Apps, AI Translator, Marker Pens: At Beijing Olympics, Overcoming The Language Barrier
NDTV
Non-Mandarin speakers use marker pens to highlight the dishes they want on the plastic menus, and verbal communication is done through a translation device.
Businesses at the Beijing Olympics are getting around the language barrier by using high-tech apps and a smartphone-like device to translate from Mandarin Chinese and keep the tills ringing.
Though China's "zero COVID" policy has stopped the influx of sports fans who would normally be cheering on their favourites, there are still thousands of athletes, coaches, journalists and technicians in China with money to burn.
"In the past few days, we have had more customers, and we've relied on this smartphone to translate when communicating with customers," ice cream shop assistant Wang Jianxin told Reuters.
He did so by speaking into a smartphone and the device quickly translated his words before reading them back in a soft female voice.
