Google has a new app called Google Translate which, as you may have guessed, helps people translate stuff they see going about their day. If you need to know that “Cuidado! Piso Mojado” means “Caution! Wet Floor,” they can help you. Google put out a video to help showcase the (actually fairly impressive) app in all its glory.
To do this, Google enlisted the help of one of the most famous foreign language songs, in the United States at least: “La Bamba,” as made popular by Ritchie Valens. In the video, somebody mans a phone with Google Translate and points it at a variety of signs featuring the Spanish lyrics from the song while the song plays. Meanwhile, Google Translate turns the words on the signs from Spanish into English.
As such, the video is notable for a couple of reasons. One, it features a phone changing signs from Spanish into English quite seamlessly. Two, maybe it will teach you the lyrics to “La Bamba.” So, in the future, if you ever want to know the lyrics to a foreign language song, just write all the words out on placards and then shoot them with Google Translate. Excessive? Perhaps, but do you know a better way to find out the lyrics to “Macarena?”
