Loqu8 iCE

Premium Mandarin and Cantonese voices with rate control

Listening to Chinese at Your Own Pace

Learning to speak Chinese can be challenging. It's hard to find a patient, personal tutor who can pronounce the same words over and over again--with consistent pronunciation. As your ears and brain process the various tones, it's easy to become frustrated when "almost" just isn't good enough.

Understanding conversational Chinese can be difficult. When you're learning, you want to hear the words pronounced slowly enough to distinguish the subtle tones in each word. As your proficiency improves, hearing the sentences at normal or faster pace prepares you for conversations in the real world.

Loqu8 iCE's new Premium Voices feature rate control. Optimize the pronunciation of Chinese to fit your needs--and change it at any time. Traveling south from Beijing to Hong Kong? Brush up on key words and phrases using Premium Hun Yee's Cantonese dialect. Unlike programs that use older, pre-recorded voices, iCE lets you choose a different voice at any time--and the vocabulary is unlimited (over 100,000 words and phrases). The three voices in the Loqu8 Premium Voices pack include:

• HuiHui was characterized from a native Mandarin speaker from Beijing, China
• HanHan was modeled after a Mandarin-speaking resident from Taipei, Taiwan
• HunYee was developed from Cantonese speaker from Hong Kong

Available Everywhere

Unlike the Bing voices (included with Professional and Standard editions), Premium Voices do not rely on a web service; instead, Loqu8 iCE includes Microsoft's powerful speech server technology into your notebook or desktop computer. Travel anywhere--even in places where a web connection is slow or unavailable (offline)--and your Premium Voices will always be available.

Rate Control

Listen to examples of the Mandarin Premium Voice (Microsoft Premium HuiHui):

Word (dà xióng māo) pronounces the Chinese word for giant panda with 3 different rates
Phrase (chóng qìng dà xióng māo yòu zǐ zǎi zī mài méng) with 4 different rates

Here's the same text read aloud with the Cantonese Premium Voice (Microsoft Premium HunYee):

Phrase with 4 different rates

When you need to focus on a single word, let Loqu8 iCE tirelessly pronounces the same word as many times you need to hear it. Rate control lets you adjust both the pronunciation rate and the pause between words.

Tip: To develop your conversational skills, hear phrases and sentences spoken to you at faster rates. Unlike older programs which only use pre-recorded voices, iCE lets you chose the voice you prefer. Immediately hear regional differences (China vs. Taiwan) for Mandarin or listen to the same Chinese text in Cantonese (Hong Kong).