Natakallam

Quartz, Syrian refugees are offering Arabic lessons to students abroad through Skype "To get started, you fill out a simple questionnaire on Natakallam’s website, then specify your availability in a shared spreadsheet. Classes can be bought singly or in bundles. A Natakallam administrator looks over each prospective student’s level, goals, general interests and preferred schedule, and matches him or her with a conversation partner." This is a great idea. See natakallam.com

Transtac Phone app

Jon Boone, The Guardian, Phone app aims to bridge language gap for US troops in Afghanistan, 13 Jan 2011 "A smartphone app is being touted as the potential solution to the yawning linguistic gulf between US soldiers in Afghanistan and the Pashtun villagers they are trying to win over."

Further information: Nick Gray, androidandme.com, NIST and DARPA using Nexus One as testing device for TRANSTAC translation project, 2 Aug 2010

See it in action here: