Microsoft Skype Translator Preview: The real-world test

Our conversation was halting at first. Maria in the south of Spain would start to speak and I would reflexively respond, even though I didn’t understand what she was saying. Our…

Source: mashable.com

This is really exciting to me! We are always looking for the next step in translation communications, and this might be that next step! Even with the demonstration here, you can see that it’s still not perfect, but it’s going in the right direction. I look forward to the day I can get an invitation for this so that I can not only use with with tech comm colleagues around the world, but also with my family around the world who speak English. Perhaps I’ll be able to have a more direct conversation with my in-laws–finally!

I find it interesting, if you read the text following the video, that while translation is not perfect just yet, there is an attempt to make this a smart program by localizing and cleaning up the English in the process, as an attempt to standardize the English into "clean English" or something that’s more neutral or international English. That can’t be easy to do!

Check out the video and read this article. This is an exciting new thing that I hope will become a vital part of better communications and help us work towards better content and better content strategy.

–techcommgeekmom

See on Scoop.it – M-learning, E-Learning, and Technical Communications

Author: TechCommGeekMom

Danielle M. Villegas is a technical communicator who currently employed at Cox Automotive, Inc., and freelances as her own technical communications consultancy, Dair Communications. She has worked at the International Refugee Committee, MetLife, Novo Nordisk, BASF North America, Merck, and Deloitte, with a background in content strategy, web content management, social media, project management, e-learning, and client services. Danielle is best known in the technical communications world for her blog, TechCommGeekMom.com, which has continued to flourish since it was launched during her graduate studies at NJIT in 2012. She has presented webinars and seminars for Adobe, the Society for Technical Communication (STC), the IEEE ProComm, TCUK (ISTC) and at Drexel University’s eLearning Conference. She has written articles for the STC Intercom, STC Notebook, the Content Rules blog, and The Content Wrangler as well. She is very active in the STC, as a former chapter president for the STC-Philadelphia Metro Chapter, and is currently serving on three STC Board committees. You can learn more about Danielle on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/daniellemvillegas, on Twitter @techcommgeekmom, or through her blog. All content is the owner's opinions, and does not reflect those of her employers past or present. View All Posts

One thought on “Microsoft Skype Translator Preview: The real-world test”

Still a few bugs in the system, as evidenced in the video. But wow – this has a ton of potential! Freed from translation costs, our content could be made available in marketplaces we can’t afford to reach today. I’ll be keeping an eye on this, watching it develop. Thanks for scooping it, Danielle.

Larry Kunz says:

December 17, 2014 at 4:52 PM

Still a few bugs in the system, as evidenced in the video. But wow – this has a ton of potential! Freed from translation costs, our content could be made available in marketplaces we can’t afford to reach today. I’ll be keeping an eye on this, watching it develop. Thanks for scooping it, Danielle.