Answers
Feb 06, 2014 - 06:49 PM
I haven't responded sooner because, quite frankly, I'm not sure what you're asking. When you say you can't hear the speakers, do you mean that literally, or are you saying you can't understand them? I would agree that sometimes I the audio is difficult to understand. It makes me question the quality of the recording itself. (I'm a musician and I have experience in recording studios. Recording speech has it's own problems separate from recording music.) However, I do find that with repeated listenings, and reading the words, I can understand the speaker.
There are programs available that allow you to slow down the playback of a recording without changing the pitch. I've used them in musical situations and they work quite well. I have not used it on the Fluenz course. The one I use is called "Amazing Slow Downer." It's a MacIntosh program. There are probably others available for Windows. Google, "slow down music without changing pitch." Maybe this will help.
I would caution though, that native speakers will be speaking quite fast and you won't have a computer program to help you in a live conversation.
There are programs available that allow you to slow down the playback of a recording without changing the pitch. I've used them in musical situations and they work quite well. I have not used it on the Fluenz course. The one I use is called "Amazing Slow Downer." It's a MacIntosh program. There are probably others available for Windows. Google, "slow down music without changing pitch." Maybe this will help.
I would caution though, that native speakers will be speaking quite fast and you won't have a computer program to help you in a live conversation.
Feb 08, 2014 - 07:09 AM
Thank you so much! This may be exactly what I need. I CAN hear the speaker. I just cannot hear the breaks between the words and the speaker "drops" words (they get mixed up with the previous or succeeding word) that I am supposed to supply, but cannot hear. I live in Italy and have no problem asking people to slow down or repeat, but I need the computer to slow down. Thank you...
Feb 08, 2014 - 10:42 AM
Perhaps the biggest problem I have is being able to separate spoken words from each other. Whenever one word ends in a vowel, and the next word starts with vowel, the ending vowel gets dropped and the two words slur together. It's something you just have to get used to. Here' a sentence from the most recent lesson I've done.
È arrivata almeno un'ora prima. (She arrived at least one hour earlier.) The audio sounds like "È arrivatalmenun'ora prima."
It can get quite challenging!
È arrivata almeno un'ora prima. (She arrived at least one hour earlier.) The audio sounds like "È arrivatalmenun'ora prima."
It can get quite challenging!
Apr 18, 2014 - 03:40 AM
I definitely noticed the same problem when going from Level Two to Level Three. I finished Levels One and Two in about ten days each. Found them to be incredibly easy, yet still fulfilling. Level Three seemed to be a major advance and just took off to the races and I was hard pressed to keep up. I just finished Level Three a couple of days ago and that one took much longer, taking me about 21 to 22 days to fully complete, with each lesson taking me about an hour to an hour and a half to complete when the previous lessons only took about 45 minutes to an hour. There was a noticeable difference in the dialogue and listening comprehension workouts. They were speaking much faster and were obviously speaking with a much more native Italian tone. Rather than someone who is enunciating for teaching purposes. I think it's not impossible though. It was puzzling at first but with some serious effort and patience, I think it's possible to sort of train your ear to more better understand. Which is the whole reason we're all here. Don't give up! Just keep trying and you will get there!
Apr 21, 2014 - 11:20 PM
I agree- the lessons were super fast at first but since level 4 I've slowed down immensely and I go back and practice the old after I think I mastered the new sessions. Patience and practice are key! It's taken me 4 years of practicing Italian with Fluenz and I think I'm improving my comprehension but it's been slow and steady. Keep it up! I try to watch Italian movie and Friends in Italian on Hulu. I also listen to Radio Italia Live. Good luck and stick with it!
Apr 22, 2014 - 07:38 AM
Cindy, I am not a Hulu user but would be interested in watching Friends in Italian….I can't find it (or any italian language), so was wondering what the search trick is?
Apr 25, 2014 - 12:32 PM
Same problem here - I'm on Level 3, Lesson 3 and I agree that it is hard to separate the spoken words. Since starting L3 I typically go over the same lesson 3 - 4 times, finally pick up most of it and go on hoping that I become acclimated to the faster pace of spoken words. However, this is the real thing, not softball I & II. It is what it is.
May 04, 2014 - 06:01 PM
Well, you can listen to " vado in Europa" a thousand times and a thousand times you will
not hear the "o" in "vado". That's just the way it is. Imagine learning to speak English,
spending years studying, going to the US and someone asks "jeet?" (did you eat?)
You have to pick up context pretty much all the time.
not hear the "o" in "vado". That's just the way it is. Imagine learning to speak English,
spending years studying, going to the US and someone asks "jeet?" (did you eat?)
You have to pick up context pretty much all the time.
May 04, 2014 - 09:53 PM
For the OP: Better get used to it, because if you think level 3 is fast, level 4 will drive you batty. The dialog is super-fast, with lots of words slurring together. For me, the solution was to find another auxiliary learning tool, one which you can listen to native Italian speakers speaking through everyday situations. I strongly recommend that you look into a subscription to Yabla (yabla.com). For a very reasonable $10 per month you have access to hundreds of Italian videos, including commercials, TV shows, instructional lessons of Italian teachers teaching Italian as a second language to other European students (extremely helpful, by the way), music videos, news, documentaries…the list goes on and on. Each video has English sub-titles, and each you can slow down and repeat the parts that give you problems. The key is to keep listening to native Italians speaking during the normal rhythm of life's activities, because there is simply no substitute for it…not even Fluenz. I found that eventually your ear does get trained to the rapid fire dialog. Hope this helps.
May 10, 2014 - 11:57 AM
Completely agree with Gerry, yabla is the best tool I've found yet for training the ear.