Task 3: Voice to Text
By: Connie
My comment + reflection:
How enlightening it is to learn about this legend! Thank you for your thorough and in-depth analysis. I also got a little laugh out of the offensive words that were unexpectedly transcribed with Speechnotes. This possibility never even crossed my mind as I was recording, so this was a refreshing perspective! This also reminds me about how once, as kids, we would laugh obliviously when someone accidentally blurted a string of words that accidentally sounded like an offensive phrase. There were even those “pranks” to get others to unintentionally say a silly or offensive phrase out loud (e.g. say xyz 10 times, say xyz quickly). My experience with the speech to text transcription was similar to yours and I resonate with a lot of your observations too. I especially agree with your analogy that the text looks like it was spoken in one breath!
You also made a compelling point about the tool not being able to pick up words not native to the English corpus. Aside from the aspects of the natural English lexicon, it’s great that you made a point to mention what some of the out of context English words in your transcription were actually supposed to be, in another language. I wonder how accurate the transcription would be if a tool such as Google translate was used, where the input and output language could be customized. With so many foreign language words (and borrowed words) being added to our daily lexicon, I wonder if transcription tools will pick up more foreign words in the future?
I found your last point to be very thought provoking. My story was about me recalling a dream, and I’m not sure myself if I remembered every event precisely (I probably didn’t). I also recall hearing that many legends and folklore that we know of today are probably not accurate because, as you said, these stories have been passed on through oral storytelling across many decades. It’s like a continuous game of broken telephone over the generations. While this makes me question the validity and truth of the story, isn’t this also the beauty of storytelling? It’s quite fascinating to know that there are at least 14 versions of the tale that you shared. I think it would make an interesting textual analysis on the differences between these versions and their origins. I agree with you that particular aspects of an immersive, in-the-moment experience can only be detected and richly expressed through oral speech. Like a good storyteller, a good writer is needed to convey this type of experience in prose. Perhaps rather than replicating the experience created by listening to a story, a written story can invigorate the audience with its own unique ability to stimulate through text. The ways of meaning making are endless!