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Learning to Speak, One Name at a Time

Let’s Call PaBaMa

Learning spoken language is never easy for people who are hard of hearing.
One of the main reasons is that it is extremely difficult for learners to determine on their own whether their pronunciation is correct.
On the other hand, growing up using only sign language and written text, without spoken language, also has significant drawbacks.
When language is perceived only through visual information, it can become harder for the brain to retain vocabulary. Even if written words are visible, there are many situations in which their meaning is not intuitively understood.
In this project, we focused on three especially fundamental sounds in the Japanese syllabary:
“pa” (voiceless), “ba” (voiced), and “ma” (nasal).
We believe that being able to freely combine and pronounce these three sounds can become the first successful experience in learning spoken language, leading to continued and sustained learning thereafter.

PaBaMa is a spoken-language learning app featuring characters named “Pa,” “Ba,” and “Ma.”
When the user correctly pronounces the name of the character they want to call, that character appears on the screen and happily waves back.
Through this interaction, users can naturally recognize that they have pronounced the sound correctly.
This project is also a challenge to create a pronunciation practice experience without marking answers as simply right or wrong.
For example, even if a user intends to say “PaBaMa” but only “Pa” is recognized, the “Pa” character will still appear.
By providing feedback even when pronunciation is incomplete, we aim to prevent learners from feeling that they have failed, and to preserve their sense of success.

We are currently developing this project in collaboration with a school for the deaf, with the goal of introducing it into actual classroom lessons.

Credit

Creative Director: Tomoyuki Oe (Dentsu Lab Tokyo) | Creative Technologist: Joy Yokouchi (Dentsu Lab Tokyo) | Producer: Kohei Ito / Kosuke Hayashi (PYRAMID FILM QUADRA) | Technical Director: You Kamihiro (PYRAMID FILM QUADRA)

WORKS