![]() ![]() I have had my major share of language barriers during my university days, we were on internship training, and it happens that we were posted to remote areas where there are limited English speakers, it was a huge struggle communicating with the community. I graduated from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, in 2009. My name is Blessing Uzuegbu, a Nigerian citizen, an Igbo, and Nigerian Pidgin English native speaker. IT (Information Technology), Medical (general), Telecom(munications)Ī translation review work with the use of machine translation, 1000 term review work on communication, agriculture, translation and localization and consumer goods.Īdvertising / Public Relations, Agriculture, Telecom(munications) Law (general), Law: Contract(s), Law: Patents, Trademarks, Copyright Grading of interpretation test which comprises of simultaneous, consecutive, sight etc. Interview transcription of politics and governance Grading of interpreter screening test for those who aspire to be immigration court interpreter. Translation of Legal document from English to IgboĤ5 pages translation of food and drink survey projectĮnglish to Igbo translation of food and drink project General / Conversation / Greetings / Lettersġ3 files of Igbo audio to be transcribed into English Translation of everyday English into Igbo I just wrapped up a 2 pages review of educational material for a global brand, English to Igbo. In the meantime, researchers like Tubosun and Awosanya will be working to adapt the Yoruba language for technology users.Facebook Social Media projectin Igbo language Language experts say it will take a long time before African languages are widely adopted in voice-driven technology. Some have scripts but don't have so many people using the languages or writing them in education or using them in daily conversations," Tubosun said. Some languages are not written down at all some don't have scripts. Tubosun, who advocates for including African languages in technology, says the tech giants are starting to pay attention even though the gap remains very wide. And over time you tend to lose either the interest in your own language or your competence ," Tubosun said. That is the way the world is structured today and in that you spend all your time online every day and the only language you encounter is English, Spanish or Mandarin or whatever else, then it tends to define the way you interact with the world. "If a language doesn't exist in the technology space, it is almost as if it doesn't exist at all. He said the initiative was partly inspired by his grandfather, who could not read or write in English. He created an online Yoruba dictionary as well as a text-to-speech machine that translates English to Yoruba. He has since been trying to promote inclusivity for his native Yoruba tongue. Nigerian writer and language advocate Kola Tubosun says the issue threatens Africa's technological future. ![]() Researchers say two-thirds of the native speakers miss out on emerging technologies due to language limitations in the tech world. More than 2,000 distinct languages are spoken in Africa. There are things you wish you want to educate the children on, things you want to exhibit in the classes." Awosanya said. He says despite technological advances in Africa, languages like Yoruba, one of the most commonly spoken in Nigeria, remain neglected, affecting his students. When typing my notes, I have to first type on Microsoft Word and even when I type on Microsoft Word it gives me best highlighting, like your words are not correct," Awosanya said.Īwosanya spends several hours manually editing and correcting his notes before uploading them to his blog. "Yoruba language is a language that has to do with signs at the top, so I need to go (the) extra mile. He has been teaching the language for 10 years, but says he often struggles to migrate his class modules to an online students' blogsite he created because there is no speech recognition technology for Yoruba. Yoruba language teacher Oluwafemi Awosanya resumes a day's classes with his students. To address the problem, some African researchers are creating translation tools to recognize and promote indigenous languages, such as Yoruba. Voice-activated virtual assistant technologies, such as Siri and Alexa, are becoming increasingly common around the world, but in Africa, with its many languages, most people are at a digital disadvantage. ![]()
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