iLingo Languages For Your iPod

I’m one to pick up on foreign languages fairly quickly, especially while I’m traveling. But sometimes it is nice to have a dictionary or a guide to simple words while I’m going around. Since I have my iPod on me just about at all times anyway, it’s the ideal way to quickly access foreign phrases on demand without having to lug around a clunky dictionary.

iLingo (made by Talking Panda) conveniently turns an iPod into an audio phrase book to take you through your overseas travels. It provides common words, phrases, pronunciations and you can see on your iPod’s screen how to write the words and phonetically sound them out.

The program is organized into simple categories such as greetings, shopping and emergency, so when nature calls, you can easily find a bathroom. Other categories include getting directions, dining, making friends and entertainment, just to name a few. Each language translator includes over 400 phrases, and the audio files are recorded by native speakers, so the pronunciations are easy to follow and un-accented. If you don’t catch the phrases right away, you can turn on the repeat feature on your iPod, and it will play the phrase over and over again. Beware of that though, I did that a little while I listened to the Mandarin set, and I felt like I was back in the language lab at UH, but it was a good brush up anyway.

When you install iLingo onto your iPod, you need to pay close attention because it will create a whole bunch of audio files, however you don’t access the program by clicking on the audio files directly. You need to go to your iPod’s main menu and go to “Extras,” then onto “Notes,” after that you will see it. Unfortunately iLingo will not work on an iPod shuffle or any iPod purchased before May 2003 because of the lack of a note reader feature that is required to run it. It is compatible with both Mac OS X (version 10.2 or later) and Windows 2000 or XP. You also need 50 MB of free space on your iPod and iTunes 4.7 or later installed on your computer.

Broaden your horizons with the iLingo AsiaPack 2.0 for $39.95, which includes Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese and Korean. Or, the iLingo EuroPack 2.0 is $49.95 and includes French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian. Check out www.talkingpanda.com to purchase either one. The website also offers a 65-phrase trial version (English-to-Japanese) and a demo you can tinker with if you just want to explore.