Question about Google Translate voice translation

Do you use Google translate to provide spoken translations when you travel? I will be, for the first time, on my upcoming travels through Asia.

I have downloaded a whole raft of languages to my phone, and tested that I can speak English and they will speak it in, say, Bahasa Indonesia. So far so good.

But then I started making myself a phrasebook with basic things I want to be able to say in each language. The app lumps them all together, like Hello in Japanese, Mandarin, and Tagalog, all under Hello. It doesn't seem to keep them sorted by language, which is of course what I want.

Do you know how to do that?

Voice translate isn't available offline. Put your phone in airplane mode and you'll see that the microphone is grayed out.

Text recognition is done on Google's servers.

Well, sort of. In airplane mode it listens to me, and translates into text. But it won't speak. What fun is that? At least I can show the translations to someone, but the real trick is to have the phone speak.

Adding - it translates into the languages I've previously downloaded.

I have downloaded a whole raft of languages to my phone, and tested that I can speak English and they will speak it in, say, Bahasa Indonesia. So far so good.

 

But then I started making myself a phrasebook with basic things I want to be able to say in each language. The app lumps them all together, like Hello in Japanese, Mandarin, and Tagalog, all under Hello. It doesn't seem to keep them sorted by language, which is of course what I want.

 

Do you know how to do that?

Here's sort of a hack. You can sort your phrasebook alphabetically (the default) or by time. Use the time sort as a workaround. Just remember that time sort is newest to oldest.

Got that?

Now, make a list of your desired phrases. Sort them in REVRRSE alphabetical order - because if you want to go geek, go big.

Now, speak your list and translate it into ONE target language. Star each phrase, which will put it into the phrasebook. You're adding the phrases in reverse alpha order, so they'll be in alphabetical order when you time sort.

Now, go back to the history list and repeat the translation in a new language, starring as you go.

Repeat as needed for each desired language.

The test to speech will only work with a connection to the interwebs.

Thank you for the problem to solve!

So on the ship, connected to ship's Internet, it would say mangyaring linisin ang aking kuwarto ngayon - in theory, "Please clean my room now" in Tagalog. On shore I'd have to use my phone plan and either data minutes or (most likely) unsecured wi-fi, right?

You probably already know this, but you can unstar things in the phrasebook to delete them.

If you have a connection, you can use the conversation mode between two languages. Since I'm planning to get unlimited Internet on our upcoming cruise, I can be Mr. Annoying Robot Voice polyglot guy! :D

So on the ship, connected to ship's Internet, it would say mangyaring linisin ang aking kuwarto ngayon - in theory, "Please clean my room now" in Tagalog. On shore I'd have to use my phone plan and either data minutes or (most likely) unsecured wi-fi, right?

Wow, that's some hack. I had been wondering if something much easier, saying the name of the language and starring it, then saying the phrases only in that language and starring them, and waiting a bit before repeating in the next language, then time sorting, would work.

Cuz I'm ungeeky like that. But my late husband, stepson, and daughter-in-law all work(ed) in tech, so hacking runs in the family. Except I don't have their genes, so I try to rely on those who are far more savvy than I.

So on the ship, connected to ship's Internet, it would say mangyaring linisin ang aking kuwarto ngayon - in theory, "Please clean my room now" in Tagalog.

Except if you want your cabin cleaned you want Indonesian, not Tagalog. ;)

Have you tried the conversation mode? It's the double microphone icon. You can put conversation mode in Auto listen between two languages.

Help! I've gone down a rabbit hole.

Except if you want your cabin cleaned you want Indonesian, not Tagalog. ;)

I do have the unlimited Internet package, but I was thinking of being more Ms. Robot Voice Amazing Polyglot Girl. It's not annoying, it's semi-miraculous!

All my HAL cruises the cabin crew have been Filipino and the dining crew Indonesian. Has that changed? It's been a few years for me.

All my HAL cruises the cabin crew have been Filipino and the dining crew Indonesian. Has that changed? It's been a few years for me.

Cabin & dining crew are all Indonesian, and have been for as long as I have sailed HAL. Lounge crew is Filipino.

Conversation mode, it's awesome! Thanks for pointing me down that particular rabbit hole. If I set it in French I can have long conversations with myself. I'm in love with Google Translate. And much as it's maligned, in French, at least, it does a very credible job. I'm not competent to judge in other languages,

But wait... There's more!

You can download speech packs for offline speaking of your Google Translate phrasebook.

Go to your Android settings. Scroll down to Personal > Language & Input

Then, Speech > Text-to-Speech Output

On that screen, click the gear next to Google Text-to-Speech Engine

Click Install Voice Data

You'll be presented with a list of languages. Grab the ones you want.

They'll be available for speech output in Translate.

I've attached some screen shots, but I don't know if they'll come out in the correct order.

Cabin & dining crew are all Indonesian, and have been for as long as I have sailed HAL. Lounge crew is Filipino.

Must just be a brain fart on my part. Although I would swear to having a long conversation with an Indonesian MDR staff person on Maasdam about how there's a class system on the ships, and the Filipino cabin crew are looked down upon by the Indonesian dining crew. But there's been a lot of water under the bridge since then, so I must be remembering wrong.

POA1 - I'll check those speech packs out after I fortify myself with dinner and some encouraging beverage.

The speech packs for most of the languages I tried seem to work offline. French, German and Spanish all work fine. As do Dutch and Indonesian. The Filipino pack seems to need a network connection for speech.

I enabled Tap to Translate so that I can translate directly from apps. I'll be interested to try the camera translation tool on signs on Netherlands Antilles.

The speech recognition in the translate app does not seem to work offline for me. However, the speech recognition works fine from the Google search bar. In a pinch I could do a Select All in the search bar and use the long press > Translate option that is enabled via Tap to Translate.

POA1 - ok, I've got them. I have a Pixel2 (hate it) so mine looked a bit different, but I've got them. Mega-awesome. Will it on work for anything I say? In French it does, but I notice that the pack is 10x larger for French than Tagalog, for example.

So you're SkyPad huh? No wonder you're so good at this.

I assume that it will work for any phrase assets long as it's in the translation dictionaries have the words. Some of this offline stuff is relatively new. See this article from June 2018;

https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/12/17453950/google-translate-offline-translations-downloads-ai

Does your phone speak Tagalog offline?

Mine does not, but I have a four year old Nexus 5 running Marshmallow (Android 6.01 in developer mode.) I hate changing phones once I get them the way I like them. I've replaced my power button and I'm on my third battery. Replacing the battery and clearing the system cache gives you a phone that performs pretty much like new for less than $20. You have to pop the case open, but it's not like I'm worried about voiding the warranty at this point.

I use an app called SayHi Translation. Does a decent job. ;)I've used it to talk to the little girl of dear friends from Germany. She thinks it is really funny to hear the German woman, on my iPad, ask her questions after I talk to it in English. :D Thankfully, she is now in 2nd year at school and will soon be understanding the English language. I've tried, and failed, to speak German.:rolleyes::(

i assume that it will work for any phrase assets long as it's in the translation dictionaries have the words. Some of this offline stuff is relatively new. See this article from june 2018;

 

https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/12/17453950/google-translate-offline-translations-downloads-ai

 

does your phone speak tagalog offline?

 

mine does not, but i have a four year old nexus 5 running marshmallow (android 6.01 in developer mode.) i hate changing phones once i get them the way i like them. I've replaced my power button and i'm on my third battery. Replacing the battery and clearing the system cache gives you a phone that performs pretty much like new for less than $20. You have to pop the case open, but it's not like i'm worried about voiding the warranty at this point.

huh ??