“These applications share data from some of the largest sequencing studies in the world,” he says. Matthew Solomonson, a software engineer at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, uses it to build web applications such as the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD), which is used to explore genomic data. Voice coding underlies a wide variety of science - any researcher who writes code could use it. And they say that there are unexpected advantages. It takes at least a month of difficult, sometimes frustrating, training to get set up, but coding by voice helps these programmers to keep doing their jobs or continue their studies. Now, a small but growing community has developed a workaround: coding by voice command. RSI can derail the careers of computational biologists and other scientists who code. The syndrome occurs when the ulnar nerve, which travels down the outer edge of the arm, becomes pinched at the elbow, causing numbness, pain and loss of fine motor control in the hands and fingers. Pimentel had cubital tunnel syndrome caused by repetitive strain injury (RSI). Three years later, as a computational-genomics postdoc at Stanford University in California, he does just that. “My adviser jokingly said, ‘Can’t you do this by voice?’” he recalls. As a computational-biology PhD student, his work involved constant typing - and he was born with only one arm. While there is no little pill that can magically transform you into a fluent speaker of another language, this exercise can broaden your professional and personal horizons.Debilitating hand pain is always bad news, but Harold Pimentel’s was especially unwelcome. Practice a couple of times, first reading out loud, then reading a bit less until you’re more or less fluent. First, contact a teacher, schedule a first lesson and then ask if they are OK with you giving presentations through Skype. You can work with language teachers over Skype in virtually any language. Now you should have a decent text in the language of your choice. You want to carve out the rough edges that Google Translate left in your speech. Go to a freelancer platform, such as Upwork (formerly known as Elance-oDesk) or, and search for a copywriter that copyedits and corrects text. If you don’t pay attention you will end up with very funny sentences that will likely amuse your audience for the wrong reasons. Although software is available worldwide, you cannot yet fully trust any translation. The first draft part is actually really important. Google Translate will give you a first draft of your speech in the language of your choice. A good alternative, yet one that still involves spending a little money, is to Dragon it, i.e., purchase some speech recognition software, such as Nuance’s Dragon NaturallySpeaking, that turns your speech into a text file. You can do this yourself (it takes a bit of time) or send it to a transcription service (there’s some money involved here). You ideally want to use a lapel microphone so that your hands are free while you are talking. Record your speech in your native language on your smartphone or other device that can give a recognizable file format as output. (Giving a speech in a language that is totally new to you is another matter.) Follow these five steps and take advantage of my favorite tools. I often hear: “I am OK when I present in my native language, but in English/French/Chinese/(add your second language here) … that’s another story.” I will share my process for giving presentations in my non-native languages.įirst, I will make two assumptions: one, that you have a presentation more or less ready and now need to deliver it in another language, and two, that you have some experience in the other language and can speak on a moderate/intermediate level but have not yet reached a fully fluent presentation level. If you’ve ever been asked to give a speech or business presentation in a foreign language, you know the level of insecurity this request can bring.
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