COOL TOOL - Google helps me chat in multiple languages

Written on May 7, 2008 – 4:29 am | by Jim Stroud |

Do you ever wish that you could speak their language? (But were too busy or lazy to learn it?) Well, no worries my friend, I have another cool tool recommendation for you - Google Talk.

Okay, before you say, “I have Yahoo Instant Messenger, or Skype or AIM or (insert IM Chat client here). I don’t need another one.”

Well… maybe you don’t. If you are however looking to recruit cadidates overseas, here is a nifty little trick that will make you fluent in 10 languages in 10 seconds (or less).

1. Download a copy of Google Talk. (Keep your money! Its a freebie. Click here to download it.)

2. This is what Google Talk looks like. (Well, minus the blurred out names. I added that in for the sake of privacy.)

google

3. Once you have your Google Talk client on your desktop, simply click the “Add” button.

google

4. A small window will appear. Add in “en2zh@bot.talk.google.com” as shown below. This is the email of a Googlebot that translates english to Chinese. Once you have the email address added, click the “Next” button.

google

5. Another window opens up to let you know that your friend has been invited. In this case, your “friend” is the Chinese speaking Googlebot.

google

6. Once you have added the Googlebot to your friends list, you will notice on your Google Talk that it is online (as indicated by the green light beside the name).

google

7. From this point, simply click on the Googlebot name and chat with it. It will automatically reply with the Chinese equivalent of what you typed.

google

“Clever Jim,” you say, “But how would I use it?”

“Well, duh,” I reply, “Use it like this…”

A. Find a resume of someone you want to talk to in China. Say they have a good resume (or at least an interesting one) and you want to connect with them right away. Send them an invite to join you on Google Talk by clicking the “Add Button” (as shown above).

Better yet, if their email is listed on their resume, contact them that way and ask them to connect with you via Google Talk for an informal chat about your opportunity. (Be sure to send them a link where they can download the IM Client.)

B. When they send you a chat message, reply back in English. If they do not speak English, send a quick message to the Chinese speaking Googlebot and cut and paste its translation to the person you are attempting to recruit. Get it? Good.

No machine translation is 100% accurate, so you might want your first message to them to be, “Please be patient with me. My Chinese is not very good.”

And when they reply in Chinese, filter their response through the Chinese speaking Googlebot. Simple.

The Googlebot speaks more than just Chinese! Here is a list of languages it translates as well as the corresponding email addresses that you may want to add to your Google Talk as well.

If you found this useful, let me know by leaving a comment.

Happy Hunting!

Jim Stroud

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  1. 6 Responses to “COOL TOOL - Google helps me chat in multiple languages”

  2. By Bill Ward on May 8, 2008 | Reply

    Jim,

    This is a very cool tool. Unfortunately, when I click on the bot email and start typing away, it just repeats what I’m saying in English no matter which bot I click on. All of the bots have are available. Any suggestions?

  3. By Ryan on May 8, 2008 | Reply

    Hi Jim, figured out that some of your links are not right, as Bill said.

    I needed english to italian.. so it2en@ does not work… but en2it@ does.

    Just in case you wanted to update your post with the variations.

    Thanks for the awesome tip!!!

  4. By Levien on May 9, 2008 | Reply

    Yes, it works also the other way.
    en2es@bot.talk.google.com
    en2fr@bot.talk.google.com
    en2it@bot.talk.google.com
    en2ja@bot.talk.google.com
    en2ko@bot.talk.google.com
    en2nl@bot.talk.google.com
    en2ru@bot.talk.google.com

  5. By Website Design on May 12, 2008 | Reply

    Google’s ability to articulate never ceases to amaze :) That’s awesome it translates on the fly like that.

  6. By Jim Gates on May 12, 2008 | Reply

    Wow! Now THIS is a great tip. I’ll be pointing folks to this post, for SURE.

    Too bad it doesn’t work in Google Chat in the Gmail website. Or does it and I’m just not doing it right?

    Anyway, GREAT TIP!

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