The International Schools Review Forum

Does anyone have good suggestions for apps that can be used to look up words or phrases one might encounter on a sign or on a product that aren't written using the Roman alphabet? I would think that by now someone has probably come up with something where you could take a picture of the word to get a translation to English, but I haven't ever used anything like that and doubt that it would be very accurate. I'm thinking of instances like trying to navigate the dry goods section of a grocery store when you have little to no idea what the boxes or jars say. And even if you buy something and want to look up the name or ingredients after the fact, are there any easy ways to look up translations when you can't type in the word in the first place?

In China you can use Pleco. Great app.

The google app is pretty good. Some languages have better support than others. Spanish and some others have real time translation when you look at the text through the camera. Japanese you have to take a picture and then it will translate the characters. The translation is generally pretty good or at least enough for shopping etc.

I can't get Google apps to work in China, which is a shame, because the Chinese translator works great outisde China.

Google Translate, its offers augmented reality translation, and you can download the language to your device in advance, reducing translation time and network/mobile data access and use.

For China you can use Baidu Translate. It works just like Google Translate and so far it has been just as good for me. And it works in China.