Customer Reviews

Franklin TES-121 Spanish-English Phrasebook & Translator

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I bought this because it said it had 800,000 translations and was fairly cheap, but I was left frustrated and disappointed. A few missing words: spinach, lettuce, lethargic, and many more. These may not be essential words, but every pocket or electronic dictionary I've checked since included those words. Also, there aren't 800,000 translations. There are that many verb conjugations (which isn't a lot if you consider that 1 verb can have 50 conjugations, maybe more). Also, some grammatical issues. The word "best" is Spanish is "mejor." However, this indicates that no, mejor does not mean best. "lo más bueno" means best. This is the equivalent of saying "the most good" in English. Same thing with the word worst. The word "peor" is not in the dictionary. Someone might be able to understand that "the most bad" means "worst," but for students or anyone else learning the language or trying to improve their Spanish vocabulary, this dictionary is horrible. Spend the extra bucks on the fantastic DBE-1470. That dictionary has it all. It also gives come context, and... well, this isn't a review for that product. The Franklin TES-120 is a horrible dictionary and I'm sure there are many other issues with it that I didn't spend the time finding. If you'd like to improve your Spanish, do not buy this product as you will be let down by its limited capabilities and vocabulary.

I've used Spanish/English translators for many years. My first ones were the Seiko Berlitz TR-2720 (with 1.1 million words and phrases). I bought a dozen or more of these for personal use and to give away as gifts. I still have one that works perfectly on its original battery after more than 10 years of use. It remains my all-time favorite. Unfortunately, it isn't manufactured anymore.

Next, I went with a much cheaper translator (the Seiko ET-2240 with 600,000 words), and although it didn't have everything in it and wasn't as easy to use, I became accustomed to it. So, for the cheap price, I bought a dozen or more of these to use or give as gifts. It was lacking some simple words like cat, but overall I became pleased with the product.
This product is now discontinued too.

Since I had purchased the Seiko ET2240s from Franklin, I assumed that I'd get at least the same benefits from the 800,000-word Franklin TES-120. I bought four of them. With the same number of words and almost an identical description as the Seiko ET2250 (they even look identical), I bought the Franklin TES-120 for the cheaper price. I figured that simple-word omissions would have been corrected with the addition of 200,000 words. Unfortunately, it's missing even more words. I've only owned these for a short time, but already I'm not as pleased with it as I was with the Seiko. It still doesn't have the word "cat" in it, but to not have the verb "to find" (or "encontrar") is absurd.

Since it has the occasional word I need to look up and functions as a metric converter for me, I'm rating it as an okay product to buy for the price.

4-27-2011. It's now 11 months since I bought the Franklin TES 121 Translator. I spent a total of $14 for mine, but I'd pay $20 without a second thought today. I carry it with me everyday. I am still really happy with it and cannot identify with the bad reviews of it I have read. Without paying attention to whether it has 800,000 translations or whatever, it has very high functionality for me, but of course for you that will depend on where you are in your study of Spanish. Here are my positive and negative comments. First, stripped of its packaging, it is 2-3/8" by 4-1/16" by 1/2" closed, and weighs exactly 2.8 ounces. I use my fingernail to open the protective cover. It fits my men's shirt pockets but I carry it in my cargo pants pocket where it won't slip out. It translates both ways, Spanish to English and English to Spanish (it has other features like World Clock, Conversions, four groups of Phrases, Games, and Calculator, etc., but I rarely use those). It is somewhat hard to read: this type of display is miserly in using battery power. You have to tilt it this way or that in SOME ambient light, to read the screen. It shuts off automatically after 1 or 2 minutes. But, in 11 months of everyday use, I have not had to replace the battery. And, yes, there are a number of words it does not seem to have a translation for. The good aspects for me, however, are that there are plenty of words I am interested in that it does translate, prominent nouns and verbs. I took 1 year of college Spanish in 1975 and from time to time since then have looked up English-Spanish-English translations. I often use Spanish phrases with my 12 yr old daughter and my significant other, both of whom are taking Spanish courses, and I listen several times a week to Spanish radio and television stations.
The Franklin TES 121 is particularly useful for that level of Spanish learning, e.g., because it shows the conjugations of verbs, both the Spanish and the English together, one on one line, the other on the next line below it, both lines viewable at the same time, all the tenses from the present to the future and past and imperative and conditional, etc. Caveat: you do frequently have to "arrow right" or "arrow left" to read longer translations. Anyhow, as an example, on the screen below "I dream" is "yo sueño." On the screen below "You went" is "tu fuiste." And on the screen below "we had gone," is "nosotros habíamos ido" but for that you have to "arrow right" a few characters to see it all, etc. This happens to be far more useful to me for looking up verbs than a 1" thick verb book that doesn't fit in my pocket. Plus, all the verb books I've seen do not have the English equivalent side-by-side with the Spanish! However, one deficiency with the TES 121 is that some, but not all, important irregular verbs do not have translations; e.g., "I make" is translated as "Yo ----", i.e, with blanks instead of "Yo hago." But it is excellent for the regular verbs like caminar, comer and escribir; and good for irregular verbs like decir and contar.
Further, contrary to the bad Amazon reviews of this product that I have read, the Franklin TES 121 DOES appropriately translate the words, spinach, lettuce, frog, best, string beans, etc!
It appears, unfortunately, that bad reviews of the Franklin TES 120 got mixed in with reviews intended for the Franklin TES 121. In any event, if you're at a level of learning Spanish such that you want something handy and functional for the verbs and nouns that pop into your head during the day, the TES 121 is a highly functional tool for the money.

Poor product for the price.Low speed answers. Low screen resolution or the batteries arrived with low power. If you need to use it at night, outside your office or home, it's a nightmare.

Big help in learning Spanish .... easy to use ... very good product for the money !
Ayuda grande en el aprendizaje de inglés.... ¡... producto muy bueno fácil de utilizar para el dinero!

I thought the translator was great! It helped me out in my spanish class for the first year of college. I found it to be very helpful and I don't think it's a waste of money.

Couldn't get any better translator than this unless it would be one to pronounce the words. Easy to use and small to carry.

For such an inexpensive translator it was worth it and very helpful on my trip to Spain. It doesn't have every word but did help me to communicate using key words.

It does have its faults. May not have all the words you're looking for.
However, for its price, it is definitely usable.

I was not happy with this product. When trying to translate a word, it suggests a group of variations that I am not looking for. For example, if you search for a word, it suggests 5 or 6 other words for you to learn. If I am trying to learn the language or improve on it, it would be much better if it easily translated instead of being a bit of a hassle.

To set another example, if you write the verb "to do" in english and ask it to translate it, it translates it to "todo" which means "all" or "everything".