Free translation site Cucumis provides an online community for multi-lingual users to share their linguistical knowledge.

While searching for an online translation tool to convert a Chinese encyclopedia site for a story I did last week, I came across a fascinating site for individuals to share their linguistical knowledge.

Cucumis is a free, Paris-based online community for individual who speak at least one foreign language to share translation services. Creators say Cucumis is a web site where you can submit texts to be translated by the community.

The site's name, Cucumis, which translated from Latin means "watermelon", seems an odd fit for a translation site.

The creators of the community say the site was given its name because the watermelon is "a spherical fruit like the earth, full of vitality and happiness. With about 3000 spoken languages over the world, we hope this website will help us to get to know each other."

To use the free services of the site, a user who speaks at least two languages must gain points by translating the text of others within the community.

In order to have their own queries translated by others, individuals must use the points earned through the services provided to other members.

Insuring that only individuals who actually are multi-lingual utilize the site, all translations are monitored by administrators and experts.

To reach expert status, members must an average translation rating 7/10 on multiple translations.

The creators of the site also say that Cucumis would be useless to a person who did not actually speak more than one foreign language.

The languages available for translation are English, French, Spanish, Catalan, Bosnian, Hebrew, Polish, Swedish, Chinese, German, Portuguese, Swedish, Italian, Latin, Russian, Turkish, Kurdish, Greek, Bulgarian, Persian, Brazilian, Norwegian, Arabic, Slovene, and Thai.

Although the community may be a "one-man project", it has gathered a strong following since it's launch a year ago; about 100 new members join each day and over 40 texts are translated.

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