“I can make a phone call with the government and press one for Español. What I can’t do is speak to people in the streets. Or ask for an item at the grocery store if I have no idea what it is called in English. All of us have a tiny interpreter in our pockets. And it usually gets the point across.”
Google Translate has more than text and voice interpretation services. It also translates pictures with writing on them. Let’s say, for example, you are in Mexico and you want to know what a sign says. You can take a picture of it and you have an instant translation.
“When we first got here, I never wanted to talk to anyone who didn’t look Hispanic,” Ed said. “It was scary when even people who looked like me didn’t speak Spanish.”
“I know people who were seeking asylum from other Latin American countries. They used WhatsApp and had their families send them documents there. They also used Google Translate to speak with border patrol. Border patrol uses it too. It’s very useful in a lot of situations,” Etan said.
People migrate to the U.S. for plenty of reasons. The most common is to find better opportunities. This is something we all want. Language barriers can make things difficult. Government institutions provide interpretation services. Those do not exist in our daily lives. Google Translate and other AI assist non-native English speakers who need to ask for directions or for help. AI can also help if they just want to talk with the local people.
