Something for program designers to consider (I'm in Spanish Upgraded unit 1):
For many like myself in mid-60's+ our high-frequency hearing often degrades to the extent we cannot easily - even with hearing aids - hear the high frequency sounds of 's', 'f' and 'th' among others according to each person's level of hearing degradation.
Using headphones as I must for the Fluenz lessons precludes any help from hearing aides.
For instance, the nice lady saying the various items in "Write the phrases you hear" may sound fine to a 30-something but to me it's mostly mush-mouthed gibberish. I can make out certain words such as 'dinero' for an example but most of the bits before and after are unintelligible. I do note that all the dialog speakers are very good at enunciation and I understand them fine at full speed. Very much unlike the nice lady mentioned above who, unlike the dialog speakers, seems to me to have just had seis cervezas and a couple of shooters - my hearing assessment, but why do I understand the dialog speakers with no problem?
Yes, it's my hearing issue, and in normal speech my hearing aids do their job. I am not the only one. But having the 'Oliver' character for example say these phrases would be a tremendous improvement for learners like me - he enunciates very clearly and I understand every word he says because he is slower and careful and a male's voice is lower pitched and we have fewer issues compared to a female's higher-frequency speech. Again, given that i cannot use speakers and must use headphones w/mic.
I understand 'Isabella' just fine for some reason I don't yet grok. Maybe use that performer's voice (or 'Oliver'!) for "Write the phrases you hear" and other similar parts?
I'm in Spanish Upgraded Unit 1, Lesson 25 and I'm by now completely tired of trying to understand what nice lady Mush-Mouth is saying in her various workouts, even on slow speed. She is not helping me and probably others with high-frequency hearing issues at all.
Before you say that half the people I will be speaking with in Spanish are female and I should practice hearing what that sounds like, remember that I will be hearing their 's', 'f' and 'th' high-frequency sounds through my hearing aids and will thereby understand them appropriately if I have practiced through Fluenz hearing what those 's', 'f' & 'th' parts of speech sound like from a voice that I can understand. I hear none of those sounds from Ms. Mush-Mouth - i.e. 'La' and 'Las' sound identical to me from her.
