Greetings Fellow American (though I now live in Portugal),
This sounds like an interesting app, and I have done similar dictionary apps, but not ones that employ speech recognition. I have worked on many telephony server based systems in the past, so I am very familiar with speech systems. One of these systems was for Dun & Bradstreet. You may have heard of them ;)
I am a highly experienced C/C++ programmer specialized in 3d graphics,mathematics, and educational software for more than 20 years. I currently focus on apps and for mobiles and can deliver cross-platform solutions for all mobile devices and desktops. I am also a highly respected artist in the field of new media, having exhibited my work in museums and galleries world-wide.
I normally use the Marmalade C++ SDK for rapid development and deployment. I find this tool to be the best way to solve almost any problem. It truly is a "code once, deploy all" solution. With Marmalade I can deploy to almost any device imaginable with only one shared code base, so no porting!
In cases where Marmalade is inappropriate, such as in an open or shared source code environment, I turn to SDL or the Irrlicht engine to achieve portability.
Hope to hear from you soon, and please message me!
Best regards,
John Klima