ReachWell’s Language Translation Engine
Overview
The ReachWell translation engine supports both automated and manual translation. Org, School, and Group Admins in the ReachWell Dashboard simply send announcements in English, and app notifications are translated based on the preferred languages selected by contacts (i.e. families) via their app. ReachWell leverages the Google translation engine. As the Google translate engine continues to evolve in effectiveness and accuracy, we have found this translation method works great for brief announcements.
How does it work?
Families with the app:
Families simply download the ReachWell app and choose their preferred language (from 103 languages). All future announcements they receive from your organization are instantly translated into their selected language. We, at ReachWell, do our best to store all translated information in order to support historical translation for families who may be added to a group or organization at some point in the future. For example:
- If a family member chooses Arabic as their preferred language in April, but no other family from that organization had previously selected Arabic, then only future announcements will be delivered in Arabic and announcements prior to that will be viewable in English.
- However, if a second family joins the same group in later in the year and selects Arabic, then historical announcements delivered before April will be in English, and all announcements after will be in Arabic.
Families without the app:
ReachWell is built for all families. Even when they don't have a smartphone, tablet or mobile device, families can receive translated messages through email and text messages. If your organization is importing contacts to ReachWell via a CSV file, their preferred languages can be updated via the imported file. Otherwise, contact languages can be manually adjusted directly from the ReachWell Dashboard > People> Contacts page. Messages are written in English and delivered in the preferred language selected by the contacts (i.e. family members).
What languages are available for translation?
Afrikaans
Albanian
Amharic
Arabic
Armenian
Azerbaijani
Basque
Belarusian
Bengali
Bosnian
Bulgarian
Catalan
Cebuano
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Corsican
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English
Esperanto
Estonian
Finnish
French
Frisian
Galician
Georgian
German
Greek
Gujarati
Haitian Creole
Hausa
Hawaiian
Hebrew
Hindi
Hmong
Hungarian
Icelandic
Igbo
Indonesian
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Javanese
Kannada
Kazakh
Khmer
Korean
Kurdish
Kyrgyz
Lao
Latin
Latvian
Lithuanian
Luxembourgish
Macedonian
Malagasy
Malay
Malayalam
Maltese
Maori
Marathi
Mongolian
Myanmar (Burmese)
Nepali
Norwegian
Nyanja (Chichewa)
Pashto
Persian
Polish
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil)
Punjabi
Romanian
Russian
Samoan
Scots Gaelic
Serbian
Sesotho
Shona
Sindhi
Sinhala (Sinhalese)
Slovak
Slovenian
Somali
Spanish
Sundanese
Swahili
Swedish
Tagalog (Filipino)
Tajik
Tamil
Telugu
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian
Urdu
Uzbek
Vietnamese
Welsh
Xhosa
Yiddish
Yoruba
Zulu
First Class Only - Clever Sync: If your organization sends announcements, ReachWell will translate those messages based on your contacts' language settings in your student information system (SIS).
What if we have translators in our office?
If an announcement is sent in a language other than English (i.e. is being translated by a human before sending), we recommend the sender sends two announcements.
- Send the English version to capture English speakers, and so the automated language translator will translate the message to the preferred language of families.
- Send the translated version in the non-English language. Families who have selected the same language that the message was manually translated into will receive two messages; the first message will be the auto-translated version, the second will be the manually translated version.
TIP! When using manual translation, we recommend adding the language name in the title of the message to let families know which message to read.
Can Families See the Original Version of the Message?
Yes! With both automated and manual translation, families can simply switch their app language setting to English which then displays the original announcement as it was composed and sent by the sender. They can always toggle it back to their preferred language to view the messages in their preferred language once again.
The ReachWell app will also translate inbound messages to English for announcements received from families of all languages!
For additional questions, please reach out to support@reachwellapp.org. We are happy to help! Click here to subscribe to status updates through our ReachWell Academy channel on the app.
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