David Koo | (TNS) TravelPulse Traveling to destinations where you don’t speak the local language can leave you lost in translation. Communicating in the local language helps advance cultural exchange and improves engagement with locals. Overcoming language barriers increases travelers’ ability to immerse themselves in the local culture.
Translation apps are not a replacement for organic fluency, but they can help cross important communication barriers regarding local navigation, reading menus, managing public transportation, shopping or getting help, even in emergencies. There are downsides to translation app technology. For example, if you’re an English-speaking lawyer on vacation in France and want to tell a local person what your profession is, you could ask Google Translate to provide the French version of “I am a lawyer.
” Google Translate will suggest you say, “Je suis un avocat.” Unfortunately, you just told your French friend that you are an avocado. In French, the word “avocat” means lawyer and avocado.
The critical distinction is using the French word “un” before “avocat.” With the word “un” before “avocat,,” it means avocado; without it, the meaning is “lawyer.” However, if you used Microsoft Translator, then it would recommend that you say, “Je suis avocat” – without the French word “un,” and that means you are, in fact, a lawyer.
The lesson here is that these tools, though often helpful, don’t always account for cu.