Sometimes the best way to figure out what someone is saying in a language that one user doesn't readily speak is to ask someone fluent in that language to translate for them. Duolingo is looking to leverage that principle to translate the entirety of the Web, eventually, and to help in that, they're offering some free bonus training.

Duolingo, which launched officially as a startup on Tuesday, looks to offer the best kind of translation there is: the human translation. Originally part of a Carnegie Mellon project, Duolingo looks to harness two rival forces: language students who want to learn new languages and language students who need practice in learning to speak those languages.

More specifically, Duolingo offers free lessons in a variety of different languages. Right now, the list includes most of the major European languages: English, French, Spanish, and German. They also plan to step up that list to include languages like Portuguese and Chinese, ultimately giving them a big chunk of the world's spoken language roster.

As anyone who's studied a foreign language knows, it's impossible to learn a new language without practicing the new language, and that's where the flip side of Duolingo kicks in. Duolingo offers its learners a series of computer-generated exercises, and, as needed, hits the Web to find a sentence from a website in a different language that is appropriately challenging to the user. The user then translates that sentence into their home language, giving the user a bit more mastery in that foreign language, and giving Duolingo another tiny chunk of the web translated into at least one other language.

Duolingo kept very tight reins over the private beta version, at last report, and kept the mischievous at bay via the constant checking and rechecking of translated matter across a wide variety of people. Translations that were erroneous, either by error or intent, were quickly weeded out in favor of the translation that more people, essentially, agreed with. With about 125,000 beta users at the launch -- 30,000 of which became regular users who spend at least 30 minutes per week with Duolingo -- it's a safe bet that a Duolingo translation is, in fact, a sound translation.

With half of the Internet, on average, written in English, and the remaining half spread out over a host of languages, a need for translation was clearly in order. Duolingo's service, meanwhile, looks to put a whole lot of help into making more of the Web accessible to more of the world. While Duolingo also looks to provide commercial translation services, they look to offer their primary service of language instruction at no cost for some time to come. To that end, Duolingo has also drawn venture capital funding and currently employs 13 people in the Pittsburgh area.

Translation services are always going to have a place in the market. With the world shrinking overall, and the interconnected nature of the economy becoming more and more visible, it's plain that knowing other languages will be important. Translation services can help bridge the gap between being monolingual and being multilingual, making the affairs of international business operations much easier, overall, to deal with. Since Duolingo is essentially offering services on both sides of the fence -- language training for those who want it, translation services for those who don't -- they'll likely have an excellent position indeed in what should be a growing market. 

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