Traveling to a foreign country can be tough, especially when there are language barriers.
Unless you stick to touristy places, you’re often out-of-luck when it comes to reading
signs and menus.
That is unless you travel with someone who speaks the language or have a device that can translate.
What’s going on, everyone?
It’s Ernest from Trip Astute.
In this video, we’re going to review how you can use Google Translate for more than
just translating text, and how it can help make your next trip abroad even easier.
(light chiming music)
Most of us have used Google Translate to translate a web page or email that we’ve received.
Though recently, I discovered that you can do much more with the service.
In fact, it started last summer when we were traveling in Italy.
We stayed at an Airbnb, and our host was an older Italian woman who spoke very little
English.
I know a bit of Italian from studying it a few years ago, so we managed to get by.
But there were a few times where I struggled to communicate.
I was surprised when she pulled out her phone, spoke Italian, and then I heard a computerized
voice ask me whether I needed some help getting a dinner reservation for the evening.
So today, I thought I would do a quick review of some of the features on the Google Translate
app.
I think it’s an amazing resource for travelers and one that has a lot of free features that
I wasn’t even aware of until just recently.
But first, if you’re new here, welcome to our channel.
Trip Astute is a travel channel that is focused on sharing ways to make travel easier, affordable,
and more enjoyable.
Traveling can be stressful and expensive, so we’re looking for ways to help you maximize
your experience through travel tips, points and miles, and innovative gear.
If that sounds interesting to you, please consider subscribing.
The Google Translate app is available for free on both iOS and Android.
The app does exactly what you would expect it to do, which is translate text to over
100 languages.
However, there is much more to this app than I even knew.
First off, there is an option for conversation mode which allows you to converse with someone
else in another language.
You basically select your languages, then tap your spoken language at the bottom of
the screen, which then captures your voice.
The app then dictates the translation in the target language.
The only problem with this type of translation is that it can be a bit unnatural since only
one person can speak at time and they have to initiate the translation by tapping the
button.
However, if you’re looking to have a more natural conversation, you can just hit the
microphone button, and the app will listen for both languages and translate them immediately.
This makes it a lot more useful when in situations where you’re trying to have a conversation
with someone who may not be familiar with the technology.
So, you might be saying, don’t I need an internet connection for the translation to
work?
I thought this was the case as well, but it turns out that Google Translate will allow
you to download languages to the app.
This means that you don’t need to have an active internet connection in order for the
app to perform the translation.
As of April 2019, I counted 60 languages that are available for download in the app, which
is impressive.
In fact, that’s more than half the languages that are offered by the Google Translate app.
Another feature that is extremely useful is the camera integration.
You can use it to translate signs or menus.
What’s awesome is that it not only translates the word or phrase, but it overlays the translation
on your camera’s view.
So if I point it at a sign that is written in Spanish, it replaces the words with English.
The same holds true for menus.
The app uses augmented reality to help make the translation more contextual.
This makes translating languages even easier since you don’t even need to type it in.
Also, you can have the app translate in real-time, or you can capture the image.
Once the image is captured, you can then highlight which parts of the image you want translated,
which is useful if there are multiple languages or a lot of additional text.
The app also allows you to pull images from your photo library.
This is useful if you need to capture something on the go and want to have it translated later.
I can see this being a huge benefit the next time we travel abroad.
We often try to find local restaurants that are away from tourist hotspots in order to
get a more authentic and local experience.
However, most times, we end up struggling with the menus, especially when we’re at
places where we don’t have any foundation in the language.
I’m excited to have this tool available for our next trip.
The next feature I want to cover is the ability to show your translation in full screen.
After translating a phrase or word, you can hit the full-screen icon in the lower right-hand
corner of the translation or just hold your device sideways.
The app will then display the translation in full-screen with a dark background.
This is extremely useful when in loud or noisy places where a spoken translation might be
more difficult, or even when getting into a taxi.
The last feature that I want to highlight is the handwriting tool.
For most of you, this probably won’t be too useful in your day-to-day life.
But I can see how this might still be valuable when traveling.
The handwriting tool allows the app to capture handwritten words and phrases.
This could be useful when communicating with someone who may not be familiar with your alphabet, or
even your keyboard layout.
Since every language and region tends to have a different keyboard, it can be challenging
to ask someone to type in a phrase.
Also, if you’re in a country that uses characters rather than the Latin or Roman alphabet, it
might be easier and faster to have someone write out the characters on your phone using
a stylus or even their finger.
Again, this feature probably won’t be as useful as the other tools, but I think it’s
nice knowing that you have it in case you need it.
As always, here are a few tips to keep in mind when using the Google Translate app and service.
1. Download your destination's language before your trip: As I mentioned earlier, just like
with Google Maps, I suggest downloading the language to your phone and tablet prior
to your trip.
Even if you think you’ll have a data connection, you’ll be glad to have it offline in case
you have any issues with you connectivity.
On that note,
2. Put your phone into airplane mode if your data connection is spotty: Since we have T-Mobile,
we have free international roaming.
However, I noticed that when the data connection is spotty, Google Translate struggles since
it tries to pull data from its servers.
If you’re struggling to get the app to work, I recommend putting the phone into airplane mode.
This will disconnect it from the mobile network, and force the app to use the downloaded data.
3. Don’t rely on it for medical instructions: While Google Translate can probably help you
to find a specific medicine in a pharmacy, I recommend speaking to someone who can help
translate the exact instructions and dosage.
In fact, this advice goes for any translation that can affect your health or life.
While Google Translate is very good, it’s definitely not perfect, so you want to make
sure that you’re getting the most accurate information that you need.
4. Save useful phrases: One very useful feature in the app is the ability to save translations.
This can be extremely useful for phrases that you’ll use often.
Phrases like thank you, where is the bathroom, I'm sorry, excuse me, can I pay with a credit card,
These are some of the phrases that I think are really important to know.
In fact, I’ll probably do a video at some point on my top phrases to know when traveling.
It’s always better to know some key phrases, and I find that many people will see it as
a sign of respect.
Though having the phrases loaded and saved ensures that you can practice it and even access it when
needed.
To save phrases, just tap on the star icon next to the phrase or word.
Google Translate saves your recent translations, but tapping on the star means that the translation
will appear in the Saved section.
5. Adjust speech input settings: In the iOS app, there is a speech input setting that you can
adjust for offensive words.
By default, the app is set to block offensive words.
While I appreciate that the app can censor foul language, it might be better to turn
this setting off.
Not that I want you to hear any offensive language, but I think it might be helpful
to have a more candid translation, especially in places where the language can be a bit
more casual and colorful.
6. Be careful of language variations: Some language translations may not be as useful as others,
especially those in places where there is a different variation in the language.
An example is the difference between Spanish spoken in Spain and Latin America.
For example, if you were to translate, “what do you want to drink?” in Spanish,
you’ll notice that it uses “beber” as the verb for “to
drink.”
Beber is commonly used in Spain.
However, in Latin America, you’ll find that “tomar” is often used instead of “beber”
as the verb for “to drink”.
7. Air on the formal side: Another thing that you’ll want to be careful of when translating
a language is the formality used.
In English, we may not be as sensitive as other languages when it comes to using formal
phrases, especially with elders.
To be safe, I recommend using more formal language whenever possible.
As an example, this means searching for “thank you” instead of “thanks” or “good
morning or afternoon” instead of just “hi”.
And finally, 8.
Save the phrase, “We can use this app to translate our conversation”: If you think
you’ll be using Google Translate while you travel, then I suggest saving this phrase
in the app.
It will save you a minute or two of trying to explain what you are doing with your phone or tablet.
Have you tried the Google Translate app?
If so, have you used it on a trip?
Please share your experience in the comment section below.
If you enjoyed this video or found it useful, please give us a thumbs up and consider sharing
the video with others.
It really helps us with growing our channel and community.
We appreciate all the support and are thankful to have such a fun and engaged community of viewers
Until next time, travel safe and travel smart.