"Developers Test Speech-to-Text Technology Ahead of Deaflympics"

"Developers Test Speech-to-Text Technology Ahead of Deaflympics"

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Welcome to "Learn Japanese from the News."
　
Join us as we learn Japanese and about the country through Japanese news stories. Today's headline is…
　
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話（はな）したことばを字（じ）に変（か）える技術（ぎじゅつ）　デフリンピックのために実験（じっけん）
　
"Developers Test Speech-to-Text Technology Ahead of Deaflympics"
This news story was published on NEWS WEB EASY's website on February 7th.
　
Now let's go over some vocab words that will help us understand what's going on.
　
障害（しょうがい）
impairment or disability
　
画面（がめん）
screen
　
手話（しゅわ）
sign language
　
Now let's keep these words in mind as we listen.
　
「耳（みみ）に障害（しょうがい）がある人（ひと）たちのスポーツの世界大会（せかいたいかい）「デフリンピック」が、東京都（とうきょうと）で2025年（ねん）にあります。印刷（いんさつ）の会社（かいしゃ）などは、話（はな）したことばを自動（じどう）で字（じ）にして、画面（がめん）に出（だ）す技術（ぎじゅつ）を作（つく）りました。耳（みみ）に障害（しょうがい）がある人（ひと）たちの空手（からて）の大会（たいかい）で、この技術（ぎじゅつ）を使（つか）ってみる実験（じっけん）がありました。
会場（かいじょう）の受付（うけつけ）に画面（がめん）とタブレットが置（お）いてあります。話（はな）したことばは字（じ）になって見（み）えて、耳（みみ）に障害（しょうがい）がある人（ひと）に伝（つた）えることができました。
利用（りよう）した男性（だんせい）は「手話（しゅわ）ができない人（ひと）とも会話（かいわ）ができてよかったです。顔（かお）を見（み）ながら会話（かいわ）ができて、気持（きも）ちもわかりました。通訳（つうやく）の人（ひと）がいない場所（ばしょ）などに置（お）いてほしいです」と話（はな）していました。」
　
A Japanese printing company has developed technology that automatically converts spoken words into written text and displays them on a screen.
　
They recently tested the tech out at an event and hope to have the system ready in time for the 2025 Tokyo Deaflympics.
　
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Now we'll break down a few sentences from the story that contain helpful expressions and keywords.
Let's start with the following sentence:
　
耳（みみ）に障害（しょうがい）がある人（ひと）たちのスポーツの世界大会（せかいたいかい）「デフリンピック」が、東京都（とうきょうと）で2025年（ねん）にあります。
　
The Deaflympics, a global sports competition for the hearing impaired, will be held in Tokyo in 2025.
　
耳（みみ）に障害（しょうがい）がある人（ひと）describes someone who is deaf or hard of hearing. We also say 聴覚障害者（ちょうかくしょうがいしゃ）.
Now, the World Health Organization distinguishes between an "impairment" and a "disability." An impairment is the loss or disturbance of a bodily or mental function due to a cause such as illness or injury. A disability is when an impairment limits your ability to perform an activity. In Japanese, the word 障害（しょうがい）has both meanings.
　
The term デフリンピック refers to the Deaflympics — a combination of the words "deaf" and "Olympics."
　
It's an international sports competition for deaf and hearing-impaired athletes that was first held in 1924.
　
OK, let's move on to our next sentence.
This is a quote from someone who got to test out the new speech-to-text technology.
　
顔（かお）を見（み）ながら会話（かいわ）ができて、気持（きも）ちもわかりました。
　
I was able to look at their face as we talked, so I could tell what they were feeling.
　
The conjunction ながら is used to indicate that two actions or situations are taking place simultaneously. It's similar to how we use "while" or "as" in English.
　
One important thing to remember is that the more important action comes after ながら. So the sentence 宿題（しゅくだい）をしながらテレビをみる, means "I watched TV while I did homework." The emphasis is on the fact that you're watching television. Now, if you said テレビをみながら宿題（しゅくだい）をする, you're saying your focus was on getting your homework done.
　
And that's all we have for today.
Speech recognition technology keeps getting smarter and quicker. And I hear they're working on multilingual functionality, too. This would be a great communication tool.
　
Definitely. And with the power of AI, maybe the system can learn to recognize sign languages, too. 2025 is just a couple of years away. Let's hope the Tokyo Deaflympics can help make society more inclusive.
　
Thanks for joining us and, tune in next time for more!
　
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