A popular gift to new parents is baby board books! Not only are they great for chewing on (good source of fiber), they are also a nice way to introduce early literacy. We also have a 'subscription box of the quarter' which comes with a variety of board books

However, all these books are in English - and if you're trying to expose your lil one to another language it can be challenging to get books in the second language if it isn't a popular one in your country. In this case, we wanted to have some Hebrew language books (the weather-control-machine instruction manual is in Hebrew so it is important for our kiddo to read fluently). We were able to pick up some Hebrew books from the Israel Bookshop - and the library also has some options! But, library books must be returned unchewed and imported books are not inexpensive. We also had lots of gifted books, already... so let's convert them to be bilingual with help from ChatGPT4

Why ChatGPT4?

You don't need to use an LLM to help translate, but my Hebrew is rusty and especially details like getting spelling and nikkud correct is not my highest skill.

Translation is what I like to call an "NP-complete" task - its hard and time-consuming to do right, but you can quickly determine if its done correctly. That makes it a great task to use LLM for: it's a lot faster than copying and pasting text over and over into Google Translate but once its done its quick to verify. It also doesn't innundate you with pop-ups and ads like Morfix .

Labelling

To attach the new language text, we'll use a labeler. I'm sure there's tons that work, but specifically be sure to get one that connects through a computer so you can use any font. A stand-alone labeller will not be able to handle other language fonts!

I used a Brother P-Touch Cube Plus (but I'm pretty sure the non-Plus one will work just fine too). You'll also need tape - you can pick up 'knock-off' tape, in 12mm, 18mm or 24mm heights. Black on clear or white on clear will probably look best.

The important part is that you can use any font and so it needs to print through the computer. There's also a mobile app but you'll be frustrated with how it sucks to copy-paste on a mobile device.

Time to Translate!

Be sure to use Chat GPT4 for this, 3.5 was not particularly good at this kind of task!

Here's the first chat with a prompt that we found helped get into the right context:
https://chat.openai.com/share/1c299314-bab8-4cfd-ba74-43290c7cb98b

User:
hi there, i am translating english baby books so that i can help teach my baby hebrew. the baby is female so for gendered pronouns please use feminine hebrew word forms. i will provide words and phrases in english, please translate them to hebrew and include the nikkud as well!

ChatGPT:
Hello! That's a wonderful endeavor, and I'd be happy to help. Please provide the words and phrases you'd like to have translated into Hebrew.

User:
"The Parts of my Body"
Eyes
Nose
Mouth
Arms
Legs
Hair
Ears

ChatGPT:
Of course! Here's your translation:

"The Parts of my Body"
חֲלָקֵי הַגּוּף שֶׁלִּי

Eyes
עֵינַיִם

Nose
אַף

Mouth
פֶּה

Arms
יָדַיִם

Legs
רַגְלַיִם

Hair
שֵׂעָר

Ears
אׇזְנַיִם

I've used feminine possessive forms for the title "The Parts of my Body" and kept other terms in their basic form, as they don't change based on gender. Hope that helps!

User:
Perfect, can you also give me the english-transliterated pronounciations for each hebrew word

ChatGPT:
Certainly!

"The Parts of my Body"
חֲלָקֵי הַגּוּף שֶׁלִּי
Halakei haguf sheli

Eyes
עֵינַיִם
Einayim

Nose
אַף
Af

Mouth
פֶּה
Peh

Arms
יָדַיִם
Yadayim

Legs
רַגְלַיִם
Reglayim

Hair
שֵׂעָר
Se'ar

Ears
אׇזְנַיִם
Oznayim

Note: Transliteration can slightly differ based on different conventions, but I've provided a common approach.

It's good to check and adjust the work, since translation is not always 1-to-1, in this case the hebrew words for arms/hands and legs/feet is colloquially the same but you can differentiate them by request:

User:
While יָדַיִם is "Arms" there's a separate page for "Hands" later, can we differentiate them?

ChatGPT:
Of course!

Hands
יָדַיִם
Yadayim

Arms
זְרוֹעוֹת
Z'ro'ot

My apologies for the oversight. Now, "Yadayim" is specifically for "hands," and "Z'ro'ot" is for "arms."

Print & Paste!

After all the words are translated, install support for your desired language on the computer. Both Windows and Mac now have great language support so its free and one-click

You probably don't even need custom fonts, as the system fonts tend to have all glyphs. I just used Arial, if you're using nikkud just adjust the text box to fit the label

Print onto the tape and apply!

More Advanced Usage: Rhyming Books

OK, so doing simple nouns is not that hard (tbh we actually did the initial translation for this simple body-part book without GPT) but what about more complex books that have rhyming lines? This is definitely a challenge that we enjoyed trying because rhyming requires deeper understanding of pronounciation, meaning and meter.

We will attempt to translate "I love you all the time"

For this book, the pages have a 1-1-2-3 structure, so only the first two lines rhyme (later on I noticed that the next stanza has the first two lines rhyme with the previous stanza's 3rd line but it isn't as important)

I love you when you shout out loud,
tell a joke to please the crowd,
I love your highs and all your lows,
I love you all the time.

The chat is a lot longer since it took a few tries to figure out what was going on with ChatGPT4's ability to understand rhyming and pronunciation, so I wont paste the whole thing (you can read it all here). 

The first attempt was:

אני אוהבת אותך כשאת צועקת גבוה,
מספרת בדיחה, וכולם מתחייכים כאן,
אני אוהבת אותך בשמח ובכאב,
אני אוהבת אותך, כל הזמן.

The second attempt (after pointing out that this does not rhyme at all):

אני אוהבת אותך כשצועקת לשמיים,
מספרת בדיחה וכולם מתחייכים,
בגבהים ובנמוכים, בשמחה ובדיכאון,
אוהבת אותך, תמיד, בלי הפסקה.

Here's a better attempt at rhyme:

• • "לשמיים" (to the skies) rhymes with "מתחייכים" (smiling).
  • "דיכאון" (depression, or lows) rhymes with "הפסקה" (pause/break), symbolizing "all the time."

GPT4 thought that because both ended in ים that they rhymed...which they don't really! We went back and forth a few more times until we finally got

אני אוהבת אותך כשצועקת ברעמים,
מספרת בדיחה וכולם בצחוקים,
ברגעים הגבוהים וגם בנמוכים,
אני אוהבת אותך כל הזמן.

Which is pretty much as good as it gets, and does have a strong rhyme. Giving it the 'rhyming sound' to match helped. You can use Google Translate to speak the phrases if you need help determining rhyming and pronounciation. Also its good to 'reverse' translate again to make sure you've got the right gist of the original poem

Finally, to make things faster, I asked it to do the nikkud only at the end since nikkud slows it down during the revision process

User:
ok so for the first poem phrase, please rewrite this with nikkud for a feminine subject
אני אוהבת אותך כשצועקת ברעמים
מספרת בדיחה וכולם בצחוקים
ברגעים הגבוהים וגם בנמוכים
אני אוהבת אותך כל הזמן

ChatGPT:
Certainly! Here's the text with nikkud:

אֲנִי אוֹהֶבֶת אוֹתָךְ כְּשֶׁצוֹעֶקֶת בְּרָעָמִים֮,
מְסַפֶּרֶת בְּדִיחָה וְכֻלָּם בְּצָחוֹקִים֒,
בְּרָגָעִים הַגְּבוֹהִים וְגַם בְּנָמוּכִים֮,
אֲנִי אוֹהֶבֶת אוֹתָךְ כָּל הַזְּמָן֒.

Note that due to text limitations, nikkud might not be displayed perfectly on all devices. Make sure to review the text on a platform that supports full Hebrew nikkud display.

User
the nikkud on the sofit characters is kinda wierd, please leave them off. 

ChatGPT:
Of course. Here's the text without the nikkud on the sofit characters:

אֲנִי אוֹהֶבֶת אוֹתָךְ כְּשֶׁצוֹעֶקֶת בְּרָעָמִים,
מְסַפֶּרֶת בְּדִיחָה וְכֻלָּם בְּצָחוֹקִים,
בְּרָגָעִים הַגְּבוֹהִים וְגַם בְּנָמוּכִים,
אֲנִי אוֹהֶבֶת אוֹתָךְ כָּל הַזְּמָן.

Here's the full translation from ChatGPT4 (may have typos and errors - we will update once its corrected!)

I love you when you shout out loud,
tell a joke to please the crowd,
I love your highs and all your lows,
I love you all the time.

אני אוהבת אותך כשצועקת ברעמים
מספרת בדיחה וכולם בצחוקים
ברגעים הגבוהים וגם בנמוכים
אני אוהבת אותך כל הזמן

אֲנִי אוֹהֶבֶת אוֹתָךְ כְּשֶׁצוֹעֶקֶת בְּרָעָמִים
מְסַפֶּרֶת בְּדִיחָה וְכֻלָּם בְּצָחוֹקִים
בְּרָגָעִים הַגְּבוֹהִים וְגַם בְּנָמוּכִים
אֲנִי אוֹהֶבֶת אוֹתָךְ כָּל הַזְּמָן

I love you when you grab your toes,
feel it all and let it show,
i love you when you sing along,
I love you all the time.

אני אוהבת אותך כשאת לוחצת אצבעות רגליים
כשבעינייך רואים כל התודעיים
אני אוהבת אותך כשאת שרה ביחד
אני אוהבת אותך כל הזמן

אֲנִי אוֹהֶבֶת אוֹתָךְ כְּשֶׁאַת לוֹחֶצֶת אֶצְבְּעוֹת רַגְלַיִם
כְּשֶׁבְּעֵינַיִךְ רוֹאִים כָּל הַתּוֹדָעָיִים
אֲנִי אוֹהֶבֶת אוֹתָךְ כְּשֶׁאַת שָׁרָה בְּיָחַד
אֲנִי אוֹהֶבֶת אוֹתָךְ כָּל הַזְּמָן

I love you when you push up strong,
let me know you think i'm wrong,
i love you when you're feeling shy
I love you all the time

אני אוהבת אותך כשאת דוחפת למעלה
כשאת מרמזת שאני לא צודקת בכללה
אני אוהבת אותך כשאת מרגישה ביישנית
אני אוהבת אותך כל הזמן

אֲנִי אוֹהֶבֶת אוֹתָךְ כְּשֶׁאַת דוֹחֶפֶת לְמַעְלָה
כְּשֶׁאַת מַרְמֶזֶת שֶׁאֲנִי לֹא צוֹדֶקֶת בְּכְּלָלָה
אֲנִי אוֹהֶבֶת אוֹתָךְ כְּשֶׁאַת מֵרְגִּישָה בַּיִישָׁנִית
אֲנִי אוֹהֶבֶת אוֹתָךְ כָּל הַזְּמָן

I love you when you come say 'hi',
when you're just my cutie pie,
I love you when you do your dance,
I love you all the time.

אני אוהבת אותך כשאת באה לומר 'שלום
כשאת מתוקתי, הכי יפה בחלום
אני אוהבת אותך כשאת רוקדת בתנועה
אני אוהבת אותך כל הזמן

אֲנִי אוֹהֶבֶת אוֹתָךְ כְּשֶׁאַת בָּאָה לוֹמַר 'שָׁלוֹם
כְּשֶׁאַת מְתוֹקָתִי, הכי יָפָה בַּחֲלוֹם
אֲנִי אוֹהֶבֶת אוֹתָךְ כְּשֶׁאַת רוֹקֶדֶת בְּתְנוּעָה
אֲנִי אוֹהֶבֶת אוֹתָךְ כָּל הַזְּמָן

i love you when you clap your hands,
get upset and make demands,
i love you when you state your case
i love you all the time.

אני אוהבת אותך כשאת מספקת כפות
כשאת כועסת ודורשת ללא הפסקות
אני אוהבת אותך כשאת מצגת את דעתך
אני אוהבת אותך כל הזמן

אֲנִי אוֹהֶבֶת אוֹתָךְ כְּשֶׁאַת מַסְפֶּקֶת כַּפּוֹת
כְּשֶׁאַת כוֹעֶסֶת וְדוֹרֶשֶׁת לְלֹא הַפְסָקוֹת
אֲנִי אוֹהֶבֶת אוֹתָךְ כְּשֶׁאַת מַצְגֶּת אֶת דַּעְתֵּךְ
אֲנִי אוֹהֶבֶת אוֹתָךְ כָּל הַזְּמָן

i love your little thinking face,
the way you boldly claim your space,
i love you when you've had enough,
i love you all the time.

אני אוהבת אותך כשאת במחשבה עמוקה
כשאת תופסת מקום ולא נותנת שוקה
אני אוהבת אותך כשאת רוצה הפסקה
אני אוהבת אותך כל הזמן

אֲנִי אוֹהֶבֶת אוֹתָךְ כְּשֶׁאַת בְּמַחְשָׁבָה עֲמוּקָה
כְּשֶׁאַת תוֹפֶסֶת מָקוֹם וְלֹא נוֹתֶנֶת שׁוּקָה
אֲנִי אוֹהֶבֶת אוֹתָךְ כְּשֶׁאַת רוֹצָה הַפְסָקָה
אֲנִי אוֹהֶבֶת אוֹתָךְ כָּל הַזְּמָן