Despite several intermittent attempts to learn another language over the years, I currently speak only English. I understand some words and phrases in Spanish and Portuguese, but I can’t hold a conversation in either of them, and I want to change that. As it happens, Google Translate’s latest feature might be a little help on my language learning journey — even if it’s a little honestly along the way.
As reported by TechCrunchGoogle Translate now offers pronunciation practice as part of its experience, like Duolingo. Like Duolingo, Google Translate can listen to you try to speak a specific word, phrase, or sentence, and its AI will respond based on what it thinks you are saying. The app can also provide pronunciation guidance, so you can focus less on trying to say the words themselves, and more on the phonetic sound of those words. Nick Fox, senior vice president of knowledge and information at Google, Shared the new feature in an X post on Tuesday: :
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According to the post, here’s how it’s supposed to work: Once you enter a word, phrase, or sentence and the app translates it, a new “Practice” option appears at the bottom of the page. Tap it, and you’ll open the “Pronunciation” menu. You can listen to the translation again, but tap “Pronounce” and Google Translate will open a pop-up menu with the phonetic pronunciation listed below the translation. Additionally, the app activates your device’s mic, so you can start speaking. Once you’re done, the app processes your effort and gives you some advice. In the example above, Google Translate told the user that they were “moving in the right direction,” but “some of the sounds were a little unclear.”
Google’s pronunciation practice hasn’t fully launched yet
This pronunciation feature seems to be a great addition to one of (if not the) most popular translation apps in the world. And yet, the feature seems to be rolling out slowly and half-heartedly. On my Pixel 8 Pro, I don’t have any options. On my iPhone, I have a Similar Convenience, but not exactly what is advertised here. Here’s how I implemented it: After translating something, I no longer have a “Practice” option at the bottom of the screen. However, I to do I have a “Speak” option that appears when I press the speaker button on Translate. This brings up an experience very close to what was demonstrated in Fox’s post: I get translation and the ability to speak into the mic, but I don’t get clear phonetic spelling – only its transliteration. It’s not useless, but phonetic spelling would be much easier to follow, especially when I’m testing Hindi. Unfortunately, I can’t read Devanagari letters, so it’s not that helpful when Google asks me to focus on them while trying to speak.
What do you think so far?
“Try saying…” doesn’t really work when I don’t understand the characters, Google.
Credit: Lifehacker
Still, in my attempt to speak the language I was able to get away from both the transliteration and audio of the translation. Once I finished speaking, I discovered another oddity that wasn’t included in Google’s announcement: a grade! In addition to direct feedback, Google gave me a percentage score out of 100 based on how well it thought I did. I generally do much better in Spanish than Hindi, but this is my first day trying the latter.
Maybe after Google implements this feature a bit more, I’ll get more of the experience advertised here. But even in its current form it is a useful tool. I hope Google expands the languages ​​supported here, but, for now, anyone who wants to learn Spanish or Hindi may get a boost from this feature — assuming it shows up on your device.
