Translator for student

[cclark1998]

Hi All

I have been asked to find a translator for a student comeing over from Ukraine, I have been asked to find one that can do speech translation at least with photo being a nice to have but I am completely at a loss as this is something I have never even looked at. I have had a look around on amazon and the mighty google but can find a single device to do it all.

Nearest I have come is here

If anyone has any suggestions they would be greatly appriciated

Thanks

Chris

[mavhc]

Google Translate on an android device, or possibly iOS.

[elsiegee40]

Google Translate on an android device, or possibly iOS.

 

Google translate does the job on iOS too [emoji4]

[Mark182]

We use immersive reader

[psydii]

Definitely give Microsoft Translator a go, its an app available for Windows, iOS and Android.

[jemal]

We are on 1-to-1 chromebooks now which I gather works well for google translate, but we only have front facing cameras on the chromebooks so photo features are a bit hard to use. Previously we had single purpose iPads set to kiosk mode for the google translate app that was specifically for various google translate features, including the using the camera to translate text on a computer screen or interactive whitebard, and I gather that worked very well.

[Brimstone]

iPad>Settings>General>Language & Region> Ukrainian

 

Done

[localtech]

Another vote for MS translator we use it on an iPad in the school reception as well. Works a treat!

[slugshead]

I visited schools beforehand that have actually had a number of translators acting as teaching assistants in the classrooms

[mikes]

I visited schools beforehand that have actually had a number of translators acting as teaching assistants in the classrooms

 

This is what I thought would happen but we don't have a single person in the school who speaks any Russian/Ukranian (we also had Turkish speaking refugees too). So the poor kids are in a school where they don't speak any of the native language, they have to go round with Chromebooks and have to speak into the Google Translate function to communicate with anyone! and auto-translate any of the classwork set for them. It's a good job this didn't happen 10 years ago back when everything was paper based and there were no chromebooks!

 

I guess one advantage of the Chromebooks is, they can translate into any language, one of the Turkish and Ukranian pupils are friends so they can translate Russian --> Turkish and back again. But I would have thought we'd have a human translator whom the students would share a class with? (I guess for different year groups this wouldn't work so much).

The translate function is pretty good but sometimes it can be hard to communicate with and understand natively born pupils who are speaking English - so there can be some challenges sometimes.

[rob_coles]

We’re using google translate on an iPad. When I issued and demoed it to the student the reaction was remarkable. Took a picture of some worksheet and translated it. Face was priceless.

 

Guidance I was given was to leave the iPad in English to try and encourage the student to learn the language.

 

Hope that helps.

[mikes]

Sorry to update this thread - does anyone know a good voice translator for Dari / Pashto / Urdu - the Google Voice Translation does certain languages but not others, and Urdu/Pashto/Dari (not sure exactly which language the student speaks) is not one of them - there is no voice icon for the auto voice translate, it only supports written translation.

 

The problem is the student is totally illiterate even in their own language so we need voice translation. Just wondering if anyone knows any software that can do this?

[Steve21]

Sorry to update this thread - does anyone know a good voice translator for Dari / Pashto / Urdu - the Google Voice Translation does certain languages but not others, and Urdu/Pashto/Dari (not sure exactly which language the student speaks) is not one of them - there is no voice icon for the auto voice translate, it only supports written translation.

 

The problem is the student is totally illiterate even in their own language so we need voice translation. Just wondering if anyone knows any software that can do this?

 

Google Translate has Urdu voice translation on it at least on the iPhone version, not sure if you're only after online things for pc etc?

 

Steve

[mikes]

yeah Pashto is there it must have been Urdu - think the teacher just gave me a list of every foriegn language student we had - Turkish, Russian and Pashto are all there it's jus Urdu that doesn't have the voice option and this was the student that can't read/write - or it could have been Dari which doesn't show up at all (I think it's just a term for Persian which also doesn't have the voice option only text)

[LeMarchand]

it could have been Dari which doesn't show up at all (I think it's just a term for Persian which also doesn't have the voice option only text)

 

Think that should be Farsi (sometimes Parsi). Bit of a moot point as neither show up with voices on Google (nor does Urdu). It's the same on DuoLingo which our kids sometimes use. You'd have thought the language would be better covered.

 

Edit: See below for online, but Urdu seems fine on my (Android) phone.

Edited June 27, 2024 by LeMarchand

[LeMarchand]

You can get Urdu in the online version:

 

[psydii]

Microsoft Translator on iPhone seems to claim to able to translate to Urdu and Pashto with speech output but can't do diction from those languages.

 

It might be worth talking with the SENCO, they usually have access to tools for facilitating communication with people who are non-verbal, which might help these students be able to communicate until they can pick up some English.

[mikes]

It's weird, unless I'm being daft, English to Pashto supports voice translate

 

 

but the inverse, Pashto to English does not support voice translate (no mic option)

 

 

I'm guessing they are still working on it as I think I see new languages/capabilities appear every few months or so.

 

I've been asked this by our SENCO they don't know unfortunately nor do our LEA, they tell us we are basically on our own. I'll check out some of the other suggestions

[foofighterjim]

I don't know if this is of interest / help: https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/forget-duolingo-google-translate-just-got-a-massive-ai-upgrade-that-gives-it-over-100-new-languages

[AndrewPowell]

we just bought some cheapo lenovo tablets and setup translate on them. means the kids have a device for other bits too. and with google lens, translate works on pictures etc.

[mikes]

we just bought some cheapo lenovo tablets and setup translate on them. means the kids have a device for other bits too. and with google lens, translate works on pictures etc.

 

Do you know how it works for pupils who can't read/write in their own language? each of our teachers has a cheapo lenovo tablet we use for taking photos I'm wondering if the teachers can use voice translate on those. I think the requirement is so the kid can talk to the teacher and vice versa so only the teacher needs one. (the kids are offered chromebooks but he can't read/write any language so it's useless to him) Or do we just end up having to broadcast our lessons in 5 different languages like they do in the UN...

[mikes]

Update I had installed some Amazon software called SayHi on the device which worked OK in testing... but come to use it now and it has been discontinued. Back to square one for this language !

[PotNoodleTech]

Good thread. I've literally jst been asked this so will try out some of the free apps mentioned.

[dapaulio]

I just used google translate with our Ukrainian students