Have you ever wanted to communicate with someone but you didn’t speak the same language?
Google Translate just saved the day at SXSW!
photo credit: leo.prie.to
I’m here at SXSW and was returning to my room after going to Anjuan’s core conversation on, “How Social Media Can Destroy Your Company” and saw two women from housekeeping cleaning. I asked them if they could remove the roll away bed in my room. They sort of looked at me and indicated I should repeat the question. I did and looked to them for acknowledgment. We were having a communication issue.
They were comfortable with Spanish and I with English.
I thought about this and then sunk to my knees, whipped out my laptop and brought up Google Translate. You can find it at http://google.com/translate and you can see my actual translation request here.
Photo Credit: adria.richards
I typed in, “I want to return the roll away bed” and Google Translate gave me, “Quiero volver la cama supletoria”. I read it the best I could and then showed it to one of the housekeeping ladies…instant recognition of what I was asking!
Awesome!!!!!
We proceeded to the room and she rolled out the bed.
Can ya get any more direct on how technology can close communication gaps? I think not!
This also ties into my presentation, “How Sci-Fi Shapes The Internet” because one example of Sci-Fi inspiring real life inventions is Babelfish. In the movie, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, they talk about this fish as something that can translate language but you have to stick it in your ear. A web tool then came out with the same name.
Here’s a description of the Babelfish from Wikipedia:
The Babel Fish is small, yellow, leech-like, and is a universal translator which simultaneously translates from one spoken language to another. It takes the brainwaves of the other body and what they are thinking then transmits the thoughts to the speech centers of the hosts brain, the speech heard by the ear decodes the brainwave matrix. When inserted into the ear, its nutrition processes convert sound waves into brain waves, neatly crossing the language divide between any species you should happen to meet whilst traveling in space. Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation.[1] Arthur Dent, a surviving Earthling, commented only ‘Eurgh!’ when first inserting the fish into his ear canal. It did, however, enable him to understand Vogon Poetry – not necessarily a good thing. The book points out that the Babel Fish could not possibly have developed naturally, and therefore proves the existence of God as its creator. However, as Man points out, God needs faith to exist, and this proof dispels the need for faith, therefore causing God to vanish in a puff of logic. Then Man says, “my, that was easy” and goes on to prove that black is white, and gets killed on the next zebra crossing.
Learning new languages has not come easy for me. I took Spanish for 2 years in high school but can only say a few things. I plan to immerse myself into the language somewhere in South America, Mexico or Puerto Rico just like I do with technology and expect to make headway!
