10.4: Speak different languages

Sep 12, '06 07:30:00AM

Contributed by: spidermann

I have used this technique almost daily on my job, as I live in an area where there are many nationalities who don't speak English. I have two copies of Tiger's Translation Widget open at once -- one set to translate English to the language native to the person, the other set to the opposite. I type in English, they type in their language, and life is pretty much good except for translation errors.

But what to do when you have a non-English speaking customer on the phone, and no one else speaks the language? Pretty much the same method. Open up the Translation Widget and convert what you wish to say to the language being used. Copy the resulting other language and open a new TextEdit document. Paste the translated words into that document and highlight the whole sentence. Then choose the Edit: Speech, and choose Start Speaking from the sub-menu. The built-in voices in Mac OS X will speak the language for you. You can then either repeat them to the customer, or put the phone mic to the speaker of the computer and let it speak to the customer.

This works for all non-character/glyph type languages in OS X Tiger. Greek, Russian, and Asian type languages do not work. German, Spanish, and other such languages do work. I use the Vicki voice for now, as it is the most clear over the phone and to my ears. I can't wait until Leopard to try this out with the new improved voice.

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