Learn the languageĪny travel can be improved by memorising even a little bit of the local language, and there is an abundance of learning apps to help. This extra listening time is often crucial to catch the half-sentences or general confusion of a live voice translation. Overall, Google and Microsoft worked fine, but would often halt after five or six seconds, while SayHi routinely managed 20 to 30 seconds at a time. It even has a conversation mode: You select two languages, set the phone down between two people, and take turns speaking back and forth. It also keeps a history of all your translations, so you can replay a phrase you use often, like “I’m allergic to seafood”. The app SayHi – which has Cantonese, Hindi or Thai, among other languages – specialises in voice and audio, and can play your translation in a man or woman’s voice and vary the speed.
So while Microsoft Translator, for example, does not have handwriting functionality, you can just use your keyboard to draw characters in its standard text translate field, and it will work just the same.įor those who prefer to talk, speech-to-text (and text-to-speech) is offered on many of these translation apps, including Google Translate, Microsoft Translator, Papago and Pleco. Those traveling to Taiwan should remember that Traditional Chinese characters are the standard, which are even more complex.Ī useful tip: Some smartphones actually have handwriting as an installable option in their keyboard settings. The process works more smoothly for simpler scripts like Japanese hiragana and katakana, and is more involved for Chinese and some Korean hangul.
Regardless, to commit to character drawing is to sign up for some time spent scribbling on your palm. An initial translation for the Korean for “How much is it?” came out as “Is it frozen?” Google Translate and Papago offer character drawing, but Google had an annoying habit of inputting a character before you have finished fully drawing – which puts you into a somewhat frantic race against time, and can radically change meanings. When I tested it recently in Manhattan’s Chinatown, a shop window’s heavily laminated sign would not register on Google’s photo app. Calligraphy, say, on a banner outside a restaurant, can be more common in parts of Asia than a typeset sign.
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