Leaving in a country that is strictly foreign in dialect and culture, but totally allows good residence without understanding those two, is both a blessing and a curse. I don't understand if you know what I mean. Read on and you'll know how and why.


Aside from the improved new look, the functionality and ease of use of Google Translate service are as well amazing innovations.
I work and live here in Netherlands with only a near-native (American NOT British) English (at least that's how my interviewers and TOEIC exam says) and an Italian that can make me survive (strictly survival) living with pure Italians without English. But Dutch? I am zero.. or should I say, I have 0.01 % knowledge of this language. Everytime someone tries to talk to me in Dutch, what I reply is "Ik spreek geen Nederlands", which is supposed to means "I don't speak no (without) Dutch". I live with that and it doesn't make me safe... I just spoken the language, you see? Official language and correspondence in this country is Dutch. In a way, I got lucky to work in an organization that has German, French and English as the official languages! I am crazy! I am getting lost....

What I am telling to say is, I am really in a maze. Daily, I need translations. In what way?
1. To translate French and German to English in my work.
2. To translate Dutch business offers to English-work.
3. TO translate Dutch websites when I need insurance, online shops, etc..
4. To translate and to understand...
5. To translate so that i can reply and act


This allows search results to be in the language of choice... perfect for my situation.
In short, translation has become part of my life; NOT only work. I want to learn languages and I know I have the thing to do it as I learned my Italian without a school and with a sole stay of 8 months in Italy. I need to improve much though. But for the meantime, Google translate had been guiding my path and I am so thankful for its existence.

With the frequent use of this Google's free service, I became so familiar with it but I have to admit that it was not often flawless to use the service. Few weeks back, i was so glad to discover that the Google translate homepage user interface was changed and only today I discovered various add-ons that really made the service a powerhouse. Not only it translates now but the fields for the web url and for the text to be translated have been merged into one and that is a very user friendly innovation. Moreover, I did not notice if dictionary and translated search were in before but surely, now I have been trying them and they are of great help.


I do wish my pocket dictionary is as flexible...
Another wonderful feature of the Google translate service is the fact that links work now and they (although it is not 100% as I tried but close enough) automatically translates to the desired language. This feature i was so sure that did not work before because i have tried it many times. This means, if the desired language is English, and one translated something that is Dutch, AND if there is a clickable internal link, the link clicked is in English when they appear.. Amazing!

Another rocking feature is the dictionary. It is customizable as well, It can be translated, same language or be explained. I just love Google translate and I am so thankful for its existence. I know there are lots of translating sites, softwares, services and stuffs, and I even used babylon before but with the continued innovation on the side of Google, I think I'd stick to it, especially that it is really helpful, useful and at this time, guaranteed user-friendly.