Universal translators are now a reality?

[Brandon]

okay it’s not universal (not all languages) but the next generation of translators seem to be becoming more pervasive than ever — will we soon be able to preach in dozens of languages without studying any of them?

 

examples: Meta glasses and latest AirPods translate your surroundings in near-real time. They can even work offline.

 

zoom, FaceTime, and google Meet can auto translate between dozens of languages, captioning and/or speaking out the translation. In the case of gMeet, it can even replicate your voice!

Edited Thursday at 06:35 AM by Brandon

[ChrisC]

I’m not sticking a fish in my ear for nobody.

[jdcarlson]

These on-line translation programs are useful for ordinary non-serious conversations.

 

But, we need to be careful in using them to express spiritual matters.

 

I have an old VHS recording of Brother Beveridge discussing the difficulties of translation. Syntax, and various means of expression, are NOT the same in all languages. Most on-line translations operate on a word-for-word style of translations. Words are not always converted to the same meaning by a single word in a different language. One example he gave was the English expression "midheavens" and that in some languages that would mean a cow jumping over the moon (not quite encompasing the English meaning).

 

A District Overseer was married to a first cousin. I remember him discussing giving a talk at a Japanese language Congregation in the U.S. He was talking Engish, and a brother from Bethel was translating to Japanese. The translating brother could not come up with a Japanese equivalent of the English expression "super-dooper."  I later met the brother performing the translation at a trip to Bethel. He confirmed the incident. I am embarassed to admit I did not have the presence of mind at the time to ask him how he dealt with the situation.

 

We can be thankful the Jehovah's Organization goes to the trouble to make translations that convey the accurate meaning behind English expressions that are at times described as "idiomatic."  The establishment of Remote Translation Offices in recent years is an outstanding example of the care exercised by Jehovah's Organization to accurately convey the proper understanding the spiritual matters to peoples of all languages (and regional variations of them).

 

Thanks,

 

Jim

[Michał]

10 hours ago, Brandon said:

okay it’s not universal (not all languages) but the next generation of translators seem to be becoming more pervasive than ever — will we soon be able to preach in dozens of languages without studying any of them?

 

examples: Meta glasses and latest AirPods translate your surroundings in near-real time. They can even work offline.

 

zoom, FaceTime, and google Meet can auto translate between dozens of languages, captioning and/or speaking out the translation. In the case of gMeet, it can even replicate your voice!

I remain skeptical 😃

[Brandon]

2 hours ago, Michał said:

I remain skeptical

Well, an elder in the Spanish told me how he used the meta ray bans during an elders meeting to ensure he didn't miss anything (Spanish being his second language) and how it helped him greatly.

 

I’m naturally a very skeptical person too, but hearing this intrigued me!

[Michał]

I don’t mean it doesn’t work. I mean it can’t be like universal translator as seen in Star Trek. One directional translation (with some buffer) is doable but having a lively conversation would require thought reading device 😊

[rocket]

Some years ago A brother and sister from Russia visited our Zoom Chats quite regularly. The Brother could not understand English at all but used a translating device to communicate with.  The sister taught English in Russia but with a Russian accent, thus it was difficult for her to understand us unless we talked very slow. The translating devices have their place but I wouldn't swear by their accuracy. Maybe just a rough idea of what is being said. As to theocratic terms, I would say they are absolutely worthless.

[MJ1]

living in portugal there are various vocabularies - eg if you a builder you learn the word for cement, sand, bricks etc....the vocabulary we use in the truth is not normal usage...eg the antitypical jonadab class, with the sixth angel pouring out the seven plagues etc etc...hard to learn and harder to use

[Ostria]

When i see people wanting short cuts to speaking languages i think about these 

[Brandon]

9 hours ago, rocket said:

As to theocratic terms, I would say they are absolutely worthless

AI based translators can be trained directly on JW.org content to get the theocratic dictionaries analogous between languages — just wait til the branches start using it

[Julsey]

13 hours ago, Michał said:

I don’t mean it doesn’t work. I mean it can’t be like universal translator as seen in Star Trek. One directional translation (with some buffer) is doable but having a lively conversation would require thought reading device 😊

In that case, we’ll just have to wait until the Vulcans arrive in 2063.