Turn your Lumia into a language tutor

Whether you often travel abroad or love to experiment with exotic dishes, never get lost in translation with these handy apps for your Lumia smartphone.

The universal translator in the movie “Star Trek” is yet to turn into a reality! So when you’re in a situation where you can’t converse with someone because you don’t speak the same language, use these Windows Phone apps to improve your language skills.

Translator (free)

Did you know languages such as Querétaro Otomi or Yucatec Maya existed? Fret not and overcome your language barrier with the Translator app, which offers you support in more than 45 languages.

Type, speak, or point your camera to a foreign word, and have it translated instantly. Keep pointing your camera at the text and get live results. You can also download the offline support depending on the languages you require.

Say “Bonjour!” or “Ni hao” and become a language connoisseur in the real sense.

Dictionary.com (free)

Say hello to the mobile version of Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com. The Dictionary.com app replicates the feel of the website and includes more than 2,000,000 words. There is also a support for audio pronunciation, definitions, synonyms and antonyms and origin of words.

Pin dictionary.com on your Start screen and hone your vocabulary with “Word of the Day” alerts.

Duolingo (free)

Learn a foreign language by playing a game. By offering bite-sized lessons and constant challenges, the app prepares you to interact with foreigners and your multilingual colleagues.

Each lesson includes a mix of speaking, listening, translation and multiple-choice challenges. There is also an instant feedback feature, which shows what words you have missed and how you can improve. Read our in-depth story about Duolingo here.

Transpeako (free)

Unlike other apps, Transpeako lets you communicate with a foreigner in real time. The apps acts as a double-sided translation service by allowing the other person to speak into the app, and displays the translated text as a conversation. Swipe between “partner” and “you” sections and record your questions or your conversation and answer back as you would in a normal conversation.

Transpeako supports a wide range of languages such as Arabic, Chinese (traditional and simplified) Catalan, Czech, Danish, Hebrew, and Hindi, among others.

Have used any of these great apps before? Do you have any other translation apps for our collection?