Training Alexa to Speak Japanese

OK... 

I'm actually now of a certain age that could be called "senior citizen" or Kupuna in Hawaiian which means grandparent or honored elder.

Whatever the case, trying to understand these new fangled contraptions drive me nuts.

I was happy to have my Echo Dots remind me to do things. I had Alexa on the Echo Dots figured out on this.

But then...

I put this Echo Pop in mom's room to remind her to keep hydrated by drinking water, getting ready to go to Senior Club, etc. 

I programmed Echo Pop in mom's room to the Japanese language.

Then I asked her in English what time it was.

She started playing weird Japanese music from Amazon. 😵

So back to the online drawing board.

I learned that I had to ask questions in Japanese or she would misinterpret things. Arrrghhh! Not only that, but I had to make sure I spoke with correct Japanese pronunciation. 

OK... That worked. She now answered corrected.

So I wrote a whole bunch of reminders (in English on my iphone) for mom. But I learned the next day that it didn't seem to work. Mom didn't pay attention to it. Turned out that Japanese Alexa was announcing my English reminders (in English) in a sort of Japanese accent. 🙄

So.... then I'm thinking... Do you suppose I have to write it in Japanese too? Arrrghhh! 

Thank goodness for Google Translate. I translated mom's reminders (that I'd written in English) to Japanese and pasted it onto my Alexa app.

And BINGO! I worked! 

Now Japanese Alexa (on the Echo Pop) was announcing reminders in lovely Japanese.  Woo hoo!

Will mom now pay attention to a machine?

I don't know.

So then.... I wondered if I synced the Japanese reminder (Everywhere) on the other 3 Echo Dots in the house, would it say it in Japanese everywhere even though the Echo Dots are programmed in English?

Art and I went to the kitchen to wait for it.

BINGO! 

It did. But the funny thing is that our Echo Dots, read the Japanese words correctly in Japanese, BUT Alexa said it with a hilarious American accent. 😂

This whole thing has taxed my brain to the MAX. 

It's bad enough that I got all confused on my blog schedule for the first week of January. 

Here's hoping I don't have to deal with understanding more technology for a good long while now. 

As a Kupuna, I don't think I could handle it.

And to my good friend, Linda in Kansas who got me started on making this Echo change for mom, thank you. This is one more thing to help us in our caregiving of mom.

POSTSCRIPT:

I asked mom whether the machine helped her remember what to do and she laughed and said, "Yes." 😄