Software that has an ear for languages
Jennifer L. Schenker International Herald Tribune May 15, 2004
PARIS: For travelers, it is a familiar story: You are visiting a foreign country for the first time after brushing up on the native tongue. But try as you might, your taxi driver greets you only with a blank stare or a baffled look after you tell him your destination. Repeat ing the word doesn’t seem to help, so you spell it, point to it on a map or even resort to pantomime.
Suddenly, the driver slaps his forehead, and repeats back the word in a way that you are sure sounds like exactly what you just said.
It’s all in the subtleties of pronunciation, which for many people learning a foreign language comes easily only after years of use - and for some people never arrives. Speedlingua, a Luxembourg-based company, has developed a computer-based application that addresses language comprehension and pronunciation problems at their root: the ear.
“The voice can convey only what the ear gets, so the goal is to train the ear to the frequencies of the foreign language”, said the company’s chief executive, Martin Velasco.
Speedlingua’s language learning software, available on CD-ROM for $65, or $76, was invented by Jacky Munger, a 50-year-old French marketing consultant who found himself professionally constrained because he could not master English. In frustration, he went to a doctor, who sent him to an ear, nose and throat specialist.
The specialist discovered that Munger’s ears would not register sounds at frequencies of over 6,000 herz. French is spoken at frequencies ranging from 125 to 2,000 herz, while English is spoken at ranges from 2,000 to 10,000 herz. Since French people are used to listening to lower frequencies, their ears are less tuned to higher pitches, making it more difficult to master certain languages. Munger recruit ed the help of engineers and computer specialists at the University of Metz to help develop technology to aid people who speak languages within a limited frequency range open up their ears to a larger range.
Speedlingua system trains the ear by having the user listen to classical music or dialog at the frequency level of the target language.
The user then practices his or her pronunciation of the target language by repeating words and sentences. The computer’s microprocessor is used to instantly analyze the user’s voice and compare it with the preregistered recordings at the right frequency. If the user is off-base the software will at tempt to correct him by repeating sounds at the right frequency.
The theory is that by overexposing the ear to a certain frequency, the user’s brain will automatically adapt pronunciation to the frequencies of the foreign language.
A well-known business ‘angel’ investor who has financed more than a dozen technology and biotechnology companies in Europe, Velasco said he immediately saw the possibilities when he was approached by Munger in 2002.
Velasco said he was also chief financial officer and head of business development. “We are not competing with other methods to improve vocabulary or pronunciation,” he said. “We are complementary to all of them.”
Users need to be equipped with a personal computer with a Pentium 3 or Pentium 4 chip, a PC stereo sound card, headphones and a microphone.
The software-based lessons, which consist of 12 sessions of 45 minutes, are available in five versions: U.S. English, British English, German, French and Spanish. The company plans to include Chinese and Japanese in the second half of 2005, said Velasco, who was in China and Japan over the past two weeks to drum up interest.
출처: http://www.iht.com/articles/520077.html
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외국어의 주파수에 귀를 훈련시킨다... 클래식 음악을 듣거나 배우고자 하는 언어의 주파수 레벨에 귀를 훈련시키는 방법이라.. 어디서 많이 본것 같은데.. 어디서 봤더라.. --; 결국은 영어로 귀를 샤워하라는 말이랑 같은거잖아.. --^