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Transcription Challenge

Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 3:09 pm
by StringerBell
I recently started my own personal challenge of transcribing season 4 of Lucifer dubbed in Italian. I get each transcription corrected by a native speaker. It's not easy. But I think it is extremely beneficial and rewarding, and I thought I would suggest this as a general challenge that others might like to participate in, as well.

The benefit of having a bunch of people do this is that we might end up creating a lot of transcripts for shows in a variety of languages that don't currently exist and would be a great resource for other learners. You can customize this challenge in any way that works for you (example: transcribing a movie instead of a TV show)

*Brun Ugle suggested transcribing Peppa Pig episodes on my log, and I wanted to post the idea here in case anyone would like to do this challenge but doesn't feel ready to transcribe whole TV episodes. Each Peppa Pig video is ~5 minutes long.

Here are the guidelines:

1) Choose a show that you really like. This isn't required (especially if resources in the language or your access to them are really limited) but it will make the process more enjoyable.

2) Commit to transcribing a certain amount. It could be 1 entire season, or if that's too much of a commitment up front, then a certain number of episodes. Even committing to transcribing just one episode is ok.

3) Get your transcriptions correctly by a native speaker, if possible. I've found the correction phase to be invaluable and even though I'm currently only on episode #3 of my challenge, I'm already seeing far fewer mistakes as the result of feedback. My preferred way to do this is to get 5-6 minute chunks corrected at a time rather than getting an entire episode corrected at once, but you can go about doing this however you want.

4) Keep track of what you've done. You can use a progress bar, notes in your log, or on this thread, or in some other way.

5) Decide if you'd like to make your transcripts available for other learners to use. Once you've gotten the transcriptions corrected, you can keep them to yourself or post them online for other language learners to use. So far, I've posted the first 2 episodes on the Learn Any Language Wiki, but I may also make some other kind of blog and link it in the Master Resources page of this forum, since I'm not sure how to create a more user-friendly section of transcripts on the Wiki. Help with this would be appreciated.

...And that's it. I'm not sure what to expect in terms of interest for this challenge (it might be just me!). Feel free to post comments, questions, or suggestions here.

Below is a list of people who have committed to transcribing something:
1) Kat: at least one episode of the Dutch history mini series De Ijzeren Eeuw (The Iron Century)
2) StringerBell: Season 4 of Lucifer dubbed in Italian.

Re: Transcription Challenge

Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 3:21 pm
by Cavesa
Thank you!

I love this challenge. I was even considering initiating it, but just couldn't manage to do it, given my lack of energy in the last months. I am so glad to join! Now I just need to pick a series!!!

I wonder, would elingora be a good place for corrections? Or is it focused purely on original texts? I have submitted a sample of my reading from a book as audio recording, so I guess this is similar, but I am not sure. Where do you get your natives? Language exchange? A tutor?
One option might be transcripts, that are already available. They are rare, which is one of the reasons why I had even started thinking about transcribing, but one of the awesome places for French learners is Hypnoweb, or there is an official transcript of Ministerio del Tiempo for Spanish learners. Would comparing the transcript to an existing native one be an acceptable way of checking it?

Re: Transcription Challenge

Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 4:40 pm
by rdearman
Posting transcripts of audio for which you are not the copyright holder is illegal. Case in point was the take down orders for Pimsleur Chinese transcripts

However, many copyright holders will give permission for fan transcripts to be published. Therefore the best thing to do is contact the copyright holder and ask permission. Many have in the past even hosted fan transcripts.
.

Re: Transcription Challenge

Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 5:52 pm
by StringerBell
Cavesa wrote:would elingora be a good place for corrections? Or is it focused purely on original texts?


I've never heard of elingora - maybe someone else can weigh in on this?

Cavesa wrote:Where do you get your natives?
Language exchange?
A tutor?


Yes! I have heard of people asking their LEPs and tutors to go over their transcripts with them, either while watching the show (ideal) or just reading through looking for obvious errors. This is especially doable if you get corrections in 5 minute chunks (rather than the whole episode) because then it doesn't need to take up the entire lesson/call if you don't want it to.

Cavesa wrote:Would comparing the transcript to an existing native one be an acceptable way of checking it?


If finding a native speaker to provide corrections isn't doable, you could choose to make your challenge about transcribing something that already has a text you can compare against; for example, transcribing your audiobook and then comparing it to the ebook/novel. You could commit to doing the whole book or a certain number of chapters or pages. This would obviously not be something to post online. I think altering the challenge in this way is a valid way of eliminating the need for a native speaker and would still be really worthwhile doing.

If you can find a show/movie/video that has accurate (or almost accurate) subtitles, you could transcribe without them and then use the subtitles as a way to check.

Re: Transcription Challenge

Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 5:54 pm
by StringerBell
rdearman wrote:However, many copyright holders will give permission for fan transcripts to be published. Therefore the best thing to do is contact the copyright holder and ask permission. Many have in the past even hosted fan transcripts.
.


Since Netflix now owns the rights to Lucifer, I'm going to email them to see if they'll approve posting fan-created transcripts. Thanks!

Re: Transcription Challenge

Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 6:37 pm
by Kat
Normally challenges don't intrigue me but this is a great idea.

I've done transcriptions before and found them very helpful. So I'd like to sign up and do at least one episode of the Dutch history mini series De Ijzeren Eeuw (The Iron Century). The first part is called De Allereerste Koning, Lodewijk Napoleon.

As far as I know, there is no official transcript and I don't have an LEP or a tutor who I could ask for corrections. If a native Dutch speaker happens to read this and plans to do the challenge in German, maybe we could check each other's work?

If not, I'll just try it on my own. While I don't expect to make too many mistakes (famous last words :D ) I definitely won't be able to catch everything, so there would remain some blanks.

If I can get permission by the copyright holder, I'll post my transcript.

Re: Transcription Challenge

Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 10:16 pm
by StringerBell
I'll edit the first post to include a list of people who have committed to signing up for transcribing something as they declare their intentions.

Re: Transcription Challenge

Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2019 7:34 am
by Adrianslont
I like the idea of this challenge.

I did a fair bit of transcription (in various forms) in the first half of this year. I've not been doing so much in recent months. I've been doing extensive podcasts, tv shows and reading - but i might sign on for this. Let me think about it over the weekend.

My idea is to choose a sitcom and drop it into subtitleedit and transcribe directly into that. When I'm done, check it against transcript from hypnoweb. Then put the subs into subs2srs to make an anki deck.

I'm tossing up between How I Met Your Mother and Friends. Does anyone else have any suggestions for sitcoms that have transcripts available?

I've found transcribing is a great exercise but feel I need to change shows to get more benefit. I've been transcribing Tintin cartoons in Indonesian and Hélène et Les Garçons and Tintin in French. I used the subtitleedit method for the Indonesian Tintin and I now have a backlog of anki cards! And they are probably too easy for me now.

I hope a few people join in.

Re: Transcription Challenge

Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2019 9:54 am
by DaveAgain
Adrianslont wrote:I'm tossing up between How I Met Your Mother and Friends. Does anyone else have any suggestions for sitcoms that have transcripts available?
Some published french language screenplays

https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 90#p101190

https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 90#p102828

Kaamelott's YouTube videos have subtitles too. And of course stage plays are an option.

Re: Transcription Challenge

Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2019 10:28 am
by Adrianslont
DaveAgain wrote:
Adrianslont wrote:I'm tossing up between How I Met Your Mother and Friends. Does anyone else have any suggestions for sitcoms that have transcripts available?
Some published french language screenplays

https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 90#p101190

https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 90#p102828

Kaamelott's YouTube videos have subtitles too. And of course stage plays are an option.

Thank you DaveAgain. Dix Pour Cent is definitely of interest.