Visiting a French-speaking country, but don’t speak the language? Then Talking French Phrasebook could be a valuable addition to your packing list.

Talking French Phrasebook is a mobile app for Nokia S60 devices. Just as its title suggests, this app provides a list of common, useful phrases for tourists in English, translates the phrases into French, and speaks them out loud in French using the speakers of your Nokia device. Because the phrases are uttered by native French speakers, you can use this app in either of two ways: to practice your own French pronunciation or to communicate in a basic way with French speakers.

While I do have some reservations about this app — see below — I am able to report that Talking French Phrasebook is very easy to use. Throughout, usability is consistent, intuitive, and simple.

Launch the app, and you are presented with a master list of 11 phrase categories (not counting the Introduction and Copyright notice):

To view a list of phrases in English, select and open a category. On Nokia touchscreen devices, there are two ways to do this: either tap Select in the bottom left corner or tap the category name itself — Essentials, Travel, etc. Next, the app presents a list of phrases for that category. For an example, here are the phrases listed under Essentials:

To see and hear a phrase in French, simply select it. The screen will darken a bit, and the text of the phrase – in both English and French – will appear near the bottom of the screen. At the same, the phrase is spoken aloud in French:

Want to hear the phrase spoken again? Select Play. And you can do this as many times as you would like to hear the phrase repeated. When done, select Back, and the app returns you to the category listing. To select another category, hit Back to return to the main menu, and select a new category there. As I said, it’s very simple to use.

Some categories, however, actually bring you to a list of sub-categories. For example, select Dates and Times, and you are presented not with phrases, but a list of five subcategories: Basics, Days of the Week, Months, Seasons, and Time. To get to the actual phrases, you must first select one of these subcategories.

One nice feature of Talking French Phrasebook: It is self-contained, meaning you do not need an open Internet connection. So while travelling, you can use this app without worrying about racking up international roaming charges. Of course, the flip side is that the app is fairly large, at nearly 1.6 megabytes.

Now for a few reservations. First, this is an app for beginners or non-speakers only. Intermediate speakers of French will probably find Talking French Phrasebook too rudimentary, and will want to look elsewhere. Also, even beginners may find some of the selections rather limited. For example, while French cooking is perhaps the most diverse in the world, you would never know it from Talking French Phrasebook. In fact, the app offers translations of only eight dishes, all of them decidedly old-school:

Similarly, the drinks menu seems to assume you are a traveller who secretly wishes he or she were back in England. The choices start with water and Coke, proceed to ‘a pint of beer’, and end with ‘Whisky and Lemonade’. Those justifiably famous French cocktails, aperitifs, wines, and after-dinner drinks? Not here.

The app could also use a Search function. Right now, you have to browse Talking French Phrasebook’s categories to find the phrase you want. If you select the wrong category and your phrase doesn’t appear, then you have go back and try another category. If a phrase isn’t included at all – always possible –you can end up wasting a fair amount of time. An effective search function would eliminate all this.

Visiting a county that speaks another European language? Publisher Coolgorilla offers similar phrasebook apps for Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Greek, and Dutch. All are available on Ovi Store. Talking phrasebooks for still other languages — including Chinese, Japanese, Polish, and Swedish — are in development, according to the company’s FAQ page.

Talking French Phrasebook is available on Ovi Store for $0.99 (USD). Parlez-vous français? With this app, you can offer a beginner’s oui.