Paris (AFP) – Paris Metro has launched an instant translation app to help unlucky foreign tourists navigate the French capital’s urban transport system ahead of next year’s Olympics.
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The winding metro system has more than 300 stations whose names are difficult for even locals to find and pronounce, and it can easily become a nightmare for anyone without fluent French.
The Summer Olympics, to be held in the French capital from July 26th to August 11th, will bring millions of tourists to the capital, most of whom don’t know French or even English, but most of whom won’t be competing. Public transportation will be used to travel between venues.
Tradivia is an instant translation app that handles 16 languages, and metro operator RATP has deployed it to 6,000 staff across its network of stations.
The app translates voice queries from English, German, Mandarin, Hindi, Arabic, etc. into French for the benefit of RATP agents, and the agent’s responses are translated into the visitor’s language.
“This is where we run into a big problem, because we can’t expect our agents to answer questions in every language,” said Valerie Gaidot, head of customer experience at RATP.
The app has been specifically tailored to the Paris metro experience, keeping track of station names, itineraries, and the various ticket and travel pass types that can be confusing to tourists.
RATP says this is a decisive advantage over general translation aids like Google Translate, which may not understand the idiosyncrasies of the subway.
After initially testing it on three urban routes, the carrier rolled out the service across its network over the summer.
Additionally, four languages are currently available for special platform announcements: English, German, Italian and Spanish, with Mandarin and Arabic expected to be added before the Olympics.
Approximately 15 million people are expected to visit Paris and the surrounding area for the Summer Olympics and Paralympics.
© 2023 AFP