Tips on Learning a New Language

To have the ability to speak more than one language is priceless. After all, the world is getting smaller right? Language translators are in demand more than they have been in years. Nowadays even the smallest businesses have some connection to countries thousands of miles away. A housewife in San Diego, California can’t afford to start her home-based business selling children books and toys without utilizing labor from China. How hard is it for her to communicate with her business associates without a language translator? How hard would it be for her to learn Chinese or any other second language. It’s difficult, but not impossible. The following are some tips for those of you on a quest to learn another language. You may not be pursuing a career as a language translator, but these tips should help.

Be realistic with your expectations. Being in a language class may be uncomfortable at first, but it’ll get easier if you relax and keep in mind why you are here. You will make mistakes, not sound that good, have a crummy accent, and so on…but expect that and know that these are just steps needed to learn the language. Expect that you will be lost and overwhelmed. Keep in mind that it takes time and although you don’t feel like you are progressing that fast, you’ll be amazed of how much you are actually picking up.

Focus on Vocabulary. The more words you know the better. It is very empowering to be able to enter a living room and know the name of each furniture piece in the language you are learning. Learn the basics first, but expand into the everyday phrases that will come in handy. Remember, the goal isn’t to be a language translator, but to at least be able to carry on a conversation.

Practice, practice, practice. If you are able to find someone who speaks the language you are learning, ask them to only speak that language to you. Immersion is one of the best ways to learn another language. In fact, many professional translation services give preference to those language translators that have been immersed in a language by living in that country for an extended period of time. The closest to immersion may be your class, so make the most of it. Practice with your classmates and instructor.

Microsoft Translating Telephone

Technology is amazing. Microsoft is amazing. TechFair2010 held in Silicon Valley featured the latest and greatest innovations including Microsoft’s Translating Telephone. This machines acts as a language translator. With two people wearing headphones, the computer will listen and provide consecutive interpretation. We viewed a demonstration of this language translator telephone and were not surprised by the results. It proved again that a machine cannot replace a human language translator. Don’t get me wrong, the translating telephone is a very cool tool that does give each person the gist of what the other is saying, but it was evident that this machine could not be relied upon in cases where errors in a translation service can be detrimental or even fatal.

In the demo we could see that simple questions like “Do you like football or basketball?” or “What is your favorite type of food?” were easily translated by the language translator tool. However, a question like “How long have you been working on this program?” lead the technician to describe what the functions of the program were instead.

There will always be language translator tools that try to perfect the art of accurate and reliable professional translation services. It will truly be amazing when someone develops a language interpreter tool that matches dialect, idioms, culture influences, and regional accents as a professional human language translator does daily and with ease.