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Good points Orange. Another, yes, a third reason for increased shipping fees is even more underhanded, if you want to return the item, guess what, they give you back 9.99 for the 45.00 MP3 player that you don't like or worse yet doesn't work for whatever reason.

On top of the 9.99 is a 15% restocking fee and whatever else it cost to get it back to them so the money you get back becomes so little, you may as well keep it and that is exactly their other motive. Your only hope is to be able to "exchange" the item (say if it doesn't work).

For the record: In this thread, we have covered translators thoroughly; their uses and prices, translators use as compared to lap tops, other translator devices like voice recognition speaking units and the state of that technology, other options such as a variety of Spanish courses including the Nintendo game unit and have now diverged into how pricing on ebay works and why.

I bring this to the boards attention merely as an example of the way a thread grows and changes. I don't see this as any kind of a problem while someone else might complain that we have wandered off topic, since return policies and ebay pricing really has nothing to do with translators and their use. We pretty much exhausted that topic for now, subject to change with the next iteration of translators or addition of new members.

To me, en evolving topic and continued exchange of information is healthy and interesting. Just my humble opinion and not intended to waylay this discussion.

I think D2864 made a very good point. If you are counting on a "money back" warranty and the majority of your purchase price was shipping, you lose.

_________________
"Your love gives me such a thrill
but your love don't pay my bills,
I NEED THE MONEY!" - John Lee Hooker

Disclaimer: The above is merely the opinion of the author unless specific scientific data is included.
Your mileage may vary. https://costaricaticas.com/phpBB2/viewto ... 978#206978

I totally agree. Thanks for letting us know about it, H. I bought it myself a week ago and have been practicing with it on my sister's DS ever since. There is just enough variety in games to help learn the different words, how to put together sentences, and other such.

I'd recommend it for someone who has at least a basic familiarity with Spanish.

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Join me or die! Can you do any less?

I bought one at radio shack and have never used it. You can borrow it for free when you are here. PM me and I will drop it off at the rey if you are there.

You can use Google Talk as a chat based translator. I posted a thread on the steps to install and use.

I carry a franklin translator on me everywhere I go, be it TJ or CR. It helped me learn alot as a newer spanish student. Just something as simple as going for a walk and running all the words you see in spanish through your translator, is a great vocabulary builder. In a short walk you should be able to find a dulceria, biblioteca, panderia, lavamatica,banco, etc.

The sieko translator looks interesting. I have been looking for an upgrade for my translator. I find the translator to be a great toy and test as well. Many DR/KL ladies are studying English or can see the benefit of understanding more of it. Many will enjoy playing with your translator and seeing the results. You both learn together. I succeeded in keeping a Colombiana entertained for a good hour in BM one night with the translator. She was in her first month of English school. I could not get her to back down from $100, though, so cut her loose.

This is probably true if you speak no Spanish at all.

However, if you are able to speak a little Spanish, and if she can speak a little English, it can be a lot of fun to work together with the Pocket Translator to fill in the gaps. The girls like them, because they want to get better at their English too.

Mine is not the greatest, but I like it because it fits in my shirt pocket, which is very very nice. I take mine everywhere and I find it comes in very, very handy. Even though I know there are better ones out there, I would not use mine as much if it was not small enough to fit in my shirt pocket.