VOA慢速英语:A Kitchen That Talks? This One Teaches French

A "talking kitchen" teaches students how to cook French and speak French. Researchers at New Castle University in the United Kingdom have developed the French Digital Kitchen. Professors Paul Seedhouse and Patrick Olivier led the project. Professor Seedhouse told us on Skype that it works like a satellite navigation system in a car.
一个“会说话的厨房”教学生们如何烹制法国餐和讲法语。英国纽卡斯尔大学的研究人员已经开发出了法语数字厨房。Paul Seedhouse教授和Patrick Olivier教授领导该项目。Seedhouse教授在Skype上告诉我们，它的工作原理就像汽车卫星导航系统。

PAUL SEEDHOUSE: “The sat nav speaks to you and it tells you, for example, to turn left. And if you turn left then it continues with the program. If, for example, you turn right, then it’s a mistake, so it loops back and it gives you further instructions.”
PAUL SEEDHOUSE：“卫星导航系统会跟你说话并告诉你，例如，向左转。如果你向左转程序就会继续。而如果你向右转，那就错了，所以它会环回，并给你下一步的指令。

The kitchen equipment and tools use motion sensor technology similar to the Nintendo Wii game system. The sensors help a computer guide the students through instructions in French.
该厨房设备和工具的使用类似任天堂Wii游戏系统的运动传感器技术。在传感器的帮助下，一台计算机通过法语指令来引导学生。

PAUL SEEDHOUSE: "The system can tell whether you’ve done what you were asked to do or not. So let’s say, for example, the system tells you to take some butter and cut it with a knife, right? There’s a sensor on the package containing the butter so it can tell where the butter's being moved. The sensor in the knife not only knows that the knife is moving, but it also knows what motion the knife is making. So it can detect whether the knife is slicing, whether it’s scraping or what. And so it doesn’t go on to the next stage of the program unless you’ve done what it senses you’ve done."
PAUL SEEDHOUSE：“该系统能够分辨你是否已经做完要求的动作。所以，让我们来举例说明，系统告诉你拿些黄油并用刀子切，对吗？在黄油的容器上有一个传感器，这样系统就能分辨出黄油被移动到哪里。刀上的传感器不仅知道刀正在移动，而且还知道刀在如何移动。所以它能探测出刀是不是在切片，是不是在削之类的。除非你完成了它的要求，否则它不会进入程序的下一个阶段，。”

Students can ask the computer to repeat the instructions or translate them into English. There are vocabulary lessons before and after the cooking.
学生可以要求电脑重复说明或翻译成英文。在烹饪前后会有词汇课程。

Professor Seedhouse became interested in the idea after he visited a talking kitchen designed for a different purpose.
Seedhouse教授在参观了另一个出于不同目的而设计的会说话厨房后，对这种想法变得感兴趣了。

PAUL SEEDHOUSE: “It was actually for communicating with people who suffer from dementia. And so, for example, it can speak to those people and it can tell them, for example, that they’ve left the oven on and they should switch the oven off.”
PAUL SEEDHOUSE：“它实际上是为了与老年痴呆症患者沟通。因此，例如它可以告诉这类人，他们让烤箱开着，应该把烤箱关了。”

He says the French Digital Kitchen turns the process of learning language into a real-life experience.
他说这款法语数字厨房将语言学习过程融入到现实生活经历中。

PAUL SEEDHOUSE: "Here you’re taking it out of the classroom and you’re actually using the language to produce something which you can eat at the end of it. It’s very enjoyable.”
Paul Seedhouse：“有了这款机器，你可以在课堂之外使用语言制造可以吃的东西，这很有趣。”

But the idea -- known as task-based language learning -- required a few changes as the researchers were designing the system.
不过，这一基于任务的语言学习需要研究者设计系统时做出一些调整。

PAUL SEEDHOUSE: "For example, we’ve found that we put a sink full of water, right, and as soon as people have finished cooking with an instrument, they throw it in the water. And for us that’s deadly because the digital sensors were immediately ruined by being in the water. Okay, so - so you have to take actions so that you don’t have water in the sink and you tell people not to throw them in the sink."
Paul Seedhouse：“例如，我们发现，当水槽里装满水时，每次人们用使用完一样厨具，总会把厨具扔到水里面，这时候系统就会死掉，因为数字感应器很快就在水里被损坏了。所以必须采取措施让水槽里没有水，并提示人们不要把它们扔到水槽里。”

The system could be available for sale by the end of twenty twelve. Adding the technology to a new kitchen could add an estimated ten to twenty percent to the building costs. The system could also be added to an existing kitchen.
该系统可在2012年年底上市，给新厨房增加这样的科技能需要10—20%的建筑成本。现有厨房也能新增这样一个系统。

The researchers are also developing portable versions. And the European Union has given them money to begin programs in six other languages, including English, Italian and Spanish.
研究人员正在开发可携带版本。欧盟给他们提供资金开始6种语言的程序，其中包括英语、意大利语和西班牙语。