Live Translate

I'd love to use a live language translator when traveling abroad. Being able to understand a joke in a foreign language even using the translators we have now feels amazing. Suddenly you can go from feeling a lost outsider to someone who has been welcomed indoors and offered a seat at the dinner table. It breaks down the barriers of country and culture as you find yourself laughing at the same thing. Humor like music can often be borderless.

I realized how good this clone tech was once I heard my own voice, while watching a playback. It sounded scarily like me. Even Will was impressed.

I was describing my next trip to Spain for a big family party thrown by my sister-in-law. My colleague, who speaks Spanish, listened to it after and said the audio was a “mixed bag,” especially at first. The accent, she said, wasn’t native. (Funny: It also gave Will a slight Spanish accent when translating his voice into English.)

Being able to hear your voice speak a language that you don't know sounds wonderful. It's like having a super-power. This also made me think of a related application - intergeneration conversations for expat families. If parents speak English, J understands Bangla but does not have fluency. Would be great to have her speak like them and the other way around - be friends who have a common vocabulary and not be separated by generation, language and culture.

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