Google's Stunning Voice Translation App

You can still see the need for improvement in a device like this but still, one step closer to a UT

will it do Klingon?

If not I'm sure a hacker will fix it.

We need one for NAVI (Blue guys from Avatar)

It's not gunna work. I've talked to a few of my bi-lingual friends and they've all tried Google Translate. The translation seems to always be too literal and the meaning is always off.

But I did LOL @ the comment of "Will it do Klingon?"

How about everybody stops messing around and learns to speak English? I speak three foreign languages fluently but English is the only one I ever needed. It's really easy to learn, it's very versatile, it's already a de facto standard so there's no need for silly devices to communicate with non English speaking savages.

i have not been this impressed since honeycomb was revealed...

Tu est un imbecile!

You know english is considered one of the hardest languages to learn right?
Non english speakers are savages? how ignorant can you be.

btw I agree with plznote

How can english be one of the hardest languages to learn? I think that's a statement only native english speakers consider true.

Source? English is minimally inflected, non-diacritical, very adaptable and widespread like no other language. Those facts alone make it the easiest to learn of all major languages, not to mention the most useful. I can't think of a good reason for not learning English as a second language and I can't think of a good reason to communicate with people who refuse to learn English.

The synthetic speech with good phrasing is the most impressive part of that video. I've been using speech recognition software for years and it's improved but is still a nich product, not the keyboard replacement everyone daydreams about. The best speech recognition still includes training the software, excellent mics, no background noise and clear speaking. Humans often have trouble understanding each other so what can we expect from machines? It will get better and it's getting better. I keep thinking that server based software might do the best job, meaning we speak to a super computer across the internet that none of us could afford alone but thousands of users share it's resources. I have a suspicion that American intelligence agencies already have this and use it to monitor humongus numbers of phone conversations around the world, oops, shhh. I didn't say that.

Some things that make English difficult:
Abundance of verb tenses
Many exceptions to rules
Unclear phonics (IPS is great for ESL students)
Many vowel sounds
Consonants that some other languages don't have
Connecting words while talking

These are some things that make English difficult. I think it matters what your native language is as well. Japanese and Korean grammar are almost opposite of English, so switching the mind to think like that can be difficult. Also many Asian people can't hear the difference between l and r, and v and b.
It is definitely the most useful language to learn. I tell all my students they are lucky to learn English because it is so useful, especially for traveling. Try speaking Japanese to someone in a foreign country.

Anyway, I think this may work for some things and languages, but I can't imagine it doing a reasonable job with Japanese. Maybe it would be better than nothing though.

I think I understand what you're trying to say, but you somehow managed to say it in a profoundly arrogant and offensive way. English may be somewhat easy to pick up, but it can be pretty difficult to master. For example there are issues with irregular verbs, and the dynamic idiomatic nature of the spoken language.

I have videos on youtube where people comment in various languages. I like to read them and am glad to have the translation services. My commenters tend to us specialized musical terms that are words from other languages and the translators tend to choke on that. Translation is tricky.

For all of you guys saying this language and that language is easiest/hardest to learn need to pipe down.

If anyone one of you should know is that there is no 1 language thats the easiest/hardest to learn.

It's all depend on what language you natively speak in that determines what 2nd lanuage you'll be able to learn easily or have difficultly learning.

It Also depends on if you need that other language or not. I know im trying to learn Spanish but with no need, i'm having great difficulty learning it.

There other factors that play into someone able to learn another language or not.

So killerclick, you say English is the easiest to learn but yet do you have proof? Does scione have proof that English is most difficult to learn? Nope.

So Killerclick, i would recommend getting off the English is a high and mighty language. I would definitely see scenario's of why someone wouldn't learn English as another language maybe more important that it. Say you speak Japaneses and your doing trading with say,South Korea. Would you:
A. Learn Korean?
B. Learn English?

I would say i pick A as if the person i was trading with doesn't know English, why would i want to waste my time to learn English if the main people i trade with is Korea?

San Pedro, You hit it right on the head.



BTW, if you try to type into google to see hardest languages, you'll find sites like theses saying something like what San Pedro and I have said.

http://www.usingenglish.com/comprehension/5.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_ [...] e_to_learn

And other sites that will say this is the hardest or that is, well.... They show a pattern..... That is.... No one has an idea what is the hardest language to learn.


Get the picture?

A conversation fail: English- "i like your shoes m'am"
German: "i like your boobs damn!"

probably the most difficult language to learn is GEEK

Killerclick, you're the savage.

I wonder how it will interpret the german drumbeat machine!

I am a native English speaker who can speak passable Japanese and what was once conversational French. The coolest language experience I've had was when I passed by a French guy trying to give some Japanese tourists directions and I was able to bridge the language divide for both of them (this was in France). And the stunned looks on their faces was priceless.

so if you can't speak english you are a savage, huh?

Having single language does not improve how people from different places feel about each other. but showing interest in their way of life, language, culture etc does.

Primary function of intelligence is ability to learn something (and exercise it). we are trying so hard to unlock all lost knowledge as well as secrets we never knew because all knowledge is good (includes linguistic, scientific, cultural, archeological, evolutionary secrets etc.). Choosing to forget some of already acquired knowledge on purpose is incredibly stupid. It eliminates diversity and limits the way we think just to name something.

I am fluent in four languages, conversational in other three, and currently learning another one.
No I am not linguist, just someone who likes this planet and wants to make it better place for everyone.

well its not exactly real time, theres a few secs delay between sentences

agreed...everyone should speak the language of the respective country they live in....

Exactly. If you come to Melbourne you should learn to speak Greek like everyone else.

Humphhh... I was hoping for a Weirding Module from that title description.

Icelandic is the most difficult language too learn

Awesome. Now can you use some of those smarts so my d.amn Droid can understand who I'm trying to dial?

what makes English difficult language to learn, is all the retarded grammar.
If you take the grammar out of English as in all that extra stuff that we have to put in there to have the correct grammar otherwise some people on the Internet will call us on it and call us stupid for not using it correctly because they know how then English is one of the easiest languages to learn.

A Asian languages let's take Chinese and Japanese have the I believe Japan at 1200 characters to be considered literate and Chinese has 20,000 total, I don't know what their literacy is for that. Japanese also have a secondary easier to learn alphabetic deck consists of I believe 72 will characters are. The main difference between the two character sets for the kanji and I forget what the other easier one is called at, is that the harder one you know damn well what that word means, whereas the easier character set it could mean many different things kind of like how an English there is the word they there their and they're. Japanese and specific is probably one of the easier languages to learn of the Asian languages but is really hard if you want to be considered literate in fact I think the only language harder to behave literate than aside from Japanese is Chinese.

And English is the most versatile of the languages, there are character sets for pre-much everything you need to use English itself barely uses them but a number other languages use them a lotand those extra characters have different sounds whereas in English we have polls that change sounds these will be what we would be right if we didn't change the style. It's kind of hard for me to explain

What about Elvish and Mordor as well?