When I came across Google Translate I became an instant fan.
What is Google Translate? Exactly what the name suggests - a feature of Google that translates for you in over 50 different languages. Check it out: http://translate.google.com/#
The first time I used Google Translate was when I was travelling in Spain - and it totally saved the day! I was staying at a Hostel and the front desk lady spoke only two words of English: Yes and No. I myself only know a few words in Spanish so communicating with her was almost impossible and charades did not seem to be working too well - and of course that commonly used phrases pocket book can only get you so far. What to do?
I pulled out my laptop (luckily there was wi-fi) and went to Google Translate - Saved the day!
Since then I have been hooked on to Google Translate. Luckily there is an app for Android and iPhone as well - so no need to carry the laptop everywhere.
There is text to speech capability as well - so no need to even try to pronounce the translation - just play it out loud!
My take on Google Translate
Uses:
What is Google Translate? Exactly what the name suggests - a feature of Google that translates for you in over 50 different languages. Check it out: http://translate.google.com/#
The first time I used Google Translate was when I was travelling in Spain - and it totally saved the day! I was staying at a Hostel and the front desk lady spoke only two words of English: Yes and No. I myself only know a few words in Spanish so communicating with her was almost impossible and charades did not seem to be working too well - and of course that commonly used phrases pocket book can only get you so far. What to do?
I pulled out my laptop (luckily there was wi-fi) and went to Google Translate - Saved the day!
Since then I have been hooked on to Google Translate. Luckily there is an app for Android and iPhone as well - so no need to carry the laptop everywhere.
There is text to speech capability as well - so no need to even try to pronounce the translation - just play it out loud!
My take on Google Translate
Uses:
- Stay in touch with a friend form another country
- Use it to impress a date ;)
- Travel help on the go
- menu/ordering at restaurant
- hotel info, communicating with front desk etc
- directions
- Translate marketing campaigns & product names
- As a preliminary test see what a marketing campaign or slogan sounds like in a different language
- Test out product names to see what it would sound like in another language
- Just for kicks
- Many times people like to know what ethnicity someone is...perfect way to throw them off by learning a few sentences in a completely different language ;)
- Communicate with vendors and customers around the world
- Reminds me of the time I had to work with some vendors from the orient a few years ago and we had some language barriers; Google Translate definitely would have come in handy then
- Learn the basics of a new language
- Flexibility of learning the phrases most useful to you
- Sometimes the translation is only in one gender and for the languages that are gender sensitive the phrase may not come out exactly the way you want it to
- Many times there are different ways of saying the same thing, perhaps Google Translate can add options in case the other person is not understanding what you are trying to say
- Pronunciation/Accent: i.e. if translating from English to Mandarin, the listen option should play the translation with the accent
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