Electronic translators

In my opinion, they are a huge waste of money. You're better off to get a good phrase book and a pocket dictionary.

What Nancy said, unless you want to appear to be a geek robot who doesn't care enough about the people you'll meet to learn a few polite phrases in their language.

Thanks for the replies. I've been working on learning phrases for several weeks. As we will be touring on our own in the South of Italy, however, as well as attempting ancestry research in a town hall, I'd like to be equipped for more complicated situations that might arise.

John
Cranston, RI

For some reason I appear to out out of step with everyone recently. I like cheap luggage and translators. We have a very old, five language, Bookman (?) translator that is handy for translating odd phrases or words on menus, schedules, announcements, etc. Our frequently use is in restaurants and it is handy for us.

My previous comments are withdrawn.

You're probably going to need some heavy-duty stuff. Maybe you could write a few paragraphs of your basic history/search ideas/whatever and on-line translate it and take the wad of paper with you.

You're going to need more than phrase books. Maybe even a fairly decent two-language dictionary.

If you're going south of Potenza you're going to find very few folks that speak english except maybe around Lecca, Taranto, Brindisi, or Messina and even there it will be hit and miss.

largest countries of W. Europe (maybe English, Italian, French, Spanish).

How about an English-English translator? Actually, for American to (British) English, that might not be a bad idea.

You left out German. More people (over 100 million) on the Western European continent speak German than any other language.

Complicated situations aren't likely to be helped with an electronic translator. Most of the ones I've seen are geared toward travel situations, menus, etc. When I mentioned a pocket dictionary, I meant a two-language one, as Ed said. Of course, you'd need several of those to cover the languages you want to use.

John,

Translators sound like a good idea, but in practise they're somewhat cumbersome to use. As Nancy mentioned, they work fine for common phrases when dealing with hotels, restaurants, etc. but cover only a limited range of situations.

While Translators can be effective at translating and in some cases "speaking" a phrase in the local language, they're not able to function as well in translating the response from the locals (which might be spoken very quickly).

Especially in the south of Italy, you'll encounter a number of dialects, which many Translators don't cover.

I've found that the best Translator is the one sitting on top of my shoulders. I usually try to learn some of the common phrases in each language, and that's worked well so far. Also, most people that are dealing with tourists can speak English to some degree.

The best Electronic Translators I've seen so far are made by Ectaco, but I'm still not convinced that the technology has advanced far enough to make these practical.

Cheers!

do you have an iPhone or other smart device? Here's what it would be like to use the electronic translator -- try having a conversation with a friend standing with you, but just use text messages to each other. You'll quickly see, I predict, that it isn't that useful. A phrasebook will cover most situations and IMHO is a better choice.

Mike,

That's the point I was trying to make in terms of the practicality of Language Translators. The example you provided was an excellent illustration of the concept!

Cheers!

How about an English-English translator? Actually, for American to (British) English, that might not be a bad idea. <<

When we first started collecting British cookbooks we bought a dictionary in a bookstore in Greenwich so we wouldn't be confused about Poussins and Aubergines and the like.

Electronic translators haven't reached the level where they can act like a Babelfish in the ear, but I could see where they might supplement a dictionary or phrasebook. A smartphone that can connect to the Internet can do some pretty amazing things. My Android-based phone will let me speak a sentence in English and then convert it to any of a choice of languages. It will convert it to text and to voice so you can actually play the translation. Here's where it might help in certain situations: You can have the person you're trying to talk to speak into your phone and have the program convert it to English.

Sure it isn't the same as a normal conversation, but if you don't speak the language, you're not going to have a normal conversation in any event, regardless of the technique you're using.

Several years ago I worked for a resort in Santa Fe where we had many international guests, so on more than one occasion I was on the other side of a translator exchange. Unless the technology has improved greatly, electronic translators aren't much help. Often the English that came up on their screens was gibberish. I felt so sorry for these people; we usually ended up resorting to their pocket dictionaries/phrasebooks, gestures, pantomime, and sometimes drawing:) but eventually we got it figured out:) Patience and some creativity can go a long way.

By the way Paul, my fellow Hitchhikers' Guide fan, I love your Babelfish reference!

My wife bought me one a couple of years ago. I made an effort with it but it didn't work well so now it gets left in the drawer at home.

My biggest gripe was looking up words as I saw them (on signs or menus) and not finding a translation. The translator doesn't seem to incorporate all the possible forms, tenses and local variations (high vs. low German vs. Bavarian vs. Austrian) of words you are likely to see.

I'm not sure it picks up English vs. American either.

WOW! Thanks for all the replies - and so thoughtful, too. I won't be shelling out the $s for an electronic translator. I like the idea of pretranslating phrases to use at town hall and church to request ancestor records, and will write in advance of visit. Actually found a book with such phrases in Italian! Also gonna' work with those tapes some more and bring my phrase book.

John

Forgot to thank Pensacola Ed by name for the idea to translate some stuff ahead of time.

John