Eliminate Miscommunication, A Powerful Tool for New Olim (immigrants)
Reverso Context: The App Designed to Eliminate Miscommunication, A Powerful Tool for New Olim
By: Steve Ornstein
As an oleh (a new immigrant to the State of Israel), though I am no longer considered “cadash” (new), I still encounter a number of what can be considered familiar struggles to anyone who has ever emigrated to a new country, on a daily basis. An example of this is when I simply go to the grocery store, ask for one thing, and receive another. Or like that time at a restaurant I asked for tahini sauce, and I got a tea instead. This is usually due to my accent or a simple misunderstanding of the meaning of a word. What I’ve found to be even more difficult is words that don’t have direct Hebrew translations, or vice versa, those that don’t translate from Hebrew to English or other languages.
Growing up, my father had a number of sayings I struggled to understand, even in English. Sayings like “a cat got your tongue,” “when pigs fly” and “more holes than Swiss cheese” all make sense to those saying them. I now find myself using many of the same sayings, but when I try to translate them into Hebrew, some words and phrases lose value, leading to miscommunication. So what about those on the receiving end? How are these sayings, that can be considered so intrinsic to one language, then translated and made sense of in another language?
While a number of translation tools currently exist, Reverso Context, a language learning and translation tool designed to clear up misunderstandings of words and phrases with double meanings, is trying to solve those intrinsic and nuanced language problems that sometimes occur with translations. The app is already at five million downloads and counting, according to the company’s official press release.
So imagine being new to Israel and testing out your Hebrew skills with a native speaker, and saying: “What’s the matter, cat got your tongue?” This is where Reverso Context really shines. Reverso takes explanations to a new level, giving users real-life examples from Hollywood films, TV shows and other sources.
As you can see, the app presents nearly every translation, its context and even puts it into a sentence for further clarity. Reverso’s app has a number of language learning tools like flashcards, quizzes and even statistics designed to help track user progress.
Reverso Context currently supports Arabic, German, Spanish, French, Hebrew, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Dutch, Portuguese, Romanian and Russian. You can download the app for iOS and Android.
