China Romance
General Discussion and Useful Links => Newbies Corner => Topic started by: markymark on September 07, 2009, 12:11:39 am
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Hi guys,
I would appreciate some advice on talking translators / dictionaries. I apologise if this has already been discussed but I have not found anything specific. I will be going to China much sooner than expected, first Beijing and then onto Guangdong to work. Hopefully I might be able to meet my lady in due time. My problem is that I cannot speak any Chinese and wanted to buy a talking electronic translator for basic communication and getting around. If anyone has any recommendations for accuracy of translation, durability, long battery life and word or phrase capacity, I would like to see what the brothers reckon would be the best make and model to buy. Also would it be best to buy it in the U.K. or in China?
Thanking you in advance
Mark.
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A popular brand is the BESTA, I compaired my besta with some other brands on the market, and the besta did the best job in translation and ease of use in my opinion. There are many different models and prices of the Besta, I highly recommend this brand. I purchased the Besta in China, I paid about 1800 RMB. I do not recall the model number, I left it with my wife at the moment.
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Mark , I am to a Besta user , cannot go past them , I picked up my latest one on Ebay , just before I went back to China last month under the travel section , you can check and read about the different models on Powerdictionary.com , as you also run on 240 v , there is ones that are rechargable from the power points and we used it constantly and never got below half charge during a day then recharged it overnight , not having to worry about batteries , regards Robert .
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My weapon of choice is the Yishen MD8200...awesome !!
DavidE
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I have a Besta 3000. Bought it here in China - that does me well. (It is my own mouth that gets me into trouble.) Good for learning phrases or listening to them just before you have to use them.
Willy
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I was reading a rave review of the Besta MT7000 (http://www.amazon.com/Besta-MT-7000-Chinese-English-Electronic-Dictionary/dp/B0024KTI7U) on amazon. Looking at its features on besta.com I'm sold!
I just emailed Ling to see what price this model is in China to see if its any cheaper than ordering on-line here, I want one!
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Shhhhh... Don't tell him about eBay. I'm bidding on a few!!!!!! :s:dodgy:
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We have been using the Besta 5000 for months now. Perfect for us. We paid 1800 RMB in an upscale store in Beijing.
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Pity you can't find thosen in France ... but I think there is some Windows Mobile software available, would be more handy for me than carrying a second device ...
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Pity you can't find thosen in France ... but I think there is some Windows Mobile software available, would be more handy for me than carrying a second device ...
There crertainly is windows mobile software - Pleco, i have it installed on my HTC Tytn 2 phone and it works great.
But I think a dedicated device would be useful also with full colour screen and the multiple features these have, they attract the geek in me!
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Thank you brothers, I am very grateful for your input.
I looked on ebay.. Hmmm...... maybe Shaun beat me to it ha ha.
Good luck to all.
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Thank you brothers, I am very grateful for your input.
I looked on ebay.. Hmmm...... maybe Shaun beat me to it ha ha.
Good luck to all.
Not yet I haven't. Someone keeps beating me out of it. :@:@:@
Could also be I'm cheap! :icon_cheesygrin::icon_cheesygrin::icon_cheesygrin:
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Pity you can't find thosen in France ... but I think there is some Windows Mobile software available, would be more handy for me than carrying a second device ...
There crertainly is windows mobile software - Pleco, i have it installed on my HTC Tytn 2 phone and it works great.
But I think a dedicated device would be useful also with full colour screen and the multiple features these have, they attract the geek in me!
Hmmm thanks you for the hint, I'll check it out! I actually prefer one device, I have the HTC 3G which is great and small including GPS, need some China maps now and I'll be set, hey I thought I was the geek here ... ;)
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There are some Windows Mobile software, but what I have is limited so I much prefer our Besta. And i am also a geek.
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Hi all,
I'm looking to get a translator, but more for my use rather than my lady's (I think she has one already).
I thought it would be good to buy one in China. But my lady says it will have a Chinese operating system, so maybe I can't use it. Well she is full of contradictions, but I guess this would be true.
Is there anywhere in the UK that sells these Besta things? I'd quite like to play around with some before purchase, but they seem quite difficult to get hold of.
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I just bought an MT7000 from iKnow DigiHub (https://www.iknow.com.sg/products/productslist/productdetails/tabid/81/p-364-mt-7000.aspx) in Singapore.
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I bought my Besata 3000 in China and it has both English and Chinese operating system . Does not matter which you use you get the same answers. English to Chinese. Chinese to English and if requested it will repeat the English or Chinese in spoken form so you can use it to learn as you can repeat words or phrases until you remember them.
Willy
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Wow, that MT-7000 looks nice. Unfortunately I can't find anyone in the UK that sells it. I guess I could wait until I'm out there, and maybe I could find one in Beijing airport or something.
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Wow, that MT-7000 looks nice. Unfortunately I can't find anyone in the UK that sells it. I guess I could wait until I'm out there, and maybe I could find one in Beijing airport or something.
Got my mt-7000 on Amazon.com. 300 bucks. I was getting the feeling of getting ripped off, but it is actually a really nice unit. It has lot of useful features. Well...I will see how useful it is in October.
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Got my mt-7000 on Amazon.com. 300 bucks. I was getting the feeling of getting ripped off, but it is actually a really nice unit. It has lot of useful features. Well...I will see how useful it is in October.
You were getting ripped off :D
The site I liked LINKED has them for 372.90 SGD = 261.980 USD
Not including shipping though ... which was fairly cheap for standard arifreight.
Edit: coz eye carnt spel
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Incidentally, does that MT-7000 allow you to write in English sentences and get back their Chinese equivalents?
I am starting to make good progress on putting English into Google that translates perfectly into Chinese. I had a pretty good conversation with my lady this morning using just Chinese characters.
I think I might take a chance and order one on Amazon.com. I am worried we might get ripped off in China, and also I can practice with it before I get to China. $300 sounds quite cheap for what it does (and it would probably retail for a lot more in the UK).
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Question, is the keyboard on the touch screen or is there an actual keyboard? How big are the keys? I looked at them at a couple of websites but not everything was shown, at least to my understanding.
Shaun
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Shaun on most of the folding besta's you have a keyboard as well as a touch screen also a pen to use but as I don't know about the 7000 series someone else can answer that one , regards Robert .
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Robert,
Thanks, I am about half asleep. I should have said my question was about the MT-7000. I almost won a bid on ebay for a CD-65P. I got a little excited and placed my bid a little too quick. I could have had it for about $7.00 but the other person won it for $11.17. My top price was $10.67.
I am about ready to buy a new on, can't seam to do it on ebay right now.
Shaun
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Is there any alternative to the MT-7000 that has a keyboard? I think the 7000 is made for the iPhone generation, but I'd like something with a real keyboard. The 7000 looks like it has some great Mandarin learning functions though.
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Thanks Mike. The MT-7000 looks the business, my lady thinks it is 1800RMB, but will check tonight.
She has her own translator, so the MT-7000 is really for me. I could order one from the US, but it might not arrive here in time.
Does anyone know if the Besta CD-637P is better? It has a keyboard, but I don't know if it does the same as the MT-7000. I really like the look of the language tuition on the 7000.
http://www.besta.com/cd-637/cd-637e.htm
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Brett , the 637 is the one I took with me last month to China and left it there , it does the lot plus more infact I would say we used only about 10 of its many functions and just plug it in at the nearest powerpoint for an o/nite recharge , having a normal keyboard makes it so simple even a dumbo like me had no hassles , , but the earlier non- colour version last year worked just as well , but not so many features , regards Robert .
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Thanks I'll check it out. I'm actually starting to get some decent translations out of Google, so I am starting to figure out the language.
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Thank you all for the advice and information. A Besta it will be. Great link AHKiwi and it is the cheapest I found online.
Thanks again
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Thank you all for the advice and information. A Besta it will be. Great link AHKiwi and it is the cheapest I found online.
Thanks again
no worries mm :)
hopefully I'll be able to get in some good practice with mine before I head over, should make things easier.
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Greetings Brothers,
My Zhen and I purchased a Besta 9880 I believe it was. Zhen has it in china so not absolutely sure but it has touch screen , english to chinese and vice versa and also speaks the words back to you.
A good tool but as with all of these devices you must keep the sentences short and very simple. Also it seems to do a better job going from english to chinese than it does from chinese to english.
It took Zhen and I a very long time to discuss mortgages for instance, and several other topics also get totally lost. Also when Zhen would write on the screen it seemed to offer other close characters at the bottom so she could pick which one she wanted so all in all usefull tools. As long as you keep in mind the limitations of them they are good., but they do get confused easily.
Anyway hope this helps somewhat.
Regards,
Zhen and Brian
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I am now lusting after the Besta CD-637, it looks feature packed plus it has a keyboard rather than the iPhone interface of the MT-7000. That's assuming I can find one for sale. I sent my lady to the electronics store but the assistant didn't know anything about the MT-7000.
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I went to about 50 stores in Zhuhai before found one that stocked BESTA. I would not be without mine it is a great add to learning the language because you can practise the phrase immediately before using it in shops etc.
Willy
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I had one of those electronic translators once. It was an english-spanish unit. In the english mode it was ok, but in the spanish mode it just mumbled, griped in the morning and every afternoon it quit working and took a siesta you didn't need to plug it in to recharge it, it had a little hole where you poored beer in the side. If you poored too many beers in it, it would say things to the lady's in spanish that would get your face slapped or worse. I gave it to someone I didn't like. By the way, they have a german model, but it uses too much beer and passes out in your pocket after 10 chorses of ya-ya-ya-ya, um pah pah. :icon_cheesygrin:
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Hmm, the Bestas seem to be quite difficult to find. Maybe I'll order one from the US when I get back from China. My lady has a translator, so we can use that. When I'm not with her I'll just point at stuff and draw pictures.
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I had one of those electronic translators once. It was an english-spanish unit. In the english mode it was ok, but in the spanish mode it just mumbled, griped in the morning and every afternoon it quit working and took a siesta you didn't need to plug it in to recharge it, it had a little hole where you poored beer in the side. If you poored too many beers in it, it would say things to the lady's in spanish that would get your face slapped or worse. I gave it to someone I didn't like. By the way, they have a german model, but it uses too much beer and passes out in your pocket after 10 chorses of ya-ya-ya-ya, um pah pah. :icon_cheesygrin:
I used to have one of those english-spanish units too. Mine was best at mathematics more than language conversion. The unit especially liked for me to used the multiplication function but it kept subtracting from my wallet too much. I finally had to return it to the manufacturer.
I understand this kind of thing happens in El Paso quite often. Must be some kind of geographical magnetic disturbance of some kind.
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I understand this kind of thing happens in El Paso quite often. Must be some kind of geographical magnetic disturbance of some kind.
Yes Shaun it's called the Maxx Factor. :icon_cheesygrin:
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I can only speak for Wuhan, Beijing and Xi'an, but every large electronics store has the Besta there. I checked every time we we would go in one.
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I understand this kind of thing happens in El Paso quite often. Must be some kind of geographical magnetic disturbance of some kind.
Yes Shaun it's called the Maxx Factor. :icon_cheesygrin:
Man!!!! Maxx sure gets around a lot doesn't he. :icon_cheesygrin:
Posted by JimB - Today 11:38
I can only speak for Wuhan, Beijing and Xi'an, but every large electronics store has the Besta there. I checked every time we we would go in one.
Jim,
Do you remember any prices?
Shaun
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I just received delivery of CD-875 and am rather disappointed I have to say.
The only lessons on there are English ones, everything in it is aimed at a Chinese person learning English not the other way round. When you put in an English word it will give you the Chinese and it even has a fancy voice analysis thingy which is fantastic..if you are learning English!
There is no Mandarin spoken for words you search and the few phrases that are on it in Mandarin are spoken at native speed, with a bad recording, and extremely hard to follow.
Expensive lesson learned, I'm gonna give it to Ling as a gift when I go over and get a MT-7000 instead which is aimed at the English market.
I had a look at the CD-637P also and its specs are very similar to the one i got, again its probably best used by a Chinese person not an English speaking one.
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Let me know what you find out. I thought the MT-7000 and the CD637 were basically the same except the 637 has a keyboard. But I may be wrong.
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The main problem apart from all the lessons being for English learners is that the Chinese dictionary is a bit rubbish too. For example if you look up a Chinese word in English they give you the Chinese character and not the pinyin..which isnt much use if you cannot read Chinese...and if you could read Chinese....see where i'm going with this!
I ordered the MT-7000 linked to earlier already.
Ling is getting an unexpected gift next visit! Its a nice looking thing and actually I could see it being really useful for an English learner. The voice recognition is cool, apparently my pronunciation is over 90% accurate on any word I've looked up haha!
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Ordered an MT-7000 as well, 2-4 days delivery ... from Singapore, thanks for the link by the way. I can deduct that thing from taxes so it's really cheap if you consider 50% tax rate :D
I gave up on Windows Mobile software, I didn't find anything as complete as this Besta thingy.
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Got my mt-7000 on Amazon.com. 300 bucks. I was getting the feeling of getting ripped off, but it is actually a really nice unit. It has lot of useful features. Well...I will see how useful it is in October.
You were getting ripped off :D
The site I liked LINKED has them for 372.90 SGD = 261.980 USD
Not including shipping though ... which was fairly cheap for standard arifreight.
Edit: coz eye carnt spel
I notice reading a question/answer response from a seller on Ebay, the MT-7000 is only for simplified Chinese, not Mandarin. Can someone who knows please comment on the accuracy of this statement?
Skip
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Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese far as I know they are both mandarin, but the characters look differently.
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Simplified chinese referes to the written language and is used everywhere in China except Hong Kong. All the different dialects use it with the exception of Cantonese and even then most signage, papers etc are written in Simplified, with the exception of Hong Kong where traditional is used
Mandarin is the spoken language not the written, the person asking the question on Ebay hasnt done their homework!!
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'seems like the price via the link is cheaper than the price on Ebay, related to the MT-7000.
It seems to be a good tool.
I use on my mobile phone, China2go Phrase Book, many sentences from english to chinese, with pinyin and chinese characters.
but...
You can not type anything. You just choose the sentence there is with many other ones (food, social, sightseeing, basic...) and then you can see the translation in chinese :)
anyway, there are some good sentences but the problem is that it is not at all a translator tool to do your own sentences.
but anyway, it's a good tool for beginners, would I say.
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Ronan,
I must be losing my mind. I cant find the link you are talking about.
Shaun
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Skip,
Mandarin is the official language of mainland China, and is spoken everywhere without exception. The same goes for simplified Chinese in it's written form. So although there will be areas of China that still use there local form of Chinese, virtually everyone will speak Mandarin, and understand the Written simplified Chinese writing. Two main exceptions are Hong Kong and Taiwan, That do not follow Mainland China in either spoken or written Chinese.... So the MT-7000 has exactly the right format for your needs....
David....
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Ronan,
I must be losing my mind. I cant find the link you are talking about.
Shaun
The on ahiwaki (cant remember how to spell his name!) linked to on page 2 of the thread - https://www.iknow.com.sg/products/productslist/productdetails/tabid/81/p-364-mt-7000.aspx
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By the way, as I'm talking with Lyian on QQ, she says me she usually uses this weblink :
http://fy.iciba.com/
it seems easy to use : either you can write in chinese or english, you validate as Ctrl+Enter, and then it translates on the right side :)
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Skip,
Mandarin is the official language of mainland China, and is spoken everywhere without exception. The same goes for simplified Chinese in it's written form. So although there will be areas of China that still use there local form of Chinese, virtually everyone will speak Mandarin, and understand the Written simplified Chinese writing. Two main exceptions are Hong Kong and Taiwan, That do not follow Mainland China in either spoken or written Chinese.... So the MT-7000 has exactly the right format for your needs....
David....
Thanks to everyone who responded.
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'seems like the price via the link is cheaper than the price on Ebay, related to the MT-7000.
It seems to be a good tool.
I use on my mobile phone, China2go Phrase Book, many sentences from english to chinese, with pinyin and chinese characters.
but...
You can not type anything. You just choose the sentence there is with many other ones (food, social, sightseeing, basic...) and then you can see the translation in chinese :)
anyway, there are some good sentences but the problem is that it is not at all a translator tool to do your own sentences.
but anyway, it's a good tool for beginners, would I say.
Wow, thanks for the tip about China2go. I've just installed it on my phone and it's fantastic! OK so it only has preset phrases in it, but it will do for emergencies and it's better than lugging a phrasebook around.
On top of that, my lady is sure to be impressed with my phone's Mandarin, even if she isn't impressed with mine :dodgy:
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Ronan,
I must be losing my mind. I cant find the link you are talking about.
Shaun
The on ahiwaki (cant remember how to spell his name!) linked to on page 2 of the thread - https://www.iknow.com.sg/products/productslist/productdetails/tabid/81/p-364-mt-7000.aspx
Ronan,
You must have bought the last one. They are out of stock.
Shaun
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Received my Besta MT-7000 today, that's 4 or 5 working days from Singapore at reasonable shipping rate, that company is not bad at all.
The Besta seems to be quite cool, it charges on a USB cable so if you're travelling with a laptop, no other power supply needed. The casing is solid, no creaking or unsolid feelings, just the front bezel is lacquered and I wonder how that will hold up with time (although maybe I'll learn Mandarin fast enough not to need the device anumore when it gets tired). The lessons are great, MP3 compression is just a tad harsh but acceptable. Headphones are included, although I'm not sure volume will be sufficient to pass some time on the plane, but some lower impedance headphones will correct that. It comes with a protective pouch that's really nifty except when you want to access the stylus, good screen, watch the scratches when hand writing on it!
And well, it is fairly light but a bit too big for a jeans back pocket. Great buy all the same!
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Received my Besta MT-7000 today, that's 4 or 5 working days from Singapore at reasonable shipping rate, that company is not bad at all.
The Besta seems to be quite cool, it charges on a USB cable so if you're travelling with a laptop, no other power supply needed. The casing is solid, no creaking or unsolid feelings, just the front bezel is lacquered and I wonder how that will hold up with time (although maybe I'll learn Mandarin fast enough not to need the device anumore when it gets tired). The lessons are great, MP3 compression is just a tad harsh but acceptable. Headphones are included, although I'm not sure volume will be sufficient to pass some time on the plane, but some lower impedance headphones will correct that. It comes with a protective pouch that's really nifty except when you want to access the stylus, good screen, watch the scratches when hand writing on it!
And well, it is fairly light but a bit too big for a jeans back pocket. Great buy all the same!
Voice, as well as the lessons it has a functional dictionary right that will be useful over in china?
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Hey Irish, it's actually fully featured yes, so it transalates words or sentences and displays the translations in ideograms and pinying. There are also common phrases by category. I'm including a few pics.
There is also a manual in Chn and EN, but it is easy to use, I didn't open it yet.
Size wise, it's not much thicker than my HTC 3G, see last pic, but it has a much bigger surface and with the pouch it becomes sort of a massive wallet.
PS: sorry about the smear marks, the glossy surface is a real design flaw actually :D
[attachment=776] [attachment=777] [attachment=778] [attachment=779] [attachment=780]
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Hey,
They are out again? What's up with that?
Shaun
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Thanks Voice, cant wait to get mine now!!
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Haha, I'lll ask Besta for a commission! :D
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I've bought China2Go for my Windows Mobile phone. They have a nice deal for $59.95 that gets you a phone dictionary, speaking phrasebook and also the dictionary for Windows XP.
I'll look for a Besta in China.
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Do these BESTA's have dual voltage recharging? I assume from reading all the psoits it is a great model for an English speaking leaner as well as a Chinese learner?
I'm going in a week to HK so I might buy one there if the instructions are in English.
BTW does the MT 7000 have Cantonese and other Chinese dialects or languages in it like Japanese or Korean?
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I've bought China2Go for my Windows Mobile phone. They have a nice deal for $59.95 that gets you a phone dictionary, speaking phrasebook and also the dictionary for Windows XP.
I'll look for a Besta in China.
oh, you bought it???
ok ok...
Mate, you might have found it for "free" on Internet.. but we're not talking about some "WAREZ", right? ;-)
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Well I write shareware so I like to support other authors! If it wasn't for my shareware I wouldn't be here in Wuhan today.
China2Go is OK except it doesn't have "my shaver busted in my aircraft luggage and if I don't find a new one I'll have to grow a beard".
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Should we so call you "Brett the Bear"? :D
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It's getting that way :icon_cheesygrin:.
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Update your avatar :D
about the shareware, it's strange because I found many links for the software : about 25$ ?? So I don't understand why you bought it more than 25$?
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I got the pack with the dictionary for Mobile and Windows XP and the phrasebook. I got it from their official website. It seemed OK pricing for what it was. I've not used it yet but it will impress the lady.
Shaver now working, the flight must have killed the batteries.
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did you pray for the batteries to work again?
ALIVE!!!!! It's ALIVE!!!!!!
:D
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Brett,
More like the shaver switch got turned on during your travels, and drained the batteries. Nothing else is going kill them!!
David....
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Yeah I guess that might have happened, my bag's contents were shaken all over the place. Amazingly none of the 3 glass bottles in it broke. I'm glad I didn't risk a bottle of red wine though.
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Update your avatar :D
hehe
[attachment=864]
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can i use besta to make a reply in chinese?
i mean, can i use it to write mail in chinese and translate the one i get? that will be good to make the girl really interested write directly to me instead of use Express-EMF service and make me pay for read their mails...
i'm interested on that eveb because a girl that is paied from the agency for reply me and make me spend credits will never leave Express-EMF service...
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I don't know about the Bestas but the translator my girl has didn't write English that was any better than Google's translations.
I have a rule - use MSN/QQ for unimportant things, but EMFs for important things. It is a good rule.
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Now .. now Brett ! Everything I do with my Lady / Wife is " Important " :icon_cheesygrin::icon_cheesygrin:
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Once you have a direct link you can tell your lady what you are doing to save any misunderstandings in words as even with the Besta it cannot always detect the word you are after to change to Chinese , but is probably an 8 out of 10 , regards Robert
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I don't know about the Bestas but the translator my girl has didn't write English that was any better than Google's translations.
I have a rule - use MSN/QQ for unimportant things, but EMFs for important things. It is a good rule.
so google can be good to translate english > chinese and viceversa?
well nothing important for me right now, since i dont have found a special girl yet, and since i have 43 girl that have write to me it will be expansive reply to them all, and more important i have to find who is really a scam girl so i stop to reply her, and i focus only in the girls that are really interested in a relationship...
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Google can be used, but it writes some complete rubbish sometimes. Sometimes it writes the opposite of what you want to say, so always translate the translation back to Chinese before you send it to the girl.
Don't worry, at first you'll be overwhelmed by the number of ladies on chnlove, but you will know when you meet the good ones - I did not find that too difficult to work out.
It helps if you have a good idea of what you want so you can ask them important questions. In my example, I wanted someone to move to the UK, so anyone who didn't want this I stopped talking to. I also don't like dogs, so that cut out all the dog lovers etc.
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Google can be used, but it writes some complete rubbish sometimes. Sometimes it writes the opposite of what you want to say, so always translate the translation back to Chinese before you send it to the girl.
Don't worry, at first you'll be overwhelmed by the number of ladies on chnlove, but you will know when you meet the good ones - I did not find that too difficult to work out.
It helps if you have a good idea of what you want so you can ask them important questions. In my example, I wanted someone to move to the UK, so anyone who didn't want this I stopped talking to. I also don't like dogs, so that cut out all the dog lovers etc.
i tried some google, is hard do a decent translation =_=
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Hi Marco.
If you have not discovered it, try MDBG. I find it works quite well, That is if you want to translate into English tho. I'm not sure if you want that, or one in you native language. :)
Andy...
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Hi Marco.
If you have not discovered it, try MDBG. I find it works quite well, That is if you want to translate into English tho. I'm not sure if you want that, or one in you native language. :)
Andy...
well i understand english better than chinese ^^
mdbg is a software??
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No it is an online program. http://usa.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php I have it in my favorites, copy and paste it into your browser.
Andy. :icon_biggrin:
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I don't know about the Bestas but the translator my girl has didn't write English that was any better than Google's translations.
I have a rule - use MSN/QQ for unimportant things, but EMFs for important things. It is a good rule.
so google can be good to translate english > chinese and viceversa?
well nothing important for me right now, since i dont have found a special girl yet, and since i have 43 girl that have write to me it will be expansive reply to them all, and more important i have to find who is really a scam girl so i stop to reply her, and i focus only in the girls that are really interested in a relationship...
google translate can translate Italian to Chinese and back. There are tricks to make work better. Try one sentence at a time. Try different words.
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I don't know about the Bestas but the translator my girl has didn't write English that was any better than Google's translations.
I have a rule - use MSN/QQ for unimportant things, but EMFs for important things. It is a good rule.
so google can be good to translate english > chinese and viceversa?
well nothing important for me right now, since i dont have found a special girl yet, and since i have 43 girl that have write to me it will be expansive reply to them all, and more important i have to find who is really a scam girl so i stop to reply her, and i focus only in the girls that are really interested in a relationship...
google translate can translate Italian to Chinese and back
i know, it do quite the same...
and worse the translation in chinese form english is different from the italian one ...
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test sorry
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Has anyone bought an ECTACO translator? They seem pretty good except i heard the customer service is the pits.
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I guess it depends on what you're looking for.
One of the biggest differences I saw between the top of the line Besta and the top of the line Ectaco was that the Besta would provide both the pinyin and hanyu translations from english (since that's what I'm concerned with). Since I'm trying to learn to speak Mandarin that's pretty important to me.
If that's not important to you, then from the geek standpoint (me being a geek), the Ectaco impressed me more than the Besta.
But, again, it didn't give me the one important non-geek thing that I wanted. So I'm really leaning towards the Besta.
As far a customer service goes, these things are just like toasters. I don't think you're going to find that great of CS with any of the manufacturer's.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Barry
Has anyone bought an ECTACO translator? They seem pretty good except i heard the customer service is the pits.
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Guys - if you haven't noticed, Google have revamped their translation page. The translation is now done in real time, and there's an option to show pinyin! This is a huge leap forward for those of us who are learning Chinese :icon_cheesygrin:!
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Guys - if you haven't noticed, Google have revamped their translation page. The translation is now done in real time, and there's an option to show pinyin! This is a huge leap forward for those of us who are learning Chinese :icon_cheesygrin:!
Way cool!!
Thanks Brett
Now if they'd only plug that into their widgets (like on http://www.google.com/ig) then translate / reverse translate would be a breeze.
Regards,
Barry
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I guess it depends on what you're looking for.
One of the biggest differences I saw between the top of the line Besta and the top of the line Ectaco was that the Besta would provide both the pinyin and hanyu translations from english (since that's what I'm concerned with). Since I'm trying to learn to speak Mandarin that's pretty important to me.
If that's not important to you, then from the geek standpoint (me being a geek), the Ectaco impressed me more than the Besta.
But, again, it didn't give me the one important non-geek thing that I wanted. So I'm really leaning towards the Besta.
As far a customer service goes, these things are just like toasters. I don't think you're going to find that great of CS with any of the manufacturer's.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Barry
Has anyone bought an ECTACO translator? They seem pretty good except i heard the customer service is the pits.
The ECTACO looks impressive, but I think it doesn't have Cantonese translations. My girlfriend is from Guangdong and she speaks more Cantonese than anything. I had tried the Besta 9200 mini in Hong Kong and it had a Cantonese sound translation.
I think there are different labeled models in China though so it makes it difficult to compare even between Besta models.
I will probably buy one in China as it at least has a Chinese recharger plug. Oh do these come in dual voltage also?
I found out that there are different versions of Besta models in each country.
The American one has a model more for English speakers learning Chinese.
The Hong Kong models have a different label designation but can also pronounce words in Cantonese.
The mainland Chinese models I believe have yet another designation but in Guangdong province the models can also speak to you in Cantonese.
This is where I get all confused. I need one for an English speaker to learn Mandarin and also Cantonese but I also want to have my girlfriend learn English from it as well.
I am leaning to buy it from Canada which has the North American version same as in the USA.
If I am wrong please correct me.
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I can't remember the brand of translator my girl has but it seemed to be a PDA with a knock off version of Windows Mobile on it. The translations were as good as the ones you get out of Google (for better or for worse!) I guess that at the heart of every English/Chinese translator is the same 3rd party software. Well apart from the Babelfish translator, which is laughably bad.
Her translator only had a Chinese gui but I could remember the things to press to get the English > Chinese mode.
If you have a decent mobile phone you can probably get translator software for it, so that might be a different approach.
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Here in Beijing and purchased a Besta yesterday for just over 800RMb. Since my lady does not type, this is able to take her hand written mandrin and translate to english. It is also able to attach this to an e-mail and we can translate with out the cost of EMF. To date, it is very good, easy to use and will also read written english and translate. Over all extremely satisified with the product and price. Had Betty our translator along and she was able to verify the accuracy of the translation.
buzz
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Wow, that's a good price for a translator. My lady's non-brand thing cost more than that. It does the handwriting recognition, but to use that you really have to know your stroke orders!!!!
If your lady doesn't know pinyin there are several different methods of entering characters. I don't know if the machines understand them though. I know that it seemed to take forever for my lady to draw all the characters for a sentence.