Communication devices

Hi,

as we live in a global, and now connected world, the need of understanding each other is present. I'm coming from a small place in Europe, where a lot of nationalities used to live before 1900. There was a colourful mixture of languages and traditions, where people have been speaking in their own native language, and the others would reply in another, and everybody would understand it.

My grandparents were all speaking 4-5 languages, with a different structure. 3 was a must, German, Hungarian as official languages, and Romanian as the language of the majority. Then Serbian, and Slovak, as people of these minorities have been living in the area. Some would speak Italian, as there has been a strong immigration in the 1800, due to poverty in the Italian principalities, Idish, Polish, Turkish, and some Czech. All in an area of less than 30000 km².

Today, it is similar, but different. English became the trade-off language for the globe. Maybe because it is an easier language to learn. But, in some situation, local language is preferred, or people speak only local language.

I remember my time in Japan, where I had to use mostly the phone for translation. The translation apps are getting better and better. I was at a technical fair, where most engineers did not speak any English, or a very bad one. I was impressed how much we could achieve with a voice to voice app. Deep technical discussion and the meaning behind the sentences. The language models have evolved a lot.

Well, that is one thing, that we will probably have in the near future great translation apps, even communication devices, that will make learning other languages obsolete, to one extent. I've learnt one language, just to have the direct untranslated and adapted writing of some books. It is much different if one reads the real deal.

Another factor, is the cultural background. The place I'm from, people tend to be very direct and harsh in affirmations. Most people in the world could not take the NO, in face like that. In most Asian countries, people avoid talking directly and saying no. They let the situation and the behaviour showing the no out. In my birthplace, a no is a common thing, but people will not take it as offensive. Also, the fake polite is taking as offensive language. This cultural background will be hard to translate, and the next devices, will need to interpret the behaviour also.

How about you? How do you see it?