Most translators give you the words.SpeechMiles stays for the conversation.
Getting by abroad is not one sentence.It is the answer, and the answer to that.
You ask where the train leaves from. They tell you, kindly, at length, and you catch one word of it.
That is the moment most translation stops. You got your sentence out. Nobody helped you with what came back.
SpeechMiles stays for the answer. Say it in your language and it comes out in theirs. They reply, and it comes back in yours. Then you ask the next thing, and it is still there.
You have a nut allergy.
You have said it at a hundred counters in a language that is not theirs. Maybe you carry a card and hand it over.
They read it. They nod.
And that nod is everything you know.
A card only goes one way. A conversation goes both.
In SpeechMiles, “I have a nut allergy” is already written in their language, in every language the app offers. Tap it and it is said out loud. Then keep talking: when they answer, SpeechMiles is listening, and you hear what they actually said.
Two people, one phone, and nobody passing a button back and forth.
You know the other way. Talk into it, turn the screen around, wait while they read, turn it back, hand the whole phone over so they can find the button, take it back. Four handovers to say two things, and by then the queue behind you has stopped being patient.
You talk. They talk. It works out when each of you has finished.
42 languages. You do not get to choose which one you need.
It is late, and you have to explain what is wrong.
You get the words out. Then the person behind the counter asks you something, because of course they do. How long has it been. Have you taken anything already. Is it worse when you move.
You cannot answer a question you did not hear.
SpeechMiles hears it, in your language, and takes your answer back in theirs. Then the next question, and the one after that.
The first price is never the price.
You point at it. They say a number. Now you have a number and nothing else, and two ways to go: pay it, or walk.
The third way is a conversation. Too much. What about this much. They pick the thing up, look at it, look at you, and say something back you did not expect. You answer that.
Somewhere in there, the number moves.
That is four turns. One sentence gets you the first one. SpeechMiles stays for all four.
- iPhone, for now.
- Translation needs a connection.
- SpeechMiles never tells you a dish is safe, and never checks a menu for allergens. Ask the kitchen.