New Talkman acts as an English teacher

By Spencer . September 28, 2006 . 10:29am

Last year Sony released Talkman for the PSP, a portable language translator in Japan. The device came bundled with a microphone so you could speak phrases in your native language for the PSP to translate. The software recognition wasn’t bad, but it was really the tabbed pre-set phrases that made the Talkman somewhat useful. Now Sony has Talkman Shiki: Shabe Lingual Eikaiwa scheduled for a release this winter in Japan. The flying multilingual bird, Max, leads language training sessions by drilling users with English phrases. After he says crucial phrases like “The fries will take a few minutes do you mind waiting” and “I’ll have a cola” it is up to the player to recite them in the microphone. Talkman Shiki: Shabe Lingual Eikaiwa has a listening mode where Max says sentences in English and players select their correct meaning in Japanese by picking an item in a multiple choice test.