Samsung launched a new phone this week that heralded a nirvana for the linguistically challenged.

The South Korean company introduced a range of translation tools that would enable you to chat in 13 foreign languages — in person, via text and, crucially, on the phone. That last function promised to be a step change in communication. The end of nerves when you dial abroad. No more stilted Franglais down the line. All of a sudden, Japan and Korea seemed to open up for bookings. So I decided to give “live translate” a go and book some putative journeys around the world.

The new feature is built into the forthcoming Galaxy S24 model and the way it works is quite simple. You choose a language that you and the person you are calling will speak in. Then you dial the number, tap a few buttons and, when you’re connected, the tool translates across both languages, in audio as well as in text on the screen. Well, that’s the theory.

I call a hotel in Oaxaca, Mexico and hear an “Hola” from reception. To get the translator to work you have to start speaking, triggering an automated message that informs all parties the call will be translated. That’s when the problems seem to start: the hotel hangs up. I try another. They hang up too, as does a third. Do they think I’m a dodgy robo-caller?

I switch to Germany and try a small hotel in rural Bavaria. This is more promising as the receptionist doesn’t immediately put the phone down. When I ask to book a room, he wisely answers with one word: “Date?” I respond, but with the delay between my speech and the translation, he gives up.

Off to Portugal, where a hotel staffer’s opening gambit is to call me “ugly” (feia). Now, I’m no oil painting, but this guy can’t see me. It’s the first in a series of increasingly bizarre translations.

I try a hotel in Barcelona, where an employee pleads with me to turn off the tool when he hears my English in the background.

So I give up on Europe and turn east. I spent a year in Japan when I was younger and live translate would have worked wonders had it been invented then — and actually functioned. After three hang-ups I get through to a hotel in Ashikaga, my old town. We stumble through a booking for a room next week. Then the woman says: “I’m in trouble. Are you using it for refugees?”

Japan has a history of being suspicious of foreigners, but this can’t be right. When her next sentence is “Eggplant is also gold Lance Merkin”, I wonder what she’s being told at the other end. I do, however, find out the cost is 7,500 yen a night. Breakfast included? “It comes with free school lunch,” she replies, in an unlikely translation.

Later, a South Korean hotelier tells me his dreams have come true when I call. Nice, but I don’t believe him.

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When it becomes clear that we are still far from the fantasy of a Babel fish, I call Dr Lucas Nunes Vieira, head of translation at the school of modern languages at Bristol University, for his opinion. In Portuguese.

Of our confusing exchange, he says: “It got to one point where, had we not persisted, I think that could be called ‘communication breakdown’. When Portuguese and English were arriving at the same time, I just couldn’t tell what was going on. So at that point I stopped speaking, and then I think you stopped speaking.

“Some of the technical glitches ended up exacerbating what already is a situation that’s not great, because the translations themselves are just inaccurate. I think 50 per cent of what you said reflected what I said accurately. So, not great. I’m not impressed at all.”

So what’s gone wrong? Why are we still lost in translation? It’s hard to tell exactly without knowing the dataset that Samsung has used and the training its AI has done to recognise speech.

But Nunes Vieira adds: “Automated translations have improved quite a lot recently, but they are still hugely problematic. And that’s something I think sometimes it’s easy to overlook. This is still going to be a really problematic technology for the foreseeable future.

“The problem is trust. Language is dynamic. These translations work one moment and then they don’t work the next.”

More generally, he is concerned about the technology’s use by professionals such as the police to gain consent for searches.

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Paolo Pescatore, an Italian-speaking technology analyst at PP Foresight, said he was impressed with the face-to-face translation on the Samsung phone, but ended up laughing at the phrases delivered during our phone call. He was also sceptical about how much use the tool will be in a world when most foreign transactions are done online.

With Samsung suggesting that users may have to pay to use some of the services after 2025, he added: “If they’re going to go down this route, I don’t think many people would pay for something like this.”

The Galaxy S24 range is available for pre-order and ships from January 31, priced from £799 to £1,249.

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A Samsung spokesman said: “As with any new technology, it may take some time for these features to become commonplace, but we are excited to see how our customers will use them.

“With live translate specifically, there are situations that might impact accurate translation, such as overlapping speech, audio quality or background noise, and therefore AI may interpret the message differently. We expect this feature to evolve over time with further software updates.”