智能助手是过去十年中最酷的创造之一。一个人工智能驱动的设备，可以打开你的灯，点餐(order food)，告诉你交通状况——有什么不喜欢的？就像The Jetsons的(The Jetsons )Rosie住在你家一样。除非你的口音很重。
《华盛顿邮报(Washington Post)》 2018 年的一篇名为“口音差距(The Accent Gap)”的文章很好地强调了这个问题。如果你有“正常”的口音(” accent)，比如中性的美国口音，智能助手会毫无问题地理解你。另一方面，Alexa不太可能理解经常使用“你们”的人。任何重口音也是如此。
值得庆幸的是，有几种方法可以解决这个问题。智能(Smart)助手使用机器学习(machine learning)来适应和改进，因此这些解决方案都不是即时解决方案。但它们会提高你的智能助手对口头命令的响应速度。
慢慢地说(Speak Slowly)
这听起来很陈词滥调，但说得更慢会对智能助手(smart assistant)识别和处理你的请求 的能力产生深远的影响。
说话慢意味着你更有可能清楚地发音，但它也让智能助手有时间(smart assistant time)处理你所说的内容。你可能会对你的智能助手说出完整的句子，但机器会根据各种因素寻找关键词来告诉它返回的答案。
如果说慢一点没有帮助，试着缩小你的要求。例如，您可以通过说“Alexa，天气”来获取当前温度和预报。(temperature and forecast)如果你把你说的话减少到几句话，你的智能助手就有更好的机会理解你。
避免口语化术语(Avoid Colloquial Terms)
世界上每个地区都有特定的单词和短语来描述常见的日常事物。例如，美国南部(United) 各州(States)倾向于将所有形式的苏打水都称为“可乐(Coke)”。向智能助手询问有关可口可乐(Coke)的任何信息将返回有关可口可乐公司(Coca-Cola Company)的信息。
请具体说明您如何表达问题。避免使用口语并坚持使用正式认可的词汇，可以减少智能助手(smart assistant)误解你的机会。
找出您的智能助手是否提供您的口音作为选项(Find Out If Your Smart Assistant Offers Your Accent As An Option)
智能助手经过培训和编程，可以识别各种语音模式；在大多数情况下，制造商会包括他们在正常情况下最有可能听到的口音类型。
用户报告说，将语言设置(Language setting)从英语(English)（美国(United) ）(States)切换到英语(English)（英国(United Kingdom)）可以更好地响应具有英国口音的用户。
Amazon Alexa为具有以下口音的用户提供英语口音：
- 加拿大人
- 印度人
- 西班牙语
- 墨西哥人
- 意大利语
- 澳大利亚人
- 新西兰
(Google Home)另一方面，Google Home为以下说话者提供英语口音：
- 澳大利亚
- 加拿大
- 印度
- 印度尼西亚
- 爱尔兰
- 菲律宾
- 新加坡
- 泰国
- 英国
- 美国
如果您使用这些口音中的任何一种说英语，请将您的设备切换到相应的语言选项(language option)。如果您这样做，您的智能助手可能会更好地理解您。
改变语言(Change The Language)
使用智能助手时，没有理由必须(has)说英语。(English)Amazon Alexa 和 Google Home(Amazon Alexa and Google Home)都有多种语言选择。如果您发现您的助手在说(assistant doesn)英语(English)时听不懂您的口音，请查看您的母语是否可以选择。
把事情说清楚(Spell Things Out)
一些智能助手（最著名的是 Apple 的Siri）将允许用户拼出他们想要的内容。此功能允许系统可能无法理解的用户请求信息。
虽然这不是一个完美的解决方案，因为在每个字母之间有足够的时间拼写单词所需的时间以便助手识别，但这是朝着正确方向迈出的一步。
不幸的是，目前的智能设备都不擅长识别英亚口音。他们主要关注的领域是美国(United) 和其他英语国家，但还是有希望的。(States)即使是当前版本的智能助手也比原来的版本有了突飞猛进的发展，并且都拥有比以往 更好的语言识别能力。(language recognition)
随着时间的推移，智能助手将变得足够先进，可以识别任何口头命令(command regardless)，无论语言或口音(language or accent)如何。
What To Do If Your Smart Assistant Doesn’t Recognize Your Accent
Smart assіstants are one of the coolest creatiоns of the past decade. An AI-powered dеvice that can turn on your lights, order food, and tell you traffic conditions – what’s not to like? It’s almoѕt like Rosie from The Jetsons lives in your house. Unless perhaps you have a strong accent.
A 2018 article from The Washington Post called “The Accent Gap” highlighted the problem well. If you have a “normal” accent, like a neutral American accent, smart assistants will understand you without a problem. On the other hand, Alexa is a lot less likely to understand someone who uses “y’all” on a regular basis. The same goes for any heavy accent.
Thankfully, there are a few ways to approach the problem. Smart assistants use machine learning to adapt and improve over time, so none of these solutions will be an instant fix. But they will improve how responsive your smart assistant is to spoken commands.
Speak Slowly
It sounds trite, but speaking more slowly has a profound impact on how well your smart assistant can recognize and process your request.
Speaking slowly means you are more likely to clearly enunciate words, but it also gives the smart assistant time to process what you said. You might speak in full sentences to your smart assistant, but the machine looks for keywords that tell it the answer to return based on a variety of factors.
If speaking slowly doesn’t help, try narrowing your request. For example, you can get the current temperature and forecast by saying “Alexa, weather.” If you reduce what you say to just a handful of words, your smart assistant has a better chance of understanding you.
Avoid Colloquial Terms
Every region of the world has certain words and phrases they use to describe common, everyday things. For example, southern states in the United States tend to refer to all forms of soda as “Coke.” Asking any information about Coke to a smart assistant will return information on the Coca-Cola Company.
Be specific in how you phrase questions. Avoiding colloquial terms and sticking to formally recognized vocabulary reduces the chance that your smart assistant will misunderstand you.
Find Out If Your Smart Assistant Offers Your Accent As An Option
Smart assistants are trained and programmed to recognize a wide variety of speech patterns; in most cases, manufacturers include the types of accents they are most likely to hear under normal conditions.
Users have reported that swapping the Language setting from English (United States) to English (United Kingdom) resulted in better responses to users with British accents.
The Amazon Alexa offers English accents for users with the following accents:
- Canadian
- Indian
- Spanish
- Mexican
- Italian
- Australian
- New Zealand
Google Home, on the other hand, offers English accents for the following speakers:
- Australia
- Canada
- India
- Indonesia
- Ireland
- Philippines
- Singapore
- Thailand
- United Kingdom
- United States
If you speak English with any one of these accents, swap your device to the corresponding language option. Your smart assistant might better understand you if you do.
Change The Language
There’s no reason someone has to speak English when using a smart assistant. Both Amazon Alexa and Google Home have multiple language options. If you discover that your assistant doesn’t understand your accent when speaking English, find out if your native language is an option.
Spell Things Out
Some smart assistants (Apple’s Siri, most notably) will allow users to spell out what they want. This feature allows users that the system might not otherwise understand to request information.
While it’s not a perfect solution given the amount of time it takes to spell out words with enough time between each letter for the assistant to recognize, it’s a step in the right direction.
Unfortunately, none of the current smart devices excel at recognizes English-Asian accents. Their main areas of focus are the United States and other English-speaking countries, but there is hope. Even the current versions of smart assistants are leaps and bounds better than the original versions, and all have better language recognition than they ever have before.
In time, smart assistants will be advanced enough to identify any spoken command regardless of language or accent.
