Hello! Hola! Czesc!
For my A3 assignment, I’m exploring the world of mobile language translation and the possibility of a universal translator. Please take a listen to my podcast found here.
If you don’t have time to listen to all of it, you can skip ahead to the sections that pique your interest by using the timing guide below.
00:00 – Introduction
00:10 – Why I chose this topic
01:32 – Universal translators and the sci-fi world
02:46 – How machine language translation has evolved over time
04:38 – Current mobile language translation technology
06:34 – Limits of machine language translation
09:08 – Machine language translation and the future of mobile and open learning
11:40 – Conclusion
As machine language translation gets more sophisticated and accurate, how do you envision mobile language translation being incorporated into your work?
Thanks, gracias, and dziekuje for tuning in!
-Liv
Hi Olivia,
Thanks for sharing a thought-provoking OER! I actually think mobile language translation is currently being incorporated into my practice, albeit in an imperfect form. I make extensive use of custom online “Flexbook” resources via the non-profit organization, CK-12. The site incorporates a Google Translate bar throughout all text-based resources, and I have had several ELL students over the years for whom this was their hook to engage with course content. That being said, Google Translate is far from perfect, however, I can foresee that deep learning and neural nets will gradually improve this performance over time (as you discussed during your podcast), and I look forward to the advent of a mobile audio-based universal translator like “pilot earbuds” in the years and decades ahead!
Hi Brendan, thanks for taking a listen to my podcast and for sharing how you already use machine translation in your practice. I am also eager to see how quickly this technology will be refined as we move closer and closer to a true universal translator.
Hi Olivia, great work on the podcast. While I’m typically not much of a podcast guy, I enjoyed the sound effects that you ended in there to diversify the audio. Listening to your project made me think of the learning program Rosetta Stone. I’m sure you know what it is, but it’s a language-learning program that is meant to simulate learning language as a toddler- straying away from any use of translation. We’re now moving into the realm of exclusively translating which although is more efficient for immediate communication, but I echo the wonders about the effects on the motivation for language learning. It’s hard to forecast the motivations of future generations, because I know that while we currently value being multilingual, how can we be sure that the people of the future will as well? “Printed books will never be the equivalent of handwritten codices, especially since printed books are often deficient in spelling and appearance.” – Trithemius. I know that phones, radios, and cars had similar skepticism because of the values at their time, but values changed with innovation.
Hi Liam, thanks for taking a listen to my podcast. Miguel shared similar concerns with you with regard to the effects of machine translation on language learning. I think there will always be an advantage to being fluent in a language over relying on a device that may malfunction. But I agree with your prediction that values around language learning will change as this technology gets more and more sophisticated. I believe that the benefits of this technology (i.e., broaden access to educational material to a global audience and make cross-global communication easier) will outweigh the loss of personal language learning. And thanks for sharing that quote. I always love to see how disruptive piece of technology was viewed before it became a mainstream, everyday object.
Hi Olivia,
This is a very relevant topic and I liked how you presented it through a podcast and broke down the different section so we could jump to what we were most interested in. As a Francophone, I think a lot of the comments are accurate above in regards to the challenges with translator apps, programs or services usually lies in the context of what is being said as I often read things that are translated into French that are completely wrong and say something entirely different. I think though as you mentioned there are so many possibilities in new technology for how to fix this and it is a growing technology that more people are finding they need and that’s useful. I will be interested to see how this evolves in the future as I loved the sci fi connections you made and would love to see a universal translator someday exist!
Hi Olivia! Thank you for your informative and engaging podcast. I loved the sound effects between segments 🙂 I worked on designing and building MOOCs for years in a University setting. When they first emerged, around 2012, I thought: this is the best thing that could happen to open education! But as I developed professionally and learned more about the Ed Tech world, I realized that the “openness” of these courses was a somewhat false notion since most of these courses were only offered in English. How can EdX or Coursera truly consider itself a global platform if they’re essentially monolingual? Additionally, I now see how having the majority of these open courses in English only, creates barriers of inequality for many. Sometimes when breakthrough concepts or technologies are introduced to the mainstream market, we see them with rose-colored glasses. Maybe that was the case for MOOCs. The concept was to reach and serve “everyone, everywhere”. However, knowing that English proficiency is usually an indicator of socioeconomic privilege, makes it important to consider that MOOCs may widen the education accessibility gap, rather than close it, as intentioned. They are intended to reach far and wide, but only to a select population. Therefore, I agree, the quest for a universal translator is an incredibly important pursuit of the open learning ecosystem and for MOOCs in particular. I think you captured this notion well in your A3 podcast. I know the technology exists for combining DeepFake software with a universal translator, so it would be particularly interesting to see its use in MOOCs. We’re not far off! Maybe it’s just a matter of shifting approaches and resources to make this type of open education truly open to all.
Hi Jasmine, thanks for taking a listen. I appreciate your insights as a MOOC developer. I think the intention behind MOOCs is great but I think the idea got overhyped and promised too much to too many people. MOOC designers can start off by at least translating content to several languages and offering videos with captions or using DeepFake software as you suggested. The peril with this whole translation business is that high-resource languages will be offered in these scenarios while low-resource languages and less spoken languages will be left behind. In my opinion, we are still far away from a true universal translator that works with the 7000 languages spoken today. Even getting up to 1000 languages would be a huge accomplishment. If we want to serve “everyone, everywhere” we must keep this in mind. Cheers!
Hello Olivia! Thank your for sharing with us your phenomenal and informative podcast. As I was listening to main things came to mind: (1) I thought of Dug from the movie UP and (2) the famous C-3PO from Star Wars. I believe soon there will be some sort of translator that when we speak through it can automatically translate as we speak, like Dug does in the movie with his collar. C-3PO is basically google translate as he’s always translating for others, hence its technology able to process voice to text translations. I think the problem with some countries or cultures not accepting technology speak their language is because language can be sacred. I think that what ever technology is designed has to be some what discrete as putting cellphones in peoples faces so they can speak and the machine listen is awkward. AI and other voice assistants have evolved over the years and are capable of understanding most accents and deliver amazing results. I am sure you have seen how you can ask the google home to translate something by simply asking. Not only is the machine listening but its converting speech to text to then translate and speak it back to us. As a teacher this technology would be very handy as I always get international students in my class . Also, this technology would be very helpful teaching as it is hard to be one entity in the class helping some many students with their translations when learning how to speak Spanish; which brings up the next concern. Do you think this technology may negatively affect the motivation for people to want to learn languages? I have students often say “what’s the point of learning a language for University credits, google can already translate for us?” Obviously I explain it to them, but they are not completely wrong either.
Hi Miguel, thanks for taking a listen and for your thoughtful feedback. Yes, I found in some of my research that there is some opposition to digitizing Indigenous languages because they are considered sacred and this knowledge transfer of language is also sacred. I am not sure how to approach this conflict but I think that the vast majority of languages can be translated using machines with no objections. I agree with you that the future of language translation needs to be discreet. Passing a device back and forth is not ideal. That’s why I like the Star Trek approach where the translation program is just running in the background or wearing small earbuds. Our peers also mentioned the use of bone-conducting technology. Since I think the likelihood of a true universal translator is far off, I still think it is imperative that people still learn languages. Plus the translation services we have today are good but they are not 100% accurate. When you can speak fluently to someone it is a totally different experience than when using a device to translate. Should I learn German because I’m going on vacation to Berlin for a few weeks? Probably not but I would still try to learn some basic phrases so I can communicate with people who do not speak English and so I can somewhat understand the world around me when I’m there. Should I learn German if I move to Berlin? Definitely! I’d want to be able to fully participate in the culture and be able to communicate with my new fellow citizens. If I remember correctly, you work with teenagers. When I was a teenager, I did not understand the value of speaking multiple languages, unfortunately. However, when I started travelling and working as an ESL instructor, it became very apparent to me that knowing multiple languages is a great skill and gift!
Hi Olivia,
Thanks for sharing your experiences and journey within your podcast.
I don’t think we are that far off from a universal translator. I’ve used (and communicated with people relatively effectively) Google Translate, and its impact is pretty amazing although you have to download the languages you want to use. I have used it for both Korea and Mandarin, and it still boggles my mind. The challenge, as you point out, is the syntax and context.
It would be amazing to use this sort of technology to ensure that languages aren’t lost over time.
I agree that bone conducting technology would definitely be ideal for this application.
Looking forward to reading “The Realization of Star Trek Technologies” – thanks for sharing the recommendation.
Hi Sam, thanks for taking a listen. I think that a true universal translator is far off simply because of the volume of languages spoken today. Google Translate works for 109 languages or about 1.6% of languages so we still have aways to go. I, like you, hope this technology is also used to preserve all languages as more and more human knowledge moves to the digital realm but this is not always a straightforward process. Here is an interesting article about digitizing Indigenous languages in Canada (https://www.circuitmagazine.org/dossiers-139/translation-as-a-way-to-save-indigenous-languages) that gives an example of people resisting the idea of digitizing Cayuga, an Iroquoian language.
Cool podcast Olivia. I liked how you started out connecting some of your forecasting to sci-fi. I think many of these concepts act as a goal post and inspiration for many of the consumer products and research that happens in contemporary times. Thank you for acknowledging the issues with sharing ear buds. There are also issues with the over ear phones like the isolation of hearing outside sounds and the social cues that the user is occupied and should not be disturbed. Sometimes we also see people at international conferences having to hold a device up to their ear which also reduces mobility. The Hitchhikers Guide example of an ear canal translator is likely a long way off. If I was in this industry, I would be looking into the bone conducting technologies that sit outside the ear. These see to provide a solution for hearing peripheral sounds, keeping things hand-free and limiting the social wall that most headphones create.
Thanks for taking a listen mistermc! I found a really cool digital book from the UBC library (Title: The realization of star trek technologies: The science, not fiction, behind brain implants, plasma shields, quantum computing, and more.) that talked about how close we are to realizing some of the technology in Star Trek. I highly recommend checking it out as it gives a good overview of how these technologies work today. I am not quite sure what kind of gear would be ideal for face-to-face communication. If everyone had the same earbud that would be okay but that is not likely. I like your idea of bone conducting technology that sits outside the ear too. I also read a far-off prediction of having tiny nanobots running through our bloodstream which is truly futuristic! In the meantime, I think the quality and accuracy of text and audio translation will improve exponentially in the next 10-20 years. I sometimes think about how limited my access to information is limited to mostly North American English sources and I’m looking forward to a day where I can access media from around the globe. As I mentioned in the podcast, my ancestry is Polish but I cannot read Polish. As I am getting older, I am more interested in learning about where I am from. I hope that mobile translation can help me with this endeavor in the near future.