DEMO.md

Say It Back — recording + submission kit

Space: https://huggingface.co/spaces/Tonykip/say-it-back

Before you hit record (speed)

1. Open the Space, let it fully load.
2. Click 2–3 featured phrases once to warm everything (they're instant after).
3. Type one live phrase and run it once to warm the translate endpoint (~20s first time, fast after — it caches). Then record. On camera everything will feel snappy.

Demo video (~60–90s)

1. The why (10s): "Kalenjin is fading in my family — my wife understands a little but thinks in English. I built a tool so she can just say a word in English and hear how to say it in Kalenjin."
2. Instant phrases (15s): click Thank you → Kongoi, Water → Peek, I love you → achamin — each plays back in the Cheps voice immediately.
3. The live moment (25s): click the mic, say "Good morning, how are you?" → it transcribes → shows Amunee karon? → speaks it back in Kalenjin. That's the wow.
4. The human close (15s): your wife (or you) using it for real — that footage IS the Backyard-track story.

Social post draft (edit freely)

Kalenjin is slipping away between generations in my own family. So this weekend I built Say It Back 🗣️ — say a word in English, hear it spoken back in Kalenjin, in a fine-tuned Kalenjin voice.

Whisper (ASR) → EN→Kalenjin translation → Cheps TTS, wired up in Gradio. Built for #BuildSmall (@huggingface × @Gradio). Models on @modal. 🇰🇪

Try it: https://huggingface.co/spaces/Tonykip/say-it-back

Submission checklist

• Gradio Space public + working ✅ (this Space)
• Demo video recorded
• Social post published (tag HF, Gradio, Modal)
• Submit the Space link via the hackathon form / channel
• (Optional) ask org admins to add you as writer on build-small-hackathon if org-hosting is required, then duplicate the Space there.