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Travelling abroad, exploring new tourist places, and meeting new people from around the world can be pretty exciting. Now, it is easier than ever to travel to a far-off country, whether you wish to explore the markets of China or see the northern lights in Norway.
However, there are a few hurdles to cross before boarding that plane—travelling abroad usually means having to adjust to many different customs and ways of living while you visit. One of the biggest barriers can be language.
Foreign countries usually have their own national language and, at times, multiple regional languages too.
A couple of decades ago, this would have been a major challenge. But today, in the era of smart technology, there are many translators that you can download on your phone to navigate a new place with ease. One such wonder innovation is Google Translate.
So how does Google Translate work, and how can it help you at the various tourist places in the world?
Let’s take a look.
Google Translate was developed in 2006 to help people understand foreign languages. There are multiple languages stored in the database of Google Translate, along with billions of words and phrases for you to use. This app can help you decode most languages with ease, right from the comfort of your smartphone.
Google Translate is evolving day by day to provide prompt and efficient translations, with new words added regularly. The best feature of Google Translate is that you don’t need to switch between various websites—just type it in while you are on the move and get answers in a few seconds.
What started as just a translation service has now become the go-to application for travellers with a strong and wide wanderlust.
Wondering what all Google Translate can do to help you abroad? Here are some quick ways this wonder application helps millions of travellers.
Yes, you read it right. Just like you can download important routes on Google Maps, now you can even download a language for offline usage. So if you are worried you might get stuck somewhere with a bad internet connection, Google Translate can come to your rescue right there and then. So before you travel, just download the language, and you can translate the words as you walk through the streets. You can download multiple languages at a time. All you need to do is update the app as per the push notifications from Google for optimal usage. With this, you don’t need to keep scrolling between the languages you need; you have it saved all the time on your phone.
Google Translate comes with three extensive features for getting the translation you need.
Isn’t it the best of three worlds?
Another interesting feature that comes with Google Translate is how you can use your smartphone’s camera to read the pictures you encounter. Point to the words you want to understand; there you go; translation is done within seconds. With the help of this feature, you can scan the hoardings, menus, and other signs that you see while you are headed to your destination. This feature works well when the picture shown is clear and has large fonts, helping the application understand the words easily. Using this feature of Google Translate can help you while shopping, eating out and using public transport.
It can be a hassle to explain your point to someone, even if you know the translation after using the Google Translate application. You might need to get the pronunciation right for easy communication. Well, Google Translate can do even that. Simply type in your query and press the speak icon to get the pronunciation of the word in the foreign language. You can use the sound to help people understand what you mean. So when you need directions or help from a local, you can use this feature to get instant help instead of trying to show your phone screen to people in a rush.
When you are travelling abroad, it is important to converse, even if you have to ask for the simplest things. Phrases are important to find your way in a foreign land. Google Translate can help you save the most common phrases in a logbook, which you can access later during your trip. You can find this logbook in the menu section called the ‘phrasebook’. Remove or add phrases as per your requirement, and you are all set. It’s easy to translate ‘Good morning’ rather than ‘good’ and ‘morning’ separately. This will make it much easier for you to explore the local areas.
Now, you have in your cell phone a passage to worry-free holidays abroad. Just power up your phone and use Google Translate for all your translation requirements.
Google Translate can be a great way to have a more meaningful trip abroad. However, there are many pros and cons to the application that you should know before you are ready to go.
That being said, you should always be prepared in case you are heading to a lesser-known nation. Google Translate works perfectly for some languages like German, French, etc., but for lesser-known languages, the translation might leave you perplexed. So, it is good to trust the system, but with caution.
There are many other translators, too, that can help you in times of need, which you can use as a backup. Here are some of the alternatives to Google Translate that you can try: TripLingo, Microsoft Translator, Waygo, Itranslate, etc. Choose according to your comfort and ease of usage, and make the most of your trip to the amazing and best tourist attractions around the globe.
Now you don’t need to look for only nearby tourist places. Broaden your horizons and reach to the far-off lands that are less explored and highly loved. Reach out to new countries without the fear of communication barriers. Google Translate is there to help you out in all situations. The best tourist places in the world are waiting for travellers like you.
Looking for a getaway to some unexplored corners of the world? Cleartrip can help you in various ways. You can now get cheap flight tickets and make hotel bookings with us instantly. Log on to our website to read more interesting articles and get ideas for your next trip.
Yes, Google Translate works in airplane mode if you have downloaded the language you want to get translated from your native language.
Every language has a package that gets downloaded once you choose that option. Each language takes roughly around 20-30 MB of space.
Yes, you can read the text in the images with the help of Google Translate. All you need to do is point your phone in front of the image, and it will scan the content to translate.
Google Translate is correct most of the time, thanks to the large database. However, the translation can be inappropriate or inaccurate, making it hard for you to understand the words.
Google Translate sometimes returns inaccurate results because there is no option to correct the translation provided by the machine. Thus, the wrong translations keep on repeating till they are corrected by the internal team.