I just got one of these for Christmas from my husband who is a gadget freak. Of course it is encased in so much plastic packagaing that I can't try it out. It supposedly has 10000 words and 6000 phrases in English, Spanish, German, French and Italian. Has anyone ever used one of these? Is it an improvement over the standard phrase book? I can already carry on a simple conversation in French and know basic travellers German and Spanish. There are times we could have definitely used an improved tool over fumbling through the phrase book/dictionary, but is this item worth it? Thanks.

I got a multi-language Franklin translator 10+ years ago, which led me to get a French translator. The multi-language versions from that era didn't have enough vocabulary to be helpful, but I still use the other and find it useful. I have a rudimentary knowledge of French, and I find the translator more convenient than a phrase book or dictionary. I'll be glad to hear what you think once you get it unwrapped.

My husband bought me one last year for our recent trip to Spain and it's been great. I've also been taking Spanish classes and it's been good for that too. What I like about it is that is the feature that actually gives you the pronunciation. Also, it conjugates verbs and has programs where you can put in word lists.

Artlover--

Tell me a little bit more about how it functions please. For example, would it help me if I wanted to ask something like, "what is the rental price for this bicycle?" How would I do this with the translator? Thanks.

Julies,
It wouldn't answer your question, rather if you wanted to know the Spanish word for "bicycle", you would enter that word and it would give you the Spanish (or French or Italian depending on which Franklin you have) for that word and you could press a special key and it would "say" it for you in Spanish.

It has lots of other functions as well, some of which I still am not familiar with as I am not especially technically gifted and have issues reading the manual that comes with it. But what I use it for so far has been very helpful.