News recycling: Brain Age doesn't like your accent

by Alexander Sliwinski on Feb 5th 2008 2:25PM

Bringing an old story back to the forefront with a new angle, BBC show Watchdog reports that Michelle Livesey of Manchester can't get Brain Training (Brain Age in the States) to recognize her saying "yellow" -- she's apparently not saying it "posh" enough. Although Watchdog added a new dimension with Brain Training's inability to recognize yellow, the original problem color blue is also in the mix. The issue is all in the accents.

According to Nintendo, on page 47 of the Brain Training manual it gives hints on how to use the voice recognition properly. Suggestion number four is: "Pronounce each word as clearly as possible, and try to avoid using strong dialects or accents." Just check out Nicole Kidman saying scissors in a Nintendo ad to see how things could go wrong with accents. Nintendo claims it has been continually monitoring the voice recognition efficiency in its software since the game launched in June '06. We believe them, just as long as we don't have to say the color blue, or yellow if we're from Manchester.

Source

Tags: accent, brain-age, brain-training, brainage, braintraining, dialect, DS, error, kidman

Reader Comments (41)

I have the same problem with Yellow (Yella) ;)

but thats it, and rarely...

Sorry for high jacking your post but this is "almost" important.

How do you pronounce yellow in the American English, I was once in Orlando and my Sprite had this yellow stuff (It was mixed with Coke, phew) and the waitress thought I was saying Jell-O. What gives?

Is it I-e-llow ,Ge-llow,Lle-low,Ye-llow or what?

I'm glad it wasn't mixed with blue Pepsi.”No I said blue,blu?,blo?,bleu?!!!!”

yell - low, just like the two words crammed together

I wasn't aware it was pronounced differently elsewhere, but then again i've never pondered colors in other English dialects

Oh I see kthnx.

Yellow, but Spanish speakers sometimes have trouble differentiating between the pronunciation of the words "yellow" and "jello." Was she a Spanish speaker?

P1> "I got axed to crowze cat-a-cornurd to tha rite on the skreet to pick up scrimp fo tha sho'ties."

Game> "Incorrect. The answer to what colour I am requesting is YELLOW; like the verbal piss you just spewed."

Wow, was that a Baltimore City accent? Cause if it was, spot-on!

Important goings on in the UK I guess. Personally I could never do blue. or brew rather. its a shame the game didn't have some sort of learning before it began like when dragon naturally speaking would make you read alice and wonderland before it would dictate.

This is America! Learn to speak English! Then you won't have a problem.
This is Brain Age's way of saying that people with thick accents have lower brain ages.

Well, actually that's the UK.

Though, it's their fault for talking funny.

(Don't kill me.)

@Ignatius

We kicked thier Commie Asses in the Revolution,
Saved thier Commie asses in the first Great War,
Saved thier Commie asses in the second Great War,
And By god, we'll save thier commie asses in the third one too!

Face it, the UK owes us... so yes, the statement "It's America, Speak English" applies.

Also: What the hell does "Bob's your uncle" mean O.o

@paragraph

83,000 British soldiers on D-Day vs. 73,000 American soldiers. Who saved who again?

And also, since when are the Brits commies?

Since they started funding everything with tax dollars. Communism, just with the illusion you matter.

Holy shit, time paradox.

Actually I believe our Comrades the Russians saved the day.

Yeah, because the official language of the U.S. is English and there is only one way to pronounce American English. Forget the fact that there are language varieties like Chicano English, African American English, Southern American English, or that places like Chicago, Philly, or New York all have different accents.

Take a linguistics class. And maybe while you're being educated, your IQ will finally inch up past those with "thick accents."

My girlfriend has trouble with it when she says blue. I hadn't noticed she pronounces it differently until the game picked it up.
Also, my handwriting is dreadful. There should be a fun game designed to improved legible writing.

I haven't played Brain Training, But I'm pretty surprised the manual has 47 pages.

Yes, I am that bored.

Ok, then pay close attention. Take a globe, find the equator, then follow the line until you find it's end

That should occupy whatever time void you need to fill

I'm in the states (Tulsa Ok) and have probalby the most bland dialect in all of the US and it never gets Yellow for me. Really pissed me off.

That's because you say it wrong and don't realize it.

Yellow is easy, just say YELL and LOW. Blue I still don't know what it wants.

Telling someone to just say YELL-LOW doesn't help if they pronounce words differently.

I've spent most of my life in Washington state, but moved to Tennessee 5 years ago. I never had any problems getting the brain games to recognize my words. Though they constantly try to tell me that my 9's are actually 4's.

My wife has a British/American accent and I have a British accent, and it wouldn't always work. I figured it's a Japanese game and so tried:
Bru and Yerrow

Not very PC, but it works 100% of the time.

lol. nice

Absorutry collect.

Engrish stlikes videogames.

Well the devs could also skip the Mic gimmick and replace it with writing or the use check boxes.

OK...

BA: Write Color.

Brit: C-O-L-O-U-R

BA: WRONG!

@Lars:

What kind of minigame asks you to spell a word after it has it written out for you in the instructions?

BA: "Write 'differential.'

Player: "D-I-F-F-X...damn it!"

@Saria: The minigame where you have to memorize a list of short words for two minutes, and then write as many of them as possible.

@Dio: Makes a lot more sense now! Although now there's the problem of spelling entirely. I have more faith in British people to spell correctly in American English than Americans themselves.

That Wii is a wicked pissah... I was drivin my cah down the pike when I heard about a sale on 'em back in town. I banged a uey and almost got caught by a statie. On my way back I stopped by a packie to pick up a sixer and a couple hoodsies to celebrate.

Really, I can't understand how anyone could fail to say "blue" incorrectly if they're a native speaker of english. I mean, it's one syllable!

People still use realplayer on websites?

I don't have any issues with the game. I do have that American network newscaster voice though.

I had trouble with Blue... and I speak pretty standard American midwest English. No southern, Boston, or Chicago accents here. I usually had to hold out the 'ooo' sound at the end extra long for it to catch it. By extra long, I mean more than 1 second.

Yeah I'm with the Bru and yerrow it works in a kind of rude way, but is funny because Japanese has ra, ri, ru, re and ro. They do not sound like "L/l"s or "R/r"s they kind of sound like a mix between the two. That's where the switch-sound joke comes from. As far as I've studied.

"Just check out Nicole Kidman saying scissors in a Nintendo ad to see how things could go wrong with accents."

Can we not do this again? You got this wrong the last time you mentioned the video, and I'd suggest watching it again.

She says "Scissors... SCISSORS..." (realizes her mistake, smacks her head) "No..... Rock. THERE you go."

She was obviously saying what she saw (scissors), when she was supposed to be saying the opposite (what beats scissors = rock).

Think about it. Why would Nintendo intentionally promote a negative aspect of the product they're advertising? It'd be like Microsoft featuring the RROD in a 360 ad.

Wow I didn't know Brain Age hated accents. That is hilarious. I guess they have to start talking like us Americans to get a low brain age. =P

My problem with Brain Age is that it does not recognize me writting the number 5.

I've had problems with numbers too, like writing a 1 will cause a 5,7, or 8 to appear. Sometimes I take advantage of this to save time on 8s, lol.

It seems to prefer my boyfriends scottish accent over mine which is english...and i have to draw the 4's like i use to in infants school just for it to not confuse it for a 9..

News recycling: Brain Age doesn't like your accent

Reader Comments (41)

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