In a short time by historical standards, the Internet has done almost more for the globalization process than any other phenomenon. We can communicate in real time with people living on the other side of the globe through social networks, learn about events on another continent by reading eyewitness testimonials or observing what is happening “through their eyes”, engage in discussions with people of a different nationality, a different cultural code.
The obstacle on the way to this, perhaps, is only one - the language barrier. For various reasons, billions of people still do not speak English, the most common language for international communication. Fortunately, there are a lot of translation services and dictionaries on the Internet, and for mobile devices - applications that will allow you to at least express yourself with a foreigner in his language. iTranslate is one of the most popular programs of this kind, and its creators have recently introduced a new application - iTranslate Converse, the main purpose of which is simultaneous translation of two people.
© itranslate.com
How it works: you choose two languages in which communication will take place, for example, Russian and English. Then turn the iPhone over (this makes it easier for the microphone to “hear” and recognize speech), press the display and start speaking. The system itself detects the language used, remembers what was said, and then, when you remove your finger from the screen, translates the spoken phrase and speaks it out. A total of 38 languages are supported - from English and German to Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew and Greek.
Miracles from iTranslate Converse, however, should not be expected. The application does a good job with simple phrases and questions, so with its help you can freely ask a foreigner where the entrance to the metro is or how much this or that thing costs. It is not a fact that the program will not confuse the context (for example, it will not say “worth” instead of “worth”), but they will most likely understand you. But before long and fast phrases on more or less serious topics, iTranslate Converse fails. We tried to "feed" the program a few phrases from an interview with a famous American musician, and in response we received only complete nonsense from sentences not particularly related in meaning. In general, you can't watch TV shows and films in the original.
© itranslate.com
The app is shareware: you can translate 300 phrases and sentences per month without having to pay. If this is not enough, you can subscribe to the Pro version - it costs 299 rubles. per month and removes all restrictions. The first week she is given to use for free.
In general, iTranslate Converse can help those who do not speak English at all or are in a country where almost no one speaks English (for example, in China). It may not help you to discuss with foreigners whether Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk is as good as they say, but you can almost certainly rent a hotel room without having to dig into a dictionary and try to speak a foreign language.>