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| An evacuee in a Polish town close to the Ukrainian border receives a Pocketalk interpreting device in March 2022. Total units shipped worldwide have topped 900,000 since Pocketalk's release in 2017. (Photo courtesy of Pocketalk Corp. via Kyodo) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] TOKYO: A Japanese firm has donated 1,000 pocket interpreter devices to the Ukrainian Embassy in Japan to ease the language difficulties many evacuees face starting new lives in the country. The initiative to provide the Pocketalk handhelds came from Tokyo-based Pocketalk Corp. "Our mission is to eliminate language barriers. I hope they can help evacuees," its president, Noriyuki Matsuda, said, Kyodo reported.
Pocketalk is a small, smartphone-like handheld that offers easy translation functionality. Users simply push a button while speaking, and the device translates what they have said into a chosen target language and displays it on the screen. It can also play a recording of the phrase. The device is compatible with 70 languages, including Ukrainian, and can also process 12 other languages for which it lacks voice output functionality. On March 14, he donated 1,000 interpreting devices to the Embassy of Ukraine in Tokyo. An embassy official said they are distributing one to each evacuee family, with around 100 already given out directly or by mail.
According to the company, instances of users choosing to translate from Ukrainian to other languages were up five times in late March than in mid-January before the invasion, with usage by evacuees a likely factor. Currently, Japan has over 500 evacuees from Ukraine, and their numbers could increase.
