4 replies to this topic

[Time_Traveller]

Facebook, YouTube and even texting will be the salvation of many of the world's endangered languages, scientists believe.



From http://www.bbc.co.uk...onment-17081573

These could be the start of the future of the Universial Translator.

[shane_allen]

I don't see the value of multiple languages. Why does the world need to hear a language spoken by only 50 people?

As for translators, I have Google Translate (text-to-text) on my iPhone and it's garbage. There's live closed captioning now on youtube, or at least on some of the videos I've watched and it also sucks. That, plus Google translate and you got a translator. While these technologies currently suck grapes, they will get better fairly quickly. Something I look forward to as I could use a live translator in my daily life even if it isn't perfect.

My wife pressures me to learn a new language all the time. I figure, what's the point? It'll take a year just to get the most primitive things down and at least 3 years before I can hold a simple conversation with anyone. So I can invest all that time over the course of 5 years to become fluent, or I can do other things with my time and wait for the language experts to polish off the translation software that are already hitting the market.

I think this technology (not the one specifically from the article, but in general) is coming up on us very fast now and we'll see some big advancements made.

Edited by shane_allen, 19 February 2012 - 01:04 AM.

[Saradus]

This is one of those rare technologies which I don't actually want to see any time soon (universal translators, not the endangered language tools). Language is a wonderful thing and a big part of other cultures. I believe universal translators would dissuade people from trying to learn new languages and inhibit the mingling of cultures, which would be a great loss to the world. I think even if this tech did come out, I'd still be inclined to learn other languages, although social and work-pressure would probably force me to use the tech and in the end I'd probably abandon the language learning process too. Sad times

[Dead Redshirt]

I don't see the value of multiple languages. Why does the world need to hear a language spoken by only 50 people?

It's called culture and diversity. It's what makes the world interesting. And I think without them, the world would be such a boring place. In many countries, they speak more than one language, with English being the dominant business language.

[eacao]

I figure, what's the point? It'll take a year just to get the most primitive things down and at least 3 years before I can hold a simple conversation with anyone.

It should take you no more than a two weeks to be able to speak simple sentances of everyday things and, depending on how much time you spend on it and how fast a learner you are, around 3 or 4 months to learn a language like spanish or french. It will obviously be longer for more distant languages like russian and Mandarin, but if you started now, you'd be able to surprise your wife by christmas.
While it is unnecessary, you'd get boasting rights.