Aw ni ce! I made a prototype of a new kind of study tool/assignment, which I am calling a “Voice Workout”.
Here’s the idea: it’s a short, audio-based workout that you can do like a mini-podcast. It’s not a lesson where I teach new grammar or vocabulary or anything like that. Instead, it’s a quick and easy way to get your ears tuned and your mouth moving. It’s kind of like doing “reps” at the gym but for speaking and listening.
I already shared it with @gregorio who inspired me to make the prototype, but I’d love feedback from anyone.
Here it is:
Specific questions that I have on my mind:
When and how did you listen? (e.g. while cooking, walking, running, on your phone or computer, etc)
Did you listen once or multiple times?
Would you see yourself doing this kind of workout if you were trying to learn, practice or review a specific topic?
Was the speed and pacing (my speaking and the pauses) comfortable for you?
What do you think is an ideal length for something like this?
I was sitting in the living room while listening. I was on my phone.
I listened multiple times
Yes, definitely
Speed an pacing was very comfortable
Up to 5min would be ideal, I think
I would suggest to write underneath the workout that it will be 3 rounds (repeat, understand, translate)
I remarked the following:
In the first round you didn’t mention “I ni ce”.
In the second round you translated it with “thank you”.
And in the third round you translated it with “hi”
Just a thought: If a user hopes to re-listen to the audio a few times, or to binge 20 of these in a row while going to or from work/school, would it make more sense to trim the intro and outro? (I do like the balafon. It’s like an auditory logo.)
The intro is 22 seconds and outro is 12 seconds. I wonder if the intro could be trimmed a few seconds.
I ni ce! That’s actually a “use case” that I’ve been thinking about and wondering how to manage. That was my whole idea for not having a “lesson” (i.e., teaching of things) included in the audio. It’s assumed that you’ve already studied the topic and now you want to practice to “internalize” or “master” it performance-wise.
As such, I do think that you are right that it would make sense to have the intro and outro be shorter. Let me play with it!
(On a similar note, I think that ideally, the platform would let you cue up multiple workouts into a single podcast-like playlist that would automatically go through them. That’s a taller order that requires some software development though )
EDIT: I just listened and I realized that 22 seconds for the intro and the 12 seconds for the outro includes both the music and my spoken words. I thought that I just needed to shorten the music.
I guess that I’m trying to hit a sweet spot of something that stands on its own (i.e., without any prior listening or knowledge of how “voice workouts” work) and that also isn’t too verbose to be annoying when someone re-listens or repeats multiple ones. In an ideal world, I guess there would be a setting to turn off/off the intro/outro but that’s probably not realistic for me to think about doing at this time. Gotta keep it simple. Maybe I can try to shave a little bit off my spoken words though.
Another possible short-term solution is just to make
Sub-5-minute audio workouts like you have now.
One Frankensteined recording of all the little recordings, with just the intro and outro at the beginning and end. I.e. Frankenstein(Intro-x-Outro, Intro-y-Outro) = Intro-x-y-Outro.
It would at least save you some time and effort on the software end. Just a thought.
I guess that I’m trying to hit a sweet spot of something that stands on its own (i.e., without any prior listening or knowledge of how “voice workouts” work) and that also isn’t too verbose to be annoying when someone re-listens or repeats multiple ones.
Honestly I actually appreciate this pedagogically. This is just my armchair-hunch, but I think clear beginnings and ends have an effect on our attention. For example people for years complained about how every film started with two minutes of movie studio logos followed by three more minutes of credits. Now Netflix has literally 5 seconds of one logo and no credits. Personally, I prefer the credits. It’s a liminal space that signals “You are entering an experience!”. In that sense the intro and outro act as a little breath, palate-cleanser or re-focuser. Granted in this age of low attention spans, it’s harder to pitch that to people.
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