope people like me who've subscribed to the bi-annual or annual plans get a small discount to upgrade to it since I certainly would ^^

[@emurseio]

Thanks for the question, we will have an option to upgrade to lifetime plan that's discounted form full price. We haven't finalized the pricing yet and are still working on the back end, but it's coming soon.

[@bachelorsensei9437]

本当にありがとうございます！私を含め、私の生徒達の為にも凄く役立つと思います！

[@Dogen]

こちらこそ、ありがとうございます！

[@user-riiamu69]

ホンマすげぇやでなぁこれ

[@ふみ-q1i]

こうやってみんな勉強してるんだ、、 すごい、、（日本人）

[@MultiMikstar]

I would love to use this, but I tested it and it doesn't matter if I speak high or low pitch, it is just a straight line with some gaps. Yeah I have a low male voice, but my high pitch is about 0.5mm higher than my low pitch according to your website. And I tested on pc with my headset and with my phone, same result.

[@Dogen]

Hi! Will address this in an upcoming video!

[@seanwilliams1166]

I clicked my friend Mike, he didn’t appreciate it, he said stop trying to configure me

[@SakuraD9]

Thank you thank you thank you!!! I’ve purchased the premium subscription and I’ve been practicing in the last 20 minutes…it’s FANTASTIC!!! Really THANK YOU!!!!

[@emurseio]

Glad to hear it's working out for you. Thanks for subscribing, cheers!

[@Dogen]

Thank you very much Sakura! Very gratifying to hear that!

[@Emblematicify]

Hi Dogen, I just blasted my way through to lesson 10, and I'd like to mention a few things that might make the experience better for others: 1) I had trouble getting the sounds to go beyond little blips instead of wavy lines even after setting my mic sensitivity as high as it could go. However, I found that by adding words after the word presented, the overall flow of soundwaves would become more pronounced. Example: 大学 "daigaku" -- would show up as like... -/ but 大学 "daigaku (ni ikimashita)" - would show up as --/\ - (ni ikimashita) -- basically, it'd be easy to see the whole part of "daigaku" pronounced when I added other words after. 2) I noticed that I say the "jin" in "nihonjin" like the drink "gin" in English. I was not retaining the Japanese ”い” sound in じ. I am terribly embarrassed.

[@iusearchbtw69]

Not a surprise But a welcome one

[@greggleswong]

Might I suggest an audio 3D plot? 3rd axis would be amplitude. (Unsure if log or linear scale is better.)

[@emurseio]

We don't have a 3d plot, but we have a stacked plot that shows the waveform data on top of the pitch curve. It's available in the Pitch Curve Record App in the course.

[@tangente00]

I think others might have mentioned it already, but instead of the way to slow, unnatural, overemphasized 経済が it would be more useful to have natural longer phrases like "lately the economy has gotten worse" or such maybe?

[@Dogen]

Will try to take make more phrase level recordings!

[@Undrscorr]

Oh thanks cause I just started pitch accent. Perfect timing.

[@gfriesmuth]

I'm having issues with the spectrograph not registering or displaying most of my more baritone voice, where only the higher notes get shown at the bottom.

[@Dogen]

Hi! Planning on making a follow up that aims at addressing this to a certain extent.

[@MO_AIMUSIC]

I think the application still need some calibration function for device microphone as some device (like my phone) have mono channel microphone that will compress my voice so that the voice chart that the website shows is significant flat than the real voice.

[@MO_AIMUSIC]

Also for future development maybe add additional features like incorporate the AI voice generator that learns the users voice and generator the correct pitch/tone read back with the users sound, that would be much much more helpful for the user to know what is the correct sound be like, currently the girl voice is clear,but rather hard to imitate as the pitch of the voice is higher.

[@TheDudlydude]

Is there any chance you'll add hotkeys to move slides, spacebar is usually the default for forward on things like this, a key for the microphone would be really nice too.

[@emurseio]

They're in the app already in an experimental state: [spacebar] - play video / audio recording [o] - record audio (when available) [p] - playback recorded audio [right] - navigate forward in lesson [left] - navigate backward in lesson [1-9] - toggle multiple choice/self assessment scoring [h,l] - pitch graphs: enter high or low pitch at cursor location and move cursor forward [backspace] - erase pitch at cursor location move cursor backward If you try them, let us know what you think. We haven't announced this publicly yet because we want more feedback on it and may change the shortcuts.

[@fuhmab157]

beautiful

[@ffelegal]

One day I'll worry about pitch accent, but today is not this day.

[@Test_749]

I WANNA TRY IT

[@arthurhex770]

Dogen vid that is longer than 1 min?! 2025 is wild.

[@Oniromanciee]

I did not expect that.

[@user-og7dc4xs7f]

日本語学習にも、こんなに便利なツールがあるとは！我々英語学習者は英語の発音で苦労するけど、日本語学習者はピッチアクセントとモーラで苦労するんだなあ……第二言語も、母国語みたいに苦労せず習得出来たらいいのに😢

[@emurseio]

It's hard mastering pronunciation, and unfortunately phonetics is an afterthought or simply non-existent in many language courses. An English phonetics course is one of our top priorities as is Mandarin. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, cheers!

[@user-og7dc4xs7f]

@emurseio Yeah, I agree. From my experience, literacy skills are easy to improve even in adulthood, but when it comes to oral communication, unfortunately, it's much harder compared to children. I really wish our schools would make phonetics a top priority.😔 Thanks too, cheers!

[@レオ-r6z]

ダークモードがあったら、絶対買いますw

[@vijayragav1865]

What if instead of self evaluation the website tells if the speech pattern is correct or not by itself? Well future ai engineers will figure it out i guess. This product is good start for it!

[@canaldecasta]

The trick is to think of yourself as a street gang member, but without the shouting.

[@chu_ri5470]

I just tried use it app with my guitar instead voise. It don't just work. I using micro MCU-02.

[@emurseio]

Thanks for checking out the Japanese Phonetics course on Emurse! The recording capability is specifically for the human voice, so I don't see supporting guitar or other instruments as something that we will support in the future

[@chu_ri5470]

@@emurseio ok, it look like i'm not human(

[@DavidFGM]

Good luck with your project! It looks really well made. In my experience, though, studying pitch accent isn’t really necessary when learning Japanese-you naturally pick it up as you go. I’ve never studied it, and I’ve reached N2 level just fine. I guess different people learn in different ways, but personally, I’d consider this a low priority.

[@izzya8132]

meanin' readin'

[@fedorkochemasov4533]

This is insane, wow

[@tw2210]

This looks really good. Would you say it's useful right from the beginning of learning, or more use if having reached a certain level? Best wishes from the UK.

[@Dogen]

Yo, I would say it's useful right from the beginning as it allows you to immediately test your perception via the listening drills. That said, there might be an argument for holding on the output side of things if you're of the belief that output should be delayed a bit (I think this argument has merit depending on what your language goals are). If you're already speaking Japanese and looking to improve the accent and rhythm of your Japanese (i.e., you're already outputting), then, I'd say all the features are safe to use. Cheers!

[@tw2210]

@@Dogen Thank you so much for your reply - much appreciated. I'm going to sign-up to use it. Thanks again.

[@Dogen]

@@tw2210 My pleasure! Hope that you enjoy Emurse!

[@tw2210]

​@@Dogen Thanks Dogen! I just subscribed for the year 👍🏻

[@The_Real_Paradox]

This tool looks very good and I really want to be able to use it but as of now my financial situation is not going to allow it. I would like a lifetime subscription instead tho once I saved up the money

[@Dogen]

We've had many people ask for a lifetime sub option; thank you for the feedback- hoping to roll this out over the next few days!

[@サミュエル先生です]

This is revolutionary for Japanese language learning

[@iusearchbtw69]

Daring, aren't we?

[@southcoastinventors6583]

ChatGPT is still way better because it does more than language learning

[@MAlexDesu]

This sounds awesome for beginners of Japanese language learning, but how advanced are the later lessons? Do they use only simple words and grammar like the lessons showcased? I know that the focus is on learning accent patterns, something even advanced speakers need to improve. But for me personally, I get bored easily if the content is too easy and basic. I have the same issue with learning kanji, for example, when all compounds are either rarely used at all or are the most basic combination instead of more complex compounds. Something else that's missing imho is automatic scoring, instead of self-scoring. Especially for the recorder feature, this would be a huge selling point.

[@answer5092]

優越感 is "simple" for you?

[@Dogen]

Great question-the following index page briefly explains what each Patreon lesson covers, and thus what you can expect on the companion drills on Emurse. www.patreon.com/posts/japanese-index-16489306 I like to think we cover most things from complete beginner to highly advanced. Cheers!

[@Agnopes]

What level would this be best for? I realize the main focus is pronunciation, but what if someone with 0 Japanese joined? Also, I would like a 1 price forever option, even if it costs 2 or 3 years worth. That way I wouldn't feel guilty about wasting my money if I were to buy it and not use it as much as I imagined. Sub options can be off-putting like that. For example Lingo Legend, which is kind of like a cuter duolingo with actual game elements and better voices. Although it's an inferior product to yours, it charges double per month for premium than your product, and there's a lifetime option for $95.

[@Dogen]

Appreciate the feedback. We're trying to push out lifetime options in the very near future! It's definitely usable from day one, even for someone with no experience (for testing perception), but there is an argument to be had about waiting a bit to try the output features, as many people believe that it's better to do a certain amount of input before doing any output. Much of this comes down to your personal language goals, however! Long story short, highly recommended if you're already speaking, think it's still a good product for complete beginners, but you won't get as much value out of it if you're not doing output as well. Cheers!

[@Agnopes]

@@Dogen Thanks so much for answering professor Dogenさん先生sir. I'll look forward to that in the future. Matt mentioned that when we reach the output phase to get a "voice parent" or two, and the upload audio feature of your new app will help me if his idea is worth practicing. After seeing videos from Ken and Matt about accents, I began worrying about my learning style affecting my accent or tones. They said reading or speaking too early can bring about bad habits that are difficult to fix. I started with Duolingo, it's mostly reading with robot voice overs which may sound unnatural. 5 months in and 1700 words later I've been looking to branch out and find things with better voices.

[@Dogen]

​@@Agnopes My pleasure Agnopes! And best of luck with your future studies!

[@dvp39]

Can you graph it by pitch? Does it matter if it's semitones off? It's just the direction of the pitch changes that matter right? I wonder what is the optimal pitch to use as the "flat" or base note for me personally, I see ga as the lowest pitch I guess because it's a participle. I guess it's like melodyne but you can't see a visual representation of amplitude.

[@emurseio]

The graph is by pitch over time. We look at a band of a few hundred hertz where the human voice falls. Regarding amplitude you, in the Pitch Curve Recorder App you can use the stacked chart to see the waveform data as well as the pitch curve. With this tool, the goal is try to re-recreate the curve. Dogen is going to address the other part of your question in a coming video. When I first started using the tool, I found I needed to go higher (for the high pitch) than felt natural get closer to the graph of the native speaker.

[@1quizout]

@dogen I do not pay for your patreon course. I have always viewed learning Japanese as a hobby and my vocabulary is pretty small. I am not highly motivated to get my pitch accent correct. That said, this seems like it has good potential to be an alternative to something like Anki, but with expanded functionality like pitch accent. Do you view this as a good alternative to services like Anki for learning vocabulary and picking up some pitch accent along the way?

[@Dogen]

Hi Quizout! To be frank I think that while it is good for expanding vocabulary as well, if your main focus is learning new words, and you're not concerned about sounding native (or as native sounding as you can become), then you may be better off with many of the free ANKI apps and decks out there, as many of them are larger than what we currently offer (though we're planning on expanding the word lists), and of course, you'd be able to save some money. As you pointed out, our app's primary focus is on improving one's spoken Japanese, whether that's through perception training, or direct comparison to native speech, though it's also possible to use Emurse to learn many new words along the way! Hope that this helps you make an informed decision!

[@allanwhatmough1178]

Does this cover the same material as your pitch accent course?

[@Dogen]

It can be used to test what is taught on the pitch-accent course, but also in isolation to test your speech against that of a native speaker at a word-by-word or phrase-by-phrase level. Emurse can also be used to test for reading, meaning, analyze the pitch of an uploaded file, etc. So you'll get the most value from Emurse if you're also going through the pitch-accent course, but I still think it's a steal in isolation for anyone who just wants to quickly compare their speech to that of a native with visual feedback. That said, a lot of the value will come down to exactly what your Japanese learning goals are! Cheers and best of luck with your future studies!

[@allanwhatmough1178]

@Dogen Thanks so much, I’m definitely keen to improve my pronunciation and pitch-accent so I’m going to give both your course and Emurse a try! Cheers!

[@Dogen]

@@allanwhatmough1178 Absolutely my pleasure! Remember to try and immerse with as much native speech as possible as well; going through my course and using emurse will both help a lot, but you'll get more bang for your buck with both if you're regularly listening to native speech as well.

[@jf8050]

Does this thing only check pitch accent or the pronunciation as a whole?

[@emurseio]

We have the capability in Emurse to use speech-to-text and display the text of what was recorded. It is experimental right now and not being utilized in the Japanese Phonetics course. I will check with the team and see if there is interest in enabling in the drills or lesson content. Thanks for the question!

[@Rainbrass]

I wish this worked better on Windows. I'm consistently only getting 1/3rd of the pitch markers drawn in even for native speakers, so it's pretty useless. 😢 I thought it was a Firefox issue but Chrome does the same thing, so it must be Windows.

[@x_jaydn]

Anyone know if there's an equivalent app/service for Mandarin phonèmes and tones? 😲

[@jf8050]

Has anyone tried it? What did you think?

[@emurseio]

The introduction lesson is free and it gives a good overview of the different kinds of exercises in the complete course so feel free to check it out.

[@joanblack6170]

学校😃

[@ganqqwerty]

which features are missing in kotu but exist in emurse? Is it about better UI?

[@Dogen]

Hi! I haven't used kotu extensively, but I'd say the main differences are in UI, the ability to test the same word lists across a variety of different parameters, word list amount and length, and the linear course material which can also integrate with the Japanese Phonetics video series; many people going through my course were asking for an active way to test what they are learning; we tried to create the optimal application for that, and for learning pitch accent (and rhythm, etc.) in general. That said, from my limited time using kotu, and other pitch accent apps (I believe NHK has one as well, though I'm not sure it's still around), it seemed to be a great application. PRAAT is another alternative I've used in the past, with even more detailed feedback, but it's significantly more demanding on the user, in my humble opinion. Cheers!

[@ganqqwerty]

@ I think it definitely looks like great companion app for the course. Kotu and especially praat have more features but are hard to use

[@josepmariacomajuncosas1875]

So, it doesn't evaluate the simmilarity?

[@Dogen]

Not at the moment-currently making a video about how close a recording should be in order to be considered right or wrong. Might be just a bit of time before I can release it, however. Appreciate your understanding!

[@larryhanya]

Hi, Japanese here.The lady’s intonation does not sound very natural to me. It should be more flat. Also, Japanese women speak differently from men so you need two versions-one for women and one for men.

[@sarahs.6377]

Is there a furigana toggle option?

[@emurseio]

Not yet, but depending on the card type the reading in hiragana is displayed.

[@dragonicbladex7574]

Is this useful without the course? I mean like honestly i cant afford both

[@Dogen]

Yep, the course is better for learning the rules, and using the app with the course is a great way of reinforcing what you learn in the course, but it's definitely possible to use the app in isolation to compare your speech to that of a native and check things at a word-by-word or phrase-by-phrase level. Naturally, the app can also be used to test word reading and comprehension as well. Perhaps a biased opinion but hope this helps!

[@victor__s]

This is amazing work! From a development perspective, I can see various directions for improvement: 1.While self-evaluation is good, it would be better if the algorithm could "highlight" areas for improvement and provide specific directions. 2.The pitchgram is currently drawn after the recording is complete. It would be better to see it emerge during the recording. 3.The visual aid over the words is great. It would be helpful to see how the voice "hits" the correct marks during both recording and playback. 4.The intro contains too much text and explanation. Instead, it should start with the microphone on and "konnichiwa" on the screen - when the user says it back, everything becomes self-evident. 5.This would better gamify the experience. 6.There should be rhythmic, song-like, and karaoke-style exercises for better pitch memorization, complete with scores, leaderboards, achievements, and badges. A "Song/Text of the Day" challenge could be an optional feature. Wishing you success with this project!

[@hidekkochi]

just to be clear, paying for patreon and the website are two different things right?

[@emurseio]

Yes, the Patreon tiers indicated on Patreon give you access to the instructional videos produced for Patrons. The Japanese Phonetics course on Emurse is laid out to line up with the content in the Patreon videos and offers interactive review materials but does not contain the instructional videos.

[@chadparkhill4064]

Am i the only one who noticed a haircut in this video lol

[@maythesciencebewithyou]

I don't recognize you without your hat

[@YnEoS10]

Any chance of something similar for Mandarin?

[@everythingtorah]

你好！我也学习中文！

[@emurseio]

Yes, we'd like there to be a comprehensive phonetics course for every language, and perhaps specific to the dialect. If you know of anyone who might be interested in working on a course for Mandarin you could direct them to our website. Cheers!

[@mookey2]

I believe Japanese pitch-accent and pronunciation will be slightly different between female and male speakers. Does the program offer a male speaker also?

[@Johnnyvtg]

Just stop believing it and problem solved

[@answer5092]

I assume the app uses standard pitch accents, which don't vary by gender.

[@00ask76]

There's no difference in accent between male and female. In many cases, unique accents are used to give anime characters a cute look, and girl characters are just remarkable. If you listen to the voices of the male and female announcers on Japan's national TV stations, you will understand.

[@Dogen]

Though male and female speakers generally have different 'base tones', the pitch-accent patterns they use when speaking are the same. Because of this, the female recordings are still highly effective for male learners. That said, the course could definitely benefit from male recordings as well; will try to add some in the coming months!

[@nimpichu3711]

the duolingofication of pitch accent has officially begun

[@littlered6340]

HAHAHAHAHA I asked Dogen so many times on live, what a good way to practice actual pronunciation of Japanese words and he never answered because this was the answer 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 GG. I'm at the beginning but I hope it has a lifetime, I don't pay subscriptions but I'm willing to do a large single time payment.

[@Dogen]

Will try to implement a lifetime subscription soon! Appreciate the kind words Red.

[@littlered6340]

@@Dogen HOORAY! As a programmer myself, I think this was an AMAZING way to implement pitch accent testing and verification . Do you have any plans to have automatic (but perhaps with a self check confirmation) grading? I was thinking the fact that the diagrams only have two colors would make it a relatively simple implementation, given how close your correct pronunciation seem to match the native pronunciation. (Unless of course you are an exception; I'd be willing to believe that.)

[@Dogen]

@@littlered6340 Will look into this for sure! Have to be extra careful with automatic grading as even the smallest of bugs can reinforce incorrect information and lead to the development of bad habits. Cheers!

[@littlered6340]

@@Dogen that makes sense!

[@TheLongestConfidence]

This is missing grainy videos of Dogan berating you for your terrible pronunciation, like a Sega CD FMV game.

[@DioJeanBaptiste]

wooww

[@tksprogrammierer5310]

It sounds great. Especially for lazy people like me who would rather pay for the convenience of not creating their own material. Sadly you only provide credit card and cash app, which isn't really a thing outside of the US/UK. So without card, one can't access the course at all. I understand that you start small, but by not having an app on the store and not providing google pay/paypal/etc as alternatives, you likely will prevent a lot of people from regions, where credit card usage isn't that common. Hope you'll expend in that direction soon, as otherwise I literary have to throw money at the screen and be sad that it doesn't work :D

[@Dogen]

Apologies for that TKS! Will try to address this in the near future!

[@snappie4180]

I have no interest in joining your Patreon. I can't tell from watching your video how dependent this course is on your Patreon content. Frankly the fact that it's based on you Patreon content makes me very hesitant to try it.

[@Dogen]

Fair critique-will try and address this in a follow up video I'm making!

[@Deus.Grande]

Strangest thing is that this kinda software been available for a while already. My Chinese teach had some for phonetics tests, recording our reading and comparing it to the native track, like, 10 years ago.💀Also, that light mode yo

[@Dogen]

Definitely a lot of great pitch tracking apps out there, some of which are free. I haven't seen something that was both purposely built for Japanese pitch accent and rhythm studies and exceedingly easy to use, however, so we wanted to bring that to market. Working on a dark mode update now, appreciate the feedback!

[@andrew15_5]

It's definitely cool, but I'm kinda tempted to make this pitch accent analyzer myself (in Rust) and publish it under AGPL3 (and with Dioxus it can be an easy-to-make cross-platform app). Because from my understanding, the pitch analysis shouldn't be that hard to implement. Everything else is simple, but takes a lot of time to make.