Look up and speak to me!

Deep into studying whatever language, sometimes there pops up an unknown word - almost inflicting the pleasure of getting the nuances of a particular text or an interesting conversation. If I cannot figure out their meaning from context, there still might be help:

IF ONLINE

With introduction of the new Galaxy S4, Samsung works hard to bring wide spectrum of services from their own house - for instance, S-Translator which is capable of text-to-speech as well as speech-to-text; recognise and translate written text through its camera - see more in news.

However, if you are not a Samsung fan or a owner of their handset, do not worry! There are apps free of charge for almost every mobile operating system:

Apple's iPhone - iTranslate - see more recommendations for downloadable apps (working fine even offline) on a blog by +demetrius crasto.

Windows Phone brings their own Bing 'Translator'  - reviewed on CNET by +Jaymar Cabebe - with downloadable offline option, maybe their augmented reality support is worth mentioning - however, nowadays nothing extraordinary.



Google Translate via camera

Well, the most reliable online translate help can be clearly and responsibly declared: Google TRANSLATE - available as a mobile app either (full support for android  and IOS, limited funtionality for blackberry & Windows Phone)

Need to find out the possible original language? Check:  currently 64 supported languages, if only one word provided - several possible languages will be suggested.

Have a lengthy text on a paper / in a locally saved image? As reported by +David Meyer  simply use optical character recognition - quite handy with pictographic scripts (chinese, sanscrit...)

Google Goggles app may be here handy ....

Need to hear how it's pronounced? Read and listen directly (machine-generated or eSpeak opensource powered pronunciation)  to the translated text (non-roman languages spelled for instance in a separate link)

Have a recording ? - play it to the Translator through 'Allow phonetic typing' option

Do not understand the language at all? - Let google translate the whole webpage for you (even my blog has this functionality as a preset option).

For further info about open source Text-to-speech engines for eLearning give a glance to this blog post.

FREE OFFLINE

While travelling abroad or simply out of reach of internet, mobile app is a life-saver. Basically, if the searched term is in english, then it is much higher probability to find satisfactory results. Unfortunately, this does not apply to other languages!

My personal pick for simple word translations - esp when you guess the original language is Offline Dictionaries by NGHS.FR:  The only handicap I see here is the necessity to choose manually in which (bilingual) dictionary to look for translation.

* basic version with ads is free of charge, with optional downloadable dictionaries for offline use -  to be saved even on external storage.

* on current version (2.2.3)  'Text-to-speech'  functionality with IVONA TTS engine out of order ... - previously it would read aloud the whole text - (original and translated terms spelled in the same language, because tts engine can tell only one language in a given text)
* useful feature: 'Advanced / Crossword search' - use asteric (*) in front or behind letters to find words containing these letters.

In Free apps section on Play Store is ColorDict  trending - with extras including  voice recognition as a additional option to simple word type-in; word suggestion and ability to send search result to other apps - used preferably by eBook reader apps. When online - it  links translation results to Wikipedia. 

Well, voice recognition or better word recognition functions pretty solid and reliable - but only for english expressions - as with most apps out there ...  :(


eReader app (for example: Kindle or Barnes&Noble) come often with 'free to download' monolingual (explanatory) dictionaries - with 'tap and hold' on an unknown term, a small window with explanation pops up. (Have a look at my previous post on language learning apps).

OFFLINE - PAID

 Thefreedictionary from Farlex - A very appealing app even though kind of misleading name in case of the mobile offline dictionary, but well it's worth the charge (2,99 EUR):

"Free version limited to: 'Multiple English dictionaries, featuring extensive definitions, pronunciations, usage sentences, etymologies'  and 'Advanced Search options: "Starts with," "Ends with," and "In definition." (similar to Offline dictionaries)"

I lack here a TTS function - only limited vocabulary is still available to play back as a simple audio recordings.

On the positive side, just type in the searched term (english)  and get instantly a written translation in the desired language (up to 40 languages). Additionaly, monolingual (english) explanation with examples of application in sentence or idioms for vocabulary practice are automatically offered, too (on condition that the respective dictionaries were downloaded). Highly appreciated are the specialty dictionaries - medical...
With so many words in translation result list, 'a search for word' comes as a welcomed feature.

Jibbigo or a similar app from Lonely Planet Offline Translator promise to recognise voice input from several languages and instantly translate into and pronounce in bunch of other - which make these two preferrable over the previous mentioned.

Although 'speech to speech' translates the word pair quite reliably, from my personal experience, it is absolutely risky to rely on its voice recognition :(  See user comments here.

 

To sum up, there are plenty different translation apps working in language pair: English & other language. Neither of them has a sufficient dictionaries or all features one would expect nowadays. So for a better and reliable use - means when offline - I strongly recommend to downloaded more than one app with their vocabulary databases (loaded with languages one expects to need), with consideration to all available storage (potencially external microSD).

In my opinion, it remains a sure thing, to use Google Translate app, whenever one can connect to internet. And / or do some research before going out of reach ( particularly being abroad), on a local data plan offers. Otherwise, act smart and prepare for the trip in advance :) ... like: start learning now :)