While we may have been a little sceptical as to how efficient real-time voice translation will become, due to the mind-boggling complexities of languages, it’s great tech companies are putting in the effort to overcome the many multi-lingual hurdles they face.

Skype announced last December the release of the Skye Translator Preview and as a result of feedback relating to what testers want, Skype has added to its long list of languages (Chinese) Mandarin and Italian.

According to a Skype blog, Microsoft scientists and researchers have been hard at it in labs located in Beijing trying to build language and translation models for Mandarin. A feat which wasn’t easy, says Skype, given that Mandarin is a notoriously difficult language to learn, with, “approximately 10,000 characters and multiple tones,” said Skype, adding that Mandarin, “is one of the most difficult languages for a native English speaker to master, along with Arabic, Japanese, and Korean.”

Feedback has been pretty positive so far for the translator, as The Verge says here of an English to Spanish conversation a writer had, “After the call ended 20 minutes later, I felt bemused that I’d actually managed to hold a conversation with a Spanish speaker and the aid of a computer.” But, and it’s a big BUT, the writer adds that there are many delays, some confusion as you can hear the other’s language, and most importantly, “I found that the vast majority of my own speech recognition didn’t pick up very well”, adding that she speaks with a very clear English accent, but still the translator struggled. Accents will be a problem, especially when clear English is replaced with heavy Irish English.

The new update includes a volume control so there’s less confusion when hearing the other’s voice in it’s natural form, so that should take care of the aforementioned gripe mentioned above. You can also hear instant messages now in four languages.

Google has also been playing catch up to Skype with its real-time translation tools, which we wrote about in January. It will be interesting to see just how soon the world can be chatting in real-time, at fluent speeds, using slang and dialect. You can sign-up to the preview here.

Photo credit: Skype