– Background interference affects readability. – Other features and services in combination with OCR. – Capture features that aren’t available on Waygo. An absolute ton of other great features included in the basic bundle.Pleco takes some getting used to, but it’s an awesome resource that’s definitely worth having. I have the basic bundle, and it’s the best 30 dollars I’ve ever spent. The Pleco basic bundle ($29.99) includes the full-screen handwriting function, document reader, OCR, flashcard function, stroke order diagrams, Mandarin Audio, and dictionary. So, Pleco isn’t much use when trying to translate longer-form content. My only issue with the Pleco OCR is that it doesn’t offer a full-text translator – you can only translate the characters on-by-one. One of the many paid add-on features (totally worth it) is the OCR (Optical Character Recogniser), where you can scan live texts or images you’ve taken on your phone and then translate them Pleco is my number one recommendation for a comprehensive Chinese dictionary and is an absolute must for any Mandarin Chinese learner. – Not really suited to reading longer-form text. – The free version only allows 10 translations a day. – Keeps a log of your previous translations – Take a photo of the Chinese text to then translate it – Fast and simple translations from Chinese to English Other languages are available – Japanese and Korean.The translations can sometimes be a bit off the mark (like they are with all apps), and it doesn’t always work with books or really stylised fonts. Just be warned that the free version only provides 10 translations per day, so if you want to use the app extensively, you’ll have to pay a one-off fee of £5.99 for unlimited translations of Chinese. Although regular translation apps like Google and Baidu have a text translator, Waygo is the easiest to use.Īnother great thing about WayGo is it doesn’t require an internet connection, so you can use it whenever and wherever. The OCR reader captures characters so easily compared to Pleco.Īll you have to do is open the app and point your smartphone camera at the text you want to translate. Waygo is without a doubt the cream of the crop when it comes to instant text translation. Playing the game ‘Restaurant Menu Selection Roulette’ in China loses its novelty quite quickly. I find these apps particularly useful in local Chinese restaurants as menus will rarely be in English. If you have trouble reading signs or menus in Chinese, an instant character translation app will come in very handy. – Not designed for native English speaking users Camera translation of multiple languages.The main benefit of using Baidu Translate over Google Translate is that Baidu services aren’t blocked in China, meaning you don’t need a VPN to use it.īaidu Translate includes a solid voice translation feature in addition to an image recognition feature – a fairly new development in the language app world. This makes sense somewhat as it is a Chinese app geared primarily to a Chinese audience. When you search for Baidu Translate in the app store, you might be put off by all of the Chinese. Google Translate rarely offers up perfect translations (like all translations app), but you always get a reasonably accurate translation with the text reader.īaidu is China’s top search engine, so it only makes sense that they’ve thrown their own translation app into the mix. You’ll need to have an internet connection if you want to keep using the voice translation in China, and you’ll need to be connected to the internet via a good VPN.Īs well as being able to translate large chunks of text, Google Translate can translate entire websites through a Chrome plugin. However, the offline version can only translate texts. However, you can download the Chinese-English text translation file whilst connected to the internet so you can use it offline when you’re out and about. Aren’t all Google services blocked in China?” However, taking a mix and match approach to the following apps can work wonders. Pleco‘s OCR text readerĪs of this moment, I’m yet to find one app that serves literally all of your translating needs in China. However, there is an often overlooked and very important function that is often forgotten about until it comes to learning Mandarin Chinese, and that’s the text scanner. Most translation apps come with the all-important text translator and voice translator. On top of that, a good translation app is an essential tool in the quest to learn Chinese. if you find yourself off the beaten path, you could be waiting a very long time until an English speaker comes along to help you. A translation app is an awesome tool to avoid potential awkwardness when facing the inevitable language barrier in China.Īlthough the ability to speak English is becoming more common amongst the Chinese, there are plenty of situations where you could find yourself struggling to communicate in China.
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