How to talk with family who speak another language

A conversation that runs through one screen

Think of a grandmother who speaks only Japanese meeting her grandson's partner, who speaks only English. Both want the conversation; neither has the words. Typing sentences into a translator one at a time turns the afternoon into paperwork. What helps is something that listens while people talk and puts the other language on the screen as they go.

That is what a translation session does. With translation switched on, every sentence spoken — or typed into the box that says “Ask AI or paste context…” — is translated from the From language into the To language, and each one appears as two bubbles: what was said, and its translation. The picker offers hundreds of languages, with a search field, so the pairing does not have to be a common one. There is no automatic two-way mode; replying means exchanging the two languages, which the steps below cover.

Setting it up before anyone sits down

Do this before the visit, not at the table. The Translate button is what switches translation on; choosing the Translation template does not do it by itself.

1. Tap Translate, the globe button. The sheet that opens is called Translation.
2. Turn on “Translate chat and live session”. It stays on for later sessions too, until you switch it off.
3. Set From to your relative's language, or leave it on Auto Detect, and set To to your own language.
4. Tap Start (on iPad and Mac the button says Start Session), and keep the app open with the screen on for the whole conversation.
5. When it is your turn to speak, open Translate again and exchange From and To. If From is on Auto Detect, you only need to change To to their language.
6. Tap End when the conversation is over.

Where the phone goes, and how big the words are

Put the phone flat on the table between you, or propped on a stand, with the screen facing whoever is reading next. An iPad is easier for two people to share across a kitchen table. Keep it close to the person speaking rather than in the middle of a noisy room: the session can only translate what the microphone hears clearly.

Make the text big enough for the person who needs it most. In the app's Settings, under Appearance, Chat Font Size goes from Small through Default and Large to Extra Large, on top of the text size set for the iPhone itself. For an older relative, Large or Extra Large is often the difference between reading along and squinting.

A live session ends when the app goes to the background or the screen locks; the app says “App inactive. Realtime session closed.” For a long visit, set Auto-Lock to a longer time in the iPhone's Settings, under Display & Brightness, and keep the phone plugged in. Resist switching to the Photos app to show the wedding pictures in the middle of a sentence — show them on another device, or tap Start again afterwards.

What to say first

Explain what the phone is doing before the conversation starts, in their language. The easiest way is to type it: with From set to your language and To set to theirs, a sentence typed into “Ask AI or paste context…” is translated like a spoken one. Something like “This phone shows me what you say in English, and shows you what I say in Japanese. It is an AI, so tell me if something looks strange.” Then turn the screen towards them and let them read it.

Start with easy things — the journey, the food, the weather — while both of you get used to the pauses. Short sentences, one person at a time, and a moment's wait until the translation appears. The first few exchanges feel slow; once everyone knows the rhythm, the swap becomes a gesture rather than an interruption.

Keeping it a conversation

Family talk overlaps. People finish each other's sentences, a child interrupts, the television is on. Live translation is at its best with one voice at a time, because two people speaking at once come out as one muddled sentence. It helps to agree a small signal — a hand on the table, a nod at the screen — for “your turn”.

It works best between two or three people rather than across a whole family dinner. At a big table, let the conversation happen in both languages as it would anyway, and bring the phone in for the moments that matter: the story someone wants to tell properly, the question the grandmother has been waiting to ask.

Expect it to trip on the same things a newcomer to the family would: nicknames, the names of places back home, regional words and dialect, jokes that only work in one language. When a translation looks odd, say it again in plainer words. Laughing at a mistranslation together is part of it.

The phone is a bridge, not a replacement for a few words of each other's language. If you want to learn some, the guide on practising a language by speaking is the place to start; a relative who hears you try usually appreciates it more than any translation.

Private conversations, kept on your device

Family conversations are private. During a cloud session the audio goes from your device straight to OpenAI's Realtime API, which produces the transcript and the translation. The session itself is stored on the device, with no cloud sync, and Arte Soft's servers never receive the audio, the transcripts or the translations.

Tell your relatives an AI is translating — it is also the most natural way to explain the pauses. If something is about to be discussed that should not be written down anywhere, tap End first. And if you want to keep a line someone said, select the text in its bubble and copy it with the usual system menu; there is no export button.