Ah very interesting @Ben-Mandarin-HSK_5
Could we make it recognise simplified characters too? The Pinyin spelling and pronunciation is the same.
If not the alternative would be to always only display simplified, but for people in Hong Kong or Taiwan they might actually quite like having traditional characters.
Or even a switch to change between simplified and traditional characters being displayed? The Pinyin, tones and pronunciation is always the same.
Adding support for traditional characters should be really easy, but needs to be done on your end. @Andreas_Admin_Flexi.
You would need a new toggle between simplified and traditional characters. If it is toggled on, automatically convert the simplified phrase to traditional characters before displaying it to the user and comparing it to what was recognized. There are plenty of third-party JavaScript packages you can use for conversion. The installation and usage will be specific to your platform.
Personally, I think this would be a really nice feature to add. We can discuss it privately if you’re interested.
Yes I agree, offering a choice between traditional and simplified would be great.
For Chloe somehow Google saw her IP address is in Taiwan and automatically changed her characters into traditional though. then the speech recognition didn’t work anymore.
I guess we would need to stop Google from doing that then? Or find out why Google does not recognise her pronunciation once it switched to traditional characters?
We shouldn’t stop Google from doing that - it’s a legit use case since Chloe actually prefers to use traditional characters.
I think that adding support for 繁体字 into the trainer should be relatively straightforward and we should consider doing it. I have a few ideas about that.
Sure, makes sense. Just the voice recognition doesn’t seem to work anymore once it switched. Could we make that work?
I’m not too worried - I think the voice recognition should work again if the recognized phrase is compared to a phrase converted to traditional characters. You will have to install one of the free conversion packages on your end though. Would you like me to discuss this with your team?
HSK 1 is now fully live - Chapter 1-4.
Please do continue to leave any feedback. We’ll aim to get the next levels live soon.
All excellent progress being made 
Looks great thanks. The next step is to make the choice of topic easier to find.
probably, the main issue at the moment is though that when google decides someone is in Taiwan it automatically converts into traditional (or sees it as a completely different language?) and then the voice recognition doesnt work anymore.
I think the first priority would be to make sure it works for users in Taiwan (either in traditional or simplified characters).
Once we have that, being able to switch between simplified and traditional for everyone would be a great add on.
Yes! What we have now is great for anyone who hasn’t registered for classes yet.
@Max, are you planning to link to the chapters directly from the Class Details Flexi pages (either under Additional resources or using a new button similar to Audio file)?
We will add them under additional resources. I just want the topic choice button to be bigger as at the moment it’s quite easy to miss
Any idea how we could make it work for users in Taiwan too?
@Ben-Mandarin-HSK_5 - I’m not sure if this is your side or for us to fix but the 4th class name should be WHERE ARE YOU GOING.
I’ve cross referenced the content and it is correct, just needs to be changed in the trainer.
@Ben-Mandarin-HSK_5 somehow the pronunciation trainer does not show up on my PC and Samsung mobile. I am rather mystified by it. I am in the UK, have my VPN switched off, tried Chrome and Edge, re-started my computer, but simply it doesnt appear. It works for Max who is sitting next to me and using his PC on the same WIFI.
Might just be my PC and mobile (why both though?)
@Andreas_Admin_Flexi I can confirm that it’s also no longer loading for me. We should add some basic monitoring to this page. The original trainer is still working fine: Chinese/Japanese Speaking Practice!
Oh ok. It worked for Max. How can we fix?
And yes monitoring for errors would be great
I believe this is working now with the help of Henner. Feel free to check, @Ben-Mandarin-HSK_5 likewise.
We’ve now updated this to include HSK 1 and HSK 2 levels.
Do be aware even if your level is higher this is still quite a good tool to use as some of the sentences are longer.
It’s a good way to pinpoint any gaps in your spoken Mandarin. We all have them!
Also be aware that you’ll need a VPN if in China, and it’s best used on Desktop.
Many thanks @Alexander-Mandarin-HSK_6_1on1 and @Ben-Mandarin-HSK_5 for your help in making this superb tool.
Further upgrades here thanks to @Ben-Mandarin-HSK_5 and @Alexander-Mandarin-HSK_6_1on1
One I know @Chloe-Mandarin-HSK_5 will appreciate.
Now you can toggle between Simplified and Traditional live on screen. This is really quite cool because no matter what the level, you can start to learn the more basic traditional ones that are easily missed like when you’ve only studied simplified:
喜歡 / 喜欢 and 覺得 / 觉得 are two examples of ones I wouldn’t have known before.
Improving my traditional reading is a long term goal for me personally so this is a good place to start.
Many thanks Ben and Alex. Hope this is useful to a number of you.
And yet further upgrades still - now all HSK 3 classes are live.
Hope it’s useful, any feedback welcomed
