Abstract: A method and system for translating written text from a first (foreign) language to a second (native) language is provided. An image containing the text is first captured at the request of the user. Text zones are identified in the image and the zones are converted to text characters using optical character recognition. The text characters, which are in the first language, are translated to the second language. The translated text is then output to the user. The text may be converted to an image that can be displayed on a display or, alternatively, the text may be synthesized into speech that may be played over a speaker accessible to the user such as an earpiece. Data can be provided to the user as text, audio or text and audio combined.