from __future__ import print_function
import speech_recognition
import pyttsx

speech_engine = pyttsx.init('nsss')
speech_engine.setProperty('rate', 150)

recognizer = speech_recognition.Recognizer()
microphone = speech_recognition.Microphone()

def listen():
    with microphone as source:
        recognizer.adjust_for_ambient_noise(source)
        audio = recognizer.listen(source)
        print("Got it! Now to recognize it...")
    
    try:
        # recognizer.recognize_sphinx(audio)   # == not very good out of the box
        value = recognizer.recognize_google(audio)
        return value
    except speech_recognition.UnknownValueError:
        print("Could not understand audio")
    except speech_recognition.RequestError as e:
        print("Recog Error; {0}".format(e))
    return ""

speech_engine.say('Say something!')
# speech_engine.runAndWait()              # hangs here...
said = listen()
print(said)
# speech_engine.say('I heard you say ' + said)
# speech_engine.runAndWait()              # hangs here...