The world of translation services has seen a major recent development in June of 2022. There are thousands of different languages spoken across the globe. With so much diversity, it’s vital to have reliable access to translation services for international development, since many developing countries receive a degree of aid from more economically stable countries. Without these global language services, including translation, interpreting services, and localization services, it simply wouldn’t be possible to establish trust with locals from different countries.
Nationals of other countries oftentimes emigrate and live in other countries, or work for a company that is based overseas. In the case of the United States, this means that these people have to be able to communicate in English. This reality has given birth to brand new language solutions designed to eliminate barriers caused by accents, dialects, and pronunciation.
Accent Translation Services For International Development
A California-based tech company has an impressive $32 million USD in Series A funding for a digital program that translates accents in the English language, claiming it to be the first product of its kind. This accent translation platform is being marketed as a tool for the call centers of large companies, who commonly employ non-native English speakers. The goal of this new product is to help facilitate seamless telephone conversation between customer service representatives and clients, if the representative happens to have an accent that is difficult to understand in American English.
What Does This New Development Mean?
For the venture capital firms behind the investment, this means creating a seamless customer experience, also known as CX. Many companies in the United States and beyond are successful at growing and maintaining their business through the strategic design of their customers’ experience interacting with them. In that spirit, this new speech translation program aims to help people control and adjust the way that they sound, much like the way people tweak their public image on social media.
The investment was also motivated by the possibility of expanding outsourcing capabilities, since many large companies outsource their call centers. This benefits a greater number of communities and individuals across the globe. With greater linguistic access, more jobs can be created, thereby helping grow economies. Clearly, this new invention can have a significant impact on the field of international development translation services.
Caveats To Translation Services For International Development
There are a couple of caveats to this new kind of speech translation program. It is designed to aid non-native English speakers, but it is unclear whether it can also help those with limited English proficiency (LEP). Though the product is still in development, it seems that the ideal user has a strong command of English, but has an accent that English speakers struggle to understand.
On the other hand, some have wondered if a program that translates accents is ethical. The concern is that it may result in the effacement of multiculturalism, diversity, and acceptance. The CEO of the company has addressed this issue by saying that the goal of the platform is to bring people closer together, overcome discrimination based on accents in the workplace, and give users a choice of how they’d like to sound. Notwithstanding the product’s flaws, it should prove helpful as a supplemental device to aid translation for NGOs.
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