This post is brought to you by FakhrApps, publisher of the My English Translator app.
Language translation software can easily make you appear to be saying something downright preposterous. It can also get you a slap in the face when smiles and hand gestures would have done a better job of getting your intentions properly understood by your non-English-speaking foreign acquaintance.
But here comes a dependable mobile translator: the just-released $0.99 My English Translator, which aims to put an end to English incomprehension everywhere you go with a new app for iPhone / iPad.
The app can translate any text or idiomatic expression in fifty-nine different languages including Arabic, Chinese, Filipino, Portuguese, Hindi, Russian, Yiddish, Norwegian… even Latin. My English Translator works in real-time as you type for instant translations, and its voice feature speaks the results in the correct pronunciation.
If you are the average Anglo-American tourist or businessperson, let’s face it, you will have virtually no grasp of foreign languages apart from a smattering of French, German or Spanish. When you are on vacation, it’s embarrassing traveling to Europe, Asia, Africa, anywhere really. And if you are on business, it’s frustrating. But with My English Translator to point to on your iPhone or new iPad, it actually makes linguistic ignorance cool.
Apart from polyglot translation capability, My English Translator also has a large collection of idiomatic expressions in the app’s phrasebook, divided into useful scenarios both good and bad: in the restaurant, in the hotel, out shopping, in the health clinic. These are set sentences that you can translate and point to on your mobile device’s screen or get it to utter on your behalf as needs be. The phrasebook portion of the app does not need an Internet connection.
Users can save their favorite expressions for reuse while out and about, as well as send them through SMS or e-mail or post them on Facebook.
I tried out the app using my own language proficiency (Japanese). The Japanese was good, both written and spoken on the app’s voice feature. Furthermore, the voice was not squeaky and irritating, but sounded suitably serious and to the point.
In my next experiment, I messaged Basia, my friend from Poland, in Polish. She did not blink an eyelid to note that I had suddenly mastered her native tongue. The translations on this app are pretty reliable. And furthermore, My English Translator provides an occasion to show people around the world your iPhone or new iPad!
My English Translator is published by FakhrApps. It is available from the iTunes App Store for $0.99.
