<p>I’m attempting to find an electronic language translator for my dad for a gift. However, amazon doesn’t give much help in the reviews department, simply because most only have 2-5 reviews. I was wondering if anyone has any experience buying these things, or if they’ve settled on a particular brand/model recently, or ones to stay away from.<br>
I’m trying to find something that speaks, since my dad is going to use it on business trips and not necessarily trying to learn it. I figure since it’s hard to read something in Chinese, speaking would be useful. However, I’m not sure if some might show how to speak some by using English sounds, so the talking may not be needed if there is a clear pronunciation given instead.
Also, it needs to have Chinese (Mand.), Japanese, and Korean, or some kind of ability to add-on languages. I know it’s picky, but those three countries and Germany are his top destinations, especially Korea. He’s mentioned that Japan isn’t as English friendly as other countries, which makes it a necessity as well, but I think having Korean is the hard part. German I figure is pretty standard.</p>
<p>Any help/links would be superb! Thanks!</p>
<p>I’m familiar with both Mandarin Chinese and Japanese. I’m very wary of electronic language translators because I think they’re functionally useless.</p>
<p>For Chinese, I can tell you now that even if an electronic translator were to “speak” phrases in Chinese, it’s very unlikely that your father would be able to repeat them in an understandable way. The tones in Chinese give meaning to the syllables and are crucial for comprehension, and they can be very hard for an inexperienced speaker to imitate. Without them, words become meaningless sounds, and it’s extremely hard to understand anyone speaking in this fashion.</p>
<p>Regarding Japanese, an electronic translator is unlikely to be helpful. A speaker’s word choice in Japanese changes according to age, sex, rank within a group, membership or non-membership within a group, the level of politeness required, and other nuances. Without understanding those things, your father could ending up using language might be interpreted as being inappropriate for the situation or meaning something that he does not intend.</p>
<p>DS has a Japanese - English program for his Nintendo DS that helps him translate words he doesn’t know. I bought it at a website called play-asia.com (Its not the new My Japanese Coach, if you’d like a link to the specific program I can find it for you). And I think the Nintendo DS has similar programs for other languages. We also recently found that there are Japanese-English dictionaries available for his iphone, some free and some are available in the itunes store.</p>
<p>My H worked on designing some of the first electronic translators in the late 80’s (dang if he had gotten that patent I wouldn’t be slaving away in the office right now). Here is the link to the company that bought his company out…</p>
<p>[Translators</a> - Franklin Electronic Publishers](<a href=“http://www.franklin.com/handhelds/translators/]Translators”>http://www.franklin.com/handhelds/translators/)</p>