Stop botching the names of foreign business partners, hosts or even new friends you meet on the road.

» Website: www.NameShouts.com

» What it does: Sounds out the correct pronunciation of names in 14 languages, including Mandarin, Arabic, Hindi, Japanese, Bengali and Russian.

» What’s hot: It’s great if you know how to spell the name of the person before calling or meeting him or her. Input the spelling of a "full name" in the search bar. Once it finds the name (if it can’t locate the original among the 14,000 in its database, it will suggest a similar alternative or invite you to add the name), click the sound icon and listen to the pronunciation. Go ahead — you can listen to it as many times as you need to. There’s even a "slow" button if you need the name pronounced more slowly.

» What’s not: This tool needs to be pocket-size. Thankfully, NameShouts knows that. It is currently working on apps for both iOS and Android.

Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times