I agree with Kanebear's points as far as he goes.

There is a website google-able as "babelfish". IMHO we would actually increase participation if foreign language posting were freely allowed. If I read something in Spanish, I can mostly understand it without help. If I see something in another non-English language that is Babelfish-able, then it only takes me seconds to translate it.

Moondog or others have posted Chinese characters in the China Forum, for example, to teach us the difference between the Men's and the Women's bathrooms or to navigate Chinese train table. Pretty usefully, if one doesn't read Chinese.

I've seen some Spanish in the Argentine forums to explain Argentine cultural concepts.

As a compromise, maybe we can allow in the Country-specific forums, posts entirely in the native language of that country.

And Cajun in the New Orleans forum, if that applies, too