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> Nowadays everyone has a 'tape recorder' and then some in their pocket, but most methods seem to ignore audio completely, or let it take second place to written language.

Admittedly, there is a cost involved for voice talent. But it is well worth it, in my opinion. I started using Duolingo to learn Hungarian. The course is in beta. It began with pre-recorded clips, which were very helpful to understand the tone. Later, the course switched exclusively to text-to-speech. It is so much harder to understand than a real person's voice, and so much nuance is left out.