Learn English Podcast #42: Improving Pronunciation with AI-Human Technology (2)
bit, but if you don't wanna get the calories, I totally understand.
So I tell 'em to touch the tip, pull it back and then with your mouth, do
this weird motion where you tuck the bottom lip, cuz it's gonna force it.
And I that's one of the, the hardest ones for, for Japanese people to get.
The second one is the TH the TH sound with like "the", because
again, we have that curling of the tongue and it vibrates through.
So they're always going to do the air through the teeth and they're going suck.
And I say, okay, the easiest way is we just put that
tongue out a little bit more.
I say, it's not gonna be perfect, but a few times we practice
it, it's gonna come through.
So those are two of the hard-hitting ones except for, oh.
And then the last one would be B and V.
B and V.
Okay.
Yeah.
So like bet and vet.
And, and again, like, these are just like little tiny tips to help people, but it's
very easy once, you know it, cuz bet all you have to do is just, uh, tuck both
of the lips as in "bet" and overdo it.
That's why I always tell my students and for the V sound have your bottom
lip to tuck it under the teeth "vet".
And that's all it is.
And people, when I, when I teach 'em that within a few lessons, maybe one or two,
their B and V kind of just become normal.
Fantastic.
Wow.
Um, I find, I find too, I don't know if you found this in Japan.
Those are like the technical issues with pronunciation, but a big thing I found
was the kind of social or let's call it like personal, like confidence issue.
Yeah.
You know, because as you say, you know, you need to stick your tongue
out to make that proper TH sound and a hundred not used to doing that.
That's a little silly.
Maybe you might, you don't wanna look odd or like, you know, definitely found that,
uh, in Japan, a country where people are very, you know, maybe not, they're not,
so, uh, what's the word I'm looking for?
Extroverted.
Outgoing.
Generally...
outgoing.
Yeah.
That's a better word.
Outgoing.
Yeah.
Generally speaking of course.
Right.
But, um...
hundred percent.
Yeah, I found that too, for sure.
Have you had any...
how long has Lingo Mii been, been up and running now actually?
Yeah, we've been, uh, I think next month is gonna be about a year.
Oh, wow.
So super fresh.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we're fresh.
We actually just launched our, our MVP in May, but then right now we're actually
restructuring it because we wanted to really add in that teacher screen.
So we're gonna have everything finalized and finished by September
I think so that we can relaunch it.
Okay.
Yeah.
And as you mentioned, it's a system for, uh, teachers and for students,
are there any kind of reviews or feedback that you've had so far that
you've been especially happy to hear?
Actually, yeah, there there's a couple, um, we, we instantly have feedback from
our teachers and they love the idea of it and they want to implement it.
And they really see this beneficiary for speaking.
Cause again, it hits on that confidence thing.
And I I've dealt with this a lot where people didn't wanna make
these weird mouth movements, but I, I tell 'em just do it for a week.
Go do it by yourself, go practice with the app.
And then once they do, they get over that fear, cuz then it goes away.
Cause you don't have to do it so big.
And then they have more confidence in speaking or asking me even questions.
Cause the, the biggest problem for the teacher's side they're like I've
had people who have a 900 TOEIC but they can't introduce themselves.
I said, yeah, I've been there too.
And that's the problem.
They know the material, but they don't feel confident in telling me it.
So for the teacher side, fantastic.
Cuz they love all the implementations and everything.
And for the student side, the biggest thing that they, they wanted is
they wanted instant translation.
So what we did is we took that note and then, uh, we also took um, a
look at the market and saw how we can actually help both fields more.
So we built an instant translation that can instantly read.
So we have that up actually for our web edition, where people can just type
in and they instantly get fed their information and scoring, but then we're
also fixing and we're creating that right now is basically a walkie talkie.
So say that you're in a classroom with like five people and you have your
homework or your assignment from the teacher, cuz it's uploaded, and then
you go, man, I really want to practice you can hit that person up and then
you guys can practice the conversation together instead of the AI so that
you guys can do the walkie-talkie.
Yeah.
So we have that because we all know schedules, no matter
what language we learn...
i, I remember when I was learning Japanese and I was like, I have no one to practice
with, like, and I have no feedback.
So it just, it just killed me.
So, and I would always be at home or I'd always be at.
So I didn't have that time.
So this is kind of built for those people who want to have that extra
study who want to have that extra thing.
And how is your Japanese?
Did you get, are you still it's getting with it?
Are you doing it still yeah?
It's still good.
Uh, so like for, sometimes in our meetings we speak English,
but then I have to switch.
And then especially when I, when I was in Tokyo for about two months, I was
there from April to May, the end of may.
And I was going to so many networking events and they were like, oh, you
have to pitch in, uh, Japanese.
I was like, uh, okay, like, we'll give this a try, no problem.
So, and like for business side, it really like scaled up.
But like my casual is still pretty good.
I can get by.
Let's put it that way.
If I, if I need to go have a good conversation, make some people laugh.
That's not a problem.
Oh, excellent.
That's a great position to be in.
Nice.
yeah.
So, um, what's in in store for Lingo Mii?
As you said, you're about to celebrate your kind of one year anniversary.
Yeah.
So right now we're actually, um, just getting revamped up.
So right now we have, uh, three schools in talking.
Some of 'em are actually kind of big players of that...
they want to get in and try our products.
So we gave them our web edition for a month to try out.
Then next we're gonna start, uh, rolling out when our updates come out so that
they can use it so we can get our pilot.
So when our pilot comes in, we get our test feedback, then we can jump
up and start selling even more.
But right now we have three universities that are in, uh, sorry, one university and
two language schools that are interested.
Excellent.
Wow.
So lots going on.
Wow.
Yeah, just busy, busy, busy.
excellent.
Well, Alexander, thank you so much for chatting with me.
I'll pop the link of course to Lingo Mii in the description.
Okay.
Um, yeah.
I hope the weather the cools down for you there in Colorado,
and your dogs are not too hot.
I know I'm surprised when you were talking about how Canada was so hot.
I was like, man, I thought it'd been a little bit colder right now.
Yeah, it's not usually, I mean, last year we had the whole heat dome thing.
If you were in LA, you, you must have had it too.
Got to 41 degrees here.
I was in, I was a little bit south.
So at that time I was always, I was always at the beach, but, uh...
yeah.
I don't know if this is the norm now.
I hope not, but, um...
Man I hope not.
Yeah.
Well, we'll see.
Hopefully it gets better.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Fingers crossed.
Well, uh, have a great rest of your day Alexander and thank
you so, so much for joining me.
Yeah.
Thank you too.
And thanks for having me on and hope everything gets blessed
with you in your career.
Cheers.
Thank you.
Take care.
No problem.
Bye
Bye