A few years ago it was very difficult to communicate with people when you are traveling in a different country, and it is becoming easier by the day.
I am sure we have all used Google translate at some point. Be it to reply to somebody's comment in Steemit or for a more detailed translation of a business document. Maybe you used it to ask somebody for something in a different country. Sure it is not 100% correct but you can at least communicate with somebody.
Here is the translation for the above paragraph using Google translate:
In Malay
Saya pasti kita semua telah menggunakan Google menerjemahkan pada satu ketika. Sama ada untuk membalas komen seseorang dalam Steemit atau untuk terjemahan yang lebih terperinci mengenai dokumen perniagaan. Mungkin anda menggunakannya untuk meminta seseorang untuk sesuatu di negara yang berbeza. Pasti ia tidak 100% betul tetapi anda sekurang-kurangnya dapat berkomunikasi dengan seseorang.
In Afrikaans
My first language is Afrikaans, so I can tell you that the translation is pretty good, but with some minor errors. It is however totally acceptable if you now the person is trying to communicate in your language.
Ek is seker dat ons op een of ander tyd Google vertaal het. Dit is om te antwoord op iemand se kommentaar in Steemit of vir 'n meer gedetailleerde vertaling van 'n sakedokument. Miskien het jy dit gebruik om iemand te vra vir iets in 'n ander land. Seker dit is nie 100% korrek nie, maar jy kan ten minste met iemand kommunikeer.
Then you have some electronic text to speech translators.
Electronic Text to Speech translators
I found a list of the Top 10 Electronic Text to speech Translators. I have not used any of these, but I am sure that it should be very similar to the Google translate results, with the difference that you might sound like Stephen Hawkings :)
Well, what if I tell you there is now an app that can teach you a different language in 3 weeks. Yes you heard me correctly. Learn a new language in 3 weeks. Should we not put a challenge out there to see how it works?
Babbel
I have not used this app, but I am very interested in using it to see if it actually works. I found the following extract from the Babbel website:
We asked 15 of our hardest working Babbelonians to learn Spanish with Babbel for 3 weeks. None were expert learners, and few had much free time to dedicate to language learning. So how did they do?
This can be a seriously exciting challenge if you are like me who love to learn. I am definitely not a languages person and can only speak two languages. There are however many people in our country that know at least 3 or 4 languages due to the various tribes that live in our country.