Impress the ladies! (5.0)

The wife laughed at me when I purchased this translator for a recent trip. I broke it out and used it while shopping with her in Mexico, the locals gathered around me to see how it worked because I was conversing with them! One night on the trip, I met a lovely Russian waitress and broke out the handy translator, man was she impressed hanging around by me to talk.. My wife took the translator...
If you get one, don't show it to your wife!

Handy personal translator (4.0)

We used this device in Turkey recently, and really liked it. Though we rarely ran into people who knew so little English that we needed to use the translator, it proved very useful in helping the whole family, including 2 kids, learn key Turkish words, including how to pronounce them correctly.

My only complaint is that it is not possible to type in specific phrases and get a translation - all phrases must be searched for under pre-selected categories.

Digital Talking Translator (5.0)

We purchased this product to use while on vacation in Italy. It worked very well and the translation was spot on. It helped us get through many sticky situations when there was the language barrier. The only problem was it was a little difficult to go through all the phrases that are on the product until you came to the one you needed.
The simple translation to the more indepth translation, it helped us very much and would recommend to anyone that needs to travel abroad.

Not what I wanted at all (2.0)

I am looking for a device that I can speak into and it translates like a recorder...This proclaimed to be like that and it is not at all. I do not need it for travel, I need it for someone living in my home.

Nice little tool, good value for the money. (4.0)

I bought this for my daughters graduation trip to Italy. She is very pleased with it. While it met this essetial requitement she was delighted with the fact that it also enabled her to order in Japanese at her favorite restaurant.

She would have liked to be able to type in random phrases, but the devices of those kind that we looked at were difficult to use and the voices sounded oddly drunken. This one doesn't have any of thoses issues. the voice is just fine,

Great translator (4.0)

I've been using this translator in my Italian class in place of my italina dictionary, and so far it has worked pretty well. I've only had one instance where I wasn't able to find a word, the word paradise, hence the four star rating, but then, how often would you use the word paradise in Italian. Other than that, it works great. No problems with the battery either.

Low battery!! (2.0)

I just bought this translator brand new and from the first time I turned it on, it started flashing a "low battery" alert. Aren't new products supposed to come with new batteries? The processing speed is also slower than I had expected - pretty much everything takes a least a 3 second wait. Furthermore, it takes way too many button pushes to get a simple translation. You have to enter the word, then choose between different forms, then different possible meanings, before you finally get a simple translation. It would be much better to just list all the various forms and possible meanings immediately, where you can then scroll down to find what you want.

Franklin 12 Language Translator (5.0)

I have used this translator since 2005. I am amazed at all the words in this
handy translator and it is easy to use. The calculator comes in handy to convert dollars to Euros, the clock lets me know the time at home to know when to call too.
I would recommend it to others.

Scrolling, display size, practicality. (2.0)

I bought this device to help me communicate with my girlfriend's French parents, to learn some basic Chinese, and take with me when I travel. The main problem, for me, is that the display is limited to 13 characters (including spaces) across, so when I'm searching for a phrase I only see the first part, and then I have to press the right arrow key to see the rest of the phrase. I don't think I can use the translator without carrying the phrase sheet that's included. The option to save phrases is useful since scrolling through the list can take some time.

I thought I could use the device to learn to speak new languages, but the phrases are spoken too fast for me, especially the Chinese and Japanese. It would be easier to just play the phrases to the person you are trying to communicate with, rather than try to learn the pronunciation from the device.

For the price, I guess it's worth it, but I think having a pocket phrase book would be more useful.

sokay (3.0)

I used it in France and Italy for my honeymoon. Fools (tourists) were asking me for help! Works as advertised. Seriously, it take a little bit of time or memorization of keys to find the phrase you want. The voice is not very good and even the English/Spanish could be difficult to understand.

Great Item For The Price (3.0)

Handy little item for the price. Not a full featured model, but not expensive either. Offers the chance to hear the language, so it complements a good language book. A better speaker would be a definite improvement. Sounds much clearer with headphones. First one had battery fail after a week, but they sent a replacement and it's working fine.

Usless (1.0)

This item functions as describe BUT you better bring a ton of BATTERIES with you it eats them. If you use the backlight 15 min. or less is all it will give you. With out the backlight its VERY hard to see. The only thing I found it usefull for was an alarm clock.

It's functional (3.0)

The talking travel translator is functional. I needed more time to become familiar with it and save favorite phrases. I ordered and received it just prior to my travel. I found myself scanning through the system to find phrases as I needed them.

As promised, but not what I need (3.0)

While the product is exactly as promised, I am not thrilled with it. The product description is very accurate, and explains what the product does, but to me it was not useful. I do not have the patience to scroll through a long list of possible phrases that do not exactly match what I need or want to say. There is a favorites feature that could be useful if I only wanted to say a few things... I found this product to be exactly what it is a phrasebook that speaks in many languages.

Disappointing...... (1.0)

This item is only good for emergenices, backup device or learniing a new language.

Here are the issues with this device,
1. It is very small and the buttons are too close, so even after 5 minutes of use your arm and fingures will start to hurt.

2. The dispaly is also very small, so you can not see the full sentence without pressing the scroll arrow.

3. Since you can not see the full sentence all at once on the screen, it makes it very hard to find a phrase so basically you press the down arrow key, you see a partial sentence, then u click the right arrow to scroll to see the rest of the sentence and if that is not the sentence u r looking for, you click the down arrow to see the next partial sentence (very annoying and fingure aching)

4.There is no way to quickly jump to a phrase, (a search for a sentence with a key word that u type would have been nice)

5. Setting up the device is not intutive and without the instructions, which you can't be expected to carry with the device at all time, it is dufficult to change the setup.

6. The device only lets u pick a timr zone from a select fixed number of cities across the world.

7. The device can only translate what you tell it to translate so for example, if you ask the device to translate, "Where can I buy tickets?" u are only half why there, how is someone in a foreign language gonna give u directions is beyond the abilities of this device.

quick ship (4.0)

I was surprised how quickly I received the item. I don't need it for travel, though, and thought it would help in a bi-lingual class. Unfortunately, the phrases don't really work for what I need. If I were traveling, it would be great; but I thought it could translate other words and phrases.

Needed for Italy (3.0)

First of all, I was excited to own one as I thought this would be essential in foreign speaking countries as my knowledge of Latin would get me nowhere. My wife knows some Italian and more Spanish so I figured our current trip to Italy would be a breeze. I did not use this newly purchased item as often as I thought since my wife also brought a cheat sheet of common phrases. The sound quality of the translation was very good and not annoying. Unfortunately, if you needed a word that was not included in the library of words you were out of luck. This is a feature that was badly missing and should be added to the next model. I looked everywhere to find the word for "ice" when ordering a drink. Nothing worse than warm vodka. Lee

multi language translator (5.0)

Being an experienced traveler, it is always helpful to have a device such as this if your personal translator is not available. The is a very easy to use device, lightweight and travels well.

The purchasing experience was also quick and I received my item as described and exceeded my satisfaction.

I would recommend this product if you are not comfortable speaking the native tongue to where you are traveling.

Total Lemon (1.0)

It seemed like this device was going to be very useful, despite some of the complaints mentioned by others such as difficulty locating common words. My biggest problem is that the thing stopped working two days into my trip to France. I should have just purchased a good old-fashioned pocket dictionary. Luckily I had an abbreviated French textbook with me or I would have really been in trouble. Bought new batteries and still nothing. Completely disappointing. Do not buy this product if you want something reliable.

Franklin TG-450 12 Language "Sorry, can't help." Non-translator. (1.0)

It seemed logic that this 12 language translator would be a very useful device in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic for a tourist who speaks only English. The device was of help on only two occasions during the entire twelve days spent in these three countries. The most frequent response when trying to determine the meaning of a German, Austrian or Czech word or expression was. "Sorry, can't help." The list of English phrases to be translated into one of the other languages took too long to sort through to be of any practical value. The same information in the form of a printed handbook would have been ever so much more useful.

I hear you now (5.0)

Purchased for a Brazilian man in the US to learn English. Produce helped him while he was here.

Okay for Travel Not for Study (3.0)

I purchased the dictionary to use on my comprehensive exam but still had to use a bound dictionary reference because it did not have so many words. Also it sometimes would change letters in order to produce anything at all. It's definitely not for those who know very little French or any of the other two languages on the device. Also if you're using it for travel you can't put in a whole phrase, you have go word by word, which sucks because phrases often mean something completely different from their word by word translation.

Christmas gift for student (5.0)

I have a Franklin spell check and have used it for years. The Franklin products are outstanding and I am pleased to give this translator to my granddaughter for Christmas. I know she will use it for a long time to come.Franklin TG-450 12 Language Translator

Lingo travel translator (3.0)

Wanted to translate English to Hebrew in Hebrew alphabet. Lingo would not translate to Hebrew alphabet. Very disappointing.

Travel translatorr (2.0)

Was not intuitive to use and I think they tried to put too many languages in it so it is not easy to use and too many inputs to get the phrase needed. Of limited use. Would not buy again.

I like it (4.0)

Great, inexpensive travel accessory. It's easy to use and has too many features not to be a bargain. Will be testing it out in Europe starting in 2 weeks!

Not user friendly (1.0)

This product was not user friendly. Extremely complicated. Would not not all the functions necessary. Too much to remember to try to use product.

Husband loves it. (5.0)

We're about to travel on a Med Cruise and I bought this for my husband on our anniversary. He must love it since I haven't been able to touch it since! :)

Franklin TGA-495 (3.0)

We got this product so that my husband could learn Spanish and use it on a recent trip to Costa Rica. This little gadget is really quite impressive in that it can store 12 languages, including Arabic. But overall it's just so-so. It's basically a computerized dictionary that has to be charged. You can look up phrases based on what you need it for: dining, shopping, health related, etc. But if you want to look up your own specific phrase, you can only look up one word at a time. Also, for the romance languages, it does not give you the gender article. For instance, if you look up "flower," it only says "flor" in Spanish. When it should read, "la flor." Kind of important if you're trying to structure a sentence. The battery life lasts a long time so you don't need to charge it often. We didn't charge it once in 8 days. If you want to store music or voice memos it has pretty good storage space. The speaking function is really neat because you can actually hear how the word or phrase is pronounced and not be left wondering. It's about the size of a deck of cards so we would just keep it in my purse. It also can convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, has a clock and alarm, so that's a plus. All in all, other than hearing the words, I'd rather use a small paper book to flip through.

careful resetting (4.0)

The Franklin Electronics Speaking Global Translator TGA-495 is easy to charge and stays charged along time. Is small and the word translations worked well once I got use to the commands. I could not find a paper clip when I reset it to change languages,so used a cork screw and lost the first two letters of translations. Be careful if you reset.

Franklin TGA-495 Review. (5.0)

The Franklin TGA-495 is the perfect pocket translator for the casual traveler. It's very easy to use, has a long battery life between charges, and an expansive vocabulary in multiple languages. Good backlighting feature. Clear voice translation on most words. Very good value for the money spent. Getting the carrying case [...] is a good idea to protect the unit during travel. All-in-all, I definately recommend this translator to others.

recent trip to China and Japan (4.0)

Took a recent trip to China and Japan, and relied on the Franklin TGA-495 for my translation. Lets go over the good aspects first: #1. The battery life was awesome, and it charges off of USB, or included international adapters. I don't think I charged it once in two weeks. #2. Quick Search of words. When you search for words (say in English to Japanese mode) you get an instant result or results. Often you get a one word response in your language like "bathroom" and a phrase below thats like "Where is the bathroom". #3 It speaks! It is very useful to look up the phrase, listen to it a few times (so you can memorize it) and then speak it to the waiter, taxi driver, without having to peck at the device while the other person stares at you in confusion. #4 I was almost always able to look up the word or phrase that as least got my idea across. I would say it was effective 95% of the time.

The so-so features
#1 The Chinese and Japanese that is spoken from the translator is difficult for natives to understand. Chinese is a tonal language so pitch at certain points of your words actually changes the word. If the native person can't hear the pitch (flat tone, increasing tone, decreasing tone, tone that dips and comes back up), then the word means nothing to them (or the wrong word). I found the speaker on the translator not good enough to distinguish the needed pitches in Chinese when it talks, so the local person couldn't understand me. Thats when I pointed to the Characters on the screen and the person (almost 100% of the time) then knew what I was trying to say. A few would laugh at me and try to help me pronounce it correctly. I was more successful in Japan with the speaking feature.

Features that need improvement
#1 The roman characters used for Chinese translation are missing the inflection marks. This goes back to the tonal language thing in Chinese where "MA (increasing tone) MA(flat tone) MA(decreasing tone) MA(dip tone and come back up)" are 4 different words. The translator would just show "MA", and as a westerner I would have no idea how to pronounce the word from what was on the screen and got it wrong everytime. This is where I would have to show the person the Chinese characters, because they had no idea what I wanted to say. #2 The back light and speaker are cheap. I actually never had a problem with the back light, but I see why others complain. The speaker is not good enough to let locals catch the spoken inflections for Chinese.

Parting advice
I like the translator, and I will keep it for trips to Mexico and Europe, but it has a lot of features. If you get it you need to spend a few hours (even if just on the plane) reading the book and exploring the features. You need to be able to pull it out, type a phrase, and know what buttons to push to get your translation, in a few seconds for it to be effective and so you don't look dumb fumbling around with it. The translator does come with headphones so you can use it without disturbing others on a plane. Also, in China have the hotel front desk person write down where you are going (in Chinese) on a card for the taxi driver, and make sure you have a hotel business card (in Chinese) so you can hail a taxi yourself later on and make it back.

A translator does not translate (3.0)

I am disappointed because it does not really "translate", although it is called "translator". It will provide you words or simple phrases from the pre-installed dictionary. For example, if you type "Where is the train station?" It will show a few phrases that start with "where". Then you will pick a sentence that is closest to what you want. Most of the time, it does not come close to my sentences. I thought it will translate like the computer translation web sites.

I think all of this type of devices in the market at this time are all like this. If any one knows a handheld device that truly translate, please let me know. I am going on a trip to Spain and need help with translation in Spanish.

not very good voice reproduction (2.0)

The voice is not clear,very often not understandable,and very often speaks to fast. I would not buy or recommend this translator. I will mostly use it to look up word to find their meanings.

Surprisingly excellent (5.0)

I bought this as a gift and took a big chance. It really is wonderful and works very easily. I am particularly impressed with the phrase section. So much so that I'm going to get one for myself!

Great for travellers, not for students (4.0)

I bought this device hoping that it would be a bit more comprehensive than it turned out to be, but I will mention the following;



PROS:

1.This device is very easy to use.

2.It's small.

3.All of the languages are easy to read on the screen.

4.The Input Method for the Asian languages is well done.

5.Lots of useful phrases are included.

5.The pronunciation is actually helpful, and can easily be turned off.



CONS:

1.Not enough entries for a serious language student.

2.No part of speech is indicated.

3.No conjugations are indicated.

4.Chinese Input Method only allows one character at a time (i.e. You have to type in "guo" first and select the "" character then type "shi" and select the "" character to get the definition "fruit" instead of just typing in "guo3shi2" with tone numbers). I think this is probably preferable for travelers trying to figure out new words, but it can slow things down somewhat if you are used to typing in Microsoft IME.

not so easy to use (2.0)

i really thought this would be a great learning tool.....the instructions are for rocket scientists....ever when you buy a home computer or entertainment system...they have quick basic set-up....it does not have many common words that people use each day in the memory.....maybe a very smart computer geek can figure this out....i am having much trouble learning how to use it.....thanks

Translator (5.0)

The translator was bought for my wife before a trip to Italy. My wife has or buys things as she needs/wants so surprising her was very important. She loved it and used it abroad and wants to use it and it's many functions often. A great item. Thanks, Alex

compact hand-held multi-language for the traveler (4.0)

This is a good buy for the price. I have a copy of the Rick Steve's three-language guide for the traveler. I bought this as a supplement to the book. The translator comes with an instruction pamphlet which I keep with it. I have found the translator will take time to use without the pamphlet. It is compact and contains basic information for five languages. It should be a valuable aid for any trip to Europe.

great product for bad spellers on the go!!!! (5.0)

I've had one of these for over 14 years now, when they first started coming out. My brother has the original one I got freshman year in high school, and I have one I got junior year. This item is still very much the same as it was 14 years ago, just a little sleaker and smaller. Very easy to use, turn on, type the word, and search. It still has thesaurus and games, and as reviews below mention, occasionally still brings up entertaining words if you are as bad of phonetic speller as I am. This item is excellent to save you from digging through pages of a dictionary in search of just a spelling, and not the definition. A must if you can't even get the first 3 letters square like I do looking up words. Most of these models will also play hangman with you, amongst a few other games to try and work with your spelling skills. The spelling ace my brother still has actually contained many definitions. These little machines are worth their weight in gold for highschoolers and college folks writing paper, even with spell check on the computer. This particular version is helpful with homework for foriegn language classes, but not if you are going to try and keep up with a fluent conversation in a foriegn language, but for typing letters/papers ect...works fine

translation (1.0)

Although this item has multiple translation capacities, it did not meet myexpectations. It is good for travelers to foreign countries who engage in very little conversation, but it s not good for advanced translation needs.

Lingo Voyager 3 Talking Translator (TTV-3) (2.0)

I would not recommned to buy the Lingo if you are selecting it because it has speaking capability. It is very hard to understand the person speaking the translation. Recently I went to Brazil and used it to translate English to Portuguese. When I played thr translation I desitred I could not understand the translation. So I let the local people I work with in Brazil listen to it and they could not understand it.

Otherwise the word translations worked fine.

total junk (1.0)

This product is a joke. The spoken words are unrecognizable in Russian. I took it with me to Russia recently, tried it on the plane and that was the last time it came out of the box. I had to use a regular old paper travel dictionary with english pronunciation. This lingo machine is computer talking at it's worst. Too fast to understand, etc. etc. I can't even bother to write more - just don't waste your money if you want a translator that helps you hear and speak the Russian language - this one won't do it.

Not worth the money (1.0)

I was completely disappointed in this translator. The audio was unintelligible. I sent it back.

Very good product (4.0)

This is a very good product. It has almost any word or phrase you will use to help you learn another language. The only downfall is the audio. It is not very good at all. With that said, it still more than serves it purpose for translating words and phrases.

Good product, language variety for directions poor (4.0)

I have used the translator and it seems to live up to the advertising about it,but I do wish that the manufacturer would create an instruction book besides the English language edition for buyers who would want to send the transator to a foreign country. Eg. a person in Russia should be able to be able to read the instructions in their language so they can understand how to use it.