For quite awhile, I’ve had links to various translation programs at the top of most of my webpages. Students are able to use these free web applications to copy and paste sections of text and have it translated in writing to their native language.

Even though they don’t use it often, it’s helpful to have available for particularly difficult academic text.

Now, though, the Oddcast company has brought this kind of translation system to a new level that is just amazing to me.

By using their Text-To-Speech Translator you can type in an English word or phrase and it will translate it into one of eleven languages. 

The amazing thing is that an avatar will then actually say it in the new language.

The process can also be reversed — you can type a word or phrase in your native language and the avatar will say it in English.

The avatar will also have a name that is prominent in the culture that speaks the language its translating into.

At the top of my pages, I also have various text-to-speech web applications that allow students to type words and sentences into English and then the computer will speak what’s been written.  But this new program combines both types of systems, and just blows me away.

Maybe I’m just showing my age (47) by being dazzled by technological advancements like this one.