Beam Notes can capture conversations that include multiple spoken languages and translate them into a single, usable Beam Note. This can be especially helpful when working with families who speak a different language, or when an interpreter is present.
This article explains what Beam Notes can do, what to expect, and important limitations to be aware of.
What Happens When Different Languages Are Spoken?
1. If Beam Notes Understands the Language Being Spoken
If Beam Notes recognises the spoken language:
Everything said while the recording is running will be captured, even if multiple languages are spoken.
The transcript will usually appear in the original language spoken.
The Beam Note summary will be generated in the language specified by your organisation’s template. For most UK organisations, this is British English.
Any non-English speech will be translated into English within the summary, so all key information is included in one place.
This means that if:
You speak English
A family speaks another language such as Persian
An interpreter speaks English
Beam Notes will still capture all parts of the conversation and include the content in the final Beam Note.
2. If an Interpreter Is Present
If Beam Notes understands both languages being spoken:
It will capture and transcribe both sides of the conversation.
The Beam Note summary will combine all information into a single, coherent report.
If the interpreter is referenced as a person rather than simply relaying speech, you can remove this with a prompt such as:
“Please remove references to the interpreter from this report.”
If Beam Notes does not understand the non-English language:
It will ignore that language.
It will rely solely on the English spoken by you and the interpreter.
The Beam Note will still generate normally based on the English content.
Languages Beam Notes Supports (Primary Transcription)
Beam Notes prioritises the following languages for transcription. These languages support multilingual conversations and can be spoken within the same recording.
- English (All varieties)
- Bulgarian
- Catalan
- Chinese (Mandarin)
- Czech
- Danish
- Dutch
- Estonian
- Finnish
- French
- German
- Greek
- Hindi
- Hungarian
- Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia)
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Latvian
- Lithuanian
- Malay
- Norwegian (Bokmål)
- Polish
- Portuguese (All varieties)
- Romanian
- Russian
- Slovak
- Spanish (All varieties)
- Swedish
- Thai
- Turkish
- Ukrainian
- Vietnamese
These languages provide the most consistent transcription quality.
Additional Languages Supported via Fallback Transcription
If a spoken language is not reliably supported by primary transcription, Beam Notes may use a fallback transcription method.
This allows support for a wider range of languages, including:
Afrikaans
Albanian
Amharic
Arabic (multiple dialects)
Armenian
Assamese
Azerbaijani
Bangla (Bengali)
Basque
Bhojpuri
Bosnian
Burmese (Myanmar)
Cantonese
Chhattisgarhi
Croatian
Dari
Divehi
Dogri
Faroese
Fijian
Filipino
Galician
Georgian
Gujarati
Haitian Creole
Hausa
Hebrew
Hmong Daw
Icelandic
Igbo
Irish
Javanese
Kannada
Kashmiri
Kazakh
Khmer
Kinyarwanda
Klingon
Konkani
Kurdish (Central and Northern)
Kyrgyz
Lao
Macedonian
Maithili
Malagasy
Malayalam
Maltese
Manipuri
Marathi
Mongolian
Nepali
Nyanja
Odia
Pashto
Persian (Farsi)
Punjabi
Rundi
Samoan
Serbian
Sesotho
Setswana
Sindhi
Sinhala
Slovenian
Somali
Swahili
Tahitian
Tamil
Tatar
Telugu
Tibetan
Tigrinya
Tongan
Turkmen
Upper Sorbian
Urdu
Uyghur
Uzbek
Welsh
Xhosa
Yoruba
Yucatec Maya
Zulu
Results for these languages can vary and should be tested before relying on them in important scenarios.
Translating Your Beam Note After Recording
You can translate your Beam Note summary into more than 100 languages using the chat box.
How Translation Works
Translations are generated by the underlying language model used by Beam Notes, which is primarily one of OpenAI’s GPT models.
OpenAI does not publish a definitive list of supported languages for these models. However, they maintain a general help article about language coverage, which can be found here:
https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6825453-supported-languages
Translation quality can vary depending on the language, clarity of speech, and length of content.
How to Translate a Beam Note
Open the Beam Note you want to translate
Use the chat box on the right-hand side
Enter a prompt such as:
“Translate the full summary into French.”
Beam Notes will regenerate the summary in your chosen language.
You can also ask questions like:
“What did the family say about their concerns?”
“Summarise what was discussed towards the end of the meeting.”
Things to Be Aware Of
Short Responses and Similar Languages
Beam Notes may struggle when:
Answers are very short
Languages are similar to English, such as Dutch or Afrikaans
Lots of English loanwords are used
In these cases, the transcript may appear inconsistent.
Known Language Limitations
While Beam Notes performs best with the most commonly spoken languages, some languages may be inconsistent.
Languages with known issues include:
Welsh. Inconsistent transcription and translation.
Hindi. Inconsistent results reported by users.
If you plan to work extensively in Welsh or Hindi, please contact our Support Team so we can advise on the best approach.
Testing a Language Before Relying on It
If you plan to use Beam Notes with a non-English language regularly, we strongly recommend:
Running a minimum five minute test recording first
Checking both the transcript and summary
Confirming the output meets your needs before using it in real scenarios
Using Beam Notes with non-English languages may be considered pilot use, and results can vary.
Need Help or Want to Test a Language?
If:
You are unsure whether a language will work well
You experience issues with transcription or translation
You would like advice before recording an important conversation
Please contact our Support Team at support@beam.org. We are happy to help.
Please note: All of our sub-processors can be found on our trust centre here for reference.
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