I'm excited about a website that I learned about this week. It's called Translatr and it translates text into multiple languages with one click. You just type in or copy/paste your text, select the languages that you want it to translate into, and click "Submit." I did a test run and it seemed pretty good!
One of our teachers told me that he has started translating his bellringer/daily journal prompt into all the languages that his students speak. I thought that that was AWESOME and was psyched to find this website for him!
So Burmese is on Google Translate and Translatr, which is great, but there are also some Burmese-English online dictionaries that you can use if needed. You can try them out to see which site is most user-friendly to you: here's one, and another, and one more. There is also a downloadable one here and some common phrases (that you can listen to!) here if you were wanting to learn a few Burmese words (a great way to build connections!!). I also have a bunch of paper English-Burmese dictionaries if you want one for your room.
However, many of our students who speak Burmese never learned to read or write it. In that case, you can try another language that they speak--many of our ESL students are tri- or multi-lingual. Another common language is Hakha Chin, which is nearly impossible to find a print dictionary for. I also have been unable to find an online translator for it, although many online dictionaries and translation apps exist. Here is a searchable Chin dictionary, and another. You can also download an English-Chin dictionary here, although I haven't gotten myself to print the 300+ pages.
We also got a few new students this year who speak Karen. Here is one online dictionary I found, and another. I also found a page with common phrases and how to say them! You can also download a dictionary here.
Finally, just as a reminder, there are many bilingual glossaries for different subject areas available online here. They don't have all of the languages that our students speak, but maybe the language and subject area that you need will be there! Check it out.
I hope these sites for helpful for you and your students! If you find any other good ones that I don't know about, please let me know!