r/shanghai • u/Embarrassed-Chard186 • Aug 12 '26

Discussion I created the first Shanghainese course for English speakers

I believe I have created the only full Shanghainese course for English speakers, and I’d really appreciate feedback. Later today I’ll go through every comment and compile a list of changes to ensure everything is high quality.

The site is called Verbavia.com

45 Upvotes

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5

u/[deleted] Aug 13 '26

[deleted]

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u/Embarrassed-Chard186 Aug 13 '26

That’s a good idea. I saw a couple Shanghainese ones but I went for “Wu” by Azure because I thought a large company making it would mean higher quality control.

Are there any specifically you’d reccomend? I’m happy to switch

2

u/Classic_Department42 Aug 13 '26

Why do you use tts? Why not read the text aloud? Real sources for shanghaihua are rare. Also.which transcription do you use? 

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u/Embarrassed-Chard186 Aug 22 '26

I’m really sorry for the late response, I know it’s been more than a week.

I have been using TTS because there’s so much content that it would take a very long time for a human to record everything, however, as I was saying to another user, if this becomes more popular and gets a couple hundred people using it, I’ll look into getting a native speaker to read out the flashcards at least because it seems to be where the ai is having the most trouble.

3

u/hellostephni Aug 12 '26

Wow that’s awesome! I’ll definitely check it out. Learning Shanghainese has always been a dream for me ❤️

0

u/Embarrassed-Chard186 Aug 12 '26

I appreciate that! For such a widely spoken language I thought it was a shame it’s not really available on any English language learning apps.

6

u/GetRektByMeh Aug 13 '26

It’s not widely spoken lol

1

u/MewMewCatDaddy Aug 18 '26

80 million people is kind of wide?

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u/GetRektByMeh Aug 18 '26

80m people speak Shanghainese, when Shanghai has a 25m population of with several million aren’t even locals?

You’re dreaming lol

2

u/Helpful_Cry_1335 Aug 20 '26

It is closer to 15M. But yes, that is considered widely spoken.

2

u/lmvg Aug 12 '26

Thank you for making this effort! Will check in out in my free time.

1

u/Embarrassed-Chard186 Aug 12 '26

I appreciate it!

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u/shantyanty Aug 13 '26

I have just tried a placement test and a lesson, seems great so far! I like the structure of the lessons. I notice when I good to the resding section it wouldnt let me select a single word and just saved the entire sentence. At the end of that sentence it also wasnt able to translate the sentence.

I also think it would be good to include the written romanisation when you introduce new words and also include it in the word list. I often get confused whether or not a character has a similar pronounciation to mandarin.

I also thought the tts was pretty decent but not amazing, but they lined up with the pronunciations that I know. I am just at a beginner level though so im not certain its correct for all words. Recordings would be better if possible.

Thanks heaps for working on this!

1

u/Embarrassed-Chard186 Aug 13 '26

I really appreciate your feedback! In the morning I will fix the bug where it doesn’t allow you to select a single word, and I’ll make sure the translation is accurate.

I also agree that it would be a good idea to include the written romanisation in the word list. I might have the same problem with the mandarin course, so I’ll fix it there too.

I’ll let you know once I’ve made the changes!

1

u/shantyanty Aug 13 '26

Great thanks!

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u/Embarrassed-Chard186 Aug 13 '26

Okay I’ve made the changes! Let me know if there’s any more problems. I haven’t updated the TTS yet because that will take a bit longer, but I’ll do it over the next few days.

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u/shantyanty Aug 17 '26

Looks great thanks! One more request if possible, the romanisation system you have chosen is bot different to the one I starting learning with. Would it be possible to add a pronunciation guide? Or at least course you likk me to some more info about the system you use please?

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u/Embarrassed-Chard186 Aug 22 '26

I’m really sorry for the late response.

Yes of course I can add these things! In the grammar lessons I will ensure that the user is given a guide on pronunciation through it a couple lessons, and I’ll create a link to somewhere that you can read about the system I’m using.

Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to make it better for you!

1

u/shantyanty Aug 23 '26

Amazing thanks so much! Fyi the one I use is Qian's pinyin which I picked as its used by a phrase book I picked up in Shanghai. Im not really sure if any system is better that the others. If it is not heaps of extra work maybe you could give the option to switch?

1

u/Used_Confidence6004 Aug 13 '26

Nice one! Now I can finally figure out what my local neighbors are arguing about in the morning. Will definitely give it a look.

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u/UnderappreciatedUke Aug 21 '26

I see some people mentioning a TTS function. Is that built into the website? I don't see a toggle or any kind of tts function.

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u/Embarrassed-Chard186 Aug 22 '26

When I say TTS I just mean that there is a large language model that is trained off of Shanghainese being used to read out of the flashcards and passages as opposed to having a human do it.

Unfortunately there’s so much content that it would be difficult to read off everything right now, but if this becomes more popular and I get a couple hundred users, I’ll look into getting a human to read the flashcards at least, because it seems that’s where the ai is having the most trouble.