Stick a fish in your ear

Sticking a fish in your ear was a thing in the late 1970's in the UK.

Credit to Douglas Adams for the Babel fish (I was lucky enough to meet him once, very very tall and very smart guy who left us far too early).

Simultaneous language translation is a reality. Pinch (YC W25) enables real-time translation of more than 30 languages on a video call. Presumably not when they all speak at the same time - but this is a seriously impressive bit of AI-powered tech. Takes place on their own video platform.

Subconsciously I think the Babel fish may have been why I never really learnt any languages, as a kid it seemed obvious that it would be invented by the time I needed it. May have taken 40 odd years, but technology has caught up.