SagatPetchy

This will be very helpful to me, as someone who is learning several of the supported languages.

One piece of feedback: when I choose Cantonese, all I get is Mandarin results. I assume it's because the subtitles of almost all Cantonese videos are actually written in standard Chinese (with traditional characters).

It would be pretty hard to distinguish between Mandarin and Cantonese based on subtitles alone, unless you parse the grammar of the sentences or look for Cantonese specific characters.

Crypto has always had extreme bull and bear markets. During bear markets the speculators leave, crypto's detractors once again proclaim its demise, and its believers anxiously wait for the next bull market.

Yes, I think you're right. The teaching methods are probably the biggest cause. I studied Mandarin for a year at Leiden University and the tones were drilled just like you mentioned.

Also, most people who learn Mandarin are aware of the fact that the tones are an essential part of the language. But when it comes to Japanese, there seems to be a divide between people who think that learning pitch accents is essential and people who think their time is better spent on learning other things.

I think a good middle ground is to at least learn about pitch accents until you can recognize them when a Japanese sentence is well articulated. I believe you'll be able to emulate them with enough exposure when you can at least recognize them. The next phase would then be for them to become second nature, but that will probably take many years.

By the way, the following two websites are essential to me when it comes to learning pitch accents:

- https://www.gavo.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ojad/eng/phrasing/index

- https://www.kanshudo.com/searchw

The first link generates images that visualize the pitch accents of sentences that you enter. You can then adjust those pitch accent graphs by clicking on individual syllables. It can also generate the (very robotic) audio files of the pronunciations of those sentences. I add those images to the cards in my Anki deck, and reference them after attempting to pronounce the pitch accent of a word or sentence.

The second link is an online dictionary that includes the pitch accents of individual words. I use it mostly when I need to double check the pitch accent of a word.

Another thing that separates Japanese from other languages is the fact that it's a pitch-accent language. I'm currently learning the language and it's the part I'm struggling with the most. I struggled less while learning a tonal language like Mandarin.

Both pitches and tones in those languages are picked up by native speakers naturally, while language learners have to actively adapt from all the habits they've formed in their native languages.

I thought crypto was about solving a LACK of trust?

These two sentences sound contradictory to me.