Has anyone ever used one of these hand held Electronic Language Translators? My husband is a real electronics buff and thought he would really enjoy having one of these to take on our worldly travels... Not sure if they are worth the expense? Maybe would do better with Rick Steve's language guides instead? Thanks....

They're very good (quick) to look up single words like a supersonic dictionary.

Hi Gail

>..My husband is a real electronics buff and thought he would really enjoy having one of these ...<

That says it all.

They work great for those with fingers the size of a mosquito's antenna. For larger mortals, these things are clumsy & worthless.

I find a book quicker.

I got one for my husband (who also loves electronics and gadgets) before a trip to Italy. He played with it for a day when he first got it and never picked it up again. Didn't even take it to Italy!

Thanks for the feedback and probably will stick with a "book" since I don't want my husband getting too distracted from the beautiful scenery anyway, ha ha....

There are several threads on this topic. Here's one of them: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34434845

Last summer we had two Japanese students stay with us for a week. They used one of these devices. When I would ask "How are you?" They would punch in words and say "We are vigorous"!! They have also sent letters saying they are "vigorous" instead of very well or fine. Something got lost in the translation. I will stick to a dictionary/phrase book.

If you have nothing but free time, find a site with an Italian (or other) language description of a restaurant's food.

Cut and paste the text into Babelfish or something like that. Some of the results are priceless.

I went out a bought Rick Steve's French, Italian, and German translation guide and I think we will do really well with this when we travel to Quebec and Italy. It has quite a bit of translations for many different situations that you will encounter when traveling as well as food translations which will be handy in restaurants, etc. I think this will work fine.... Thanks for the feedback....

My husband (who loves gadjits) bought me a battery operated Franklin for Spanish (can also add another language) to use along with my Spanish classes and for our upcoming trip. What I particularly like about this one is that it "talks" so that I can get the correct pronunciation for words. He bought it at Radio Shack and I really like it. Only problem with it is that in bright light, it's sometimes hard to read.

I bought the Lingo one that pronounces the words for you, but truthfully that function was not worth the extra cost. I have a Seiko handheld one that is very good and a tenth the price. It was purchased at Circuit City.