PassionForRussian.com

As I was doing a little research for my Мишка post, I discovered some pretty exciting Google tools and wanted to share! Along with the instructions below, they can all also be found at www.translate.google.com.

You will need to download the Google Toolbar. If you don’t already have it, you can get it here.

I don’t want to overwhelm you with too many tools at once, so I am going to start out with what I think are the best two: (1) Translate words instantly with no clicks, and (2) One-click translation from your browser’s toolbar. We’ll get to the rest in a later post.

Translate words instantly with no clicks

What it is: This is definitely the most exciting of my recent language tool discoveries! Whenever you pause your cursor over an English word, the Russian definition will automatically pop up in a tiny window without the need to navigate to another page! 

How to get it:

1. Once Google Tools is installed (do that here for free!): on your new Google Toolbar, click the down arrow next to the wrench icon for “Adjust Toolbar Options”.
2. Click “Options”.
3. Click on the “Tools” tab.  
4. Under “Tools” scroll down to “Translate”.
5. Click the plus sign to see your options.
6. From there, check the box next to “Translate English words by hovering over them”. Set the translation language to Russian.
7. You might as well click the box next to “Offer page translations when a web page is not in English”. This will apply to the next tool. 
8. Once you have adjusted these settings you’re all set and should start seeing the Russian translations. If you ever want to turn it off, simply uncheck the “Word Translator” box under “Translate” on the toolbar.

One-click translation from your browser’s toolbar (Translate this page)

What it is: This one is sort of self-explanatory. With one click, you can view a Russian webpage in English. This is great to use when you are totally lost and confused about what you are looking at. But it’s a crutch. Don’t use it all the time. We’re trying to learn how to walk run here, right?

How to get it: Follow all steps of the instructions above, except for step 6. Then, when you wind up on a webpage written in Russian, a bar will appear at the top of the page with a button to “Translate”. Click it. Just be careful about clicking “Always Translate Russian”. You (probably) at least want to have the option to try to figure it out yourself.

These are the first 2 of several tools. Stay tuned for the rest.

If you’ve tried these tools, please comment to let us know how you like them! I am loving the instant English-to-Russian translations!