As my Vietnam trip is winding down, we are currently stopping in Seoul. We designed a 16h layover in to our itinerary to allow us to step out of the airport and visit a friend. No extra visa needed!
Anyways, getting to the point, the Google Translate app supports instant translation of any Korean words into English just by pointing my phone camera at it. I select the language, hit the camera button and just look at the screen. Any Korean words on the screen get converted to English. This context specific on the fly translation is really important and helpful. It isn't perfect as you need to have a moderately steady hand but it works remarkably well. See the attached pictures for better detail of what I mean. The green Korean letters are converted to green English letters in the same space. We are truly living in the future. Cell phones have become the tricorder of Star Trek fame, doing almost everything they could and many things they couldn't.
As an aside, my cell provider is Sprint. Before the trip, I was really annoyed because they wouldn't unlock my SIM slot for foreign SIM cards. Turns out it wasn't necessary. Much to my surprise, Sprint gives free 2G service in both Vietnam and Korea. While far from fast, it's more than workable. Truthfully, it has been an absolute lifesaver as I didn't need to rely on wifi hotspots and could use things like Uber with ease.
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