GadgetsQuick Note: Google Translate Helps Irish Paramedics Deliver a Baby
Jason Mick (Blog) - February 12, 2015 5:10 PM
  Just how useful is Google Inc.'s (GOOG)Translate service? Ask Gerry McCann and Shane Mulcahy, Irish paramedics. Last Monday the pair got called to pick up a pregnant woman in labor. It turns out the mother was Congolese and did not speak English well enough to communicate with the paramedics. The speech barrier might have been less of a challenge, had she made it to Cork University Maternity Hospital, but nature had other other plans. Recognizing that the woman was going into labor, the paramedics pulled over to the side of the road midway between the small towns of Macroom (population 3,879) and Lissarda(population 1,703) in southern Ireland. But the process of coaching the new mother through her delivery was being serious stymied by the fact that the mother could only communicate in her native Swahili.  That's when one of the paramedics got a clever idea. Using his Android smartphone he loaded up Google Translate. Fortunately Google Translate can speak passable Swahili [PDF]. For the rest of the delivery the paramedics used the service to translate phrases to communicate instructions to the mother. McCann recalls to the local newspaper, The Corkman: It's something that I think I won’t ever forget as I was translating Swahili into English somewhere on the side of the road between Macroom and Lissarda.  [Image Source: JOE.ie/Facebook] The mother successfully gave birth to a healthy baby girl 6:23 a.m. The incident speaks not only to the potential of Google Translate, but also to its ubiquity. Even in rural Ireland the service was fast enough to carry out translations and push them to a device when they were needed the most. An estimated 500 million people around the world use Google Translate annually. But few will remember their translation as vividly as McCann and Mulcahy.Sources: The Corkman, via JOE.ie
By MERKJONES on 2/12/2015 6:09:21 PM , Rating: 2
By Indianapolis on 2/13/2015 9:20:52 AM , Rating: 2
He was commenting on the story. Does it make you feel better to know that he posted his comment using some type of computer and the internet (technology! Yay!)
We don't know the background of the woman in this story, so she may, or may not, be emblematic of the problem the person above was complaining about. But the problem is not that there are *any* immigrants who don't speak the language and apparently don't make an effort to integrate. The problem is that there are *so many* immigrants who are fleeing their countries for the West, only to then try to import their culture/language/traditions en masse to their new country. I don't know anybody who is opposed to orderly immigration or who hates people from other countries. But it is only human nature that nobody wants to feel like a foreigner in their own land because of uncontrolled immigration.
By Zak on 2/12/2015 7:07:34 PM , Rating: 2
Your opinion is a very unpopular one but I tend to agree. I am an immigrant who came to the US and my goal was to make English my primary language and to adopt the values and culture of the nation to become a fully functional citizen, and no handouts. I succeeded and I never took any free help from the government. Why others can't do it? Why is there so much resistance to this idea?
By othercents on 2/13/2015 11:32:14 AM , Rating: 2
How long did it take you? What resources were available to you? How easy is it for you to learn new things?
While I believe most people coming over to another country want to learn the native language there are still barriers to being able to. Time is the #1 barrier. I would never expect a new immigrant to be able to speak fluent English in less than 1 years with the best English school available. Even if they did what type of accent would they have that would be a barrier to understanding what they are saying? However not all immigrants will be able to go to the school and are only learning by being immersed in the language. The level of immersion varies and the learning ability varies. It is very hard to make a blanket statement that someone is unwilling to learn the language if you don't know their background.
By DopeFishhh on 2/12/2015 10:04:35 PM , Rating: 2
Learning a new language can be expensive and time consuming and availability of a teacher can vary. If a country were to implement that language rule they'd be stupid to not provide some amount of funding and access to teachers.
There's also the problem of asylum seekers who don't really have the luxury of learning the host nations language before seeking asylum.
By quiksilvr on 2/13/2015 12:21:21 AM , Rating: 1
I agree that if you immigrate to a new country and are fully capable of learning a new language but simply refuse to learn the language because you think it is beneath you, then you are an inconsiderate asshole.
However, sometimes its just incredibly difficult due to the environment you are in (where at work the native language could be different like Spanish or French so learning a language like English is even more difficult), caring for your young, etc. I agree that immigrants that come to other countries really need to learn the native language. Both my parents immigrated from overseas to an English speaking country, learned English and ensured that I was taught by tutors how to properly speak the language as well. But going back to the whole point of the article, this is a step in the right direction. No matter what language you speak, there will always be a way to communicate with one another. Eventually we will have a day where this is seamless and as a society will become more integrated with one another. No longer will we have the barriers of language keeping us apart. |
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