greek-texts

Collection of texts from Tράπεζα κειμένων with synced audio for learning Modern Greek.

Audio is from various contributors from the Learning Greek Discord server.

Prerequisites

1. Install Node.js.

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install
   

How to Run

1. Start web server:

   npm start
   

2. Navigate to the URL outputted by step #1 in your web browser of choice.

How to Add a New Text

1. Decide on a text to add from the Τράπεζα κειμένων Google Drive folder.
2. Find the text on Tράπεζα κειμένων (the URL may be used in step #3).
3. Find a suitable image for the text by following instructions under How to Add an Image.
4. Run ./add-new-text.js and answer the prompts. This will create a directory for the new text in the root of this repository with a beginning config.json file.
5. Create a transcript.vtt file by following instructions under How to Make WebVTT From Audio.

How to Add an Image

To add an image for a text:

1. Search for an image with a creative commons license. For example, using Google image search. The orientation should be landscape instead of portrait (wider than tall).
2. To reduce file size:
   1. If the image is large (> 1000px), then shrink and / or crop it using a free online service such as Image Resizer.
   2. Compress the image using a free online service such as TinyJPG.

How to Make WebVTT from Audio

1. Download the audio for a text from the Τράπεζα κειμένων Google Drive folder.

2. Download and install Audacity.

3. Open audio file in Audacity, and select Label Sounds from the menu bar (Analyze -> Label Sounds...).

4. Experiment with settings to achieve a good result.

   • Set "Minimum silence duration" to 100 ms.
   • Experiment with Maximum leading silence and Minimum trailing silence. (For example, 200 ms maximum leading silence and 100 ms minimum trailing silence)

5. Update labels with corresponding text by copying text chunks from the page on Tράπεζα κειμένων. Adjust labels if desired or needed.

6. When happy with the result, export the labels as text (File > Export > Export Labels....).

7. Convert the exported labels to VTT by running:

   ./audacity-labels-to-vtt.js path/to/audacity/labels.txt > ./path/to/transcript.vtt
   

   For example:

   ./audacity-labels.to-vtt ./Τσιντιλά-audacity-labels.txt > ./Τσιντιλά/transcript.vtt