Second Draft: 2500 Words

Study abroad; there’s quite a lot of praise thrown its way in how it will aid students in becoming stronger, better, faster. Well, perhaps it’s not lauded as making students superhuman but it’s true that often it’s seen as a way to strengthen a student’s intercultural awareness, which supposedly will have a rippling effect in other areas, increasing one’s expertise as a student; this would theoretically increase a student’s general performance and ultimately make them more hirable by companies that seek only the best. All of these things are all well and great but studying abroad is arguably useless if a student has no means to communicate with the local communities found within the student’s respective destination of travel. Much of what is advertised about study-abroad programs involves the key ability to gather with foreign citizens and discuss matters of perspective and culture. This becomes problematic for study abroad students who either don’t speak the language found in the area or at best only have a very elementary understanding of the language. To be frank, I fall under the category just described. After two years of high-school Spanish classes I’m, at best, able to decipher greetings. In almost stereotypical American fashion the only phrases I inherently know are “como te llama” (“what’s your name?”) and “hola” (“hello”). Like many others, I’ll be traveling to Valencia, Spain via Florida State Universities study-abroad program. English speaking students, like myself, who travel to Valencia, Spain; a metropolitan city located in the western point of Europe, are faced with the need to speak the Spanish language in order to interact with the natives. Due to low English speaking rates among Spain’s inhabitants the ability to translate languages is vital for study abroad students. A tool that could potentially remedy this complication is Googles web based translator service named Google Translate.

Google Translate obviously seeks to be a go-to in-pocket translator. It is capable of converting between two specified languages that are written as text or even, in real time, translate language that is spoken. This provides a massive benefit to Spain’s study abroad students who do not know how to fluently speak Spanish, as well as other languages. The ease of access are astronomical components that make Google Translate such a useful app. Yet, despite this incredibly easy alternative to learning the Spanish language, shuffling through an English to Spanish book, or having a physical translator constantly on duty to offer translations, there are many pitfalls to Google Translate that prove it as potentially unreliable.

The most immediate effect of Google Translates services is it offers translations at a whim. Google Translate is free so it’s accessible to anyone with an internet connection. Even to those who don’t have unlimited access to internet services could be accommodated since languages can be downloaded for offline use at any time. With phones being found in just about everyone’s pocket or hand Google Translate becomes a superior tool that is capable of aiding anyone with a deficiency in speaking foreign languages. This will allow the app to work as a guiding force for study-abroad students who are unfamiliar with Spanish. By opening up this window to the Spanish language it gives access to local Spaniards who likely would be unable to communicate with students. Google Translate was developed out of the need to actively be capable of understanding foreign languages and this translates well to study abroad students. Students isolation from cultures via a language barrier would be detrimental to the study abroad program and that’s why such apps, specifically Google Translate, were created. According to a review in the “British Medical Journal” Google Translate was informally tested amongst staff who spoke a non-English language(s) and was found to be a satisfactory way to communicate between languages; a recommendation to use Google Translate as an alternative for doctors treating other languages was included due to the programs ability to customize textual translations at will (Wade, 1049). This reflects the capability of such a program since it can act as a viable replacement to active translators. Since Google Translate offers the ability to carry conversations between two or more individuals who are separated by language then a world of opportunity is opened up for study abroad students. The obvious effect of a web based translator is clear; it opens up potential for communication, which is the entire point of study-abroad programs. But beyond the most present fact is how this program affects student’s psyches. A stress inducing reality of studying abroad in a country whose official language is Spanish is, of course, the language barrier present among Spain’s residents. Students would likely be discouraged from entangling with Spanish peoples from the fact previously mentioned; stress would act as a reducing agent to cultural understanding since it’d be impossible for a student to share conversation. The benefit of Google Translate is it offers comfort to students who would otherwise be cut off from any non-English speaking individual; students would be encouraged to explore more which greatly solidifies the logic of study-abroad programs, elevating them past being potentially viewed as simply extended vacations. Google Translate plays an important role in aiding a student in being successful abroad. It could certainly help students pick up new language skills from simply using the app. By communicating through Google Translate the use of pronouns, past tense, present tense, and other components of Spanish could be conveyed to study abroad students. This would help introduce them in a general sense to how the language is used and its various intricacies. Even if students aren’t actively attempting to learn Spanish they could still store this information which would aid immensely in mentally translating a language as it’s spoken to them. Even if an entire sentence can’t accurately be translated cognitively there is a large possibility that the general gist of a sentence could be understood; potentially allowing the student to respond using simple words and non-complex sentence structure. It can be reasoned that Google Translate is apt to open the doors for study abroad students to come to understand Spanish language; obviously, this is something that would be majorly important in Spanish speaking countries since students would be adequately able to have discourse with Spanish speakers. Foreign languages, especially Spanish, typically depend on pronouns, prepositions, and articles to structure sentences. Per Groves and Mundt Google Translate does well with these components (112-121). It’s important for students to understand how to use these relative to the meaning of their sentence to make sense of a conversation; Google Translate could strengthen this understanding, putting students one step closer to understanding Spanish. To further this learning ability Google Translate can, if prompted to, verbalize the translation which could help student familiarize themselves with how to pronounce certain words and phrases, helping them pick out certain dialogue that they recognize while in conversation with Spanish speaking men and women. This would be important because many pronunciations of Spanish words are entirely different from English; for example, the English word “and” is spelled as “y” in Spanish, but “y” is pronounced similarly to the way the letter “e” is in English. Google Translates speaking feature of the application would be able to clear up confusion that a non-Spanish speaker would have when trying to understand the Spanish language. It’s obvious that Google Translate offers incredible versatility to non-Spanish speaking students who are engaged in active conversation with Spain’s Spanish speaking people.

A breakthrough capability provided by Google Translate is its ability to make use of a cellphones camera, turning it into a visual translator. By pointing the camera lens at a written text, it will be translated real time. As would be expected this introduces a multitude of options for Spain’s study abroad students. In regards to practicality a feature like this would help students in daily exploration. Restaurant menus, historical monuments, museums, as well as other icons of culture which rely on textual symbols to inform their readers would typically be inaccessible to students understanding without Google Translates live translation tool. Students could now inquire about Valencia, Spain’s rich culture and come to understand their customs and history; a key point mad by study-abroad programs that seek to enrich students and teach them of cultures separate from American society. This could even extend to book pages or short stories, in addition to other genres of writing, that would exemplify perfectly cultural values to students and allow them to further engross themselves into Spain’s civilization. This option to translate in real time would easily play a vital role with study abroad students. Without it the task of transferring written text into the app to be translated would be incredibly tedious and likely discourage students from bothering with the translation, therefore cutting themselves off from knowledge and harming their study abroad experience. Navigation would even be positively affected by this translator too since road signs could be translated quickly to help students steer through Valencia, Spain’s busy streets and sidewalks. With the addition of the picture translator tool Google Translate elevates its usefulness to all study abroad students who are trying to get by in a country that doesn’t share the same language as them.

Unfortunately, to many of Google Translates benefits there is a downside to that same perk. Often a component called into question for Google Translate is its accuracy. In translation of academic writing to English Google Translate was unable to decipher sentence structure and certain choices of words correctly; sometimes the translator simply was missing a word from the translation, this is because there are syntactical gaps between languages and often there aren’t direct translations between two languages. This posed a significant problem to reader comprehension of translations in some cases (Groves and Mundt, 112-121). Google Translate does well with spelling but poorly with grammar; often many grammatical errors will be present in translated texts. This can and will change sentence meaning relative to speaking Spanish. But, per a study done by Aiken, which translated common phrases from English to Spanish and vice versa, common phrases could typically be understood even if not translated perfectly (67-84). But this trend could easily not be applicable as sentences become more complex and leave the realm of commonality. To add to the problematic nature of incomplete translations is that Spanish words often will have certain nuances that can’t be understood by Google Translate; words can have different meanings and connotations depending on how they’re used. This leads to potentially unreliable translations, some of which if shown to Spanish speakers could potentially be considered offensive in content. Certain translations, since Google Translate can’t fill gaps between languages and cultural connotations, could return an entirely different sentence than originally meant to translate, of which will reflect a different meaning than expected. Often Spanish relies on context for sentences to make any sense and translate to logical sentences. Without context Google Translate will translate a sentence or even a word from English to Spanish and what the Spanish speaker will read could easily be a string of random words that can’t be understood. Since Google Translate can’t pick up on politically correct language in Spanish it will not choose words which fulfill socially acceptable language which could put students in uncomfortable, awkward, or even dangerous situations. A huge overarching theme found in Google Translate simply relates to the fact that it can’t factor in subtleties found within languages and, on a more micro level, local cultures. Tonal differences, word choice, ways of addressing people, and so forth won’t be accounted for when translating text so what will be produced could be problematic or offensive or both. Additionally, Google Translate can’t account for dialect. Valencia, Spain’s official languages are Spanish, of which is the predominant language, and Valencian. Valencian is a dialect of Catalan, of which closely mirrors Spanish despite being a separate language. Unfortunately, Google Translate doesn’t have the option to translate this specific dialect, much like other varieties of dialect found in languages. This means that incorrect translations are a possibility when in conversation with those who speak Valencian since Catalan would be the closest language of translation available on Google Translate. These problems plague all features of Google Translate between their image translator and textual translator. The shortcomings of Google Translates services are problematic but circumnavigable with minor knowledge in Spanish and the use of more simplistic sentences. But accuracy is not the only issue present with this application. A less obvious problem that conflicts with study abroad students and their venture to learn and thrive in Spanish speaking countries is that it promotes laziness. Since translations are immediately available at a few taps of the fingers it could curb a student’s interest in learning Spanish. This would most definitely hold back a student’s success operating in foreign countries as the student would become more and more reliant, if not entirely reliant, on Google Translate, limiting the student to likely weak conversation and elementary dialogue. Studying abroad would almost be defeated by this possibility which would severely reduce a student’s experience and learning in regards to culture. In relation to this point of contention a blogger named Scott Young speaks on behalf of the idea of speaking exclusively Spanish to learn it and speak it fluently, despite it being an occasionally incredibly frustrating (Young). He strongly believes that this is the most superior method to learn a language and thrive in a Spanish speaking environment. This directly conflicts with Google Translate which seeks to take the place of having to learn a language; if it doesn’t mean to take the place then it intends to supplement it. Google Translate certainly does function to help students survive in foreign countries but a logical assumption prompted by this blog is that it could be harming students more than helping them since these students would be hindering themselves from actively learning Spanish. This means that, even though Google Translate would have helped the student, it could ultimately be an injustice to the student overall in their study abroad experience.

A majorly obvious contradiction of Google Translate is that it is an incredible tool that could help a student massively in their study abroad endeavors but to many of its positive outcomes are an equal set of hurdles to overcome and unavoidable problems. Abilities would be opened to students to converse with locals and simply exist efficiently within their new environment but that could arguably cost them their understanding of the Spanish language; some could argue, however, that it could help their understanding instead. It’s an extremely odd paradox and one students need to be aware of to avoid these potential conflicts of interest in regards to what Google Translate can do and what it can’t. It appears that the best way for a student to use this tool effectively is to brush up on their Spanish skills and use that knowledge in tandem with Google Translate.