Today, technology has many functions that we do not use due to ignorance. Other times, we know the functions, but can’t think of useful uses for our needs. In that sense, few people use this YouTube trick to search a video, and few people use Google Meet subtitles. Not because they don’t know each other, but because they are not needed when we speak in our languagewhich is where we usually communicate.
But, as Pepe Robles reminds us on Twitter, given how well they work as a way of transcribing what we say in English (and in other languages, but recognition is better in Shakespeare’s language), the subtitle function is ideal for practicing speaking and check if the machine understands us. If yes, it is normal for an interlocutor to do so as well.
You can practice your speaking easily and for free
1 – Open google meets
2 – Enter new meeting
3 – Activate the subtitles
4 – SpeakIf you see that it is generating the sentences well, you are on the right track and another person can understand you pic.twitter.com/TTAGh9UkQw
– Pepe Robles ♻️ (@NavisCode) February 12, 2022
11 FREE PROGRAMS and APPS for VIDEO CALLS
How to use subtitles
To use the subtitles, the first thing we have to do is initiate a call in which it is only us. It’s okay if more people join, but if they talk, we’ll also see a transcript of what they say. To check if Google understands us, we will have to press the subtitles button, which appears to the right of the button to activate and deactivate the camera, and to the left of the screen sharing button.
Once we press it, we can choose in which language we want Google Meet to transcribe what we and the rest of the participants in the video call say. By default, we will have Spanish or English, but we can also choose German, Portuguese or French. When activating the button, it will be marked in blue and it will begin to show in text everything that we are saying, in real time.
As we can see, the process to use the function and check how well it understands us is simple, and free. It’s not like having a tutor, but it helps. It may have bugs like it did with us, putting semicolons, but it could also be because we’ve been a bit slower than expected, and maybe Meet has understood that we were taking a break. As a way to improve the feature, perhaps Google can offer us a file where the entire transcript is recorded.