Search speeches

You can search for speeches using one or more of the following criteria:

Language: all official EU languages and a number of candidate country languages are listed. More languages will most likely be added in the future, but we cannot say when. Languages are listed in alphabetical order according to the ISO 639-1 code.
Difficulty: the speeches have been graded into 4 levels of difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced and very advanced.
Domain: indicates the topic according to current EU policy areas. There is also a general domain for topics not covered by the policy areas.
Use: choose between simultaneous and consecutive. This is in no way binding – feel free to use an easy consecutive to practice simultaneous in your weakest language for instance.
Identifier: it is a unique number given to each speech: just enter the numbers separated by space to get more speeches at once.

If you search for speeches without indicating any criteria, all speeches available in Multilingualspeeches.tv will be displayed.

Search results

After clicking the search button, you will get the “Results” page, listing all speeches corresponding to the search criteria entered. The number of hits corresponding to your search criteria is displayed in the top right corner. A list with the following headings will appear:

Identifier: indicates a unique number given to each speech.
Title: contains the title of the meeting or conference. By clicking on the speech title hyperlink you can listen to a 20 second audio sample for voice, pace, accent, etc. If you want to stop the sample, just click on the loudspeaker icon in the top right corner.
Domain: shows the first and most relevant domain.
Type: indicates whether it is conference, press conference, debate, hearing, interview, pedagogical material.
Difficulty level: indicates one of the four levels.
Speaker: contains the speaker's name.
Details: leads to further information about the specific content.

Details

By clicking on the “Details” hyperlink you can access all details associated with the specific video clip:

Numerical Identifier and Title of the speech.
Copyright information.
Place and date of the speech (blank if unknown).
Description: helps the student to quickly understand the context and topic of the speech.
Type of speech: conference, press conference, debate, hearing interview (real-life speeches) or pedagogical material (specially recorded speeches).
Name and profile of the speaker: the same speaker may appear in different video clips with different profiles (e.g. a Prime Minister who later becomes European Commissioner, etc.).
Language and Accent: "foreign" accent is used for non-native speakers, no matter how perfect their level of the language spoken. Accents are occasionally indicated for native speakers (e.g. American English).
Difficulty: this is a subjective evaluation given by professional interpreters and may vary.
Use: this is in no way binding – feel free to use an easy consecutive to practice simultaneous in your weakest language for instance.
Domains: up to three possible domains (topics) can be listed.
Terminology: contains the terms a professional interpreter considered the most important and relevant for the speech. This field may also contain quotations in another language (e.g. Latin).

Three buttons are provided to take action:

View stream: the length of the speech is indicated above the button. By clicking on the button the video will be streamed in a new window (buffering will take a few seconds). This window shows the transcript, if available.
You can choose between two different players:
- QuickTime: probably the best ITU-T H.264 player giving the best possible image quality.
- Flash: this player is offered as an alternative and may solve the problems you may encounter if you work behind firewalls. The Flash player allows you to switch to full screen (the button is in the video tool bar).
Download: permits downloading the entire clip to be viewed using any H.264 player. Please check the section "Using iPods and the like " to learn more about watching the clips from alternative video players and tools.
Transcript: the button is dimmed if no transcript of the speech is available.

All video clips are recorded in ITU-T H.264 standard format, and you need Flash or QuickTime to view them.

However, you do not need to install any of the above-mentioned players on your computer if you install and use “SCICrec^TM”.