Help me learn the French accent with speech recognition for Mac?

June 25, 2013 11:43 AM

I am looking for a currently supported Mac product to help me improve my atrocious French accent. I would really like software that uses speech recognition for a good chunk of the lessons, because I can read well enough (despite being a rank beginner) but need all the help I can get on the conversational side.

I had a very old program called Learn French Your Way that used IBM's ViaVoice dictation and worked well, but now I have a Mac 10.8 and would like something for that system.

Rosetta Stone is probably out of my price range, and, according to Metafilter, its recognition doesn't work very well. Anyone have any alternatives? Thanks.

posted by wnissen to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

Not what you asked for, but: CLE's Phonétique Progressive du Français is just audio CDs (and optional accompanying books), no speech recognition. But it is really, really good—its phonetic curriculum really drives you to hear the distinction between similar-sounding words/phrases, so you can generate it yourself. When I went to France after using these CDs, I was in the awkward conversational situation of a near-native-sounding person with the vocabulary of a slow, ignorant child.

There are separate volumes for beginner, intermediate and advanced students, and every one of them is worth it. I've bought the books and the CDs but the CDs do damn well on their own. They are, alas, a bit hard to find.
posted by xueexueg at 12:21 PM on June 25, 2013

Some of the answers to this more general question I asked last week about accents might help you (especially the ones at the end of the thread).
posted by Dansaman at 2:02 PM on June 25, 2013