need du help- accessing government services thru the web.

[mopinko]

posted in gd, where is about to go down for the third time. thought i might try in here.

i am going to cross post this in the illinois forum, but i was hoping some folks here could also help with this.
DH and i do some parent education stuff for our kids grade school. one of the things we do is have the computer teacher open the lab to parents for something called 'learn to google nights'.
our next session, we would like to focus on accessing government services through the web. the teacher has asked my to try to compile some websites that she should take them to.
we have a high immigrant population, so international/immigration services would be helpful. i think i can get some good info on local government, but i do know that there are lots of chicagoans around here, so maybe i could get a little help with that, too. spanish is our largest language population, but there are 32 languages spoke by our families.
yes, i know i could google. but i was hoping to get folks experience trying to actually use these services.
so, can you help?

[trof]

1. IRS? It's that time of year again.

Lot of info there.

[mopinko]

5. their website sucks.

we have a payment plan from a couple of years ago, and had a lot of trouble with paying online.
info wise, maybe a different story, but...

[merh]

2. Well of course you want to let them know babelfish is out there

to use for translation purposes.

The Library of Congress is actually a good site to use to find other sites and what is available.

http://www.loc.gov/index.html

The LOC will get you to other sites, go check it out.

:hi:

[mopinko]

3. do not use babel fish.

i tried that for a flyer. we always do spanish and english verions. sometimes the translator is a little slow, and i am always doing thing at the last minute.
who could have guessed that not everyone refers to their offspring as little goats? and who would have guessed that little goats was such a slur?

[merh]

4. oh, good point

but that is what you will have if you use an online translation site.

Answer.com does have some great enteries with useful phrases in foreign languages. It's sort of like Wiki in that individuals find topics to write about and post the answers. I actually like answer.com better than wiki for common answers and translations.

[mopinko]

6. kicking myself

pretty please.