VOA慢速英语2015 手机应用程序传承非洲的民间故事

 

Mobile App Seeks to Preserve African Folktales 手机应用程序传承非洲的民间故事

For hundreds of years, Africans have preserved their history through storytelling.  But, some Africans worry that oral traditions will be lost to Internet connections and social media.

This has led one Nigerian woman to create a mobile phone application, or app, as a way to preserve African folk stories. Elizabeth Kperrun is a businesswoman and fashion designer. She calls her mobile app AfroTalez. The AfroTalez app tells children’s stories that teach moral lessons.  Ms. Kperrun says she wanted to create the app to preserve some of the stories told to her when she was a child in Nigeria.

“Sometimes you can’t teach a child something by telling the child, ‘Don’t do this’. In fact, I think it gave me context. In a story somebody stole something and then something bad happened to them. Alternatively, somebody else did something good and they ended up really happy or really rich.”

“Hello children. My name is Liz and I’d like to tell you a story about a tortoise, an elephant, and a hippopotamus¹. This story will tell you why it’s important to go to school so you can grow up to be very wise like the tortoise.”

AfroTalez is designed for children ages two to 10. The voice of “Aunt Liz” narrates² the story, while a full-screen animation³ appears. An arrow signals when it is time to move on. There are also quizzes on object recognition and counting throughout.

"Can you point at Mr. Elephant?  No, try again. Good!  Find the rope. No, try again…. Good!”

Kperrun spoke⁴ to her older relatives to help collect stories for the application. The stories come from an ethnic⁵ group of about four million people called the Tiv who live in southeast Nigeria and northwest Cameroon.   Ms. Kperrun says she wants to include folktales from other parts of Nigeria in local languages in those areas.

“I want to keep it centered around folk stories. I don’t want the popular ones that, let’s say, Walt Disney has made really popular… I think it’s only fair and respectful that we keep certain cultures alive because most of the folk stories are part of the tapestry⁶ that keeps cultures together.”

Kperrun writes and reads the stories. Her business partner and husband Idamiebi Ilamina- Eremie does the animation.

AfroTalez is available for Android users and can be downloaded for free in the Google Play store.  So far, AfroTalez has more than 50,000 users.

Funding for the app has been a major challenge. Ms. Kperrun hopes to use a crowdfunding campaign to help fund the next version of AfroTalez to be released this year.

Ms. Kperrun says technology does not have to destroy or replace traditions.  She says her goal is to combine both new technology and old traditions to keep African culture alive.

“Africa is our home. I think we are so in a rush to become Western that we are forgetting things that are really important, things that should be passed on of who we are, and I don’t think that’s right.”

Words in this Story

animation – n.  a way of making a movie by using a series of drawings, computer graphics⁷, or photographs of objects that are slightly different from one another, and that when viewed quickly one after another, create the appearance of movement

crowdfunding – n. the practice of getting money from a large number of people, especially from the online community

preserve – v. to keep something safe from harm or loss; to protect

1 hippopotamus   

n.河马

参考例句：

• The children enjoyed watching the hippopotamus wallowing in the mud.孩子们真喜观看河马在泥中打滚。
• A hippopotamus surfs the waves off the coast of Gabon.一头河马在加蓬的海岸附近冲浪。

2 narrates   

v.故事( narrate的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• It narrates the unconstitutional acts of James II. 它历数了詹姆斯二世的违法行为。 来自辞典例句
• Chapter three narrates the economy activity which Jew return the Occident. 第三章讲述了犹太人重返西欧后的经济活动。 来自互联网

3 animation   

n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作

参考例句：

• They are full of animation as they talked about their childhood.当他们谈及童年的往事时都非常兴奋。
• The animation of China made a great progress.中国的卡通片制作取得很大发展。

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

6 tapestry   

n.挂毯，丰富多采的画面

参考例句：

• How about this artistic tapestry and this cloisonne vase?这件艺术挂毯和这个景泰蓝花瓶怎么样？
• The wall of my living room was hung with a tapestry.我的起居室的墙上挂着一块壁毯。

7 graphics   

n.制图法，制图学；图形显示

参考例句：

• You've leveraged your graphics experience into the video area.你们把图形设计业务的经验运用到录像业务中去。
• Improved graphics took computer games into a new era.经改进的制图技术将电脑游戏带进了一个新时代。