9M Mandarin tone speech model
Ranked 2 of 12 language learning apps by recommenders
Praised for specific feedback on which tones were off and for running in-browser at 11MB; the main caveat is misreading some speech, especially fast or casual talk.
Praised for specific feedback on which tones were off and for running in-browser at 11MB; the main caveat is misreading some speech, especially fast or casual talk.
19 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 74%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Specific feedback on tones that are off
“I already feel way more confident based on its feedback”
Comment from 31 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: I trained a 9M speech model to fix my Mandarin tones” “it did a good job of identifying which tones were off”
Comment from 31 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: I trained a 9M speech model to fix my Mandarin tones” Helpful for learning Mandarin tones
“This is amazing, if you feel like opening an entire language to being learned more easily”
Comment from 31 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: I trained a 9M speech model to fix my Mandarin tones” “Neat. A personal tone trainer.”
Comment from 31 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: I trained a 9M speech model to fix my Mandarin tones”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Misreads fast or casual speech
“I found that it loses track of the phonemes when speaking quickly”
Comment from 31 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: I trained a 9M speech model to fix my Mandarin tones” “The model thinks I was making mistakes when I speak casually”
Comment from 31 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: I trained a 9M speech model to fix my Mandarin tones” Doesn't handle tone transformation
“I don't think it takes care of tone transformation”
Comment from 31 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: I trained a 9M speech model to fix my Mandarin tones” “The tool definitely needs to address tone transformations”
Comment from 31 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: I trained a 9M speech model to fix my Mandarin tones” Flags correct speech as wrong
“it couldn't properly recognize a very clearly pronounced "吃" and instead heard some shi2”
Comment from 31 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: I trained a 9M speech model to fix my Mandarin tones” “the recognizer was flagging some of my utterances incorrectly”
Comment from 31 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: I trained a 9M speech model to fix my Mandarin tones” “For me it doesn't work very well.”
Comment from 31 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: I trained a 9M speech model to fix my Mandarin tones”
Other language learning apps people recommend
The four most recommended other language learning apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duolingo | 39 | 111 | 26% | 12 | 3 yrs4 owners | — |
| 9M Mandarin tone speech modelThis page | 14 | 5 | 74% | 1 | — | — |
| Language Transfer | 13 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Pimsleur | 9 | 4 | 69% | 6 | — | — |
| Voxel Tokyo | 9 | 5 | 64% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
17 of the 19 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It's really great, it seems to work quite well”
“The fact that it runs entirely in-browser at 11MB is impressive engineering”
“it couldn't properly recognize a very clearly pronounced "吃" and instead heard some shi2”
“For me it doesn't work very well.”
“The first two are the model listen my tone mistakenly, and the last one should be le instead of liǎo in this context.”
“This indicates to me that the model learned word structures instead of tones here.”
“the recognizer was flagging some of my utterances incorrectly”
“The tool definitely needs to address tone transformations”
“I don't think it takes care of tone transformation”
“The model thinks I was making mistakes when I speak casually”
“Neat. A personal tone trainer.”
“great work! I am going to try it out.”
“I found that it loses track of the phonemes when speaking quickly”
“This is extremely cool, although I asked my wife (who is Chinese) to try it out and it said she made some mistakes.”
“I already feel way more confident based on its feedback”
“it did a good job of identifying which tones were off”
“This is amazing, if you feel like opening an entire language to being learned more easily”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.