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Can an AI-powered Hokkien speech translator bridge the language gap between youth and grandparents? I tested it and here's my experience

TODAY's journalist Daryl Choo longs to have in-depth conversations in Hokkien with his grandmother who speaks the dialect well but he does not.

TODAY's journalist Daryl Choo (left) longs to have in-depth conversations in Hokkien with his grandmother (right). She speaks the dialect well but he does not.

TODAY's journalist Daryl Choo (left) longs to have in-depth conversations in Hokkien with his grandmother (right). She speaks the dialect well but he does not.

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  • In October, Meta launched a demo of a English-Hokkien speech translator
  • It is touted as the first time that a primarily spoken language can be translated in real time
  • In a test use by TODAY, it did not work when needed as a translating tool for Hokkien, a Chinese dialect
  • An official from a Hokkien clan association said that such technology may help preserve the dialect
  • However, he had doubts about whether there will be a resurgence in Singapore of more people speaking Hokkien 

SINGAPORE — My grandmother was born to a crocodile farmer and his wife in a kampung (village) in Batu Pahat, a district in Johor, south-east of Klang, in Malaysia.

After her father died when his leg was bitten off by a crocodile, my grandmother moved to Singapore where she became a hairdresser and met my grandfather.

She was born during the Second World War and has lived through the 1964 race riots here when Singapore was part of the Federation of Malaysia. 

That’s about all I know about my 77-year-old grandmother’s childhood. Over the years, I’ve asked her to recount stories from her younger days but I never quite got the dates and details right.

My grandmother speaks most comfortably in Hokkien, a Chinese dialect, and knows how to speak in Mandarin. She can also manage a smattering of English, Malay and other Chinese dialects.

I, on the other hand, can only hold simple conversations in Mandarin and am frankly hopeless in Hokkien.

I've always tried to know more about my grandmother's life, but midway through our conversations, they would devolve into a mangled mess of Mandarin, Hokkien and English, so I often gave up trying to make sense of what she was saying.

Earlier this month at an anniversary dinner of the Singapore Ann Kway Association, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung spoke — in Hokkien and Mandarin — of the “immeasurable value” of dialects in bringing people closer and how his daughter asked to learn Hokkien six months ago.

After some lessons — along with coaching from Mr Ong’s wife who is Hokkien — the daughter is now able to communicate better with Mr Ong’s grandmother, who does not speak Mandarin or English.

My family is Hokkien but ever since my grandmother moved out to live with my uncle in my teens, nobody speaks it at home. 

My parents speak mostly English and some Mandarin. And strangely, they also speak Cantonese to each other when they don't want me to know what they're saying. My older sister, like me, can hardly speak any Hokkien.

So with my limited grasp of Hokkien, it’s hard to have deep conversations with my grandmother beyond the superficial, “Have you eaten?”.

Needless to say, my interest was piqued when technology company Meta — the parent firm of Facebook and Instagram — announced in October that it had created an artificial intelligence (AI) system that can translate spoken Hokkien to English.

The tech giant said that this was the first time a language that is primarily spoken rather than written can be translated in real time. 

The tool is part of Meta’s Universal Speech Translator project, which is developing new AI methods that can hopefully allow real-time translation for all existing languages. 

“The ability to speak effortlessly to people in any language is a long-sought dream, and we’re pleased to be one step closer to achieving it,” Meta said.

It noted that the model is a work in progress and can translate only one full sentence at a time. 

THE TEST

The web-based demo programme is open to the public and hosted on data science sharing platform Hugging Face.  

From my test use, translations took up to minutes to process and can be widely inaccurate or downright gibberish.

Several times when I tried to record a sentence, the programme would translate it into a string of cackling noises.

More often than not, it would take about a minute to process before returning an error.

However, on occasions when it does manage to work, the results can be amazing. 

I tried, for example, recording myself saying “Where is the nearest doctor?” in Hokkien and its translation to English was spot on, though I had to use “i-seng” instead of the more common term “lokun” used in Singaporean Hokkien.

It’s too late. It’s like global warming — it’s finished. I think it’s very sad, but it’s not unique to Singapore. Even China is having this problem.
Mr Chan Hock Keng, vice-president of Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan, on whether Hokkien will be used by more people again

The use of Chinese dialects in Singapore declined after the national Speak Mandarin Campaign was launched in 1979 to push Mandarin as the common, unifying spoken language among Chinese Singaporeans who were from various dialect groups.

It was also to drive the national bilingual education policy.

There were segments of the population who were not enthusiastic about phasing out the use of dialects but the goal was eventually achieved to a large extent by 1990.

Now, with people in the younger generation showing an interest in picking up or reviving the “forgotten” dialects, could translating tools such as the one by Meta help preserve these languages in Singapore?

Mr Chan Hock Keng, vice-president of Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan, said that the clan association has received requests in recent years from schools to hold some Hokkien classes for pupils — something that to his knowledge has never happened before.

He said that since the majority of Hokkien speakers here can only speak and not write in the language, technology could allow Singaporeans to understand Hokkien when the older generations are no longer around to translate for us.

As for whether there will be a resurgence in the use of Hokkien in the wider community here, Mr Chan was less optimistic about this, especially since the older generations are no longer around to speak it. 

“It’s too late. It’s like global warming — it’s finished,” he added.

“I think it’s very sad, but it’s not unique to Singapore. Even China is having this problem.”

He asked: “Why would anybody want to learn a dialect in this day and age?”

A few weeks back, I tried Meta’s translator with my grandmother but after several unsuccessful tries, she grew impatient and started rattling on about something else in her usual bubbly self.

Looking back, I’ve always felt guilty whenever I have difficulty communicating with my grandmother. 

There had been so many significant moments in my life and when they happened, I had longed to share them with her.

Sadly, between the “umms” and “ahhs", I could never find the right words.

Short of committing the time to take up proper lessons, I've lately been watching online content produced by young people in Singapore who have taken on the commendable work of helping to preserve Hokkien, in the hope that I can pick up some language skills along the way. 

In more recent conversations with my grandmother, I have made the extra effort to try not to be discouraged and to express myself more honestly no matter how clumsy I sound. The nuances may be lost in translation, but I’ll stammer through anyway. 

I'm not sure if my grandma notices, but hearing her joy whenever I call her or visit her encourages me to keep trying.

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hokkien dialect Meta translation grandparent

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