F: OK .
F: Um , w would you mind telling me again , please ?
F: Oh , he 's gonna write it .
F: OK .
F: Now , if the batteries were to go out during the meeting , there 's really F: what do we do ?
F: Do we have batteries back there ?
F: OK .
F: OK .
F: And you 'll be in your office during this ?
F: Oh , thank you very much .
F: Thanks a lot .
A: What 's so what do we do with this ?
F: Appreciate it .
F: Could you close the door for me please ?
A: Anything ?
B: Just put your name on it , I think .
A: Oh , OK .
F: OK , thanks .
B: Uh - huh .
F: So ,
F: thanks very much for coming .
F: OK .
F: So um F: let 's see ,
F: so , um , as you know , the meeting today is to , um , @ @ <comment> benefit from your involvement in the data ,
F: all the things that that you 've been exposed to in these many months .
F: And um , I just I just put down some ideas F: you 've seen some of this in the email that I sent out earlier .
F: And , um ,
C: Mmm .
F: none of these these are not obligatory toca topics
F: but they 're just things that I thought might be useful to discuss ,
F: just as a way of organizing the discussion .
F: But if there are other topics you 'd like to discuss that 'd be great too .
F: Alright ,
F: so um ,
F: it struck me that , um , you know , we could start out with some sort of general thing about , um , things that you found easier or more difficult with respect to transcribing or checking or using the interface or , uh , dealing with the time bins or any aspect of that type .
F: And then , maybe talk about specifics specifics of the data
F: and then maybe talk about , um , aspects of the conventions
F: and then the technical set - up regarding the , um , auditory image and the interface .
F: OK ,
F: so ,
F: maybe we could just , um , start with issues of the @ @ <comment> the tar ti up there at the top of F: What what did you find easiest or more s most difficult about transcribing the data ?
D: OK .
F: Yeah .
D: One thing that I remember being really difficult at the beginning and it got easier as we went along was , um , acronyms and technical terms .
D: Um , because there are so many
A: Mm - hmm .
D: and it 's a field that I 'm not really l very D: I don't know ,
D: I don't know very much about this kind of stuff D: computers and speech recognition .
D: I 've never taken classes on it or anything ,
D: so . I found that really hard .
D: And I remember transcribing and having a bunch of D: You know , every five words there 'd be something I 'd put in parentheses cuz I didn't know what it was .
D: So .
F: Parentheses , meaning uncertainty .
D: Yeah .
D: Yeah ,
C: Uh - huh .
D: but it 's definitely gotten easier because the same things keep getting repeated ,
F: Mm - hmm .
D: once you learn what it is , and you can say , " OK I know what they meant by that "
D: or " I know how to spell that now "
D: or something like that .
D: And the Cast of Characters that you put up on the Web was helpful
F: Is C: Yeah .
D: also .
E: Yeah .
F: OK ,
F: good .
F: It 's sorta like a foreign language , isn't it ?
F: It 's basically you have these specialized terms for things that I didn't know n needed specialized terms .
D: Yeah .
F: Yeah .
D: Especially when describing like the set - up in this room , also , and the different types of mikes .
F: Yeah .
D: I don't know .
F: Mm - hmm .
D: And it 's hard to tell when people are talking relatively quickly .
D: They just glide over some of the letters .
D: They don't fully pronounce them .
D: So you can't really tell even if you listen to it ten times @ @ <comment> what it is .
F: Mm - hmm .
B: Hmm .
C: Mm - hmm .
E: Yeah .
E: I usually put most of the acronyms in parentheses
E: cuz I think it 's sort of safe ,
E: cuz people can people can say their acronyms really fast
D: Uh - huh .
E: and I figure that even if I think I know exactly what letters they said , it 's probably best to put them in parentheses
E: cuz I probably don't .
F: That 's not a bad strategy .
F: I mean , i it 's it 's true that I I always check the parentheses at the last stage
F: and those are pretty easy to clear , in terms of when they 're in context .
E: Mm - hmm .
E: Right .
B: Hmm .
F: Not a bad strategy .
C: Uh - huh .
F: Yeah .
C: Some of them just occurred over and over the again ,
C: so like PDA . Like that got got easy .
F: Yes .
F: Mm - hmm .
C: There there was a a bunch of them that , uh F: I suspect in context .
C: They just kept getting repeated often and often
C: you know , over and over ,
C: so .
D: Mm - hmm .
E: Yeah .
C: Just got better ,
F: And also when you have the the juxtaposition of PDA and PZM  then , you know , you @ @ <comment> in context you can tell which one it 's is probably likely to be the one that you had .
C: but .
C: Mm - hmm .
D: Yeah .
D: Even though I still don't know what they are .
D: I mean , I assume they 're microphones of some sort ,
D: but that 's all .
F: Well these here are the P Z
F: that right there .
D: Oh .
E: Oh .
A: Is anybody wearing one of those awful quote Crown microphones that people used to be C: No .
F: Uh you 've heard , the " crown of pain " .
A: Yeah .
F: No . He was telling us , uh , before the meeting that , um , that they 're not in circulation right now ,
F: that they 're they were unpopular .
F: I liked them ,
A: Huh .
F: and Adam liked them .
A: Oh . Oh , OK .
F: I thought the quality was good .
E: Hmm .
A: Just curious .
F: What F: yeah , what did he say ?
F: He said some more things about that ,
F: but I was n I was working on something else .
D: About the microphone ?
F: Uh - huh .
D: I can't remember .
D: I mean he 's e
D: he he said that they were designed for a specific sized head ?
F: Ah , yeah .
F: Yeah , that 's right .
D: Right ?
E: Yeah .
D: And so if if your head happened to be that size , then you were fine
F: That 's right .
A: Oh .
D: and if it w was bigger , then it was like torture ,
A: Oh .
C: Right .
F: Yeah ,
D: o or I don't know .
F: it 's D: I don't know .
F: I liked them .
F: And there 's the actually , there 's the picture of the of the Crown adjustment on the wall right there .
E: Hmm .
F: So it sort of hooks over your ears from the back .
C: Right .
D: Oh , yeah .
A: Oh , OK .
F: Yeah , good c
D: Oh , it doesn't look so bad ,
D: but , I guess it depends really .
F: Yeah .
F: OK ,
F: so now what about accents ?
F: Do you have , uh Did you find any p
A: They 're tough sometimes .
F: Mm - hmm .
E: Yeah .
A: Sometimes the German accents can get a little bit daunting .
A: I mean ,
A: um ,
A: I forget who it was that I was transcribing
A: but , it was tough to figure out what e e he was saying , uh , at any given point in time
A: and I would I would just listen to it over and over and over again , going " Oh my God ! My head 's gonna explode ! "
A: like , not really understanding a
E: Yeah .
A: you know ?
A: And so
A: I was getting a little frustrated
A: because I would put a lot of things into parentheses
A: and then go back over it
A: and go back over it again
A: and still A: you know ,
A: I I like to try to clear as much up as I possibly can
A: and I I just felt like you know , with the German accents , just for me personally , those were probably the toughest to get around .
F: Mm - hmm .
A: Um , they weren't impossible
A: but just like they too the m they took the most time too .
A: I mean I would take maybe twice as long on a a g given channel w with a speaker who has a German accent than somebody who 's you know , a native English speaker ,
E: Mm - hmm .
D: Hm - hmm .
A: or even Asian A: like , uh , speaks an En - Asian language .
A: I found that easier .
A: Uh ,
A: you know .
A: Uh , somebody who speaks like Chinese or something , @ @ .
F: What 's F: you 've <comment> studied some languages ,
C: Mm - hmm .
F: which which ones do you are you studying ?
F: It 's more of a Romance direction ,
F: or ?
A: Um , yeah A: well , I studied I mean , I studied Old English for a while .
F: Mm - hmm .
A: Um ,
A: and then I 've worked with Larry Hyman on like some of the Bantu languages .
A: Um ,
F: Mm - hmm .
A: and you know , I 'm also working with Ian Maddieson
A: and he 's been doing work on the , uh , like also some African languages .
A: So I 've <nonvocalsound> like learned a little bit .
F: Mm - hmm ,
F: so it 's not really you 're not really exposed to German very much .
A: No ,
A: I mean I sing in German .
F: Ah ! <comment> Interesting .
F: Interesting .
A: But A: I mean , I can I can pronounce it
F: Huh .
A: but I don't know any .
F: OK .
D: That 's interesting .
C: Hmm - hmm .
A: I can do I can pronounce a lot of languages and not actually speak them
D: Yeah .
A: because of singing .
D: Yeah .
B: Hmm .
E: Huh .
D: For me I found the Spanish speakers to be the hardest .
D: And the German speakers I found a little bit easier ,
C: Yeah .
D: and I thought maybe that was because I had I took German for a semester and I 've had exposure to German ,
A: Oh .
D: um , because I had a lot of friends who were really into Germany and German language
D: and D: But D: And I found that I could D: if they were pronouncing something in a certain way I could say , " Oh well that 's just the German way of pronouncing this "
D: and then I figured out what they were saying .
A: Mm - hmm .
D: um , but with the Spanish speakers it was D: I 've never taken Spanish ,
D: and even though I 've taken French , and I speak French fairly well , um , I found the Spanish to be much harder
D: and maybe also because the level of fluency for the Spanish speakers was a little bit less than the level of fluency of the German speakers that are here ?
A: Oh .
E: If you 're talking about who I think you 're talking about D: I think
E: are you talking about
E: um D: There was a couple of different Spanish speakers .
C: Can we give names ?
E: O can E: yeah .
C: We w we probably shouldn't , right ?
E: Is that F: I it 's a good question .
F: Um ,
F: And I can't really answer that .
E: OK ,
E: well there 's one in particular who I find the hardest to transcribe of all ,
E: and it 's d she 's Spanish .
F: Oh .
E: So .
C: Oh yeah ,
C: OK .
E: And , um ,
E: and I 've taken lots E: I 'm fluent in Spanish ,
E: and so ,
E: um , when I when I correct it , I can t I can tay tell that the person who , um , transcribed it before me probably didn't speak Spanish ,
E: cuz I can catch a lot of things
E: like like " No , that 's not what she said " ,
E: I can tell she 's pronouncing pronouncing it the way that if you read it from a you know , a Spanish speaker 's mind that you would , you know , pronounce it the way that you would pronounce it in Spanish .
E: But the same time , uh I can't get most of it ,
E: cuz I D: Huh , that 's really interesting .
F: Oh , that 's fascinating .
A: Huh .
E: I find it one of one of the hardest ones to transcribe .
F: Well , what you can see is that it 's it 's her lack of of English fluency that 's being E: Yeah .
A: Oh OK .
D: I think so ,
D: yeah .
F: Yeah , that 's that 's really interesting .
F: I do find that the German tends to be easier for me than s than the others
C: Mm - hmm .
C: Mm - hmm .
F: because of my c exposure and interest in German .
A: Mm - hmm .
D: Yeah .
F: But , um ,
E: Right .
A: Maybe I haven't transcribed this Spanish woman ,
A: I don't know if I have .
F: I suspect you haven't
F: because this was , uh , earlier on that we had a lot of D: Mm - hmm .
F: actually she she was in the middle phase I would say .
F: We had another Spanish speaker who was earlier who was also difficult .
E: Hmm .
D: Mm - hmm .
D: Yeah .
E: Mm - hmm .
D: Yeah , he was hard .
C: Yeah .
F: But that 's really interesting .
C: He got easier though ,
C: because he started like he would say certain words over and over ,
D: Yeah .
C: and D: And you got to know his pronunciation of them .
C: Yeah .
C: So when he said " sign - yah " , and it sounds like " sign " , he was saying " signal " .
D: I remember , yeah .
F: Yes . Yes yes yes .
F: Uh - huh .
D: Yeah , I remember that .
F: Ex
C: And so I would transcribe it as " signal " .
F: exactly .
A: Huh .
E: Oh , wow .
D: And and m eh the way he said " mixed " was really strange , too .
B: Ah !
F: " Miss - ed " .
C: " Meexe " , " meese " , " mees - uh " , or something .
D: " Miss - ed " or somethi
E: " Miss - "
D: yeah .
F: Uh - huh .
E: Huh .
C: Right .
D: Yeah .
F: Which was you know , you could predict it ,
D: He F: I mean , if you knew look looked back at it ,
D: Mm - hmm .
A: That 's kinda cool .
D: Especially because also in the beginning meetings , I mean , he 'd say something and no one in the meeting would understand ,
F: they D: and then everyone would say , " What was that again ? "
C: Oh , eh D: and then they 'd pronounce it in English
C: Yeah .
D: and so I could figure out what it was
C: Yeah .
D: that way .
F: Yeah ,
F: interesting .
D: Yeah .
F: OK .
C: Yeah , I mean he was never like C: it was never up to like a native speaker ,
C: but like that it got a little easier .
C: Um D: Like his English fluency got better ?
C: I remember in the beginning you had and you were just sorta like you were beating your head against the wall ,
D: Oh , I went crazy .
C: but I it go but it got better , it got better .
D: I I would skip doing that portion for as long as I could
C: Yeah , I know . Yeah . <comment> I remember .
D: because i I just couldn't deal with it ,
C: Yeah .
D: and F: Yeah , I had the same experience .
D: Yeah .
F: Sometimes F: And actually F: Sometimes <nonvocalsound> when people lack a certain level of fluency you can ask them themselves , " What did you say there ? "
F: and they can't tell you .
D: And they won't know .
F: S I think it 's it 's sort of a general variability when it 's not when you 're learning a language and you haven't gotten to a certain level .
E: Mmm .
B: Mm - hmm .
A: Oh .
D: Hmm .
D: Mm - hmm .
E: Mm - hmm .
D: Mm - hmm .
D: Yeah .
E: Yeah .
F: I also wonder if if it 's partly that Span - Spanish has different pronunciations in different regions ?
F: I mean , do you think that , um , that , uh , maybe F: I mean , being F: I mean , not that I would know that .
E: Mmm .
F: But I just wondered if ,
F: um F: you know , she was from probably continental Spain versus @ @ <comment> y you know other Spanish F: I wonder if that would have a a contributing factor .
E: I don't know .
A: Oh , like the region ?
D: I have no idea about Spain ,
F: Yeah .
D: but I know that in France for example Parisian French is much easier for me to understand
D: cuz I learned it
D: versus France in like Marseilles or in the south or in like the provin like the villages in the south ,
A: Sure .
A: Right .
D: it 's really hard to understand .
F: Mm - hmm .
A: Menton .
C: Or in Quebec ,
F: That 's right .
C: right ?
C: In Canada it 'd be D: Yeah .
A: Right .
C: it 's different .
D: Much different .
C: A lot of the pronunciations are different ,
D: Yeah .
D: Yeah .
C: yeah .
F: And in my case with with , uh , German w I a certain region that I do well in
F: and then get farther away from that region
E: Yeah .
D: Yeah .
F: and I notice it 's more and more difficult .
D: Mm - hmm .
A: There 's another language that 's spoken in Spain too , that 's um ,
F: Yeah .
A: what am I thinking of ?
C: Castillian ?
A: Castillian .
A: Yeah ,
A: and uh ,
D: And A: um D: isn't it Catalan ?
A: Catalan .
D: Yeah .
E: Mm - hmm .
A: So maybe I mean , depending on where she is , like maybe
F: But she was also very low volume .
A: ch
F: And , um and didn't say a lot .
D: Yeah .
B: Mm - hmm .
F: I mean , I I I c I totally agree .
F: This was a a difficult person to to understand .
E: Yeah .
E: Yeah .
E: Well , the last one I did she actually said a lot ,
D: Yeah .
F: But .
E: and it was kinda it was very hard to transcribe .
E: You kno
E: it was i j I just think that , um , her fluency in English wasn't wa um , wasn't very very high up there ,
E: so it was really difficult .
D: Yeah .
E: But , I mean , I did find that knowing Spanish helped me a lot .
F: I can imagine that ,
E: I could tell that a lot of things that the other transcriber had put in parentheses , I was like , " I can see how you how you couldn't understand that " ,
C: Hmm .
F: yeah .
A: Mm - hmm .
E: but I c I kn I think I know what she 's doing .
F: Yeah , yeah , yeah .
E: I mean , I think I know the mistake she 's making .
E: And A: Mm - hmm .
D: That 's really good .
F: Yeah , yeah .
D: Yeah ,
D: cuz that 's definitely something that I wouldn't have be able to do .
E: Yeah .
F: Yeah , I couldn't do it in Spanish .
F: I 've I found myself doing that somewhat in in German .
D: Yeah .
A: German .
E: In German ,
E: yeah .
F: Mm - hmm .
D: There were problems even with , um , Am - English speakers though .
D: I mean , not in their level of fluency , obviously ,
C: Uh - huh .
D: but in E: Mm - hmm .
D: Some people tend to mumble ,