Overcoming language barriers with AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology has become an “assistant” to help young people overcome barriers in work and life balance. From online classes where young teachers seek to bring Vietnamese to the world , to offices where paperwork needs to be completed every minute, AI is infiltrating every conversation and every chat box.

The story of a Vietnamese online teacher

After a day at the office, Thanh Duyen (23 years old) opens her laptop to start her second job - teaching Vietnamese to foreigners. This is both her passion and a side job that helps her earn extra income. However, the biggest difficulty she faces is not her professional knowledge, but the language barrier when communicating with students.

“My job requires me to be fluent in both languages. But sometimes when I text with students, I still wonder if they use strange English words or write slang. At that time, I have to copy each message into the translation tool, then go back to reply. Sometimes, right after I finish translating, students send new questions, causing the conversation to be interrupted. This time-consuming process makes the online lesson heavy,” she recalls.

She has tried many ways to fix it, but for Ms. Duyen, the most optimal and convenient method so far is to text via Zalo and then use the translation feature right in the chat box.

“Now when students send messages in English, I just need to press a button and Zalo will immediately display the Vietnamese translation. When I reply, I also guide students to display their messages in bilingual. Thanks to that, students understand quickly, I also save time and focus more on teaching,” Ms. Duyen shared.

The seamless communication makes the lessons more lively and effective. This is not only a translation tool but also becomes her “teaching assistant”. The fact that students see English and Vietnamese in parallel in the same chat helps them easily memorize vocabulary and grasp sentence structures in real-life contexts. “Some students told me that after just a few sessions of chatting on Zalo, they were able to memorize quite a few common sentence patterns. That is the most natural and practical way to learn,” she laughed.

Ms. Duyen’s story reflects an increasingly clear trend: The need for multilingual exchange is increasing, while technology is becoming an indispensable bridge. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs , by the end of 2024, there were nearly 162,000 foreign workers working in Vietnam. In that context, a local application like Zalo integrating an automatic translation feature right in chat not only supports freelance teaching work, but also helps bring Vietnamese closer to international friends.

For Ms. Duyen, Zalo is now not only a familiar daily messaging application, but also a mobile classroom, where technology helps her solve small obstacles to focus on the bigger thing: Conveying Vietnamese language and culture, becoming a cultural bridge, accompanying the journey of bringing Vietnamese to the world.

“Talking” about work - how young people balance their busy lives

As an office worker in the financial sector, Viet Sang (25 years old) is always attached to drafts, data analysis and new proposals. The job requires him to constantly take notes and send quick comments to colleagues or partners. However, the dense volume of messages and the schedule of traveling between meetings and events often makes him fall into the situation of having ideas but busy hands.

“There were times when I was traveling between two appointments and I received three or four messages from colleagues asking me to check. If I sat down and typed each word on my phone, it would take a long time and I would easily miss ideas. But if I waited until I had free time to reply, I was afraid I would be behind schedule and people wouldn’t have time to edit,” Sang said.

But now, instead of straining to type each word, Sang just needs to open the chat box, press the record button and speak naturally as if he were having a conversation. In a few seconds, the entire content is converted into neat text, with clear punctuation and formatting.

“I just need to read out what I want to send. The Zalo AI Dictation feature will automatically arrange it into complete sentences. It's both fast and accurate,” Sang shared.

Thanks to AI Dictation, “dead” time such as traveling, waiting or taking short breaks between meetings becomes the time for Sang to handle work effectively. He can take the elevator and send feedback to the team, and walk to the meeting room and text the designer. More importantly, this seamlessness helps the work progress not be interrupted, and colleagues also receive timely feedback for editing.

“Before, I used to think that I had to sit in front of a laptop to write a clear plan. But now, with just a phone call with Zalo, I can complete it while moving. This helps me reduce the pressure of being overloaded with messages after each meeting,” said Mr. Sang.

In fact, many studies have shown that voice note taking is much faster than typing. While most people can speak at a speed of about 150 words per minute, the average typing speed is only about 38-40 words per minute. A study by Stanford University found that voice note taking is about 3 times faster than typing. This number explains why Sang can "run" work much faster thanks to AI Dictation, because simply, voice is a powerful keyboard.

Viet Sang’s story reflects an increasingly common need among office workers: Multitasking, flexible time management, and leveraging technology to maintain pace. In that context, features like AI Dictation are not just utilities, but become “virtual assistants” that help young people balance work pressure and busy life.

From online classes connecting teachers and students across borders, to busy office environments that require efficiency every minute, it is easy to see that AI technology is creeping into every smallest detail of young people's lives: from eliminating language barriers to optimizing work speed. The features developed from Zalo's artificial intelligence not only help users solve a specific need, but also reflect a larger movement: Where people can communicate, learn and work in the most natural way.

In the flow of globalization and digital transformation, Zalo's pioneering integration of localized AI features shows that domestic technology capacity is completely capable of creating international values. Zalo is proving that Vietnamese technology not only keeps up with trends, but also practically accompanies every journey of Vietnamese people today.

Source: https://znews.vn/vuot-rao-can-ngon-ngu-nho-ai-post1587387.html