There already are so many translation apps out there; why another one?
Well, because the Oxford Dictionaries API is there 🤷♀️
And, therefore, Mercury was born, targetted towards English-language learners. Mercury translates words to English, shows example usage, and includes a click-to-play pronunciation file.
Design considerations
- Do not overwhelm a language learner with info. Include barest minimum info, and give links for more (target audience: those who've just begun to learn English).
- Make a customisable app, so people can specify which language they want and what text they see on the UI (target audience: people for whom the English language is very very foreign and who, therefore, are more comfortable with a UI in their own language).
- Make the customisation so easy that people who don't know how to code can also download and run the app (target audience: schools and institutes that do not have coders on their rolls but are teaching English as a foreign language).
- Make the app code lightweight (reason: internet connectivity is poor in too many places in the world).
Coding
In Python 🙂 because that's the only language I know.
AninditaBasu
/
mercury
Customisable web app to translate words to English. Uses the Oxford Dictionaries API.
Mercury
Mercury is a customisable web app that uses the Oxford Dictionaries API to translate words to English. You enter a word in your language, and are shown a list of their English counterparts and how to pronounce them, together with examples to show how to use the words in English sentences.
Customisation instructions are in the Mercury documentation, which also contains a demo.
Disclaimer: This app is neither developed nor endorsed by Oxford Dictionaries. The code is available as-is, on an MIT license.
How to use Mercury
The app runs on Python, but you don't need to know Python to use the app or to customise it.
Prerequisites
You need a paid API key from Oxford Dictionaries API. The free plan is adequate for testing purposes but only…
Call for action
Please help me make this app better? Your feedback, suggestions, and comments are most welcome, as are PRs. Let's together 🌈 bridge languages.
Top comments (1)
This is a dream come true for me, truly as if my prayers have been answered. I wanted to work on something similar but don’t have any programming experience. I would like to learn how to code though... Thank you so much for developing Tarjuma