What If Language Were Not a Barrier? Apple AirPods & Live Language Translation

Back in the day, language learning on the ground meant pocket dictionaries, notecards and tape recorders. Today, those trusty tools have gone digital, replaced by phone apps. Do missionaries and others like them still need to learn a language or two? Absolutely. It’s just as important and just as hard. But on-the-spot communication may have just gotten easier.

Apple has announced a new technology that allows for live translation. Picture yourself exploring a marketplace where few, if any, can speak your language. You turn on live translation. That turns down the volume of the person speaking so you can focus on the translation—not word-for-word but smoothed out to convey the meaning in English. That’s what you primarily hear through your headphones. When you want to respond, you can speak naturally, and your phone will translate the sentence into the desired language and read it out loud if needed.

• Live translation could be a game-changer for new field workers and those visiting other countries or exploring new corners of their host nations where other languages are spoken.
  
• Such technology could be a big help to short-term mission teams visiting for a few weeks or months.
  
• It could also aid those who work in complex international contexts with diverse groups of refugees and immigrants who may not share a language.
  
• Live translation could bring an extra bit of confidence for those of us who are “senders” and make it seem less daunting to get on a plane to the ends of the earth.
  

Limitations

You may wonder: How will people respond when a Westerner shows up touting expensive, energy-sucking, state-of-the-art tech tools rather than humbling themselves and blending in? That’s a good question. Time will tell. But when your taxi driver or vegetable seller in Delhi or Jakarta gets those new AirPods to communicate with customers, it may be high time you had a pair, too.  

At Pioneers, we place a high value on actually learning a language rather than working in English or through translation, whether the translation is coming from a fluent speaker or a piece of technology. Nothing beats relationship-based language learning to demonstrate teachability, nurture new friendships, begin to understand cultural patterns and cues and lovingly serve and share Christ with others.

We don’t give up language learning when we can catch a taxi or buy a meal. That’s not the point.

Status of live translation technology

Many are already using tools like Google Translate and AI to help overcome language barriers. It remains to be seen how far or fast Apple’s technology will spread. At this point, language options are limited. Apple is launching its service with English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish. Italian, Japanese, Korean, simplified Chinese and others are on the way. 

What will come next?