

From Idea to Execution: Mantaphrase's Japanese Heritage - wlue
http://www.mantaphrase.com/blog/2012/11/07/japanese-heritage/

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gingerlime
This is very cute. So simple it's almost a waste of effort (if a phrasebook
already exists), but yet it's much better than a phrasebook!

I can imagine this working quite well in Japan, where people are not afraid of
technology, but struggle to communicate in foreign languages. I'm not so sure
how well this can be accepted in, say, Romania (just an example, I've never
been there).

...and shouldn't you swap the first example on the homepage from "Do I have to
be hospitalized?" to something slightly more cheerful?

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patar
I agree that the exact interaction will depend on the setting and that it will
take time to perfect. We're on it and open to suggestions!

Re: "Do I have to be hospitalized?", I believe our original intent was to show
practicality, though in retrospect it does seem off. Thanks for the catch!

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patio11
"Do you have vegetarian options?" or "Does this food have eggs in it?",
perhaps. (I know a few foreigners who carry business-card sized printouts with
an explanation saying "Hello! The person who handed you this can't speak
Japanese. She has an extremely serious medical allergy to eggs or anything
containing eggs.")

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patar
Awesome suggestions and very simple to implement; look for it soon. I have
many relatives who are celiacs (i.e. can't eat wheat) who have had this same
problem!

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alphang
This is awesome. I love how you addressed a problem that seemed "already
solved" (ie. there's tonnes of foreign language phrase books in the app store)
and designed a better solution for it. I can't wait to try it out on a trip.

btw, does the app also provide an option to read the phrase, so that you can
learn it over time?

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patar
Patrick here. Pinyin/romaji (+ other phonetic readings) as well as audio for
each phrase are in the works. Let me know if you have any other suggestions!

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spin
This is a neat idea. I just rented an apartment in Tokyo. My Japanese is not
that great, so when going through the lease, the realtor and I sat down with
Google Translate* to go through all the legalese. We had the exact same sort
of "wtf?" moments that the author describes -- I can deal with regular
conversation, but legal terms oftentimes have odd meanings compared to how
regular people talk...

(*actually, it was something else, I don't remember the brand, but exactly the
same concept as Google Translate)

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robee
I'm curious to see how smooth the interaction is with this product. It seems
it could be awkward to ask a stranger who doesn't speak your language to look
at your iPhone and click buttons to communicate with you.

On the other hand, if they can make it feel "magical", it will be an
impressive achievement.

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hrktb
I often got lost in Japan, and ask random strangers to show me where to go on
a gps map, or show an address in an email or have them look at instructions
etc. It might not work in other countries, but in japan it's very smooth.

Apart form that, I think the presence of the Yes/No buttons is very
thoughtful. You don't want a stranger to have to think about the kind of
answer you're asking for.

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smweber
This is amazing. It's exactly what I wanted to build when I was living in
Japan, but I never got around to it. Congrats! I'll definitely be taking this
with me the next time I go to Japan.

