Speak a foreign language in minutes

If you've ever been stuck lugging a heavy language book in a foreign country and rifling through its pages to find out how to ask where the nearest washroom is, you'll appreciate Alex Chapin's latest contribution to the tourist's language dilemma.

McGraw Hill asked Chapin, an educational technologist at Middlebury College, to develop a series of audio-learning modules for tourists, business travellers and students. The iSpeak is a module that's designed to fit neatly into your iPod and some other MP3 players. “Just like any phrase book it will introduce you to a language and give you the basics to get around," says Chapin.Chapin set out to deliver the material in the same way as a music file, but he took advantage of other fields available on an MP3 player: artist, album, lyrics, track numbers, etc. “We organized the material in a way that would make it easy for you to find exactly what you wanted... so, for example, we took the artist field, which is usually just for the artist of the song, and we used it to be the top level categorization of the iSpeak material.”

The result was nearly 1,500 audio tracks covering typical travel situations and a 64-page accompanying user guide.

How to use it
To use this device, you navigate through categories in English, and hear the word/phrase in audio in the target language first, then in English, then in the target language again. This is followed by a sentence that uses the word or phrase.

Each iSpeak module is broken down into several categories listed under various headings. For example, in the "artist" category, you'll find: Conversation, Travel, Accommodations, Food, Services, Entertainment, and Reference. Within each of those categories are subcategories.

Take the Food category, as an example. Within that subject, you will find: Basics, Eating Out (Reservations), Eating Out (Ordering), Eating Out (Service), Beverages, Meat, Poultry & Fish, Vegetables & Grains, Fruit & Dairy, and Preparation.

“You want to use it before you actually need it,” recommends Chapin. “The more you listen in a focused, active way, the more you'll get out of it. The first time you go through the category you might read (within the 64-page booklet or off the screen of the MP3 player) as you listen, the next time you might just listen and see what you can remember -- self-quiz yourself on the phrases.”

When you're on vacation, you can listen to words and phrases in context, says Chapin. “While you're going to the restaurant you can be listening to word and phrases about food.”

Chapin points out that the iSpeak can be used beyond its auditory function. “The lyrics field is where, if it were a song, you would click to see the lyrics for that song. We've used that field to put a lot more information in the Chinese and Japanese especially. We included those (Chinese and Japanese) characters so you could reach that or you could actually show someone what you wanted. You could just point to your MP3 and say, I mean this.”

What are the limitations of the series?
“It isn't something that you would learn a language with,” says Chapin. “Just like any phrase book it will introduce you to a language and give you the basics to get around, to be able to explore a new city and a new culture.”

The screen of an iPod or MP3 is so small that that there are obvious limitations on the length of the phrases, and you may find yourself scrolling a bit to get the full text.

What languages are available?
You can find iSpeak in French, Spanish, German, and Italian; plans are already in play to release four more modules including Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese.

Where to get it
You can pick up an iSpeak module for less than $20 in most bookstores, or order online at amazon.ca.

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