Finally, a better translation tool. Thank you Google

If you have travelled to cities like Tokyo you will likely understand if I say I wished there was a real time translator to help me navigating the city and its slightly complex railway transit system.

I was on my first trip to Japan for a coverage of the annual Tokyo Game Show. Naturally I have mastered the basics like “Arigatou gozaimasu” (thank you) and “Ohayou” (good morning) but nothing more. I did, however, carried with me a “phrasebook for travel in Japan”. As it turned out, the phrasebook was great but lacked an important element – I couldn’t understand the signs that appear to be written in “Japanese kana”. Though a lot of the Japanese signs were also written in “kanji” (adapted from Chinese characters), the characters do not share the same meaning as per Chinese language.

The following day when I arrived at Tokyo Game Show, I was not prepared for what I was about to encounter -- close to 90% of the exhibition was in Japanese, even the video game media briefings were conducted in Japanese.

I had to seek help from one of the translators attached to a group of American journalists to help me navigate around the exhibition. Then it hit me; I could have gotten much more great content from Tokyo Game Show if I were to understand Japanese!

Navigating the physical world using instant translation applications

Language barriers are a common challenge in interpersonal communication and especially in business settings. Even as the world’s population has increasingly become “global citizens”, when we talk the same language, the same words can mean different things to people from different cultures.

Hence when I heard of the news that Google Translate is incorporating real time translation from Word Lens (acquired by Google in 2014) to the application, I thought to myself “finally, Google!”

The app allows users to point the smartphone's camera at a sign or text and the app would instantly overlay the translated text on the screen, a feature that works even without internet connection. While the feature currently supports only translation between English and French, German, Italian, Portuguese Russian and Spanish, Google announced that it will continue to add new language support to this feature.

In addition to overlaying translated text in real time, Google has also upgraded the translation feature for spoken languages, enabling a more fluid conversation between speakers.

In a software-driven world, products such as Google Translate, Word Lens, Waygo (an app that translate Chinese, Japanese and Korean) and Skype’s instant translation program (debuted in December 2014) help us communicate better by removing another barrier irrespective of the language we speak.

On another note, excited as I am with new technologies, I wouldn’t think we should be overly dependent on the tools. Picking up a new language puts your brain to task by recognizing new language structure, and gives you a competitive edge in expanding career opportunities.

Looking at it from this perspective, it would not hurt to make learning a foreign language as your New Year resolution, would it?