The English language, oddly, is peppered with quaint phrases that pay homage to other languages. "It's all Greek to me", or "pardon my French" are just two examples of such nuances. Even the oddity: "he's talking double Dutch" has a quirky derivation. Double Dutch is based on a literal translation of Dutch idioms into the English language and the similarity in sound of certain words and expressions. The phrase was coined by Johan van der Meulen, an English teacher in Rotterdam, when he began to use a kind of wordplay inspired by the clumsy English used by his pupils. He called the macaronic combination of Dutch and English words and sentence structures "Double Dutch".

It's evident that it is now costly to ignore the importance of multiple languages in business. Today, it is essential that English-speaking businesses invest in multiple language websites if they want to ride the wave of non-English searches. Indeed firms are missing out on sales by failing to grasp the growth in the foreign language internet. Fierce competition for key English language advertising search terms and natural query results means that businesses should be smarter about how they make themselves known to overseas customers. While up to 80% of the web's content is in English, the growth in the number of searches is coming from those using foreign languages. Over half of all Google searches are now in a language other than English. For example, searches in Arabic have jumped 2,502% in the last decade, Russian by 1,826%, Chinese by 1,277% and Portuguese by 990%. These growth rates compare with a more pedestrian 281% for English.

But it's not just internet searches that prove using multi-language applications adds the advantage and it's wise to look at how you are using languages across all your Office suites. Microsoft Office 2010 Language Packs are add-in products that can change the entire user experience of the Microsoft Office 2010 desktop programs by enabling desktops to support multiple languages. This includes Menus/Display, Help, Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Spell Checker. And you can elect to use individual aspects of the pack, such as Spell Checker to proof a document in a language other than the default language set on your computer.

Language Packs enable localised Menus/Display, Help, and document proofing tools for most Office 2010 desktop programs, including Word 2010, Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010, Access 2010, Outlook 2010, OneNote 2010, InfoPath 2010, Publisher 2010, SharePoint Designer 2010, Project 2010, SharePoint Workspace 2010, Visio 2010, and Office suites containing these products.

It's worth noting that Microsoft advises that if you have an Office 2010 product already installed in a language other than the one in which you are downloading, your new download may open in the previously installed language. For example, if you have Office Professional installed in English, and then you download and install Office Home and Business in Swedish, your Office Home and Business applications will default to open in English.

Language packs add to the productivity, collaboration, and effectiveness among multilingual workers. And for multilingual households it can make Office programs available to family members of all ages regardless of their first or native language.