How to use Google Translate in the Workplace
When should your team use Google Translate, and when would it be unsafe to do so? How is it helpful, and what are its limitations? That's what you'll learn in this two hour workshop.
When it comes to online translation tools the most important thing that staff need to learn is when to leave their phone in their pocket and call in a professional instead. If you decide that it is sometimes acceptable for your team to use machine translation, the next step is for them to learn how to do that well.
The problem
Everyone with a smartphone has a translation tool in their pocket. If your staff are regularly faced with a language barrier they are probably using Google Translate already, whether head office has sanctioned it or not (especially if they have not been trained in the alternatives.) Often this is not appropriate. Every organisation which has clients from overseas needs a plan of action for overcoming language barriers, and translation tools may form one strand of this. Where organisations fail to provide clear guidance and training on how to overcome language barriers, staff may overuse machine translation.
Find out what is really happening
If you book this course for your team, the first thing we do is send out an anonymous diagnostic questionnaire. We need to find out if, when and how your workforce uses translation tools. Then we'll discuss with you - are you happy for your team to use machine translation in certain circumstances? Which circumstances?
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We will help you write a company policy on this matter, and then use this training course to inform employees what the policy consists of.
Get a toolkit for making decisions
On a day-by-day basis, how will your team make decisions about whether to use Google Translate? There are occasions when a failure to call in an interpreter or translator would amount to negligence. Included in this course is a tool which staff can use to help them reach an informed decision every time. You'll see this in advance and we will tweak it to suit your requirements.
Reduce the likelihood of mistranslation.
Few things are worse than being made a fool of by your phone. If your staff members are being misrepresented by theirs, how would they know? This course helps attendees reduce the likelihood of mistranslations by showing them the weak points of machine translation and ways to get around them. By phrasing things cleverly, accuracy can be greatly improved. This helps the professional image of your company by reducing embarrassing or costly mistakes.
Getting the best out of Google Translate
Google Translate is the most widely used online translation tool. It has a number of features - is your team using them all? This course teaches attendees how to-
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Use the 'conversation' feature to translate a live conversation.
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Build a phrasebook.
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Use the camera function, as in the photo below.
As you can see, the camera function looks futuristic. But look at the top line in the photo - what does that translation mean? Translations done by machines can sometimes leave you scratching your head. That's why this course also includes tips on how to improve accuracy when using machine translation.
How to book
Contact us now to request a price list and further information. In your email, let us know whether it is for a group or just one person - we'll reply as soon as we can.
