How to Read a Foreign language
When was the last time you used Google Translate, did you feel a bit frustrated?
Source: https://pixabay.com
Travel
Last week I spent a wonderful few days travelling around the sights of Belgium. Of course everyone speaks wonderful English, and German, and French and probably six other languages as well (I am so jealous) but for the first time in years I was in museums and other places where there were things I wanted to read, that were not in English.
Google Translate
You have probably heard about Google translate for reading webpages, I have made great use of that here to read some posts by Korean and Spanish authors, even having a conversation with some by writing in my own language and translating theirs.
Sure it's not perfect (yet) but it is good enough for the translation to be intelligible by a native speaker. It's also great to help you learn a foreign language by giving you hints and translating text as you read it.
A Universal Translator for Travelling
Well maybe they are not quite here yet but I have discovered a very interesting app. I have used the Google Translate App on my phone for the first time while travelling and I was very impressed with how accurate it is now and how easy to use.
This app is great for travelling, and I will be using it more and more. If you haven't used it yet, you may need to download some language packs to your phone before you travel.
Belgium
We were in Belgium for a week, and there were some very interesting exhibits in this museum we visited but unfortunately they were mostly all Dutch.
Google Translate to the Rescue
So how does it work, Is it easy to use?
- Find something interesting to read
- Point your phone and take a photo with the app
- Click Translate
- Enjoy reading about the suffering of the first factory workers
Universal Translators
judging by the improvements since I last used a translate tool, it doesn't feel like Universal Translators are that far fetched any more!
Have you used this app, did it work well, what was your experience?
*An friend of mine of Italian ancestry was telling me recently about a trip to Sicily where it kept translating his aunts name as Goofy :) It still gets it wrong sometimes. *
Thank you for reading this. I write on Steemit about Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Travel and lots of random topics.
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did not even know there was an app for this.
Google translate is awesome! It translates English top Spanish pretty accurate
I take Spanish classes in the evening. Don't tell my teacher but it has helped me out lots with my homework recently :)
If you ever need help I'm here Spanish is my first language and I was an English teacher, by the way nice trip you took there!
Nice one. I might take you up on that.
Anytime eroche I'll always around☕️
I won't tell I can keep 🙊 secrets 😜
Nice one helpful
I had no idea about this! Had I known before my travels would have been a lot easier, especially in Turkey! Great post!
Thank you. It comes in handy and you can even speak into it and it recognises your voice. That doesnt work great but the photo translation was great.
I haven't tried it but from your post, it seems really amazing and helpful. I would employ its use as soon as I get an opportunity.
Thanks for sharing friend :)
I've been using it a long time for Spanish my wife is Spanish and I'd like to learn when I met her family its a great tool
OMG, I did not know that it was this advanced. I guess I may have to finally give up the fight and get a mobile phone. I have resisted until now but it's becoming impossible to actually survive in this world without one.
I have managed the first 50 years but the next 50 is looking impossible, maybe I can Steem like mad and get myself a new iPhone for Christmas.
I don't know if your being serious or not. I cant take you seriously with that photo and name :)
Google translator in combination with Google Voice helped me quite a bit when I was travelling in Laos and Vietnam earlier this year. Most of the people do not speak any English in those countries and they loved the the voices instead of them having to read the translations.
For similar languages with similar structures its not a surprise it works well, but for languages that are so different to European languages its absolutely amazing that you could use it.
Goole translate is getting better :) I'm sure grammatically, things were not 100% right, but I could have relatively simple conversations going.
It sure helps with communication. There was one museum we visited in Gent which had a picture on the wall that looked like a post war time revolution or something. It turned out when we translated that it was a student protest over the price of Beer. :)
LOL! Great you could translate it, otherwise you would have had a while different idea of the things you saw in the museum :0)
interesting post, thanks! I use Googletranslate
Do you use it on your phone too? I haven't used it to try to talk to people but I don't think it is good enough yet to be able to do that.