Online Translation Services

Although we try to reflect Southwark's multicultural nature, we cannot supply a translation for every page on the website. However, you can get an automatic translation of any of the council's web pages using a variety of internet services.

Translate any page on the Southwark website into Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish automatically, using a web-based automatic translation service. 

How to use automatic translation services

You'll need to open another browser window, then select the automatic translation service you wish to use, from the list below. You can either copy and paste individual words and phrases or larger sections of text, or the website address of the page you wish to translate.

To copy and paste text

• Find the section you want to translate
• Highlight the section
• Press Control or Ctrl and the 'C' character on your keyboard, or if you are using a Mac, Apple + 'C'
• Click in the translation box on the translation website, then paste the text by pressing Control and the 'V' character on your keyboard, or Apple + 'V' on a Mac
• Then click the "Translate" button
• The text should appear in your chosen language

Some translation websites can translate whole web pages, you'll need to copy and paste the website address of the page you want translated. To do this

• Click in the website address box at the top of the web page for the page you want to translate
• Select all (press Control + 'A' on a PC; Apple + 'A' on a Mac)
• Then past the website address into the box (Ctrl V) on the translation service web page.

Because this way of translating is automatic, the translation will probably not be perfect, but you should be able to understand the general meaning.

Choose your language

Arabic - Translated by Ajeeb You'll need to subscribe to use this service.

Chinese
Translated by AltaVista  Click on the "translation" button.

French  
Translated by AltaVista    
Translated by Google 

German  
Translated by AltaVista  
Translated by Google

Italian
Translated by AltaVista   
Translated by Google 

Japanese
Translated by AltaVista

Korean
Translated by AltaVista

Portuguese
Translated by AltaVista

Spanish
Translated by Google

How to see the characters

In order to see the letters and characters of your chosen language, you may need to reset your browser. In Internet Explorer, go to "View", "Encoding", "More" and select the language.

If your language is not listed, a window will appear telling you to download the relevant files from the Microsoft website. After you have downloaded them you may need to restart your computer.

Further help

Southwark offers a free translation and interpreting service. Click here to see details. There are other free translation services on the internet, including www.freetranslation.com and itranslatoronline.com.