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Dec 13 2005
Talkman Preview
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| Summary: Talkman is a pretty good tool
I bought the Talkman mainly because I had taken Japanese classes before and would like to have a tool that can help me practice in a more joyable way.
First of all, Talkman can translate between Chinese (China simplified Chinese), English, Japanese and Korean. Talkman has two main parts, the talk mode and the game mode. The translation part of it is done in the talk mode, while the game mode helps you practice on both listening and speaking of the language of your choice.
The talk mode does the translation pretty good. The way it says the language is more in the daily use conversation form, rather than the textbook gramma focus form. So, if you would like to learn the language that you can really use on the street, this is it. The talk mode divides into many subcategories for different situation, such as in airport, on the train, shopping, in resturant, etc. So, you can quickly look up what you would like to be translated.
You can either choose the sentenses to be translated by either choosing from the list, or just say it through the microphone. I found that the mic is pretty good picking up what you say and give the closest match. After you find the sentence, Max the bird will say it in the language you chose. After that, you can even ask Max to ask the person you talked to to give an answer by choosing from the list in that person's language. Then, Max will translate the answer back into your language for you.
There are games you can practice to improve your listening and speaking skills.
One of these games is to follow what Max says, then Max gives you a grade from A to D. If you get all A's in the five words, you unlocked a piece of puzzle. If you get all 25 pieces of puzzle unlocked, you get the picture of the puzzle.
The other game involves listening to a series of four sentenses with the meaning translated, then Max will repeat one of those four and ask you to decide what that sentence means.
I think Talkman is a good tool to bring along, since you may already bring the PSP with you when travelling in Asia. I think it can really help you in some instances when talking to local people, getting help, ordering food, buying merchandise, etc. However, on the other side, the game mode may not be too interesting. Actually, it's kind of boring, especially when I tried tons of times to sy "Tea please!," in English, but I still cannot get an A grade. That is frustrating.
Overall this game is recommended if you would like to learn Japanese, Chinese, Korean or English in a conversational rather than textbook style. However, if you want a game to play, this is not for you.
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PRODUCT INFO
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Comments
Yeah the grading speech is good, but not perfect. It didn't like when I emphasize tones in chinese words like my teachers encourage, and in the english one i had a few hangups that i got through, but it took me literally over a hundred times for it to give me an A saying "can you make a reservation for me" Getting all A's in the speech mode gets you a two player co-op pong game, and all A's in comprehension gets you a silly boring game.
There are 3 endings, but i've only unlocked one. To unlock it just put 10 'friends' on your friends map in tools. I've put up to 31 or so, and that didn't unlock anything else.
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wow, a cartoon translater. Now that's useful.
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Lik-sang.com says my copy shipped yesterday...I'm excited to get this.....
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How much? (there is no link)
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overachiever said: "How much? (there is no link)"
It is about $61, you can get them from either eBay, Lik Sang or YesAsia.
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I'll wait for a US version, not worth $61 in my opinion.
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if there is ever a us version, it would likely go for $60 because of the included mic. It would be neat to see an english/spanish/french/german version though
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The article on psp hacks rumored that a german company is already working on the english/spanich/french/german additions to this product.
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I think it would be pretty cool to have an english version of this that taught you japanese.
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