Microsoft has created a new experimental version of Skype that can translate calls in real time. You could speak English on your end, while the other person can speak Spanish. Skype will automatically translate your language to theirs, and vice versa. The translated audio is not only spoken by Skype, but converted to text as well. It was demonstrated to an audience when an English-speaking girl spoke to a Spanish-speaking one during a call. It was an effortless conversation, but not a complex one. Hopefully it works as well as the video showed during more complex conversations.
As a Skype user who chatted with people in many different countries, I encountered language barriers every now and then. Skype was already well-designed to help avoid language differences by allowing people to search for users based on their language, so this rarely happened. However, this limits you to the (usually) tiny fraction of people in a given foreign country that can speak your language. Another limitation is that there may be a remote job opportunity at a company, but the recruiter speaks a language you don’t understand. You will need to either find a translator or lose the job opportunity.
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Main Source: ABC News.
