If you’re heading on vacation one of the things you’ll want to do before you leave is make sure you have a good translation app installed on your phone. Especially if you’re heading to a country where the locals typically don’t have strong English language skills. That was me one month ago, as I prepared to spend two weeks in Japan, a country ranked 87th (out of 113) in English language proficiency.

I’m not so great at learning new languages, especially ones that are pretty far-removed from English. So by the time I’d left I’d only managed to learn some basic Japanese to help get me by, and not come across as a rude, ignorant gaijin. Thank you Google Translate could fill that void, and while still imperfect I’ve come to understand that its Japanese translation skills have come a long way over the past few years.