English to Spanish app for phone
I checked the internet for language translator app's for the smart phones and the androids and found a number off them. Most people today have one of these phones and travel to a different language...
Forum Discussion
Valhalla 360, I'm already past "vacation-oriented phrases" :) - those took me just a few days before my very first trip. Numbers, directions, greetings etc. Couple of pages. No need to use any app for that.
Learning 5-6 tenses and using them requires memorizing both dictionary (including short phrase blocks) AND grammar. DicDroid is not a "phrase book", it's a dictionary. Don't know exactly how many words it contains, but so far it's been able to find auto part names when I needed them. I'm pretty sure that in offline mode I wouldn't get a lot more words from Google Translator or any other smartphone app.
When I need to know what the product is, I might use a smartphone dictionary - after all, label is a few words, not a "phrase". Sometimes I ask - Is it something like (whatever I think it is similar to, in Spanish), or - What is it for, or - What kind of (meat, cheese, poultry etc). Very often there is no "label", all you see is some "meat" in the tray, and you have to ask.
RV and auto repairs? Doesn't happen very often, and usually all you need to know is a part name. (And the address of good and not too greedy mechanic). Again, I might crack the Droid open, or point to that part and say - I need to buy/replace/fix this, or - I have a problem here. Or whatever phrase comes to my mind. Something always comes, if you take efforts to learn. Ex, if I forgot how to say "inflate the tires" I would say "Need a little more air in tires". With polite intro like "I think...", if the situation requires. Might even ask them (if I forgot and can't see the numbers on the tire) - How many should it have, 35, 40? - everybody knows that it's PSI, what else can it be when you are talking about tires, duh.
My point was - translators are doing a crappy job with grammar, and so-so job of providing the right vocabulary. It needs a human brain to filter and sort things out. And, if there is a fairly functional brain, why not using it for what it was designed for, i.e. learning. Talking is fun. And, if you are staying there for long time, it's more than just fun - it's a necessity.
Learning 5-6 tenses and using them requires memorizing both dictionary (including short phrase blocks) AND grammar. DicDroid is not a "phrase book", it's a dictionary. Don't know exactly how many words it contains, but so far it's been able to find auto part names when I needed them. I'm pretty sure that in offline mode I wouldn't get a lot more words from Google Translator or any other smartphone app.
When I need to know what the product is, I might use a smartphone dictionary - after all, label is a few words, not a "phrase". Sometimes I ask - Is it something like (whatever I think it is similar to, in Spanish), or - What is it for, or - What kind of (meat, cheese, poultry etc). Very often there is no "label", all you see is some "meat" in the tray, and you have to ask.
RV and auto repairs? Doesn't happen very often, and usually all you need to know is a part name. (And the address of good and not too greedy mechanic). Again, I might crack the Droid open, or point to that part and say - I need to buy/replace/fix this, or - I have a problem here. Or whatever phrase comes to my mind. Something always comes, if you take efforts to learn. Ex, if I forgot how to say "inflate the tires" I would say "Need a little more air in tires". With polite intro like "I think...", if the situation requires. Might even ask them (if I forgot and can't see the numbers on the tire) - How many should it have, 35, 40? - everybody knows that it's PSI, what else can it be when you are talking about tires, duh.
My point was - translators are doing a crappy job with grammar, and so-so job of providing the right vocabulary. It needs a human brain to filter and sort things out. And, if there is a fairly functional brain, why not using it for what it was designed for, i.e. learning. Talking is fun. And, if you are staying there for long time, it's more than just fun - it's a necessity.
