◎ Top 85 Paid iPhone Apps, Apple Rank, in Japan.
eSound - Secrets of English Sounds. Just listen to simple targeted sounds and read simple notes, and you will understand English sounds so easily. No one has taught you how to make real English sounds, but eSound can. eSound is designed not only for producing English sounds but also for perceiving them. After learning and practicing the targeted sounds, you can readily recognize the real English sounds in a flash while seeing Hollywood movies or watching TV! You will be surprised at how much you hear English sounds that you have not recognized before.
Japanese speak English with weak consonants and extra syllables because of the Japanese language pattern. eSound 2 mainly deals with those typical problems. A good knowledge of the English sound rules saves you a great deal of trouble to master English. Some of them are not marked in English education in Japan but very important for your listening in the real world. Although you may master English H for example, it is often very weak and almost nothing in specific situations, where it is hard for you to understand someone’s speech. And the manner of articulation of N is the tip of the toungue, but if you don’t use it, you can not connect it with the vowel of the following word. Then, how do you understand those phrases? And more, when someone speaks fast, some vowels are changed to a vowel called “Schwa.” It is not one of the Japanese vowels, and even close to one of them neither. Then, how do you identify it because Japanese language is based on the five vowels and they are the language bases? Using eSound 2 will, however, allow you to master even those difficult English sounds in a shorter time than most other products on the market.
Noboru S. Yoshitomi currently teaches at a university in Tokyo. He worked as a research scholar of a three-year Highly Developmental Project of the Ministry of Education, Japan, after graduating from the Penn State University majoring in Speech Pathology and Applied Linguistics. He is an author of bestselling books: "Its Handy!” published by Nan’undo Co., and the Korean version by Book 21 Co., South Korea; "Find Yourself” by Macmillan Languagehouse. And he was also a columnist of "Weekly ST" of The Japan Times from April to September, 2010.
Features:
1. Covers 10 English consonants including sounds:
SET 1: - disappearing in the speech.
- changing in some conditions.
- linking with a vowel of the following word.
- mispronounced by Japanese.
SET 2 (ExtrraWorks) : Frequently-used frames and the review of Sounds 1-10 with the
buttons for the sounds and texts.
2. Intended for people 1) to learn American English, 2) to enjoy Hollywood movies,
3) to plan to study abroad, 4) to teach English.
3. Functions of eSound
A. Target-Sound:
a. (Sound) Rule and Audio Player displayed.
b. Learn: Practice sounds, the diagram and the description of the target sound.
c. Tips: Pop-up window with Tips.
B. Figure: Articulators and points of articulation.
C. List: Easy access to each target sound.
D. Studio: Record, Stop and Play for the pronunciation practice.
How to record and play:
a. Record: touch the microphone (of the picture)
b. Stop recording: touch the STOP item (of the picture)
c. Play: touch the speaker (of the picture
E. Instructions: How to use eSound effectively.
F. Note: *Users should go back to the previous page and come back again to play the
audio program if the Stop button was pressed while listening to it.
4. Tab Icons: Jump to another section directly.