Hundreds upon hundreds of companies are spending their own money to help train their own workers in learning other languages. Foreign languages have also seen a dramatic increase at the collegiate level with many undergraduate students taking up a foreign language as a minor just so they can hope to get a competitive advantage over some other prospective job applicant. Believe me when I tell you that nothing can be more frustrating than trying to work with someone when the only obstacle that is keeping the work from being accomplished is a lack of shared language abilities. On the other side of the American borders companies in such countries and China and Mexico are sending their employees overseas to America in hopes of these employees learning English. I know first hand that having the ability of speaking a foreign language, especially one like Spanish can help in providing a serious upper hand in the job market. While I was in Chihuahua, Mexico I had numerous occasions where I couldn't quite understand what someone was asking me to do and all I managed to do in these situations was make what most of time a simple job into a serious time consuming problem. So when conflicts occur when they shouldn't the first thing people usually do is become upset and then the task that needs to be accomplished is not done as efficiently as it should have been done. What technologies have come up with now are voice translators. Just like the ones that have been seen in science fiction movies with devices like these it is actually possible now speak with some now English speaking person and have the machine translate the message for you. Devices like these can be used for personal use, over the phone usage, and for conference work. They can be purchased for anywhere between one hundred-fifty dollars to over three thousand dollars. I have never used one of these machines before but it is my understanding that these machines can be very helpful, but on occasion if the person using the translator does not speak clearly the voice translator will not function correctly and a lot of the message will be lost.
