Okay, full disclosure: My ability to speak Japanese is pretty limited. Outside of the names for wood and woodworking tools, I can order a beer, a bowl of ramen and say “I didn’t do it!”* On my first trip to Japan, I carried a pair of Japanese phrase books at all times. One was very basic (which way to the train/toilet/embassy) and the other book was one with a lot of pictures and phrases that you could point to when, invariably, your pro-nun-see-ay-shun left the Japanese person scratching their head. They were both helpful with the basic navigation of day to day wanderings, but when it came to oddball stuff like asking a potter if he digs his own clay, they left me wanting. And I had to carry two books around.
Enter the smartphone. I downloaded an iPhone app called simply Translate, on a whim while waiting for my flight, and had fairly low expectations since it was free. Man was I wrong. It was fantastically helpful over the whole of my trip. Example: I walked into a cramped little store with a bag full of stuff that was making it hard to walk the aisles without knocking stuff over. I went to the shop keeper and asked if I could leave my bag at the front while I looked around. Although he understood a little English, he couldn’t make sense of what I was asking and I couldn’t gesture my way through. Remembering the app, I pulled out my phone, did a little typing, hit go and up pops my question in Japanese. I showed him the screen, he read it, and all was good. We then embarked on a brief conversation about the app, where i was from… Most importantly though, I got to set my bag down. Priceless.
The app, which I later discovered is by Google, translates between 64 languages (including the always useful Esperanto?) and has a button to make your phone speak the translation. It also has a speech translation option. Talk to your phone and then wait for the (sometimes hilarious) interpretation of your speech. Fortunately, it shows you what it thinks you said so you can double check it before you tell someone “that is not worth the 20 goes” (an actual translation). While the speech recognition worked surprisingly well, typing was still more reliable. Another feature is the ability to star frequently used translations, allowing you to navigate to them easily. It also stores a history of all previous ones. This is good because the app requires the use of wifi or data, so you can make some anticipated translations on the hotel wifi to use later on.
All in all, the Google Translation app is a great tool to have along. It helped make communication easier and my overall experience richer. I can only imagine how great it will be a couple of years from now.
The Good
- It’s in my phone and not two books
- Allowed me to communicate on a level beyond “How much is that”
- Shows full screen, large font translations just by turning the phone horizontal
- Speaks translation
- Free
The Bad
- It won’t simply translate my thoughts, makes me type
- Uses data which can be expensive overseas
The Why
- Apparently the version for Android also uses the camera to translate print, but not for iPhone. What’s up with that Google?
Would I recommend?: Hai!
Google Translate App for iPhone and Android – Free
*The More You Know: “Yatte masen!!”
Images via: Apple App Store