Found! Universal Translator Device - Spanish to English and Back

So how much Spanish can one learn in a few months of self-study?  Enough to get by?  Maybe. Or maybe not.  I’d like to be able to get to know people who we’ll meet during our trip, and to avoid verbal mishaps due to my ignorance of the language.  So a few months ago I went on an Internet search to see what kind of tech is out there to help us along as we get immersed in a totally Spanish-language culture for a month.

Three or four devices surfaced after many clicks, copious reading and watching scads of videos. In a moment I’ll tell you which universal translator device we decided to buy, and during our time in Ecuador I’ll post updates on how it actually works “on the street.”  Hint:  it only cost $4.99.  

But first let me share the alternatives we did not choose.

1. The first and most unusual solution was found in the book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It describes the Babel fish (which you insert into your ear) as  “small, yellow, leech-like, and probably the oddest thing in the universe. It feeds on brain wave energy, absorbing all unconscious frequencies and then excreting telepathically a matrix formed from the conscious frequencies and nerve signals picked up from the speech centres of the brain, the practical upshot of which is that if you stick one in your ear, you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language: the speech you hear decodes the brain wave matrix. It is a universal translator which simultaneously translates from one spoken language to another. It takes the brainwaves of the other body and what they are thinking then transmits the thoughts to the speech centres of the host's brain, the speech heard by the ear decodes the brainwave matrix. When inserted into the ear, its nutrition processes convert unconscious sound waves into conscious brain waves, neatly crossing the language divide between any species.”

Photo courtesy of GodWiki

Outcome: While this sounds like a nearly perfect solution, it’s clear (at least to me) that we would have to buy three Babel fish.  One for me, one for Becky and another one for whoever we are trying to communicate with. Just imagine sitting in a restaurant, studying the menu and trying to ask how the encebollado is made. It doesn’t help much that I can understand the waiter if he or she can’t understand me.  So we’d need that third Babel fish to lend to the waiter. Which brings up issues of personal hygiene.  After all, I’d want that third Babel fish back once we are done talking so I could lend it to yet another person I am trying to talk with later in the day.  And besides personal hygiene, I am just not sure if the fish is durable enough to be carried around in a pocket and loaned out to numerous people. After all, it is a living creature.  So bottom line, no Babel fish for us.


2. Next I found reference, at www.memory-alpha.org, to the Star Trek Universal Translator. “In 2267, Captain Kirk and Commander Spock of the USS Enterprise modified their universal translator to communicate with the alien ...in the Gamma Canaris region. Kirk explained that there are certain universal ideas and concepts common to all intelligent life, and that the translator compared the frequencies of brainwave patterns, selected those ideas it recognized, and provided the necessary grammar. Kirk further explained that the device spoke with a voice, or the approximation of one, that corresponded to the identity concepts it recognized. The Companion was revealed to be female because the universal translator detected this facet of its identity from its brainwave patterns, and assigned it a female voice.”

Outcome: While this sounds like a good solution, we just don’t have time to wait around until the 23rd century to get one.  Sorry.

3. There’s a product that’s available today, called SpeechTrans™. It’s a software app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch that translates bi-directionally between English and Spanish as well as several other languages. How would it work on the street?  In my opinion, not very well because it requires an Internet connection to do the translation work.  That would make it a bit tough at the open air market, on the street or while touring a museum or art gallery (unless those places all had Wi-Fi). Further, the software, which sells for $19.99, carries added fees the company calls “transcriptions.”  The FAQ at www.speechtrans.com explains:  

• Each time you hit the Record Button counts as 1 Transcription, which allows you to speak for up to 55 seconds and transcribe your voice to text.
• Click on the lower left Icon and select “Buy Transcriptions”, you can choose from packages ranging from 30 – 500 transcriptions.

Outcome:  It looks like an unbelievable piece of software and linguistic engineering. Check out the video. But it wouldn’t be able to help us in “real time” when we want to carry on a conversation with folks “in the wild.”

4. Finally, I kept coming across articles for the software app with a strange name: Jibbigo. It’s from Jibbigo LLC, a start-up company founded by Alex Waibel, professor of computer science and language technologies at Carnegie Mellon University. Their web site (www.jibbigo.com) explains: “Jibbigo is not a dictionary and not a phrase book, but a speech translator: You simply speak a sentence, and it speaks the sentence aloud in the other language, much like a personal human interpreter would.” It runs on iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android. So after a lot of reading, downloading, studying the user manual and checking out reviews and comments from other users, I went to the app store on my iPod Touch and downloaded a copy for an incredibly low price of just $4.99!  Some older notes and comments from users applauded the app but said it was way too expensive at $24.99. Obviously, Jibbigo heard the complaints and dropped the price, at least for now. But for my money, even 25 bucks would have been a bargain -- if the software actually works.  

Outcome: And it does. I can speak to Jibbigo without using headphones or an external microphone and get an almost instant translation into Spanish, both spoken and in text. I don’t need an Internet connection to use it either.  And if I just want a word or two, it comes with a 40,000 word bi-directional English-Spanish dictionary. (You can even buy “salty language” add-ons at some additional cost. LOL)

All in all Jibbigo seems to work really well.  Time will tell if it can adapt to two different speakers, two different voices -- for example, me asking a question and the waiter answering in Spanish.

For example, I might say “Tell me about the encebollado, please.” Jibbigo would translate this as “Cuenteme sobre el encebollado, por favor.”

Now the waiter speaks: “Encebollado esta hecho con atún fresco, yuca o cassava raíz, tomate, cebollas, cilantro, y especias.”  Listen Now!

Jibbigo understands my voice, no question. And I hope Jibbigo would understand the waiter's voice and translate this to: “Encebollado is made with fresh tuna, yuca or cassava root, tomatoes, onions, cilantro, spices."


Time will tell, and I’ll be sure to post details. In the meantime, check out the video. 


~ Allan