language translator

[yadreamin]

Do you have or know anyone who has an electronic/digital language translator.?
l am looking to buy one of these as a gift for a friend who is going on an overseas trip around Europe
Are they any good?
Do tell me all about them
cheers
yadreamin

 

[ianvestor]

I have a little Korean/English dictionary which is really handy. My particular model was aimed at Koreans learning English, but it's just as useful the other way.

 

[jezza]

YEADREAMIN

You can get them off ebay which is here
http://shop.ebay.com.au/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m38.l1313&_nkw=translator&_sacat=See-All-Categories

I would have to say though, except for parts of France and Spain you won't have any problems unless you are planning on living over there. I recently spent 6 months over there and most countries now speak very good in english. If you are going to eastern Europe then you won't need one North of France ( Belgium/Germany/Netherlands/Finland) and south of France ( Most of Italy/Greece/Switzerland/Austria), they also speak good english in Portugal.

In saying that there are some very good travel books which give you about 100 basic word translations and the numbers that will get you by

Jezza

 

[AlmostBob]

I found,
that everywhere you go,
except France and Montreal

(the rest of Quebec in general seems to think my attempts at murdering French are funny),​

an Australian (dunno about other furriners) accent together with trying to speak some part of the language, no matter how badly, is a great door opener
English is a big part of airtraffic, the internet,
All computer languages are in English,
sea traffic,
its hard to not speak some English when the keywords used to program your website in French or Greek, are in English.

The other growing language, Chinese, is too hard to write

 

[Young Gun]

Have a look at Dick Smith's and work from there.

http://search.dse.com.au/electronics/Language Translator

 

[BV]

If you have an iphone or ipod touch or are considering buying 1
Try mylanguage pro

Here is a demo
http://www.mylanguage.me/

and here is the download page
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mylanguage-translator/id306752957?mt=8

 

[andymac4321]

If they have a Nintendo DS there is a translator called "Just in time translations" It does Spanish, French, Chinese, German and Japanese.

Common phrases and pronounces the word for you.

http://nds.gamezone.com/gamesell/p38606.htm

 

[yadreamin]

Thanks everyone you have been very helpful.
I did go to Dicks yesterday for a look and they had 2 in store but the salespersons could only quess at what the units actually did.

I will look into the iphone option as that sounds to be the best option.

I have also come to the conclusion they they really wont need any gadget at all
Cheers everyone
yadreamin

 

[Strannik]

i'm yet to see a translator which doesn't make natives laugh when they hear the translation

 

[BV]

I will look into the iphone option as that sounds to be the best option.

It could be a good option but you should know that it needs internet or mobile phone coverage to work and although there are many wifi hot spots in Europe you won't have coverage everywhere and I don't know if you want to be using your data bandwidth on your iphone when you are overseas.

Also, the free app doesn't talk so if you want voice (which is fun) you'll need to download the pro version which is $5

 

[BV]

yadreamin

What did you end up buying?

I'm going OS in a few days and I'll need a translator as well. I'm considering getting something for my iphone.

I saw a couple paid apps which don't need internet connection.