Digital Translation Tools: The Missing Piece in Your Workplace | CoFounder - CoFounder Magazine - Translation

Languages, the medium through which we communicate, are 2 times more complex than they seem. And if we were to count the number of languages that exist and are spoken across the world, it would be like counting the stars on a clear night. So, we can conclude that knowing all the languages is a task next to impossible.

Now if we were to communicate with someone speaking a different language than ours, we would need help. That is where translation comes in. Gone are the days when we required people to translate and mediate a conversation. In the present time, we have been gifted with several translation tools that can make our work easier.

If you think about your workplace, you do not have more than 20 people speaking the same language. This diversity accounts for unity but it does create a considerable amount of communication gap. So you do need a tool to create a bridge and accomplish a conversation.

The Ever-Growing Role of Digital Translators

Digital translators have created a lot of ease at communication and decoding a message in a different language. We can now access and relish knowledge in any language. From offices to social sites, digital translating tools have created a lot of difference.

There was a time when 90% of all the information available on the Internet was in English since English was the very first language that was used on the Internet. Well, after the digital translation tools came into the picture, the usage of English has reduced to less than 30%. Languages like Chinese, Spanish, and German have grabbed the top 10 positions in the list of most popular languages on social media.

However, the digital translation tools available to us aren’t 100% efficient and do lag at providing an accurate translation all the time.

Decluttering Through the Clutter

Natalie, who has been regularly using these digital translation tools, shared her experience with the same. She was translating a story as part of which she had to do the translation for the word “amenazar”. When the text was translated, it read “threatened”.

Speaking about the confusion, she said that to amenazar or threaten someone physically is completely different from threatening a park. So, she started looking up options for the word ‘harm’ as she felt that would give her more relevant results. She came across the word dañar, which fit into the context.

Now Natalie, in all likelihood, wouldn’t have been able to come up with the term dañar on her own. But when she found that amenazar was an option, she looked for similar words in Spanish and English. The Google translations gave her options.

Simultaneous Translation Equipment

Think of a meeting that you are a part of and there are people you need to communicate with, in different languages. Sounds scary, right?Simultaneous translation equipment helps you in this case. All you need is someone who can interpret the message or the sentences being spoken. The interpreter’s voice is sent to just the people who are supposed to hear it. It does not create a disturbance in the other networks.

Well, we obviously still need to have our technology evolve manifolds if we are expecting an automatic translation machine that interprets the speech all by itself and then sends it to its target audience.

Summing Up

Languages are complex since they do not always follow a set of logic or rules. There are a lot of exceptions, which makes it hard to learn languages. Also, uncountable languages are being spoken across the world which makes it almost impossible to know all of them. In situations when we want to connect with someone speaking a different language, we need digital translation tools to help us.

These tools are used across social media and have brought the use of English from 90% to 30%. Simultaneous translation equipment is helpful when you need a section of people to interpret your speech in another language. All you need is someone who can interpret whatever is being spoken, in the desired language. Therefore, technology has now made it possible for people to now understand a speech that was being delivered in a foreign language.