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Our cat mom reporter learns how her cats truly feel about her through a cat translation app

Shannon Jan 6, 2022
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Do her cats really love her as much as she thinks they do?

Though it seems like cats can understand a lot of what we say, why can’t we do the same? In recent years, technology has brought us closer to that dream. Our Japanese-language reporter and cat mom of two, Aoi Kuroneko, wanted to figure out what her cats were saying, so she decided to download the MeowTalk app (or “NyanTalk“, as it’s named in Japanese).

The free app was made by a former Amazon Alexa developer, and it can allegedly translate your cat’s meows in real time. To test it out, Aoi called in her two troops: the mostly-silent, 10-year-old Tsu, and the timid yet talkative, 3-year-old Sui.

▼ These two boys clearly get along! Here’s Sui (left) and Tsu (right).

Registration was simple: all she had to do was upload each cat’s name, age, sex, and photo. You can also translate what other cats in the area are saying, apparently.

▼ Just select the name of the cat you want to interpret (note: we translated the Japanese interface into English, indicated by red text)

Next, Aoi tried to test it out. But if you’re a cat owner, you’ll know there are plenty of felines that won’t make a peep even if you command them to say something.

▼ Tsu wasn’t going to be saying much for a while.

Aoi decided to wait it out and pretend she wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary, so she set it on her desk and waited for the pair to wake up from their naps. Sui was the first to wake up, and he let everyone know by walking around and meowing.

▼ According to Aoi, Sui has always been an affectionate attention hog, talking to her a lot when no one else is around.

Since he’s often in the kitchen, Aoi always thought he was saying something like, “Give me more snacks!” But when she actually translated it, she found out he was saying things like “Hey!” “How are you?” “Hello there!”

▼ “What’s up, Mom?”

Aoi thought it was adorable he was greeting her that much even though they were almost always together!

As for Tsu, Aoi always thought he had a silent, subdued personality. But according to the translation app, he was actually full of passion. When he did speak, the app translated it as: “I’m in love with you!” “Can you hear me, my love?” “I’m looking for my darling!” But who was he in love with? He always meowed while looking at her, so…

▼ “I’m in love with you, Aoi!”

When she thought about it, she did get the sense that he loved everything she did to take care of him, but she always thought it was the love a son would feel for his mother, rather than a lover. Aoi felt a little embarrassed! Thinking back with this new knowledge, she realized just how upbeat Sui was for having the courage to interrupt Tsu’s passionate utterings.

▼ “How are ya!?”

While we obviously can’t say with certainty that the results are accurate, we do know that Aoi was very satisfied with MeowTalk. She thinks she can continue to use it to learn a lot from her cats, and so can many others (like the cat that needs to have a full-blown conversation with its owner to fall asleep).

Photos ©SoraNews24
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[ Read in Japanese ]