U know of good Russian-English Electronic ...

[Bill P]

Translator?  We would prefer to have one that has a big vocabulary, knows idioms, knows phrases, and can speak.  I have seen some advertisements on-line but has anyone got one that they really like?

-Bill

[Rags]

... in response to U know of good Russian-English Electroni..., posted by Bill P on Nov 26, 2001

I brought one for V and I to use on our trip to Crimea this summer as we would not have an interpreter with us. She loved it (calls it her little friend) and takes it with her all the time. Her English is not that bad, maybe 3 on a 10 scale, but it is much more convienient to use than a dictionary.

It's not much for sentence translation but very helpful to find the correct word.

I got the "talking" model but we seldom used it and I would recommend saving the extra $100.

One nice feature that I like was that the keyboard was laid out so that the English letter corresponded to the Russian letter sound (ie. English "R" to Russian "P").

[BubbaGump]

... in response to U know of good Russian-English Electroni..., posted by Bill P on Nov 26, 2001

There are probably more posts than this but I didn't want to search on the word translator.  I searched on the words: "pocket", "Palm" and "electronic".  There was a lot of discussion on this a long time ago but they aren't in the archives any longer.

I purchased the Ecato Language Teacher EGR486T because I  *believe* it was the only English model that "spoke"  Russian. In any case I'm pretty disappointed in the performance. Not only is the construction fairly light and flimsy, but more importantly the speaker is so poor that I never feel very confident of the pronunciations (very robotic voice).

I highly recommend using the Eng-Rus dictionary by Kenneth Katzner. I have used everything and this by far the best and the most used. A little bulky but worth the effort. It contains most of what you will need to communicate. You will not be able to speak Russian without much effort. You will be able to use this book and share it with whom you are talking to. If she is interested then she will also take the effort to use the book also. If not then you haven't lost anything. I highly suggest that your first meetings should include a translator. I wouldn't meet unless I had one present or you can speak a little Russian.

I bought the "Language Teacher - ER586HT Partner" for my fiancee. It was a healthy $399. It is RussianEnglish, meaning intended for a Russian user.
This little machine improved her English quite a bit. In addition to translation of words and sentences, it speaks the words in English and has several learning games to play. CHeck out ALL the specs and other products at: http://www.ectaco.com   They also have software for Palms and Pocket PCs.

I used the Goggle.com advanced search engine and here are a couple that popped up. There are many more than this.
http://www.bgtv.com/translator/software/russian.html
http://home.palmpilotarchives.com/translation.html
I searched for a document with all these words: palm translation russian

[BarryM]

... in response to From the archives, posted by BubbaGump on Nov 27, 2001

I have the Katzner dictionary and it is the best one I have found so far, better than the bigger Oxford dictionary, but it doesn't have pronunciations. The smaller Hippocrene pocket dictionaries do. For the traveler, the pocket dictionary with pronunciations is much better. The Katzner dictionary is better for a student. It does have many mistakes with some of the phrase examples.

-blm

[BubbaGump]

... in response to From the archives, posted by BubbaGump on Nov 27, 2001

I didn't check prices but I think the low end Palm M105 is under $200 and it doesn't have a speaker.  The Compaq iPAQ is about $499 and the HP Jornada is about $690.  The Pocket PCs have good speakers so if you buy a talking translator the sucky sound is the software.

[Dan]

... in response to U know of good Russian-English Electroni..., posted by Bill P on Nov 26, 2001

We had one - the model ER2200T (I *think), but she used it so much it expired on her --smile--. Fortunately, the company offered a new one - model ER586, and it has proven very useful.

I don't have personal experiences with others to compare, but the Ectaco models have served us well.

I hope you and Natasha had a nice T-Giving. We had some friends over and shared a Thanksgiving with a Russian twist. It was fun.

Cheers Bill,

- Dan

[Bill P]

... in response to Olya Likes An Electronic "Dictionar..., posted by Dan on Nov 27, 2001

Dan-

  Yes we had a great Thanksgiving.  We went to my parents place and spent a few days there.  We went to the mountains on Friday but unfortunately it was raining when we got there.  We went to some shops after that and bought some nice things.  I learned how to make chocolate covered cherries that we'll plan to make for gifts to friends here.  

Thanks for the info on the translator.  It is good to get a review from people that use them.  I never really trust the web advertisement.  You just can't get a sense for if it is good.

Take Care,

Bill

[BarryM]

... in response to U know of good Russian-English Electroni..., posted by Bill P on Nov 26, 2001

it is cumbersome to use. You're really not going to get a very good translation from anything except an interpreter. The translators are OK for translating Russian to English; you get a pretty good idea of what is being stated, but it is not as good with English to Russian. For example, there are 3 different common Russian words for "arrive". There are 5 common Russian words for "depart or leave". That's not including all the tenses such as past or future.

Your best bet is to use a pocket phrase book and a pocket dictionary. The pocket dictionaries by Hippocrene Press are pretty good and they usually contain a close English pronunciation of the word. Pronunciation and stress make all the difference in being understood. Make sure you get a phrase book with pronunciations.

For example "äóõè'" - dooHEE means perfume or perfume bottle. "äó'õå" - DOOhee means spirit or ghost. Note differences in stress. A lot of Russian words have a close spelling and the vowels are pronounced very close but the stress changes how the word actually sounds.

My advice, don't bother with the electronic translators. It's much faster to use a pocket book.

-blm

[juio99]

... in response to Re: There is one by ETACO but..., posted by BarryM on Nov 27, 2001

good info

[jj]

... in response to Re: There is one by ETACO but..., posted by BarryM on Nov 27, 2001

.