“Mind the Gap” – An Update
IN JANUARY THIS YEAR I produced a blog piece entitled, “Mind the Gap”, a piece in which I gave an account of how the French Metro announcers communicate the warning, “Mind the Gap”, to an unsuspecting travelling public.
Here’s how the French do it:
Since then, I’ve made several trips on the London Underground and they too of course have their “Mind the Gap” announcements. Having recorded these announcements in both English and French I thought you might like to hear a direct comparison.
“Mind the Gap” in English and in French:
It occurred to me that to have a collection of “Mind the Gap” announcements from different countries in different accents and different languages might make for an interesting sound art piece.
Do you have a “Mind the Gap” recording from your country and in your language that you would like to share? If so, just send me a comment and I’ll get in touch.
That sounds like a great idea Des, you could construct a really interesting soundscape with it. I remember enjoying the original post. I’d love to contribute to your idea but there aren’t any trains in this part of Australia.
Thanks Jay. I would really like to get some other “Mind the Gap” sounds. The idea of different accents and different languages is really fascinating. Let’s hope we get some responses.
Hello Des, I have a London ‘Mind the Gap’ announcement with a male voice, which is used as standard for platform announcements. In-train recorded voices seem to vary, perhaps by line, or else by the date at which the train was fitted with the recordings.
http://www.soundsurvey.org.uk/index.php/survey/soundacts_of1/official1/419/
Here’s a soundmap of part of the Tokyo subway system, but without a ‘Mind the Gap’ – perhaps there aren’t any gaps!
Ian
Thanks Ian, good to hear from you. Emma Clarke is the new voice of the London Underground. She is an actress and voice-over artist of some repute. Her voice is gradually being introduced I understand for all London Underground announcements. I guess it will take time for her voice to appear on all the lines. It’s her voice that appears in my “Mind the Gap” recording. I have yet to discover who is the voice of the Paris Metro but my search continues!
Actually, several voices can be heard on the Paris metro, both female and male. The idea behind is to give a sound identity for each line. The same way each line was given a colour for all the signage and maps system. The voices are mainly from RATP staff members who were chosen after a casting.
Thank you very much for this comment. This is timely, because I have recently heard the some of the “new” voices and I was intrigued. I also notice that on the new automatic trains on LIne 1 several languages are included as well.
Tokyo subway sound map: http://www.rickbenedict.com/jams/?p=701