
Brand	Model	Product

XS2TheWorld

User Experiences

Dick Altena (Beijing)

End March 2007 I accompanied a group following the course 'new manager' from institute the Baak, to Beijing and Shanghai. A wonderful experience, but I was suprised by the fact that even with hand gestures the communication was almost impossible.
XS2China was a great tool to help in these situations, in a taxi the sentence 'please drive faster' came in useful several times. It's a real icebreaker and thanks to XS2China we found a cabdriver who was willing to help us the whole in every situation and we managed to ge in some of the venues for the coming Olympics.
XS2China a must have for everybody who wants to discover China!

Marjan (Beijing)

Hi! Our experience with the tool was great! We’ve used it while traveling through China for three weeks. The only words we knew were: Ni Hao (hello) and Tsingtao (Chinese beer). You don’t get around with such a small vocabulary! The Chinese language is very difficult (!) so it helped us to communicate with the Chinese people. We’ve used it to get around by cab and to order in restaurants. One time we were in a cab and we played a view lines from the program: I feel like vomiting and Do you have a tampon? Our female cabdriver had a good laugh about it! Be careful though: if you put your phone next to a Chinese ear: they can get scared!!!

Fransiska (Beijing)

I'm studying Chinese and even for me it's handy to have this application on my cellphone, especially the first days when I arrived in Beijing. My group went the first night to the Suzie Wong and by clicking the play button, the cabdriver delivered us directly without mistakes to that club...what normally doesn't happen when i try to say the address in Chinese, haha! Also funny is to use the phrases during the taxiride, it's a good way to make friends, they love it.

Sam van Wijk (Beijing)

I can advise it everyone: phrase book and city guide on your cell phone! I have seen considerably a lot of the world and always got around without a dictionary, until my journey to Beijing. Eventually every thing went well in China but not after the necessary battle and bumps! After a long journey I arrived at Beijing. I was really hungry and went into the first Restaurant I saw. The menu was in Chinese, there was no English alternative. The staff only spoke Madarin. After a lot of drama I decided to go to another restaurant. Same story there. Luckily a Chinese student, who spoke a little English, came to my rescue, The meal which I ate that afternoon, satisfied my hunger but that was all. Later I find out how nicely you cab eat in China! A few nights later I met some other travellers in my hostel and got acquainted with XS2China. I directly downloaded the phrasebook with city guide for Beijing on my mobile phone. Especially the phrasebook was a big help for me, the city guide was a nice extra!!!

Jan Willem (Beijing)

Had a fantastic Saturday night in Club Banana. On the way back I had so much fun with the cabdriver while using xs2china on my phone, especially the medical and fun phrases made him laugh so hard that I was wondering if he was still able to drive. Great to finally have interaction with the Chinese people!

Chris Roma (Shanghai)

27 Years old, Living and working in Shanghai, American,Living in Shanghai for 2 years.I have been studying at Fudan University in Shanghai for some time and since then my Mandarin has approved a lot. XS2China software is not only good tool for short term visitors and people new in China, but also a great learning tool. The audio function makes it possible to learn “fixed” phrases so you can work on your Chinese pronunciation. Also If I forget the exact address of a restaurant, it’s very easy to look up the contact details.

Michele Bruno (Shanghai)

27 years old, Living and working in Shanghai, Chief Representative
XS2China is the product I would recommend to my foreign friends visiting China. It gives them an easy way to guide them to all the hotspots and good restaurants in town. My friends and I had a lot of fun in a cab with the fun phrases on our way to Cotton’s Bar. Saying to a cab driver: you are the most beautiful man I ever met in my life. The driver found it hilarious. Great ice breaker!

Margaret (Shanghai)

I always bring an old mobile phone while travelling. From now on I’ll take my newest phone with me. That’s for sure! In Shanghai I’ve got introduced with the mobile phrase books and city guides from XS2TheWorld. A great and handy gadget! Unfortunately it was not possible to download these phrasebooks on my old fashion cell phone. Luckily a travel partner from Denmark who I met in a Shanghai club, brought a new cell phone. We spend some time together in Shanghai and later on we travelled to Beijing. We where using the phrase book all the time. A perfect tool to get around the city! We both love clubbing. For us, the city guide ( part of the software) was a helpful tool to find the best clubs in town!

Catharina Kahler (Shanghai)

24 years old, Living and working in Shanghai, Architect
I have been one of the lucky ones testing the XS2China software for several months now. Shanghai is a vibrant and interesting city, especially in my profession with its ever changing skyline. Since most people are very occupied here, a lot of “newcomers” don’t find the time to learn sufficient mandarin. XS2China is the perfect software to get where I want to go. The cab drivers often don’t understand my “lau wei” (foreign) Mandarin. XS2China really works!

Mark Schreurs (Shanghai)

Just came back from Shanghai and I loved it!!! It was hard to communicate with the Chinese people, because none of them understood even one word in English. The XS2China software made communication a lot easier, thanks for that guys! One day I forgot my phone and I had to go to the silk market only 5 min away, I ended up in on the other side of the city. 1 hour later and a good time later I arrived at the silk market. Keep on laughing and positive and all will be ok in China.

Wouter de Haan (Shanghai)

Went to Shanghai in November for work and had been there before but never took the time to get to know the city. Besides, Shanghai is changing so fast that you'll think every time, that you are in a new city.

In the plane i had enough time to play and check the XS2China application.Last time in China i was walking constantly with loads of cards with Chinese adresses in order to find the right adress, and you spend quite a significant amount of time to resolve communicationproblems

It seemed that my Chinese collegues thought it was normal to hear a Chinese speaking mobile phone but we had an excellent laugh about the phrase: i have to vomit, and i am a miljonair, do you want to drive along in my Ferrari. Every business diner, this was a succes,

Besides, at night, xs2China was very handy to pick one out of 1000 bars, restaurants or clubs in Shanghai. To pick a regular night: Start diner @ Jean Georges in 3 on the Bund, after that, have a good glass Champagne in Claud nine (upstairs in Grand Hyatt) and after that finish with a good party in Bar Rouge: It's not so bad no is it?!

Tracy Tomsett (Hong Kong)

British, living and working in Hong Kong.
XS2hongkong software is great! In an ever changing and fast paced city, keeping up with the local hotspots can be difficult. With XS2hongkong it's easy to find your way around without a guide book. I would certainly recommend it to visitors to HK. The fun phrases section is hilarious and a good way to strike up conversation - I have a talking phone!

Carla Bockling (Beijing)

Especially in restaurants, cabs and during conversations with local Chinese, we had a lot of profit of XS2China. Also we learned to count from 1 to 20, cause you can hear the pronunciation out of the loudspeaker we were able to do this. In the end we could even speak/order things in Chinese. Our guide asked if there was a version for Chinese people to learn Dutch or other languages!

Valentine (Madrid)

I have been living in Spain for more than a year (Barcelona, Madrid), but since I’m working for an American company, my Spanish is still at beginner level. Of course I can say ‘one-two-three’, ‘beer’ and ‘hello’, but I’m often confused in hotels and restaurants. The last few months in Madrid, I’ve been using XS2Madrid on my cell phone. Spanish people tend to react a little strange in the beginning, but they really appreciate your effort to get to know their language. Especially when going out with friends, we had a lot of fun with the fun & flirt sentences. The best thing is that you can add some phrases you use often to your ‘favorites’ section, and after a while, I started knowing them by heart. Besides that, the city guide provides some excellent reviews and insider tips about Madrid’s hotspots, restaurants and clubs, some of which cannot be found in the regular city guide books.

Charlot (Bangkok)

Just after arriving in Bangkok for three years, someone told me about this site with a lot of great tips and advices. The restaurant Spring has become our old time favorite! No problems getting there because the taxi driver took us straight there the first time. Surely, we would have never known about this place if it was not mentioned here. And the ‘too expensive’ and ‘discount please’ in Thai worked very well at Chatuchak Weekend Market; I got a some good bargains. Great site, my compliments!

Rutger Hoorn (Barcelona)

Living in Barcelona now for 5 months and had a lot of problems making conversations with the Catalans here.
I went to Camp Nou on a Saturday night when FC Barcelona was playing one of their last games of the season.
I sat next to a typical Catalan fan that was furiously supporting his team. At a certain point I asked to listen to my phone where I selected the Van Gaal Phrase of which he is famous.
My Catalan neighbor had to laugh like crazy when he heard it. I had a new friend…. He joined me for a few beers
After the game where we kept on laughing about all the great sentences and features in the software. I love it!!!

Jolanda & Ruud (Beijing)

We traveled through China using the bus, train and airplane. XS2China not only helped us in problematic situations, but gave us also many pleasant encounters. We used it to buy clothes and composing a birthday dinner. The employees of the restaurant we're really interested in the people who ordered their food and wine with the talking mobile phone. All smiling faces and we were the talk of the town! In regions in China where dialect is spoken Chinese people could read the characters on the screen. You should have seen the owner of a small hotel after thanking her for the wonderful time we had. XS2China came also in handy for directing cabdrivers in Beijing. In short if you don't have XS2China on your phone you'll miss out!

We wish a pleasant journey to everybody who's planning to travel through China.

Matti (Beijing)

During our trip to China in June 2007 we have used the XS2CHINA
application on my mobile Nokia N73. The results are outstanding. I am
very satisfied with the way it works.
For example: Dining in a hidden street in Beijing is lovely, but my
vocabulary of Chinese stops at Ni Hao. So if you want to order a taxi in
English after dinner changes are nobody in the restaurant will
understand what you need, but they want to help anyway (this is the way
Chinese people act in general) they will give you brochures and all
other things you might have asked them.
But with the XS2CHINA application these troubles are gone. Simply search
the word taxi under phrase transportation; play it and within 2 minutes
you will be sitting in your taxi.
Nice is also that the Chinese people we met like to see more from the
system, so although your Chinese may be as bad as mine, there is now a
possibility to communicate: XS2China.
Good luck with your (next) visit.

Krista & Eric (Paris)

We went to Paris for a long weekend and because there is too much to see in too little time, friends told us about the mobile cityguide of Paris We used it and was very handy! You always have your mobile phone on you in case of emergency so you don't have to carry a guidebook. After visiting a specific place we took our phone and looked through the list of descriptions of museums, restaurants and bars and we could easily choose what we wanted to do next. The speaken sentences were handy because a lot of frence people don't speak english ( and we donnot speak french very well). Also a lot of cabdrivers are arabic and only speak french.
Next time we will use it again!

user experienceof the month