When Words Fail
I walk into a Berlin restaurant for breakfast, and the host hands me a menu in German. "Do you have an English menu?" I ask hopefully, as I know only a few words in Deutsche. He smiles but shrugs his shoulders and disappears.
Time to whip out the Aim High Talking TR2203 ($195), a handheld audible language translator that I mentioned in my column last month. The gadget has a database of 200,000 words and 23,000 phrases in ten languages. It will even speak for me, in German, via its small built-in speaker. All I do is select the phrases I need (they're listed in categories, under practical headings such as "meals"); or I can look up words in the device's database and then press a button, and--faster than you can say "Götterdämmerung"--I'm a polyglot.
Regrettably, the TR2203's database includes only some of the menu items that I type in. Left to my own devices, I demonstrate the breaking and scrambling of eggs for the waiter. Fortunately, she understands my gesticulations, and she also knows the English word "cheese."
On the other hand, the TR2203 is helpful for learning to pronounce foreign words before you travel. But practice at home: Its speaker is too quiet to hear in a restaurant or other noisy place.
Ultimately, miming my food requests is far more entertaining all around than relying on a gadget to do the talking--though I draw the line at impersonating a free-range chicken. You can check out the TR2203 here.
James A. Martin writes PC World's Mobile Computing newsletter.
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