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

I’m not very good at learning new languages, especially ones that are quite far from English. So by the time I’d left, I’d only managed to learn some basic Japanese to help me get by, and not come across as a rude, ignorant gaijin. Thank goodness Google Translate can fill that void, and while it’s still imperfect, I’ve come to understand that its Japanese translation capabilities have come a long way over the past few years.