Google Translate doesn't support Faroese so the Faroe Islands are making their own site

Google Translate, as well as being a boon to hapless language students (and teenagers who don't want to do their Spanish homework), has changed the way we learn and digest linguistics. The tool has opened a new avenue to economically advantageous languages, like Arabic or Chinese, while also giving us an insight into smaller, less noticed languages like Luxembourgish or West Frisian.

But not Faroese. You still can't translate all the swear words you know into Faroese. So the people of the Faroe Islands have taken this task upon themselves.

The new website, set up as part of the Faroe Island's tourism drive, features a number of short videos of real-life Faroese people saying useful phrases people might need to know.

These include: 'Where do you live?'; 'Do you think I am hot?'; and the always important 'Can I kiss you?'

Type in your translation query and the site will find a video already made or connect you with a Faroese speaker who will send a quick video translation - while you watch footage of the beautiful 18 island archipelago (it is a tourism campaign after all).

It's not just the local Faroese volunteers getting behind the project - the prime minister of the Faroe Islands, Aksel Johannesen, issued a video asking Google to take up their language, describing it as "one of the most important aspects of Faroese culture and identity".

"Whilst most Faroese people speak good English, we have a beautiful language of our own that we would love to share with those who visit, and with the wider world in general," said Levi Hanssen, the Faroe Islands Translate Project Manager at Visit Faroe Islands.

"When travelling in most countries, tourists can use Google Translate to help them to communicate with local people and to feel as if they are a true part of the destination that they're visiting. Sadly, in the Faroe Islands, this isn't currently possible – and we want to change that."

It's not the first time the Faroe Islands have issued a call to the internet giant to take a bit more notice of them. In the summer of 2016, they launched Sheep View - where they attached cameras to sheep to create their own version of Street View, which had yet to arrive on the islands.