Languages Center

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

Good Beginner/Intermediate Chinese-English Translator, September 13, 2007

I purchased this translator after much research before coming to China to study Chinese. Many other brands were out of my price-range, so I was happy to have a more moderately priced model. I was also pleased that this translator was made for an English speaker learning Chinese, since many translators are made for a Chinese speaker learning English.

Overall, I am very pleased with this translator. It is easy to use, a great size to fit in a purse, comes with an English manual, has a very easy interface, and does a pretty good job at translating. One reason I was particularly interested in this dictionary was for its whole sentence translation (both from Chinese/English and from English/Chinese). The translation is by no means perfect, but when you are trying to get a complex idea across to someone who may or may not even speak the main dialect of China, I have found it quite useful. Unfortunately though, it translates the sentence into characters and it is a little troublesome to find the pinyin.

In other pros, I also appreciate the back light, the medical/business/law dictionaries (though they are not perfect), and the pinyin input. The voice pronunciation is adequate, and after hearing the voices on other dictionaries such as the well regarded Besta brand, I believe the AM101 is as good or better.

The extras in this dictionary are minimal, though it does have a rudimentary Tetris game which brought back memories of my childhood. I was also disappointed to find out that it didn’t have an alarm. I have not used the MP3 function, though the voice recorder can be quite useful.
Overall, I am pleased with my AM101 and would purchase it again. I think it is especially beneficial for beginner/intermediate Chinese learners and for people who want a translator while traveling to China. For a helpful video tour of this dictionary, visit the company’s website.

One final note: If you are studying abroad in China, I suggest you consider buying a dictionary in China. Many of my peers have purchased a Chinese brand dictionary that has character recognition for a comparable price, and they are all very pleased with it.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

Nice compact unit, seems well made., October 8, 2007

Nice compact unit, seems well made. Have found some words that do not translate right according to my Chinese friend. Reading through the included Chinese Idioms is very interesting. Backlight is a nice feature and the battery life is exceptional, we use it quite a bit and it still has the original batteries. Never tried the USB connectivity or audio capability.

Drawbacks: Pronunciation clarity is a bit lacking, quite a drawback when trying to use it as a learning tool. No u (with oomlat) key for entering Pinyin spelling. A nuisance “boot time” every time the unit is powered on, maybe 10 seconds.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

English <–> Chinese Translator, February 1, 2009

AM101 Electronic English Chinese Translator / Dictionary – Translates English Sentence / Phrase / Words to Chinese and Vice Versa (Voice: Mandarin Chinese/English):

Product was new and arrived promptly. It is quite useful and worth the investment. Were the software a bit better organized it would stupendous. But for someone whose mastery of Chinese is less than stellar, I would rate it down a bit (to 4 of 5 stars) because one has to march through extra steps to get the information most useful to the novice.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Great for teenagers, January 10, 2011

I bought this as a Christmas present for my young teenage son who is interested in other languages. He thinks it is pretty cool. Not sure how helpful it would be for actual travel, but it is good just for fun.