Talkman is a new game for the PSP that will come out mid November in Japan (no US/Europe release date yet). But Talkman is definitely more than just a game. Briefly put, Talkman is translating software which can be used both as a language interpreter and a language trainer for Japanese, English, Korean and Chinese.

Its main character, Max, is a funny looking bird that will help you improve your foreign language skills, but most importantly will help you communicate in a foreign environment when you don’t speak the native language. This is how it works: You choose one of the main categories/locations (airport, restaurant, mall); this will load all the common phrases associated with that particular location, but also a graphical representation of it. Apparently if you select mall, Max and all his friends jump on a shopping cart to go to the mall. Then you tell Max what you are looking for and by the words that are being input through the game’s microphone, Max is able to assume what you are asking for and translate it into the output language. You can choose from different possible responses and from there you can either decide to have your interlocutor listen directly to the PSP, or try and say back what Max just said.

When you use Talkman to learn a language, Max will put on his scholarly cap and grade your pronunciation.

Simply brilliant! And I can’t wait for it to come out here in Europe, maybe with a whole new set of languages to choose from.

Gamespot and IGN both have interesting videos to look at. Gamespot in particular has a video interview with Talkman’s developer that explains how the game works.