The fact that globalization has turned our planet into a supposed village, doesn’t help when you want to order food in Italy. Or if you wish to find out hotel prices in Thailand. Language is still a universal barrier – no matter how small the world has gotten.

However thanks to mobile electronic dictionaries, talking foreign tongues has become a much easier barrier to cross. The most advanced technology yet are speech-to-speech interpreters, which can detect words via microphone and then play out loud, how the word is translated into the other language. You say “food” in English and the translator says “Essen” in German. Prices for such intelligent travel companions range from 150 – 1000 US-Dollars. Of course these advanced pocket-translators also allow for browsing through regular dictionary entries as well as grammar pages.

The problem is that many of them do not allow any mispronunciations when speaking into the device. This of course makes it difficult to find the right words when in need.

The next level of sophistication is regular portable electronic translators. The user can either type in individual words to be translated or browse through extensive libraries of phrases or example sentences. Often these important catch-phrases are sorted by scenario. Thus one can easily find all translations dealing with ordering food in the “dining” or “eating” section. The right words for dealing with customs officials can be looked up under “traveling”. Oftentimes modern translator devices know up to six or seven different languages. Unfortunately merely all of them can only translate single words and are of no help when trying to convert a whole sentence into another language. This means that basic knowledge of a foreign language is definitely more than helpful when trying to use an electronic dictionary.

Translators that cannot be operated by voice cost between 50 and 300 Dollars. Many of them play out correct pronunciations of foreign words so that the user gets an idea of what to say.

Of course the most basic option is also still available despite these high-tech interpreters. Pocket-sized books with important phrases as well as word for word dictionary entries get the job done in many cases.

To finish this entry on a philosophical note: it is often not the lack of words that keeps us from understanding one another!