by Mark
Lamendola, MBA
What is an electronic dictionary / talking
dictionary, and why would you use it? This is a question many people have answered by
buying a second or third unit. You use them because they empower you to jump over language
barriers.
This technology goes by other names, as well:
- Electronic
dictionary
- Handheld
translator
- Handheld
electronic dictionary
- Language
translator
- Language teacher
- Talking dictionary
- Pocket talking
dictionary
- Pocket translator
- Talking language
translator
- Electronic
interpreter
All these names simply refer to a handheld device that stores
thousands of words in two or more languages and looks up the corresponding word in another
language. With this ability, the devices are simply transliterators.
The next step up is
the addition of storing phrases, rather than words. This feature makes the device a true
language translator. Why not just learn the language? Well, that takes time. Often, it
takes more time than you have available.
-
Are you going to postpone a trip to or from
someone in another country for a year while you learn the language?
-
Are you going to tell your employer you can’t close an overseas sale because you need a year to learn the language before you take the trip? -
Are you going to underperform in
an overseas assignment due to language difficulties, or are you going to
make a small investment in your career advancement?
Phrasebook
- The audio phrasebook was recorded with professional native
narrators. Consequently, it delivers superb voice output.
- The "You may hear" function helps another
person select an answer from a list of canned answers. For
instance, having picked the topic "In a restaurant," you choose
a phrase. The waiter wants to reply to that phrase. You then
select the "You may hear" option listed in the restaurant
category (there is such an option in each category). The waiter
can select the answer from the list provided.
- A "phrase" is usually a complete
sentence. It's called a "phrase" out of tradition.
Sentence Builder
This handy, easy to use feature is a word
substitution tool for existing phrases in the phrasebook. You don't
actually "build sentences" with it. Here's how you use
Sentence Builder:
- Choose a phrase.
- Tap on a hyperlinked word in the phrase. This brings up a
short list.
- Tap a word from the list to replace the
hyperlinked word with the one you tapped.
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These language translators are useful when:
- You have guests
from another country—one with a different language
- You develop a
romantic or arranged relationship with someone who speaks a different language
- You do business
with people from another country—and you don’t want language barriers to cause
misunderstandings
- You want to take a
trip to France, Germany, Italy, Russia, or some other country where you don’t want to
learn the language as a condition of going—but don’t want to pass up the
opportunity to visit
- You hire an au
pair
- Your business has
customers from another country and you can’t afford to send your customer service
staff to language lessons
- Any situation
where you don’t want language differences to be barriers to communication and
cooperation.
The current generation allows you to enter your own
random sentences. This is called....
Full text
translation
- This feature allows you to type in your
own random sentence. It's also called sentence translation.
- This feature isn't available for every language pair. Look
that the specs chart for the language pair you are interested
in.
- You can type on the virtual keyboard.
- The other person can type on the virtual keyboard, in
his/her own characters.
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