Do you speak English? German? Swedish?

[Maurmc]

How do you handle foreign language enquiries? I speak French and my husband can get by in German, so we're fine for those enquiries.

I'm currently dealing with a Swedish enquiry, in Swedish! (Unusual, as most Scandinavian enquirers have excellent English). I use Google translate (which has improved hugely over the years). I compose a simple reply in English, google translate it to the other language, then babelfish translate it back to English to see if it's recognisable! (phew!) Time consuming but it's getting me by so far. My husband's Swedish work colleague proof-read arrival instructions translated by google & they were mostly ok.

I just wondered how others manage?

[booboo]

We also use Google translate in the same manner as you do. Don't know of any other program! It gets us by.

[Nightowl]

yeah, I use google translate - I figure that they can get the gist of what I'm saying and if anything is REALLy lost in translation, most people ask...

[Beachcondo]

Google translate with the English original below.
I figure that they'll have someone that they know, who will be proficient in English if the translation is too incoherent.

[e-richard]

Me too; Google translate with the English original below, and an opening sentence apologising for "computerized translation"

[Beachcondo]

Me too; Google translate with the English original below, and an opening sentence apologising for "computerized translation"

Same here.

[Maurmc]

So, nothing to add to what I'm already doing! I put the "translated by google translate" at the top of the reply, and also include the English version of the email. I don't attempt to translate the Booking Form, though- just the parts that the guest needs to fill in.

[pandaburgh]

I use Google translate too and it's been a lifesaver on several occasions. My Italian guests and I even had a conversation on it last week, in the kitchen, each one of us typing in what we wanted to say and waiting for a response! It was a situation which could have been really awkward but turned out to be good fun, helped massively by my guests' good nature as they treated landing in a foreign country without being able to speak the language as a huge adventure