"By the time they shuffle through a dictionary the moment has passed and conversation has moved on." “Chinese language learners often rack their minds searching for the right word,” explains a China Daily article entitled “Dictionary Program Redefines Translation. “By the time they shuffle through a dictionary the moment has passed and conversation has moved on.” To overcome the problem of unwieldy paper dictionaries, Harvard graduate Michael Love has created a Chinese-English dictionary program for personal digital assistants. His program, “Pleco,” does not provide simple word-for-word language translation, but offers different choices and examples of use in context – much like a regular dictionary. Love, who formerly used another Chinese-English Palm application, was dissatisfied with the very basic dictionary functions offered by that program. So he spent more than a year designing his new language translation software, which he plans to update continually to improve accuracy and grammar. Expect more of this type of software to develop as language learners tire of toting around heavy dictionaries! Language Translation Inc. in San Diego provides language translation, interpretation and localization services in Chinese and over 40 other languages. “Let us show you how good translation should be!” Betty Carlson Subscribe to Language Lines, our monthly newsletter, for more information about the important role that translation plays in international communication. | 
