Pronunciation Trainer Resources

The Chinese (Mandarin) Pronunciation Trainer Resources

Hi! If you’re seeing this, you’ve probably purchased my Chinese (Mandarin) Pronunciation Trainer (if not, you can get it at the store). I’m going to be using this page to keep track of changes, to provide instructions for repairing problems, and to have a central place to keep the instructional videos that you should watch before using your pronunciation trainer.

ESSENTIAL VIDEOS TO START LEARNING

– Instructions for using your pronunciation trainer effectively
– Chinese (Mandarin) Video 1: Tones and the Pinyin Spelling System
– Chinese (Mandarin) Video 2: Chinese (Mandarin) Consonants
– Chinese (Mandarin) Video 3: Chinese (Mandarin) Vowels
– Chinese (Mandarin) Video 4: Some Quirks of the Pinyin Spelling System

HOW TO USE ANKI

– How to use Anki for the first time
– Creating an AnkiWeb account
– Getting Anki synchronized across your various devices
– I’m having trouble installing Anki or the deck, where can I get help?

MODIFYING YOUR DECK

– Optional spelling test version

LANGUAGE LEARNING RESOURCES

– Other useful resources specifically for learning Chinese (Mandarin)
– Fluent Forever Help Center

FLUENT FOREVER PRONUNCIATION TRAINER VS FLUENT FOREVER APP

– Are the Fluent Forever Pronunciation Trainers the same as the Fluent Forever App?
– I heard you have an app in development, but I just bought your other materials. What do I do?

Want to get the Fluent Forever App? You can still help Fluent Forever create the first app that can bring you all the way to fluency — find Fluent Forever on Indiegogo.

NEXT STAGE OF THE FLUENT FOREVER METHOD

– I’ve completed the pronunciation trainer, what do I do next?

UPDATES TO THE PRONUNCIATION TRAINER

– Pronunciation trainer versions changes
– Bug reports to be reviewed
– Get the latest version

ESSENTIAL VIDEOS TO START LEARNING

Instructions for using your pronunciation trainer effectively:


Chinese (Mandarin) Video 1: Tones and the Pinyin Spelling System


Chinese (Mandarin) Video 2: Chinese (Mandarin) Consonants


Chinese (Mandarin) Video 3: Chinese (Mandarin) Vowels


Chinese (Mandarin) Video 4: Some Quirks of the Pinyin Spelling System


Note: If you’d like more information on phonetics and the IPA, check out this series of videos. I’ve also create the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) Anki deck, which is available at the Fluent Forever shop.

HOW TO USE ANKI

How to use Anki for the first time

First, you’ll need to install Anki onto your computer if you haven’t already. The details of how to install Anki is provided in the ReadMe file you received with your Pronunciation Trainer. Once you have followed these instructions and installed Anki, you’re free to start studying using the pronunciation trainer deck.

If you have more questions about Anki and learning Chinese (Mandarin), there’s also the Anki language learners community on Reddit. You can even check out this Anki language learning blog for other Anki tips and tricks for learning Chinese.

If you’ve never dealt with Anki before, we’ve created Anki video tutorials to help guide you when using Anki for the first time. You will find tutorials about:

  • Getting Anki installed and making your first flashcards
  • Installing the Model Deck
  • Learning Simple Spellings and Sounds with the Model Deck
  • Learning Simple Words with the Model Deck
  • Creating Flashcards with images and sound files

Go to our Using Anki page to access the tutorials.

Creating an AnkiWeb account

Create a free AnkiWeb account to regularly and automatically save your Anki data online by syncing your computer’s Anki account with an AnkiWeb account.

This is useful if you lose all your Anki files on your computer and want to download the latest version of your Anki decks and cards. Having an AnkiWeb account means you can also study your Anki deck and cards on several devices, such as your computer, smartphone and tablet, and you can easily move your decks and cards to different devices.

Getting Anki synchronized across your various devices (Laptops, smartphones, etc.)


I’m having trouble installing Anki or the deck, where can I get help?

If you are having difficulties installing Anki or the deck, please check out the Fluent Forever Help Center as your question may already be answered there.

If you can’t find the answer at the Fluent Forever Help Center, you can send us an email. Please include as much detail as possible and screenshots of the issue.

MODIFYING YOUR DECK

Optional spelling test version

This is an optional version of the deck that asks you to actually type in words to test your spelling, rather than just spelling out the words in your head.

I’ve included a pre-made version of this called the “Optional Spelling Test Version” in the pronunciation trainer download. If you would like to have this feature in your deck, please follow the instructions in your ReadMe file.

LANGUAGE LEARNING RESOURCES

Other useful resources specifically for learning Chinese (Mandarin)

We have a dedicated page of other Chinese (Mandarin) learning resources. These are books, websites and tools that I personally recommend using.

There is also a general language learning resources page on our website that provides a list of tools and resources that may also be useful for you.

There are also some useful Anki flashcards for Mandarin to improve your pronunciation, such as the Mandarin characters, IPA pronunciation and other useful goodies.

You can even access ready-made Mandarin Anki decks to boost up your Mandarin vocabulary which is recommended, as it could save you time and get you started faster.

Fluent Forever Help Center

The Fluent Forever help center provides you with advice and answers from the Fluent Forever Team about the most common questions users have. You can access articles about:

FLUENT FOREVER PRONUNCIATION TRAINER VS FLUENT FOREVER APP

Are the Fluent Forever Pronunciation Trainers the same as the Fluent Forever App?


Nope, they’re different!

The Fluent Forever Pronunciation Trainers are a set of videos and audio-visual flashcards. To use them, you watch some videos on YouTube, then you download a flashcard app called Anki, load our pronunciation trainer flashcards into Anki, and start studying. After 2-3 weeks, you’ll have a solid foundation in the sound system of your target language, both in terms of ear training and in terms of the spelling system. After that, you can go create flashcards on your own within Anki, as described within the Fluent Forever book. We began creating these trainers in 2013, and finished in late 2017.

The Fluent Forever App is a much bigger project that we’re currently working on. Many of our users have had trouble learning how to use Anki, or have found that parts of the flashcard creation process were overly tedious. Instead of spending all of their time exploring their new language, they were getting stuck, spending their time struggling with flashcard creation.

In response, we decided to make our own mobile app that could automate the entire Fluent Forever method, so that a student could focus all of their time on exploring their target language, while the app created flashcards automatically, based upon that student’s choices. While the Fluent Forever App DOES teach pronunciation in the first few weeks, that’s only a small part of what it can do. It’s designed to take you all the way to fluency, teaching you vocabulary and grammar from 1,875 sentences we’re making, and letting every user of the app share their original content with every other user of the app. Within the next year or two, this will become the largest database of easily learnable sentences in the world. We began this project in late 2017, and we should have a final version ready by August of 2018. If you’d like to get early, discounted access, join our Indiegogo campaign: http://indiegogo.fluent-forever.com

I heard you have an app in development, but I just bought your other materials. What do I do?

Want to get the Fluent Forever App? You can still help Fluent Forever create the first app that can bring you all the way to fluency — find Fluent Forever on Indiegogo.

NEXT STAGE OF THE FLUENT FOREVER METHOD

I’ve completed the pronunciation trainer, what do I do next?

If you have completed the pronunciation trainer deck you will no longer see any daily cards to review in Anki. If you’re still having problems with pronunciation, you could ask for help at the Reddit Forum for Anki
Language Learning or try Rhinospike.com for help. There are also other websites that have pre-made flashcard deck resources which are highly recommended, such as the alphabet flashcards, IPA pronunciation flashcards and other useful goodies. There’s also blogs about language learning tips with Anki in general which could help you.

The next step in becoming fluent in Chinese (Mandarin) is to learn a set of extremely common, simple words using pictures, not translations. There are 625 basics words that are commonly used. You can purchase the Wordlist for Chinese (Mandarin) at the shop and begin creating cards to study.

There’s also the option of using ready-made decks of Chinese (Mandarin)  vocabulary, or checking out a Chinese frequency dictionary.

You can read more about this stage of the Fluent Forever method in Chapter 4 of the Fluent Forever Book entitled “Word Play and the Symphony of a Word”. If you don’t already have the book, you can purchase the audiobook version at our shop or purchase a physical copy online.

UPDATES TO THE PRONUNCIATION TRAINER

Pronunciation trainer versions changes

The following are the various versions of the Pronunciation Trainer, listed from the newest to oldest, along with information on new features and improvements in each version.

Version 3.0

On June 14, 2018, the Fluent Forever Chinese (Mandarin) Pronunciation Trainer Version 3.0 was released to the public.

What’s New

General
  • Upgraded the version number to 3.0, as part of a major concurrent update for all Pronunciation Trainers in order:
    • To phase out all Beta releases and move all Trainers into non-Beta
    • To make all Trainers uniform by placing them within the 3.0 version series (even for Trainers without a Version 2.0)
    • To make it easier for version control in the future
  • Updated the names of the folders, zip file and other files of the Pronunciation Trainer so that they are all standardized, easier to understand and follow the same conventions as all other Pronunciation Trainers in the 3.0 version series
  • Updated the URLs and titles of the Pronunciation Trainer Resources page so that they are all standardized, easier to understand, and follow the same conventions as all other Pronunciation Trainers in the 3.0 version series
  • Added a new hidden, suspended note in the Pronunciation Trainer Anki deck which includes basic information about the current version number of that particular deck. This will make it faster for users to get Fluent Forever tech support for their specific version
  • Improved the documentation and accessibility of version release notes and bug reports with updates
Word Stress Cards
  • Added new “Word Stress” cards for languages with word stress rules. Those languages included: Spanish LA, Spanish EU, Dutch, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese
What’s the Meaning of Words Cards
  • Deprecated: “What’s the word?” and “What’s the word mean?” card types
  • Modified the “Picture Words” card model so that it doesn’t force students to try and memorize words, but rather just spell them or pronounce them out loud.
  • Created distinct Trainer versions for “Old Users” and “New Users”. Old Users are those who have already installed and used the Trainer in the past, and would like to update their Trainer. New Users have never installed and used the Trainer before. Users must use their respective Trainer version so that the “Picture Words” cards display properly.
ReadMe File
  • Changed the filetype from HTML to PDF
  • Updated the design of the ReadMe file, such as the color scheme and formatting, to improve user experience
  • Improved the explanations of each of the ReadMe file steps to make them easier to understand
  • Included screenshots of the main steps to make the ReadMe file more user-friendly
  • Added a FAQ section with useful answers, such as suggestions for what to do after finishing the Trainer, and the difference between the Pronunciation Trainer and the Fluent Forever App
  • Removal of references in the ReadMe file to the Beta version of the Trainer
  • Included link to the Fluent Forever App as a faster alternative to the Trainer
Bug Fixes
  • Deleted the card for the card with the word “fence” because the Mandarin Chinese translation and audio were incorrect, and it was only an extra example word whereas the Mandarin Trainer already included several example words

Responses to Previous Bug Reports

Other bug reports may have been given about the previous version of this Trainer, and all of them were checked and considered. To see a full list of the bug reports that were checked, including details of whether those bugs were fixed or not fixed for the latest version of the Trainer, please see this Trainer’s: Bug Reports for “All Versions Prior to Version 3.0

All versions prior to Version 3.0

Bug Fixes & Bug Reports
  • Card 209: ālābó. (i) tones should be 1,1,2 not 1,2. (ii) IPA is given as [a1la1po2], but should be (I think) [a1la1pwɔ2].Got it
  • In card 98 “Malaria”, the IPAs of -üe in nüèjí are written as ɥœ for sound and nyɛ4ʨi2 for word, which seem to disagree. Got it
  • Card 216: ēnshī. Pronunciation (i.e. the MP3) seems totally wrong to my ears, although the IPA given on the card seems correct [ən1ʂɻ̩1]. The MP3 is more like [ən1ʂi1]. Re-record ēnshī
  • The “jùnzi” sound is still wrong in the latest downloadable version (cards 87 and 205). Got it.
  • Card sort field #18 in Chinese (Mandarin) Spelling rules,tone test and exercises
    It’s written in “Notes on usage”:
    “y” before A, E, I and O
    It seems that in reality, it’s “y” before A, E, I and U (not O) Disagree…Y+U = [y]
  • “qìchē”
    [tɕʰi4tɕʰɤ1]
    Surely q and ch shouldn’t be transcribed with the same IPA? Got it
  • Similarly, another card says a ‘u’ is:
    u [w]
    as in”huà” [xua4] Got it
  • I noticed it is a little confusing, due to sandhi, when two 3rd tones are played. I will hear a 2nd then 3rd and the answer will come up 3rd 3rd. The First few times I marked it as wrong until I noticed the note at the bottom about 3rd 3rd sounding like 2nd 3rd. It might be less confusing if the answer came up 2nd 3rd and then the note explained that it may sometimes actually be 3rd 3rd.
  • Card asked what sound does the “e” in ceng-layer make and then makes the sound for “eng” Got it
  • For the 2,5 when the speaker say ma2ma5, the second tone ma2 sounds like it stays too low, more like a half third to me. I haven’t had trouble with the other second tones, so it seemed worth mentioning. Got it.
  • There is a “what sound does this make” card for -uai as in chuaizi-plunger. When you press the show answer button the sound for chuazi is heard but not for -uai. I’m getting a sound for -uai. Check newest version and let me know if that’s still happening and we’ll investigate further.
  • káng and kong have exactly the same ipa except káng-kʰɑŋ2 has the tone and kong-kʰɑŋ does not. How can you distinguish the sounds when the tones are the same for this card? This is distinguishing sound differences in the pronunciation of “k” and the vowel that are too subtle for IPA, so there’s no difference in how they’re written. But the differences are still there, and I think cases like these can be helpful for really finely tuning your ears.
  • For the “identify the tone” card for 3rd tone with a picture of the horse, it sounds like 2nd tone to me. Switched out for a recording that drops a bit more at first and then rises, since we need an example of the (rare) isolated tone 3.
  • 227 Should say “3,5” for tone Got it
  • The “identify the tone” cards for nai3niu2-dairy cow says its 3rd 5th but the pinyin is 3rd 2nd and the recording sounds 3rd 2nd. Got it
  • The “what sound does this make?” card for -ang as in fang1xing2-square does not play the -ang sound after pressing show answer. It just plays the recording for fangxing. I’m getting a sound. Let me know if this is still happening in the newest version.
  • pàng and pong have exactly the same ipa except páng has the tone and kong does not. How can you distinguish the sounds when the pronunciation and tone recordings are the same for this card? See kang/kong answer
  • pài and pie have exactly the same ipa except pái has the tone and pie does not. How can you distinguish the sounds when the pronunciation and tone recordings are the same for this card? See kang/kong answer
  • The card for what does ying3zi-shadow sound like yin3zi, identifies the tones as 3,2 but the pinyin has no 2nd tone. Changed recording and switch to 3,5
  • The recording for jun4zi-mushroom sounds like jun1zi using the 1st tone. Got it.
  • There is an “identify the tone card” that says wang3zi sound 65 but, the answer it gives is tone 1,2 as in guang1nian2 instead of 3,5 and it sounds like 2,5 to me. Got it
  • There is a “What’s this sound like?” card for guang1nian2 and when you show the answer it plays the recording for wang3zi. Got it
  • The recording for xiao4xiang4-portrait seems to be very poor quality. Got it
  • The recording for qi2-flag has some weird background sound. Got it
  • sai4-che1 you give a picture of a racing bike but it’s a race car Got it
  • The minimal pairs are missing some of the sounds that beginning students have a notoriously hard time distinguishing. These are the ch-,sh-,zh- sounds versus the q-,x-,j- sounds. Some examples would be chuan vs. quan, shui vs. xue, shang vs xiang, and zhao vs jiao. When you look at the IPA and hear them with perfect pronunciation the differences might be more obvious but when heard in a casual conversation they can be harder to distinguish. I got recordings of these but they’re really far apart, and I don’t think they’re going to be very helpful for minimal pair work. The first 2 have unmatched vowels and the last two are really distant, sound-wise…
  • The progression of the “tone” cards is pretty good but missing a final phase. It starts using identically pronounced words using different tones. Then it uses those same word for tone combinations. Then it uses different words in isolation. It ends by combining different words in different tone combinations. I think after that there should be something like the previous phase but keep the pronunciations the same and change the tone combinations. An example would be xiao4ni3 vs. xiao3ni2. I just found that If the word was distinct at a certain point I would memorize what the tone was supposed to be and wasn’t sure if I actually heard the tones correctly or just remembered.
  • Card 231’s audio doesn’t match the word. Got it!

Recent Bug Reports (posted September 18, 2015):

  • Card #231 (guāngnián) incorrectly has the sound recording [sound:65-wang3zi-speaker2.mp3] instead of [guang1nian2.mp3]. [THIS ONE IS FINE.]
  • Card #205 in sort order. The text indicates “jùnzi”, 4th and 5th tones however the audio recording is said with 1st and 5th tones. [RERECORDED]
  • Card 290 first syllable (xiao4) pronounced in 1st tone and written in 4th [RERECORDED]
  • Card 87 first syllable (jun4)–Pronounced in 1st tone and written in 4th tone
  • Card 279 one syllable (qi2) [RERECORDED]
  • Card 417 2nd syllable (shu4)–the u from shu should be pronouned as ü, not u. As in qu4, not as in lu4. [FIXED IPA]
  • Card 288 full word (ling4dang1)–ling4 should be ling2. The sound is wrong–the 2nd syllable isn’t pronounced, there is no sound for dang1 [FIXED WORD]
  • Card 231 (guang1nian2) Sound and spelling don’t match. wangzi is pronounced instead of guangnian. [FIXED]
  • Card 205 first syllable (jun4) Pronounced in 1st tone while written in pinyin as 4th tone. [ADDRESSED IN OTHER ENTRY]
  • Card 191 and 69 (fang1xing2)–Sounds as if there’s a k in the middle of both syllables. [FIXED]
  • Card 177 1st syllable (cir)–Pronounced as 1st tone while written in 4th [FIXED]
  • Card 176 2nd syllable (ji1)–Pronounced as 4th tone while written in 1st [RERECORDED 字迹 zìjì]
  • Card 156 and 25 1st syllable (cir)–Pronounced as 1st tone while spelled as 4th [FIXED]
  • Card 135 (o1)–Pronounced in 4th tone while written in 1st [FIXED]
  • Card 50 2nd syllable (ji1)–Pronounced as 4th tone while written in 1st [ADDRESSED IN OTHER ENTRY]
  • Card 31 2nd syllable (jin1)–Are you sure it is pronounced as jin1? And not jing1? [CONFIRMED “JIN”]

An Archive of Old Fixes from the Betatest (feel free to ignore these; they’re fixed already in the final version!)

Bug reports to be reviewed

Currently there are no bugs reported for Version 3.0.

If you encounter problems with your trainer: Please check that you are using the latest version of the Pronunciation Trainer before reporting any bugs.

If you encounter problems and are using the latest version: Either email it over or post it to the forum. Include screenshots if possible (if you need an image upload service, use Imgur.com), and be as detailed as you can! If the forum won’t cooperate or if you have something you’d prefer to send in private, send an email.

Please read through the bug report to check whether the bug has already been reported before sending an email or posting on the forum.

Get the latest version

Latest version of the Pronunciation Trainer: Version 3.0

If you have previously purchased the Pronunciation Trainer, you should have received an email regarding the release of the latest version and the direct link to download the latest version. If you did not receive the latest version, please send us an email.

If you do not have the Pronunciation Trainer, you can purchase it here: https://fluent-forever.com/product/fluent-forever-pronunciation-trainer/

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