Final Session (Summer Term 2023)

Posted on 9. August 2023 by gihei100

During our last session on July 13, 2023 each student group presented the final results of the projects we have done during the course of this semester. It was a great way of getting a better understanding of the individual folktales besides the ones we were working on ourselves. Together we took a look at the different video editing and coding experiences as well as talked about our individual difficulties during the process.

Coding

In the beginning of this semester most of the students, myself included, struggled with the coding part of this class. The most common mistakes were such as:

forgetting to close the tags
changing the geographic coordinates in the header
Finding quotes in the text so it can be properly coded
Finding all words for the notes and glossary
not using the <q> tag

At least for me it was a foreign experience and way beyond my “academic comfort zone”. Nonetheless it was an experience that greatly benefitted me in the end.

Video Editing

This class wasn’t the first time I used video editing programs but I never worked with DaVinci Resolve before. Since I missed both tutorial sessions I had to figure the works out by myself but thankfully our instructors provided us with a detailed step by step guide. Nonetheless there were a few things that really proved difficult in the beginning:

locking the subtitles and setting them at the right place (the timestamps were sometimes confusing)
adding a title page without shifting any of the subtitle, audio or video tracks
inserting the credits at the end

These were all things that most of the students struggled with and together we came up with helpful suggestions how to solve any of the before mentioned problems, e. g. the use of additional editing programs or to create the videos in multiple steps to avoid the shifting of the subtitles. In the end most of us felt confident in using DaVinci Resolve again with considerably less effort.

Results

At the end of our last session we talked about the class in general and gave feedback on our individual experiences and accomplishments. Personally I am really glad that I had the chance to participate since I gained a lot of new skills and insight into the Konkomba culture.

Presenting our Videos

Posted on 7. July 2023 by nesrincha

In this week’s class we had our group presentations on the videos we had to edit and subtitle at home. We looked at what we have done so far and the problems we have had during the process of subtitling and the editing with the program Da Vinci Resolve.

The biggest problems that were mentioned had to do with the title, the timestamps and the software.

Also, as a community, we made some changes and discussed improvements to be made.

Issues:

Title -> One person only had an audio about the telling of the folktale and not a video. She had a black screen at first but then figured it out and used a lot of pictures matching the audio. She encountered problems when putting the title before the audio so the subtitles were already shown in the title.
We also used the English titles of the folktales rather than the original ones because we decided to use those in the class before.

Timestamps -> The timestamps are displayed in seconds and milliseconds and this made it difficult for some of us to convert them directly into Da Vinci Resolve since it happened that the video shifted in the program because of the title. That is why some had to listen to the presenting voices (even without understanding Likpakpaln) to fit the subtitles to the spoken. Others put the subtitles first and added the title afterwards but that also caused some videos to shift. Some timestamps also were not that accurate so people went with their gut and listened to some key words. Therefore the question arose if we should rather focus on the exact timestamps or the characters per second.

Software -> For some it was difficult getting used to the software. One person did not know how to cut the video in the end before the credits but she received help and fixed it. We also noticed that after we finished editing the video quality got worse, probably because of the adjusted frame rate.
One folktale had a song and the editor changed the subtitles to another color to make it more clear when they were singing. The storyteller was also speaking very fast so he had to put the number of the characters per second down and left no gaps between the subtitles.

Additional changes / information

Other things that were mentioned were those, that the presentation on video-editing and subtitling was very helpful when problems arose.

We also decided to add “Düsseldorf – HHU“ to the credits after the “Centre of Translation Studies“ to make them more accurate.

The pyramid form when subtitling is highly preferred.

The word Ulambidaan was no translated because there was no good English translation for it. It is a common noun in Likpakpaln and it describes a psychological or medical condition, similar to a hyperactive kid that also takes joy in teasing and making fun of other people.
The word Ubor was also not changed because it means chief or political leader of the people and is very known and common.

Often folktales are being told while other community activities are happening to keep them entertained, such as cracking shells manually. The folktale and video “The Monitor Lizard nearly floors the Hyena in a wrestling match“ is a good example for the occasion where folktales are performed.

Other than that, we were told that a few things were added to our codes for our final presentation next week where we will present everything we have done throughout the semester with the help of powerpoint presentations we are preparing.

On the Subtitling of Orature

Posted on 29. June 2023 by Lennart Sprenger

As I was unable to join today’s session, I’m going to discuss the process of video editing and subtitling which we began last week instead on focusing on the topics discussed in class.

The small amount of video editing experience I had going into this project didn’t quite prepare me for just how finicky this ended up being. We were kindly provided with translated and timestamped subtitles for our respective videos, but the editing process was much more complex than just copy-pasting the text and numbers. There are some general rules that good subtitles need to abide by in order to fulfill their purpose. Ultimately, I needed to adjust most subtitles to a certain degree to meet those requirements.

An Arduous Process

The size and letter spacing of the subtitles is something that can easily be adjusted based on intuition alone, but the same cannot be said about the two main problems I encountered:

Firstly, the duration and pacing of the subtitles. One full second is generally considered to be the minimum, though this obviously only works for very short subtitles. In some cases, a storyteller may speak rather quickly, forcing the subtitles to proceed and change at a very fast rate, leading to a high amount of characters per second (CPS), which becomes hard to read. There was a section in one of the videos where I ultimately had to combine two separate subtitles into one because even just the small pause between them pushed the CPS beyond 30, which is much too fast for most people. Since subtitles are meant to promote accessibility, this obviously wouldn’t do.

As long as the CPS number isn’t red, the subtitle is more or less reasonably paced.

Secondly, dealing with multiple speakers. In one video, there is a second person who interjects into the story with a short comment and later joins the storyteller in song. The problem was that, aside from the song, both people didn’t really speak simultaneously, making a shared subtitle for both feel strange as it would either begin too early before the person in question started speaking, or linger too long, which also just felt slightly off. As a result, I split the subtitles for the storyteller and the audience member into two separate regions that could appear and disappear separately. I also colored them differently, so that it was easier to tell at a glance who was speaking.

Different speakers can be distinguished using names or titles, colored subtitles, or hyphens.

In conclusion:

Orature like what we have been working with in this course is meant to be performed. Making those performances accessible and understandable to people who don’t speak the language of the storyteller is an essential part in the process of demarginalization.

Working on editing and subtitling these videos has given me a new appreciation for anyone who has ever provided high-quality subtitles for any kind of media. It’s time-consuming, but ultimately very important work, not just in the context of our course.

Presenting our Codes

Posted on 22. June 2023 by lafei101

This week we presented the codes we did for homework and talked about difficulties and problems. Some of the problems mentioned were: making sure that all the tags are closed, finding quotes in the text so it can be properly coded and the order in which the divisions need to be closed.

We also decided that we are going to use the English terms for the animals in the folktales in the titles, to make it more accessible for readers who don’t understand the Likpakpaln language. In the stories themselves the Likpakpaln words will still be used because we don’t only want to share the folktales but also the culture that they originate from.

Group Work I

Posted on 1. June 2023 by kabar113

During the session on May 25, 2023, the focus was on group work. Prior to this session, we were divided into groups and each group was assigned a different folktale to code. Before diving into the group work, Michael took some time to discuss common mistakes and areas for improvement in the codes.

An example of an improvement discussed during the session was to include an empty row at the start and end of a song. This can be represented by the XML tags <row><cell></cell></row>. Including this empty row helps to enhance the visual clarity and organization of the XML file, especially when it is converted into a PDF format.

Here is an example.
This is what it looks like when you include an empty row at the beginning of a song:

In contrast, this is what it looks like when you exclude the empty row:

The focus of this week’s session was on group work and highlighting the importance of small details that significantly enhance code readability and structure. By incorporating these relatively simple elements, we ensure that our final code is visually pleasing and organized.

How to Code: Songs, Footnotes and Glossary

Posted on 18. May 2023 by lafei101

This week we started the session going over some common mistakes and mishaps from our homework. After Anne and Michael pointed out the mistakes we got some time to correct our codes so we could move on to the next tasks with a perfect code.

Then we learned how to code a song. This is special because the songs are displayed in two columns: one for the Likpakpaln transcript and one for the English translation. In order to do that we need to create a table in the code. This is the code we were taught to use:

<cell><hi rend= “bold”>Likpakpaln transcription</hi></cell>

<cell><hi rend= “bold”>English translation</hi></cell>

</row>

<row> <cell><l>Maadim ee, bi koo’ pak Maadim ee too. (2x)</l></cell>

<cell><l>Maadim, all are full of praise for Maadim. (2x)</l></cell> </row>

</table>

</div>

In order for the lines of the song to be more legible we place an empty row between the lines.

We were also taught how to code footnotes and a glossary. Both codes work in a similar way where there needs to be a connection between the footnote or the word in the text and the corresponding number or explanation in the notes/glossary.

These are the examples we were given:

footnotes:

… <term xml:id=”footnote1″><hi rend=”superscript”>1</hi></term>

<label>1.</label><item><gloss target=”#footnote1″> explanation </gloss></item>

</list>

</div>

glossary:

<cell><l><term ref=”#gloss1″>Asantes</term> passed here</l></cell>

<head type=”subTitle”>A Glossary of Likpakpaln Words</head>

<label>Asantes:</label><item><gloss xml:id=”gloss1″>plural form of Asante.

The Asante people, who are commonly known as Ashanti people or Ashantis, are one of the ethnic groups in Ghana that make up the Akan group. They inhabit the southern part of Ghana, especially the Ashanti region.</gloss></item>

</list>

</div>

Finally, we were placed into groups of two for our group project.

Coding the Folktale: Errors

Posted on 10. May 2023 by safian

In our 4th session, May 4th, first we did a recap of the previous session, elaborating on the header, followed by a quick exercise finding possible errors in the examples

Then, we reviewed basic elements of coding:

text divisions <division>
title and subtitle <head>
paragraphs <p>
quotes/spoken word <q>

Then we focused on the header as an important part of codes.

A header includes Metadata and has the following mandatory elements:

Michael and Anne asked the class find all mistakes in the sample header, and nearly everyone detected 10 mistakes.

This is a part of one example of a sample header we discussed in the class:

<TEI xmlns=”http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0″
<teilleader>
<filedesc>
<titleStmt>
<title>Parents Should Love Their Children Equally</title

*The title is not closed properly-

Finally, the class was asked to continue coding the folktale “Parents Should Love their Children equally”.

Introduction to TEI and XML

Posted on 1. May 2023 by yakoe103

In our second session (April 27^th), we were introduced to TEI and XML. First, we learned that TEI is an acronym for Text Encoding Initiative, which is used to create data from scratch, store data and transform data in machine/computer-readable formats. The type of information stored is varied: not only texts but also audios, pictures, and videos can be stored in digital form. XML is an acronym for Extensive Markup Language, a descriptive computer language that uses symbols to create a clear structure in a text document. TEI and XML are essential tools because they allow information, in our case Konkomba folktales, to be easily accessible for those interested in the stored data while simultaneously preserving it so it will not be lost in the future.

Next, we were shown how a TEI file is structured. A TEI file always contains a header and a text also referred to as a body. There are also main containers and sub-containers (short: sc) which contain elements. Their purpose is to define the Markup Language. For example, when coding we use an Open Tag (<), then we insert the elements/sc, and then use a Close Tag (>). We have to keep in mind that Tags are a very integral part of Markup Language. Without Tags a TEI file cannot be properly formed, resulting in an error. At the beginning of every TEI file, we need to type <TEI…> before we begin with the header and the text/body. Only when we are completely finished with creating a TEI file, we can type </TEI>. This is the first step.

The second step is to create a header. The header needs to be tagged as <teiHeader>. There, the main container is situated. It contains metadata, like the author, storyteller, publication information, editors, sponsors, etc. This is mandatory information that is typed as follows: <fileDesc>… </file Desc> (file Description), <titleStmt>…</titleStmt> (title statement), <publicationStmt>…</publicationStmt> (publication statement), and <sourceDesc>…</sourceDesc (source description). When all the mandatory information is in the TEI file, we use </fileDesc>. There are also optional elements, like <encodingDesc> (encoding description) which details editorial decisions or the relationship between a text and the source from which it was derived. When the header is completed, we use </teiHeader>.

We were shown an example of how the header is structured:

After that, the text is tagged as <text>. The text contains the body (tagged as <body>… </body>). First, we need to put the title or subtitle: This is done by putting <head>… </head>. To markup sections within a text, we need to use <div>… </div>. To create paragraphs, <p>…</p> is used. Finally, to encode line breaks or quotations we use <l>…</l> and <q>…</q>. When we are finished with the body, </body> needs to be put at the end. To finish the text section, we type </text>.

This was another example shown to us of how to successfully create a text/body section:

To conclude, I think the introductory lesson about TEI and XML has been easy to follow and was explained in a way that wasn’t too complicated. At first, I was a bit nervous about learning how to code because I don’t have a lot of experience with coding but after this session, I am interested to learn more about TEI and how we are going to implement coding in our future sessions of the seminar.

Folk tales, Coding and Old Ladies and their Cats

Posted on 23. March 2023 by anneschu

Introduction

Digitalising folk tales from cultures and areas deeply rooted in oral traditions and orality helps archive these tales, as well as the languages and cultures they derive from, and thereby gives them the opportunity to transcend time and space to reach more people. One might of course ask whether translating folk tales from their original marginalised language into an institutional, widely spoken language such as English means domesticating this language and therefore ultimately contributing to that language’s endangerment. However, as we have also concluded in class this winter term, if the translator uses the method of foreignization for their translation, meaning that they give visibility to the original language and culture (cf. Venuti), it can also help an endangered language be preserved. Translating and showcasing the Konkomba language is rather a case of preserving and archiving the existence of the language and culture, because it is in danger of going extinct in the near future. Therefore, translating (with the method of foreignization) and subtitling the Konkomba folk tales in English gives visibility to the language and culture, because by hearing the folk tales in their original language and following along with the English subtitles helps a non-Konkomba listener become familiar with the language as well as the culture.

The folk tale

A folk tale is a tool of language and culture documentation, transmission, and preservation. In a traditional sense, folk tales are oral stories that are passed on from generation to generation, but it became more common for them to also be written down over the years (cf. Thompson 4). However, there are cultures and areas around the world where orality and oral folk tales dominate and hence these stories do not necessarily exist in a written form.

A folk tale is region-specific and always expresses, communicates, and transmits beliefs, values, a morale, or myths among other things of its culture of origin. It is mostly quite short and changes are predetermined with each re-telling because of its oral nature (cf. Pullum 96). The folk tale, its language and culture are sources of indigenous knowledge about a people’s history, cultural heritage and belief system and are hence deeply interwoven with each other – as explained by our course instructor Tasun Tidorchibe.

The Konkomba folk tale “A Cat Saves an Old Lady from a Troublesome Wolf”, gives insight into the reason why most old ladies are fond of cats, with its roots deriving from Konkomba mythology. The folk tale is about an old lady – an upininkpil – and how a wolf always steals the food she is making. Whenever the old lady makes yam and pounds fufu (a type of mash) she sings a song. Hearing the song, the wolf approaches, thereby answering upininkpil’s song with one of its own. This causes the old lady to run away in fear. Because the wolf always comes when she is making food, she has tried to seek protection from other animals, but without success. However, one day a cat visits the old lady and offers to capture the wolf for her. The cat tells her to do everything as usual and the old lady agrees. The wolf comes, starts singing its song and enters the old lady’s house. But at that moment the cat jumps on the wolf and kills it, saving the old lady from her predicament. The cat chose to save the old lady instead of a fellow animal. This is believed to be the reason why many upininkpils keep cats as their pets.

Process: Coding and Video Editing

After receiving the folk tale, I began coding in Visual Studio Code. I started with the header and put in all the required information: the title of the folk tale, the author, storyteller, editor, date, and place among others. It was a bit difficult, however, to find the exact geographical location of Chakping, the village in which the recording had taken place. After I had completed the header, I started encoding the folk tale. As we practiced this a lot in class, I encountered few problems while encoding the story. The only thing I had to remember though was to use italics. Encoding the song included in the folk tale was a bit more challenging, as there were multiple song sections, so I had to use a lot of tables and division elements to go back and forth between the narration and the song section of the folk tale. Lastly, I encoded the notes and the glossary. As we talked about this a lot during term as well and even changed our approach on how to do it, it went quite smoothly. I used <gloss xml:id> in the glossary and <term ref> in the story, because xml:id always needs to be unique and hence cannot be used in the code if a term comes up multiple times in the folk tale. At the end, after I had finished the coding, I checked what it looked like by converting the TEI document into a PDF via TEIGarage.

Then, I started with the subtitling of the video. I used the software SubTitle Edit one of my classmates recommended, as it is a lot easier to use than Davinci Resolve’s subtitle function. Because I used this software, I was able to work rather quickly on the subtitles, as I only had to copy and paste the subtitle text into the software and adjust the timestamps for each subtitle sequence after having set the settings to the correct amount of characters per line. Thanks to our instructor Tasun Tidorchibe, who provided me with the timestamps, I had no real issue with this process. The only thing that slowed me down a bit was the fact, that I had to use my family’s old laptop because the software did not work on my own computer. I exported the subtitles and then went on to work in Davinci Resolve for the video-editing.

Davinci Resolve, similar to my encounter with it during term, was a bit of a struggle once again. Not only did the software almost shut down when I was nearly done, but I also encountered a problem with the display of the video in the software itself, as the image was suddenly gone and even though I somehow managed to get it back, the size was off. Thankfully, nothing major happened and I was able to edit and finish without any damage to the video itself. During the video-editing process, I had to adjust some of the subtitle timestamps for them to align with the storyteller’s speech, as well as lengthen them a bit because some were just too short at first. I also added some subtitles for background noises and adjusted the overall look of the subtitles for them to be easier on the eyes. I had to render the video twice because I wanted to change some things after having a look at my first draft. Because I had issues with editing title, credits and the copyright in Davinci Resolve for the folk tale I worked on in class, I decided to use my computer’s own video-editing software for the finishing touches since I am more familiar with its handling.

So lastly, I used iMovie to add a title page, the credits and the CTS logo for the copyright. I was not able to put the logo into the video for the folk tale I worked on in class, because Davinci Resolve did not let me. With iMovie it thankfully worked, so I put the logo into the upper right corner of the video. With that I was able to finish the video-editing part without any further struggles and also completed my task in digitalising the folk tale.

Conclusion

With digitalising this Konkomba folk tale, not only is a version of the folk tale itself but also the culture and language it derives from preserved. As the Konkomba people are a minority culture and their folk tales are hence minority oratures, by not only translating but also digitalising and therefore preserving them, this folk tale, its story and its orality have been transported and archived (cf. Bandia 111). Contributing to this project really opened my eyes for the beauty of folk tales once again. When I was little, I loved fairy tales, folk tales and mythology from different cultures, but I did not keep up my interest in them all too much the older I got. Additionally, I also got to know a culture I had no previous knowledge about, which also shows the power folk tales hold in terms of transmitting and communicating more than just a story. I got to improve my coding and video-editing skills as well, which I had not utilised in quite a while. So all in all, this was a very enriching experience and now I know why old ladies like to keep cats as their pets – and this possibly not only in the Konkomba culture.

Secondary literature

Bandia, Paul. “Orality and translation”. Handbook of Translation Studies Volume 2, edited by Yves Gambier and Luc van Doorslaer, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2011, pp. 108-112.
Pullum, Tracie. “Promoting Writing with Folktales.” The English Journal, vol. 87, no. 2, 1998, pp. 96-97.
Thompson, Stith. The Folktale. 1946. Berkley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1977.
Venuti, Lawrence. The Translator’s Invisibility. London, Routledge, 1995.

Last Session: Presentations

Posted on 4. February 2023 by filippa

For our last session on Thursday, 26th January, we were tasked with presenting the projects that we had been working on throughout the semester. We discussed the coding and video editing process and experience of the folktales of the Konkomba culture, while focusing on the various difficulties we faced and how to avoid mistakes. In the last blog post you can read about our experience and problems while encoding the folktales. This is why I am going to talk about our video editing experience in the following.

Video editing problems

This was our first experience with video editing and using the video editing programme Davinci Resolve. Therefore, many problems and difficulties occurred while editing the videos and adding the subtitles. In the following, I’ll be sharing the problems we faced and our tips to avoid these mistakes.

If you are working in a group, it is easier to use the same video editing programme. This will avoid issues when merging different parts of the video, which we had difficulties with. Another issue was the length of the subtitles, as ours were often way too long. Therefore, subtitles should not appear for more than eight seconds and each line should not exceed 40 characters. Additionally, you should always add a title and copyright and it is easier to add the title before adding the subtitles. Using the pyramid form for subtitles with two lines will give a more clear structure. Furthermore, it is important to subtitle everything and check the timing of the subtitles to ensure they match the content. In the end, when exporting the video, don’t forget to export the subtitles and burn them into the video.

A couple concluding words

Video editing can be a challenging task, especially for those who are completely new to it and have never used a video editing programme, such as Davinci Resolve. However, with some practice and the previous mentioned tips, it will be easier to edit a video the next time. The course “Demarginalising Orature — Translating Minor Forms Into the Digital Age“ provided us with the opportunity to learn new skills in video editing and coding. However, what was very special about this course was that we learned about the Konkomba culture and its folktales.