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Wearable Translators: Making Life Easier With the Press of a Button

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Photo by Soner Eker on Unsplash

Language barriers while traveling the world may become a problem of the past with the advent of new technology. The latest craze in the tech world was recently unveiled at the 2016 Electronics Show: a wearable translator. The Japanese startup Logbar plans on releasing the portable translator called the “ili” this summer. The actual device looks like an Apple TV controller and is hung around your neck.

With the press of a button, the device is allegedly capable of simultaneous translation. Since it won’t be released to the general public until the summer, we unfortunately still don’t have funny stories about less-than-precise translations that produced hilariously awkward situations.

The company claims that its technology will outperform all current translation engines for travel purposes. The first phase will include Japanese, English, and Chinese, and is hoping to make waves in the tourism market. The product’s first commercial features a young British guy walking around Tokyo trying to get a Japanese girl to kiss him using the device. The video has received significant criticism for being sexist, creepy, and outright weird, but it’s a pretty straightforward display of how this revolutionary wearable translator works.

Don’t get too excited, because the arrival of wearable translators doesn’t mean you should stop paying attention in your foreign language class, or give up attempting to chat with your non-English speaking grandma. While these types of devices will help travelers with basic communication in places where insurmountable language barriers would have otherwise existed, they will never come to replace real human conversation.

Just like the flippant and flirty British traveler from the video, I went to Japan and found myself facing enormous language barriers. While the wearable translator would have been very helpful in several situations, I probably would have never come back knowing dozens of words in Japanese. It was a source of pride to be able to piece together a basic sentence in a non-European language for the first time.

Foreign language ability, especially in early childhood gives you a leg up in life. Studies show fluency in foreign languages makes you smarter, and wires your brain differently in ways we are only now beginning to understand. Amazingly, research also points to something that many multilingual people may already realize: our personalities differ depending on the language we’re speaking.

So yes, it’s easier than ever to flirt in a foreign language because of wearable translators, but technology will only get you so far. This technology is a powerful tool that can help navigate us through menial tasks in a foreign language, but it can’t substitute a one-on-one human conversation. There’s something about old-fashioned communication that makes it essential to building a genuine relationship. Case-in-point: I imagine the creepy British guy in the wearable translator commercial didn’t ultimately get the girl’s phone number after he kissed her.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Becky Matthewson

    February 8, 2016 at 7:26 am

    Good article, and well said about the merits of foreign language learning. Fun though translation apps etc are, nothing is better than being able to communicate in a language that is not your own. It’s far more enjoyable, and yes – you can be someone different. Plus continuing to try to learn foreign languages throughout your life gives your brain fabulous exercise and is life-enriching.

  2. Don Wilson

    February 8, 2016 at 1:03 pm

    Students will not want to learn a new language once this type of technology is ubiquitous. Then add a few more years of exponential improvement. It will become pointless. Why speak to people like a very young child when you can have an adult conversation?

  3. animoller

    February 9, 2016 at 2:19 am

    Great product, terrible pervy video. That is seriously creepy.

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