I recently read that Google has started work on a voice recognition and automatic translation system for cell phones. Now that could come in handy for Chilean asados!
Here, people love to party and so it seems only right that I should partake in as many as possible – for the benefit of my cultural enrichment of course. Jokes aside though, the parties here are great and the mood always full of good humor, chatty conversation, and even canciones (songs).
It is however, probably the event I find most challenging as a Spanish newbie. Challenging because you tend to either not pick up on, or misunderstand, all the nuances that add to the fun of it. And while it’s pretty easy to get up the courage to try out your Spanish skills at school (or to accost innocent people in the street), the party scene is a little more rugged. I think it has something to do with the confused look on people’s faces when you don’t make any sense – a look that changes to comical when you realize you don’t either!
That being said, language is such a small element of communication. Gestures, body movement (charades in my case), voice inflection and expression are all fairly defiant in the face of communicative barriers, features somewhat lost in the world of cell-phones and instant messaging.
I have to admit that I’m not altogether sure about the idea of a portable translator. The concept is that Google software on your cell phone will interpret what you say and automatically translate it into the language selected by the person you are calling. The struggling language student in me says “Where do I sign up!” but I do wonder about the downstream effect it might have on our history and culture. And what of the old stories passed through generations of generations – do the words, meanings and phrases that don’t quite fit get forever lost in translation? Perhaps, like a party trick, we need just a one-off version for social occasions.
Amanda Patterson is currently teaching English and public speaking as a volunteer with Corporation for the Development of Learning (CDA) in Santiago, Chile. For more on communicating in Latin America, check out “When Body Language Goes Too Far” and “Life Without a Cell Phone” by Meg Gray.
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