掲示板 Forums - new feature: audio

One of the *large* new features that I'm actively working on now is an audio portion to the site. I'm going to have (my goal) dual audio recordings for every word in the proficiency tests and textbooks, starting with the JLPT tests. Each word will have two recordings: a slower version (for lower-level students, or users that need to clearly hear the pronunciation), and a normal, everyday speed.

The usages of these files will be:
1. dictionary lookup/word lists - hear the sound
2. vocabulary quizzes with audio questions. For example: hear the audio, select the definition, or hear the audio, select the hiragana (in this case, it would not be different terms, but rather, misspellings on a single term to help build recognition of long vowels and double consonants)
3. ...?

This will be part of the renshuu pro (paid) package, well, #2 will be. #1...not sure yet. Maybe a limited amount, with everything open to renshuu pro members.

I could see some really cool uses for #1 - for example, make a firefox extension that would let you access the dictionary at any time to hear words being spoken (if you were reading a japanese page, and saw a term you didn't recognize).

I would just like to hear your thoughts on this, any other possible uses for audio, requests, wishes, etc. This is one of 4 the *major major* additions to the site over the next year (The other 3 being...well..I've given enough hints), so I am definitely interested in how the users see this future feature.

It seems like you've covered most of what I would want from audio. As I've mentioned elsewhere, the audio factor is pretty much the only thing that keeps Rosetta Stone in circulation in my studies. This would REALLY help those of us studying on our own... I have the Genki audio CDs but my listening comprehension is still terrible. I may know a term backwards and forwards seeing it on the page, but hearing it goes right over my head.

One thing, speaking of listening comprehension. This is probably out of the scope of what you're doing now, but in the future... perhaps using audio for more than just single words? It doesn't have to be full-on listening comprehension problems or anything (though that would be cool), but even just listening to a sentence being spoken at normal speed and being able to match it with its written counterpart, or English equivalent (or something similar).

That might be a pain to get together, but maybe once you've got the grammar stuff in place, it could just pull from those example sentences? That would also mean people would be able to listen to the example sentences for a given grammar point, which would be helpful. I guess the hard part is getting somebody to read a ton of sentences aloud...