Working Woman

I am working this week! It’s exciting to see money coming in instead of always just going out! The USAC advisor asked me if I’d be interested in working for a company that needs English speakers to edit their sound bites and make sure they sound “right”. It was a vague description, but the 23 Euros an hour payment hooked me! I rode the tram there yesterday afternoon (45 min tram ride!). I had to get through two security check points because the work takes place inside the Italian Telecom headquarters (or something like that). The two people I worked with were really nice. They are working for Fiat to develop a car media system that allows you to control USB media devices through voice commands while driving in order to keep your hands on the wheel (I think he said it was called “Blue and Me”). They’ve already introduced the product in Europe, but now they are “localizing” it for release in the states. They played sound clips of what the computerized voice system would say in reply to a command by the user. I had to tell them if it was most importantly, understandable (right wordage) and then play with the computer input text to see if we could make it sound more “natural”. For example, in some cases, the words would come across rushed or mumbled, so by adding spaces or commas or extra letters, the computer read it differently. It was actually pretty interesting (like a puzzle: “how to trick the computer”). Plus it felt pretty cool to feel like and “English expert”! I work three days this week for three hours in the afternoons. It’s a busy week! I don’t know if they’ll need me any more after spring break, but either way it is nice to earn a little pocket change.

Ps. It’s a running joke/common knowledge that I am not a good speller. Twice he was typing a word in English and asked me if it was spelled correctly! O boy… Little does he know…