Google kicked-off 2011 with the release of an update to its Google Translate app for Android, adding the valuable “conversation mode” feature. Instead of having the app just do static translations, conversation mode invites two users to engage in a back-and-forth, with the app using a combination of speech-to-text and text-to-speech algorithms to serve as liaison between the two parties. Today that feature is being made more useful than ever, with the release of a new version of the app featuring additional language support.

This new version of Google Translate now supports, in addition to English and Spanish, conversation mode between speakers of Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Russian and Turkish.

Besides the new language options, Translate gets additional ways to correct the apps mistakes, so that hopefully its accuracy improves over time, receives a magnification mode so that the sight-impaired can still read its translation results, and is overhauled for better appearance on tablets. Google Translate 2.2 is available in the Android Market now.