One of the items in Breaking the Language Barrier, my latest “travel helpers” roundup for the Minneapolis Star Tribune Sunday travel section: This fantastically priced translator, which doubles as an alarm clock. Push one of eight buttons corresponding to popular travel categories to access over 4,500 pre-programmed phrases you can read on-screen or play out loud. (There’s a headphone jack for discreet learning.) It’s quite simple to switch between the seven languages; English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese and Japanese; and you can easily store your favorite travel phrases in a special button-location, for easy access. Two caveats: You must rely on the pre-programmed phrases—no ability to type in words willy-nilly. Also, Japanese shows up as characters, not translated into the Latin Alphabet. All in all, nice bang for your buck.
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serious? have you tried this out? we’ve been looking for a pocket translator, and they’re all in the hundreds!
Yep, tried it out. It does have its limitations, as outlined above. But if you understand those quirks & don’t need more interaction, it’s fantastic.
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