Have you ever wished that you could speak English to a non-English speaker and be perfectly understood? Global Voice has developed a program called FirstVoice which claims to do just that - it will repeat your words in a foreign tongue.

FirstVoice translates from English to either French, German, Spanish, or all three, depending on which package you choose. The basis for the program is formed by Dragon's Naturally Speaking Preferred speech recognition software. This means that not only will it translate text, but you can also dictate and have it transformed miraculously into the language of your choice. You can also import text from documents you wish to translate and output them either as text or as a voice file that can be played back to foreign ears.

Like all speech recognition programs, there's a lengthy training process to get your computer used to your own speech patterns. It takes a while but is worth it to improve the overall accuracy. One gripe we have, however, is that you need a microphone headset, which is not included.

We looked at the French version of FirstVoice and, according to a fluent French speaker, the results were more or less spot on, if a tad formal.

But, bearing in mind the high cost of the product, it's more than likely that FirstVoice will be used largely by businesses where a more formal tone is appropriate anyway, rather than by a jobbing holiday-maker trying to order wine with the aid of their laptop PC. Program costs £149 for each language and £349 for triple pack.

Features:

• dictates in English and translates into French, German or Spanish
• includes Dragon Naturally Speaking natural speech engine
• translates text from imported documents
• customisable phrase library
• male or female voice output reads back your translations.

Contact Global Voice 0845 2000298