A system, method and computer-readable storage device which balance latency and accuracy of machine translations by segmenting the speech upon locating a conjunction. The system, upon receiving speech, will buffer speech until a conjunction is detected. Upon detecting a conjunction, the speech received until that point is segmented. The system then continues performing speech recognition on the segment, searching for the next conjunction, while simultaneously initiating translation of the segment. Upon translating the segment, the system converts the translation to a speech output, allowing a user to hear an audible translation of the speech originally heard.