On June 12, 2018, the Fluent Forever Korean Pronunciation Trainer Version 3.0 was released to the public.

What’s New

General

• Upgraded the version number to 3.0, as part of a major concurrent update for all Pronunciation Trainers in order:
  • To phase out all Beta releases and move all Trainers into non-Beta
  • To make all Trainers uniform by placing them within the 3.0 version series (even for Trainers without a Version 2.0)
  • To make it easier for version control in the future
• Updated the names of the folders, zip file and other files of the Pronunciation Trainer so that they are all standardized, easier to understand and follow the same conventions as all other Pronunciation Trainers in the 3.0 version series
• Updated the URLs and titles of the Pronunciation Trainer Resources page so that they are all standardized, easier to understand, and follow the same conventions as all other Pronunciation Trainers in the 3.0 version series
• Added a new hidden, suspended note in the Pronunciation Trainer Anki deck which includes basic information about the current version number of that particular deck. This will make it faster for users to get Fluent Forever tech support for their specific version
• Improved the documentation and accessibility of version release notes and bug reports with updates

Word Stress Cards

• Added new “Word Stress” cards for languages with word stress rules. Those languages included: Spanish LA, Spanish EU, Dutch, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese

What’s the Meaning of Words Cards

• Deprecated: “What’s the word?” and “What’s the word mean?” card types
• Modified the “Picture Words” card model so that it doesn’t force students to try and memorize words, but rather just spell them or pronounce them out loud.
• Created distinct Trainer versions for “Old Users” and “New Users”. Old Users are those who have already installed and used the Trainer in the past, and would like to update their Trainer. New Users have never installed and used the Trainer before. Users must use their respective Trainer version so that the “Picture Words” cards display properly.

ReadMe File

• Changed the filetype from HTML to PDF
• Updated the design of the ReadMe file, such as the color scheme and formatting, to improve user experience
• Improved the explanations of each of the ReadMe file steps to make them easier to understand
• Included screenshots of the main steps to make the ReadMe file more user-friendly
• Added a FAQ section with useful answers, such as suggestions for what to do after finishing the Trainer, and the difference between the Pronunciation Trainer and the Fluent Forever App
• Removal of references in the ReadMe file to the Beta version of the Trainer
• Included link to the Fluent Forever App as a faster alternative to the Trainer

Bug Fixes

• Cards 265, 271, 280: IPA for Sound changed to dʑ
• Cards 266, 272, 299: IPA for Sound changed to tɕʰ
• Cards 303, 311, 319:
  a) Spelling (a letter or combination of letters) changed to ㄷ
  b) Example Word (Letters in red) changed to correct the highlighted letter
  c) Word with Letter Missing changed to correct the highlighted letter
• Cards 304, 312, 320:
  a) Spelling (a letter or combination of letters) changed to ㅅ
  b) Example Word (Letters in red) changed to correct the highlighted letter
  c) Word with Letter Missing changed to correct the highlighted letter
• Cards 305, 313, 333:
  a) Spelling (a letter or combination of letters) changed to ㅈ
  b) Example Word (Letters in red) changed to correct the highlighted letter
  c) Word with Letter Missing changed to correct the highlighted letter
  d) IPA for Sound changed to tɕ͈
• Cards 326, 332, 340: IPA for Word changed to aŋge
• Cards 325, 331, 353:
  a) IPA for Word changed to summu
  b) Recording for the Word changed, where the speaker isn’t speaking it so carefully (if they do it very carefully, then they will say “”sun mu””, but if they say it casually then it will be “”summu””)
• Cards 147. 154. 191: IPA for sound changed from we/we to we. It used to be that this sound could also show up as ø, but that’s apparently not happening in modern Korean speakers much, anymore, so we’re cutting that.
• Card 381: Deleted this because it’s a duplicate to a spelling rule
• Cards 67 and 71: IPA changed from sʰɯmini to sʰɯnimi

Responses to Previous Bug Reports

Other bug reports may have been given about the previous version of this Trainer, and all of them were checked and considered. To see a full list of the bug reports that were checked, including details of whether those bugs were fixed or not fixed for the latest version of the Trainer, please see this Trainer’s: Bug Reports for “All Versions Prior to Version 3.0

Bug Fixes & Bug Reports

• I suggest that when the Korean reader is speaking the single letter, they voice it, even though the example word may be showing it in the initial position when it is unvoiced. I’ve noticed this in audios in other Korean language learning programmes. If you’re wanting to teach pronunciation, then I assume you will want the audio to say the actual sound, not the way that Koreans think of it.
  e.g. card 68 당은 with the first letter highlighted.
  I think the male reader says “d” then the female reader says “taŋgɯn”.
  Replaced the one in 68
• 20: Both audios sound very harsh, and I can’t hear the difference. Reduced harshness in a bunch of that speaker’s files.
• 28: minjy. The English pronunciation sounds artificial, and to my ears the korean doesn’t sound authentic. Swapping out for a new recording
• 22: is there a difference between these recordings? I can’t hear it. The vowels sound different, but not the consonants. I’m hearing a vowel and a consonant shift here..
• It’s better if the speaker doesn’t pause for English two-word examples, otherwise this provides a clue to listeners as to which is the Korean sound and which is the two-word English sound.
• 28, 65: The male reader pronounces dz more like zh.Swapping out for a new recording on 28 and 65
• 39: The Korean and the English are both described as hʌm, so are they different at all?
  To my ear, the English vowel is a bit longer, but not longer than I have heard many Korean words pronounced. And to my ears, the recording of the Korean vowel almost sounds like taŋgɯn rather ʌ. – IPA has limits – especially when it comes to vowels – in terms of how specifically it describes a sound/position. This distinction is too small to show up in an IPA change, even though the sounds are different.
• Sometimes the limitation is in the quality of the audio recording, but listening to the Korean? say “ill” on card 15, he seems to be pronouncing it “iw” like many Asians do when saying our “l”. Keeping this one for the moment.
• In many instances I’ve heard of a Korean saying “n” ㄴ at the beginning of a word, it almost sounds like an unaspirated “d”.
  A common word that turns up in many Korean TV shows is 누구 = “who”, which often sounds like “dugu”, or at least that the speaker has a blocked nose.
• I just downloaded the Korean trainer and saw Richard England’s comment while looking through the read-me. He is right. Some Koreans distinguish between initial and non-initial nasal ㄴ and ㅁ comparably to how they distinguish between initial and non-initial stops ㄷ and ㅂ (and ㄱ and ㅈ). They pronounce the initial sounds stronger, which involves devoicing the stops and turning the nasals into prenasalized voiced stops (and the prenasalization can disappear). Just as 누구 ‘who?’ can sound like *두구, 뭐 ‘what?’ can sound like 붜.Another place where you can hear a stop that isn’t written is in double ㅆwhich can sound before a vowel like ㅆㄷ (not directly writable in Korean) i.e. strong Korean sibilant ㅆ plus stop ㄷ. A common example 있어요 ‘is’ can sound like *있더요. Choo and O’Grady, Sounds of Korean is great for high-and mid-level pronunciation matters but tends to gloss over low-level ones. BTW I don’t think learners have to imitate these pronunciations but they do need be ready for them when listening to a native Korean speaker. Interesting. We’ll keep this in the list of eventual changes/additions to make for the future!
• add pronunciation diagrams to flashcards We’ll keep this one too as a potential addition to make in the future.

Recent bug reports (posted December 2015):

• 204: “Spelling” is ㄴㅊ, should be ㄴㅈ [fixed]
• 214: “Recording of the sound” sounds very weird [fixed]
• 241 & 257: word should be written “멋있다” no space, not “멋있 다” — the graphics and “example word” are both wrong. [fixed]
• 261, 267: the “ㅍ” is only partially masked in the graphics, which gives clues to the answer on certain cards [fixed]
• 262: “spelling” is ㅋ,ㅁ should be ㄱ,ㅁ [fixed]
• 263, 276: IPA is “hangugʌ”, should be “angjʌŋ” [fixed]
• 282: “Spelling” is ㅊ,ㅁ, should be ㅅ,ㅁ [fixed]
• 306, 314, 338: “let’s look” is actually spelled 봐요–I personally feel you didn’t choose a great example here. In addition, your native speaker seems to be pronouncing clearly and slowly and not showing the w-glide you wanted to highlight. [Tricky, and not entirely sure whether we need a new recording or a new example. I’m seeing 보아요 used on the net quite a bit – seems like it shows up a lot in picture books for kids – e.g., http://tinyurl.com/nm469lg – perhaps the translation needs editing? In the meantime, fixed the IPA and swapped in a better recording.]
• 322: the ㅚ in the first syllable is highlighted/blanked out, rather than the ㅘ in the last syllable. Same problem with too much clear articulation as 306. [fixed]
• 367, 372,: To illustrate Korean culture, you’ve used a picture of the US White House. [Ha! yeah, not a great pic for that. Fixed.]
• 407: The “English meaning” caption reads “dessert” when in fact the picture is of a desert. [Fixed. Should be “desert”.]
• 416: “지갑” means wallet or coin purse; the picture you show is more of a 가방 or 핸드백 [fixed image]

Earlier bug reports received:

• On the “ostrich” card, the speaker is saying a “p” sound and not a “t” sound. [FIXED]
• After you flip many (but not all) the cards, the audio is not available. [NOT SURE WHY THIS IS HAPPENING OR IF IT’S HAPPENING TO ANYONE ELSE.]
• The “R” shortcut to hear the audio on the card for ㅇㅏㄹ (“egg”) won’t work. Also, with other sets, there was a link so that you could replay without using the keyboard. Was it deliberate to leave that out this time? [ANYONE ELSE SEEING THIS?]
• Some of the IPA symbols you use do not show up on the Android client (my primary study location). What I have noticed specifically is that the diacriticals indicating unreleased and tensed consonants do not display. [WE CAN EXPERIMENT WITH USING IMAGES INSTEAD OF IPA FONTS. TENSE CONSONANTS ARE OFTEN A MESS WITH COMPUTERS (UNRELEASED ONES SEEM TO BE A BIT MORE COMPATIBLE…)]
• Card 104: “Spelling” is ㅋ when it should be ㄱ [FIXED]
• Card 131: “Recording of the sound” does not match pronunciation in “Recording of the Word”. [FIXED, LARGELY. THERE’S ALWAYS GOING TO BE SOME VARIATION HERE, BUT I WENT WITH A CLOSER RECORDING.]
• Card 223 & 230: “Spelling” is ㅌ instead of ㅅ; “Notes on usage” discusses word-final ㄷ,ㅌ,ㅈ,ㅊ,ㅅ,ㅆ but the highlighted ㅅ is word-initial [FIXED]
• Card 244: “Recording of the Sound” is a rolled /r/ instead of /b/ [FIXED]
• The “Minimal Pair” card types and deck settings somehow reached into a previous trainer of yours (Latin American Spanish) that I had installed and changed what I had pre-existing. Since I personally prefer that minimal pair cards give only the correct answer on the back and not the wrong one, and I liked my settings I had in place for Spanish, I found this to be pretty annoying. Not sure how this is happening, as the models are named differently. [ANYONE ELSE SEEING THIS?]