Java Phones Help Romance When Overseas

Mobile phone software company LingoPal has launched a suite of applications for java-enabled mobile phones that may spark love between different nationalities, and at the same time render the traditional foreign-language phrasebook redundant. Initially available in seven European languages, the software employs high-quality audio recordings of foreign phrases, accurately pronounced by native speakers, which play across the phone's loudspeaker.

LingoPal's Managing Director, Richard Johnson, said that two different products are available. "The LingoPal Voyage is aimed at the general traveller, and includes the most-needed phrases used when visiting a foreign country." Categorised into fourteen sub-directories such as Accomodation, Directions and Emergencies to enable easy searching, the phrases can be individually stored in a Favourites folder to make the process even simpler.

It is the LingoPal Flirta however, that should attract the attention of wandering Lotharios. "If you're in a bar in Prague and you have neither fame, money nor looks, then you can only rely on your chat", said Johnson. "If you can't do that then you're stuffed. That's where LingoPal Flirta comes in." Like the Voyage, Flirta is divided into sub-directories of likely scenarios, including At a Bar, On the Beach and Compliments.

One feature of which Johnson is most proud is the Reverse Translations sub-directory, which assists two-way conversation between the couple.

LingoPal believes mobiles are the cradle for future foreign-language communication technology, ahead of Palms and PDAs. "Mobiles are omnipresent", said Johnson, "and with Global Roaming, people are increasingly taking their phones with them on holiday or on business. Now, instead of being lumbered with a bunch of different phrasebooks bulging out of their pockets, travellers can utilise their mobile phone as a tool to help communicate whilst in a foreign land."

Posted to the site on 8th March 2006