1. Stand-alone, hand-held apparatus, which includes: a sheath, having a proximal end with respect to a portion of text, in a first language; a scanner, located within said sheath, near said proximal end, arranged for scanning the portion of text; a computerized system, located within said sheath, in communication with said scanner, arranged for performing OCR conversion and text-to-speech synthesis of the scanned text and automatic translation to a second language; an audio-output system, in communication with said computerized system, for producing an audio output of said text-to-speech synthesis; and an interface system, for enabling a user to communicate with said apparatus.