Let Your Fingers Do the Talking...
with the Lyucho Tel&Tell from Fuji Xerox
If you don't speak much Japanese and need a good, basic translation tool for common day-to-day situations, consider the Lyucho Tel&Tell
by John Drake
You're newly arrived in japan.
You've been to a late-night "business meeting" in Kabukicho but, since you still have a touch of jet lag, you excuse yourself early ("It's only 11:00," your hard-drinking colleagues protest) to get some rest.
You've had quit a bit of sake, though, and while you easily navigated the three-minute walk from the station to the restaurant earlier in the evening, you've obviously made a wrong turn: you've been walking for 10 minutes, and the station is nowhere in sight. There aren't many passersby in the part of town where you now find yourself, and those you've approached so far haven't understood English well enough (or, at any rate, been sober enough), to reply to your plaintive "How do I get to the train station?"
So, what can you do? Well, you could pull out your Lyucho Tel&Tell and press a few buttons to combine the phrases: "Excuse me; I hardly speak any Japanese. I'm lost. Is there a station near here? Could you show me the way on the map?" Then, when you spy the next inebriated sarariman, press a button and your Lyucho Tel&Tell synthesized male voice will politely inquire: "Chotto sumimasen. Watashi wa nihongo o hotondo hanasemasen. Michi ni mayotte shimaimashita. Kono chikaku ni eki wa arimasu ka? Chizu de michi o oshiete itadakemasu ka?"
Four thousand phrases in your hand
Fuji Xerox's Lyucho Tel&Tell is a handheld unit (9x15x3 cm, 210 grams) that uses a 64x120-dot display and synthesized voice to translate basic phrases from English to Japanese, and vice versa. Lyucho Tel&Tell`s dictionary has 3,014 words, which are combined to form over 4,100 sample sentences grouped in subcategories within the main categories of Basics, Business, Daily Life, Emergency, Leisure, Meals/Cooking, Medical Care, Shopping, Telephone, and Travel. And if you don't feel like searching through subcategories for a particular phrase, you can instead call up a list of keywords and then access all sentences that contain a selected word.
Some base sentences contain terms that can be cycled through -- e.g., "How <far> is it?" where "far" can be changed to "big," "heavy," "wide," etc. A few other sentences allow the input of unique terms (but, unfortunately, only a very few, and only in kana); for example, "My name is ***." can become "My name is Do-re-i-ku." And selected sentences indicated by a clock prefix allow entry of a date and time, such as, "Let's arrange to meet [at 4:00 PM on the 10th]."
Especially useful is a memory function that allows storage of up to 30 phrases or individual words. Thus, instead of searching for needed phrases on the spot, you can prepare a series of essential questions for quick translation in advance ("Where can I find shoes?" "May I try it on?" "Do you have it in a different color?" How much is it?"); or, by using the continuous playback button, you can combine a series of appropriate phrases (as in the previous hypothetical situation).
Easy operation
The Lyucho Tel&Tell comes in male and female voice models. Its synthesized voices are remarkably precise and easy to understand (though on the Japanese side, I found the male voice to be a bit clearer than the female voice). The respective voice versions are meant to be used by persons of the same sex; although both models will display all phrases, they will not pronounce sentences that would normally be uttered only by the other sex. (The male voice version, for example, will not say "I'm pregnant" or "I'd like a manicure," and the female voice version will not say "I'd like a shave.")
The compact, easy-to-hold unit has a built-in speaker and volume control, but if you just want to listen to sentence translations for language practice, the package includes an earphone. The unit can even be attached to the earphone jack of a telephone, and if the person on the other end of the line also has a Tel&Tell, the two units can communicate directly with each other.
The operation panel is simple to operate and intuitive (even if the buttons are labeled only in Japanese), and all of the screen displays can be switched between Japanese and English. The package includes a User's Guide (73 pages each in English and Japanese) with step-by-step operation descriptions and a 296-page bilingual Phrase Book.
While the Tel&Tell's translation capabilities are limited, the product does what it is intended to do very well. My only two minor criticisms may be unfair since they relate to using the unit as a language study tool, which is not its primary purpose. Although there is a button to slow down the voice output, the difference between "slow" and normal speed is minimal. And the screen display for Japanese is, naturally, in kanji; for the student who wants to listen to and repeat Japanese phrases as a learning aid, an optional kana display would be useful.
Whether you're a tourist, or an expat businessperson or spouse new to Japan, if you're not too embarrassed to let a machine do your talking for you, the Lyucho Tel&Tell could prove useful.ç
Lyucho Tel&Tell
VH85 (male voice) or VH86 (female voice): ¥39,000
Fuji Xerox: toll-free phone 0120-20-4922; fax 03-3343-1323
