Contributors-Guide

If you're on this page, you must be interesting in adding your voice sample to the site. Thank you for your contribution! Contributors like you are what keeps this site improving. With that being said, here are our requirements:

For each language you speak, we'd like two voice samples:

1. A 1-3 minute (or longer, if you want, but probably no longer than 10 minutes) background information of yourself. Here's a guideline of what to discuss. You can also talk about additional details that you feel are relevant to your accent; The idea is to include any biographical information that had some part in shaping your accent. Imagine if you were born in New York City and lived there until you were 15, but moved to Waco, Texas, and lived there for another 15 years. It'd be likely your accent would have some influences from both regions. You don't have to feel limited by what's listed below, but ideally, your audio sample would include all of the below:

• Name
• General age
• Ethnic background
• What country you're from
• City and state/province/region
• What languages/dialects you speak. Also mention which ones are native and which ones are secondary languages.

If you're introducing yourself in your native language, talk about:

• Your background - where you were born, how long you lived there, or if you moved around, maybe you went to high school or college in a different area.
• Explain what dialect you're speaking, maybe explain a little bit about the dialect - talk as if you're explaining it to someone who doesn't know anything about the area you're from - what regions your language/dialect is spoken in -
• For example, if you speak 台山话, you can talk about what regions speak this dialect and how it's different from standard Mandarin. If you're speaking Mandarin, you can explain how the Mandarin in your region is spoken differently
• from standard Mandarin (For example, people who speak Mandarin from the Guangdong region might have some differences in their Mandarin than "standard Mandarin", because they dont pronounce 儿 in some words)
• Also feel free to mention anything else that influenced your accent.

If you're introducing yourself in a secondary language, talk about:

• How long you've been studying the language
• Why you learned the language (maybe you were a big fan of BTS so you decided to learn Korean)
• How you learned the language
• Where you learned the language (in school, or from hanging out with international exchange students parties or bars, etc)
• How you typically use that secondary language in your day to day life.
• Also mention anything you think is relevant that might have influenced your accent when speaking your secondary language. Maybe you learned English in school in Guangdong, but your English teacher was from Shanghai, or maybe you learned English by watching a lot of British TV shows or something.

2) An audio recording of you reading the first chapter of The Little Prince in the same language. Our reasoning for having this recording is: having everyone read the same text gives some baseline standard - everyone is generally saying the same thing, since they're reading from the same or similar text, depending on the translation. This lets the listener directly compare and contrast accents in different audio samples, whereas the introduction audio clips might cover completely different ground from one another. We chose The Little Prince because it's one of the most translated works in the world outside of the Bible, so you're likely to find a translation regardless of your language spoken. We link to some translations below. If you have difficulty finding a copy of the translation or a translation in your language in general, please contact us; we'll see if we can help you find a translation in your local language.

The Little Prince (Various Languages) http://laetaprinco.org/

We've also commissioned various translations of the first chapter for you to use as well. See below:

Igbo Translation

Nigerian Pidgin Translation

Thai Translation

Vietnamese Translation

Yoruba Translation