Anyone who has  studied a language at length has contemplated alternative methods to language acquisition. A Chinese pill you pop in your mouth in order to speak perfect Mandarin, a English serum for the next speaking interview, or, perhaps most realistically, a little box you talk into that produces  perfectly translated language out the other side.

Well, the NEC Corp of Japan  is claiming it has devised an automatic Japanese to English translator with a 50,000 word database of words.

NEC Corp said Friday it has developed an automatic Japanese to English speech translation software tool for mobile phones for Japanese travelers abroad. When a user utters a sentence in Japanese, it is displayed on the screen of the cell phone and immediately translated into English, the electronics firm said.

Of course has been in the works for decades, and perhaps longer than that. Check out this example from the 1960s newspaper cartoon Closer Than We Think! The envoy walks off his vertaplane and instantly starts a conversation with some one who would appear to be from either the Middle East or Mars.

The comic’s sidebar reads  a little  like the NEC article:

In the world of tomorrow, you’ll be able to talk in English and be understood by a Japanese who knows only his own tongue, or by an Ottoman Turk who’s acquainted with his own language and no other.

A robot translating machine has already been developed by our Air Force. Right now it operates at only 40 words per minute and is bulky and complicated. But miniaturization, combined with magnetic tape, suggests far more dramatic possibilities for the future - a translating box that might listen to one vernacular and instantly relay a verbal translation. Any language would than be usable anywhere, universally!

At any rate, sign me up.

Article (via Japundit)
Comic (Via Paleo-future)