Speaking the primary language of your hometown will allow you to get by in the area that you live, but when you jump on the Internet, you’ll quickly encounter a plethora of languages. Sometimes it’s easy to just focus in on our own little world, and it may be difficult for us to see outside of the box. Since the Internet is a global phenomenon, you’ll run into people who speak languages you may have never heard of. Before you know it, you’re the new minority. Communicating with these people is a humongous challenge that has to be dealt with. Even though we aren’t fluent in all of the languages of the world, Babel Fish Translation will help us to marginally close the communication gap.

With this service, you’ll be able to either translate a block of text (up to 150 words) or a Web page. Both functions are extremely helpful. For example, I receive a sizeable amount of foreign language e-mails, and in order to understand what’s being said, I always use Babel Fish. Granted, the translations are not perfect, but you’ll get the basic meaning behind the message. Many of the primary languages are available to translate to and from, which makes Babel Fish a great service for the multilingual wannabes.