Two-Way Voice Translator?

Google Translate offers a microphone icon that you click on to hear the written material spoken correctly.

Don't sweat it, when on the tourist trail anyone who wants your money will speak english. Speaking only english won't be a hardship. While I do have the Google translate app in installed on my phone, I've never once come across any situation that needed use of the voice translate feature. Occasionally I will use the photo feature to translate restaurant menus or labels at the supermarket, but that's the extent of it. Just learn the local greetings and you are good to go.

Having said that, last month I was in Newark, NJ on my way to attend a NY Red Bulls soccer match. A couple Brazilian tourists approached me and needed directions on how to reach the stadium and purchase train tickets at the machine. He opened the Google App on his phone and on the train ride we had a shockingly easy conversation using the app to translate english/portugeese. So if you happen to need it the free google app should work for you.

The BIG question is ----- Where are you going?? Unless you going somewhere way off the beaten path, having a voice translator is pretty goofy. This isn't a StarWar episode of first encounter. I think you are going to look pretty silly have a local speak into your translator. Save your money. It is not worth it.

On "how accurate" are they?

I myself would not bet on them being accurate all the time. They are not. That's why I never resort to these devices, let alone rely on them. No use for me.

Nothing to fear as you do not need a voice translator to travel in Europe. Most speak enough English in service Industry situations (where you will have the most contact) as a lingua franca or neutral language to conduct business from constant contact with tourists from emerging markets like China.

Europe is a large continent and knowledge of English varies in different countries. As does attitude. In France for example, some attempt to speak French will help you get much more polite service - and it’s really not hard to learn to say good morning, please, thank you, etc.

In Scandanavia & the Netherlands, they’ll speak fluent English.

Spain & Portugal - depends what parts you’re in.

So if you give us an indication of where you’re going, we could give you much better help.

Europe is very special if it comes to languages.

I agree that it is a question where do you plan to go exactly, not country only. Be aware that languages in Europe has sometimes nothing to do with the country, e.g. Südtirol in Italy is mainly speaking German. Also the local dialects are very strong.

Take German as example: High German is standard but in the north of Germany you will find also people speaking Low German ("Platt") preferably which is really hard to understand. Also Bavarian, Swabian and Saxonian accent. Berlin dialect is also very special since we invented words like "jottweidei" (spoken for English natives) or in short "jwd" which mean "janz weit draussen", translated really far in the outskirts. Switzer German is also very special. We have also a lot of words with two different meanings or even words written the same way but completely different pronounciation (e.g. "Montage").

This said I would consider that a tool sometimes might give up or work wrong.

General recommendation: for pronounciation of words from real local people I recommend dict.cc which often has more than one sound example.

Best translation text-wise but not all languages has imo DeepL. This platforms does not track you.

Don't sweat it, when on the tourist trail anyone who wants your money will speak english.

As a few others said, this is absolutely not true. In Spain we stayed in several hotels (for example in Tarifa and in Toledo) where the staff spoke no English whatsoever. However, we spoke Spanish, so we were OK.

Google Translate on your phone costs you nothing and it is accurate enough to rescue you in a pinch. No need for that $300 gadget. Even if you never need the app, having it as an option will give you more confidence as you set off to Europe.

Also, you can check the reviews when selecting a hotel to try to avoid places where others have said no one spoke English.

We have the free Google translate on our pad. We used it in Russia and Belarus successfully. It was great for having discussions negotiating tickets to the Bolshoi. The ticket sellers were so pleased they could communicate with us, they found us great chesp seats after implying they we sold out when we first arrived.

Even if neither of you speak each other languages, you can usually communicate your needs if you keep it simple. Much more complicated than that, even a voice translator won't help anyway.

I find it does help to have merchants for example write down an amount, we all get numbers, and I usually have my phone to decipher a menu or come up with a critical phrase or word that can be answered with a yes or no, or by pointing. Of course it never hurts to know please, thank you, hello, goodbye, etc to be polite.

I think travel where you do not speak the language also requires that you put some of your preferences or tolerances aside. As long as I know generally what is in a meal I ordered (and sometimes not) I am fine. I have seen too many people riddling a waiter with questions about a dish that he has no idea what you are talking about (cheese, what kind of cheese? is it melted or grated? is there a little or a lot? can I get it on the side? do you have fat free?) that was before the questions on the pasta and the vegetables, I just wanted to walk over and say "It is pasta with cheese and vegetables...just order it and eat it" [Disclaimer: For those with medically valid food restrictions and needs, you do need to be concerned, but then you need to develop a strategy, ie: warning cards in the local language, etc]

Otherwise, don't worry, learn a few key phrases, keep it simple, go with the flow, laugh at any misunderstandings (In Germany my wife struggled to order some kind of vegetarian dish and finally succeeded, only to have a plate full of roasted cauliflower brought to her, before that was fashionable, but it was very good cauliflower.) and have fun.

I haven't tried it on the road yet but in France last summer a man from Scotland was using Google Translate App (with the microphone icon) to translate English to French and back. He'd speak into his phone and it would then speak French. The person could then respond in French and it translated to English. He said it worked perfectly well and allowed him to translate conversations he wouldn't otherwise be able to have with locals. I downloaded the App when I got home and played with it a little, but haven't used it in a real world situation yet.

It's free.

I haven't tried it on the road yet but in France last summer a man from Scotland was using Google Translate App (with the microphone icon) to translate English to French and back.

I could have used a Scottish (not Celtic) to English translator when visiting Scotland given the language problems I had. But seriously, to pick up a Scottish lilt and translate to French is some impressive programming.

This was exactly the same experience faced by me when I visited France last month for a family wedding. The big issue was faced by me was language issue so a friend of mine suggested me about google translator and it was really very helpful for me so you can also try this it can be helpful for you as well.

My husband just reminded me that we’re used our Google translate app on most trips, at least once.

Hello Everybody, again,

Many belated thanks to all of you for the wonderful responses to my enquiry regarding a $300 pocket translator. Your responses encouraged me not to buy the $300 translation gadget and to instead download the free Google Translate app. I had not thought of translation apps when I posted my enquiry.

During the last month, I have test-driven the Google Translate app and I’m amazed by its photo and microphone / voice features, which are not available in the desktop version with which I was already familiar. I would not have been adventurous enough to try out the features but for your comments. So, thank you for pointing them out. Great stuff!

MarkK wrote:

“General recommendation: for pronounciation of words from real local people I recommend dict.cc … Best translation text-wise but not all languages has imo DeepL”

Dict.cc seems to provide an array of voices that pronounce the word you enter—interesting concept that enables you to hear various ways in which a word can be pronounced.

For fun, I actually compared a Deepl translation and a Google Translate (desktop) translation of some German text that I had copied and pasted. The results were almost identical, but Deepl’s translation provided grammar that was slightly more correct.

Paul wrote:

“I find it does help to have merchants for example write down an amount … I usually have my phone to decipher a menu or come up with a critical phrase or word that can be answered with a yes or no, or by pointing. Of course it never hurts to know please, thank you, hello, goodbye, etc to be polite.”

Sound advice. Thank you.

Also:

“I think travel where you do not speak the language also requires that you put some of your preferences or tolerances aside.”

Indeed. I will have to remind myself to do just that when I’m abroad.

To each of you, thank you for introducing me to the Google Translate app, for sharing your experiences with the app, and for your general travel advice (the latter which I hope to heed). I very much appreciate the time you took to write. And I plan to use the Google Translate app and the Deepl website during my travels!

Good that you didn't blow that three hundred on the 2 way voice translator. No way would I spend , or rather waste three hundred, on something like that even if I were rolling in $.

Put the energy and time into learning the language phrases and sentences.

I tried Google translate once in France and the waiter was amused but it didn't really work because he didn't understand to speak slow and clearly. That was two years ago and I'd expect it to be improved some by now. You will need data on your phone while traveling in order for it to work.

Really all you need to learn in the local language is Please, Thank you, Hello, Goodbye, do you speak English where is the bathroom and pardon me or excuse me. Once you start saying it, it's pretty easy.