Around the World in 80 Languages

Four papers, then a show

All week we have written about voice AI and language: the research, the rules for switching, the communities that get left out, and the business case. This one is the fun one. No charts, no arguments. Two performances, both by voice agents, both doing things a human speaker would find very hard.

Turn the sound on.

Part one: around the world in 80 languages

One voice, one sentence per language, following the sunrise west. It starts where the day starts, in Aotearoa New Zealand, crosses Asia, India, Central Asia, Africa and Europe, jumps the Atlantic, and lands back home, where someone picks up the phone and says hello.

Every stop is one short picture of a city at dawn. Manila hands the call to a grandmother. Kochi lifts its old fishing nets out of the sea. Zanzibar smells of cloves and salt. Prague's astronomical clock strikes the hour. The voice never changes. The accent does, 79 times.

Part two: Three Breakfasts

Eighty languages one after another is a feat of range. The second performance is a feat of speed. Two agents, Mira and Teo, chase the same sunrise around the world, and every three words they switch language: Hindi, then Russian, then Japanese, then Hindi again, all the way through.

Mira is a romantic. Every sunrise is the most beautiful thing she has ever seen. Teo is hungry. Wherever the morning lands, he finds breakfast, and the fisherman who caught a boot, and the rooster who slept through the temple bell.

That is 20 lines and 122 language switches, and the agents did every switch themselves.

How we got two agents to switch every three words

It took seven tries, and the failures are the interesting part.

We built two ElevenLabs voice agents with the same rule in their instructions: speak in chunks of three words, and rotate Hindi, Russian, Japanese. Then we let them talk to each other, with each agent's reply passed to the other as the next thing it heard. A small checker read every reply and counted how often the rotation slipped.

Run	What we changed	Rule slips	What the conversation was like
1	The rule, in plain prose	364	English words crept in, scripts mixed inside single words
2	A slash between chunks	40	Followed the rule, then turned into a packing list
3	Asked for dawn pictures instead of plans	72	Lovely images, a crab, a cat on a roof, rotation slipping
4	Gave the model time to think before speaking	2 out of order	Correct, and as calm as a meditation tape
5	Gave them personalities, more creative freedom	93	Funnier, and the rotation fell apart
6	Personalities, more thinking, less freedom	9 out of order	Correct, and politely, endlessly agreeable
7	We wrote the story; they performed it	0	The video above

Three things stood out.

• Structure beats instructions. Telling the agents "three words per language" barely worked. Asking them to put a slash between chunks cut the slips by almost 90 percent. The slash is never spoken. It just gives the model something to count against.
• Thinking time matters. Switching languages on a fixed beat is a planning problem. When we let the model think before each reply, slips in the language order dropped to almost nothing.
• Rules and comedy compete. Every time we loosened the agents up to be funnier, the rotation broke. Every time we tightened the rotation, the jokes disappeared, and the two agents settled into complimenting each other. Left alone, two agents will agree with each other forever.

So for run 7 we split the job. We wrote the story, with its boot, its rooster, its camel who is not a poet and its three breakfasts. Each agent received its next line in English and said it in the rotation. All 20 lines held the rotation on the first try. The agents also made small choices of their own to keep the rotation clean, like dropping Teo's opening "I am awake" to fit the beat.

How it was made

Both performances use ElevenLabs voices on the Eleven v4 Turbo model, the same speech model our agents use on live calls.

• Part one is one voice reading 80 sentences, one per language, with the language named for nearly every sentence (a few languages, like Lingala and Pulaar, the model speaks but cannot yet be told by name). The cards are timed to the audio.
• Part two is two conversational agents, Mira and Teo, running in text mode against each other, then voiced line by line in their own voices, each line in a single take. A timing tool then marked where every three-word chunk lands, so each card pops up the moment it is spoken.

A note on the translations

The sentences in both videos were translated by machine and by the agents themselves. Native speakers have not reviewed them. Some lines will be stiff, and a few may be wrong. If you speak one of these languages and something reads oddly, tell us. We will credit corrections, and fix the next version.

All 80 stops

Every line from part one, in order. The English is what we wrote; the native line is what the voice said.

Stop	Language	Place	What the voice said	In English
01	Māori	Aotearoa	Ka pā te marama tuatahi o te ao ki Aotearoa, ā, ka tangi tētahi waea.	The first light of the world touches Aotearoa, and a phone rings.
02	Filipino	Manila	Sa Maynila, sumagot ang isang lola at ipinasa ang tawag.	In Manila, a grandmother answers and passes the call along.
03	Indonesian	Jakarta	Di Jakarta, panggilan itu menyelinap di antara motor dan hujan pagi.	In Jakarta, the call slips between motorbikes and morning rain.
04	Malay	Kuala Lumpur	Kuala Lumpur mendengarnya di sebalik bau kopi.	Kuala Lumpur hears it over the smell of coffee.
05	Japanese	Tokyo	東京では始発電車がうなり、声は旅を続けます。	In Tokyo, the first train hums, and the voice keeps going.
06	Korean	Seoul	서울에서 누군가 좋은 아침이라고 속삭이며 서쪽으로 건넵니다.	In Seoul, someone whispers good morning and hands it west.
07	Mandarin	Beijing	北京在自行车铃声中醒来，电话也随着它们一起前行。	Beijing wakes to bicycles, and the call rides with them.
08	Cantonese	Hong Kong	喺香港，維港嘅渡輪將佢載過海。	In Hong Kong, the harbor ferries carry it across the water.
09	Mongolian	Ulaanbaatar	Улаанбаатарын ойролцоох талд тэр морьдтой уралдана.	On the steppe near Ulaanbaatar, it races the horses.
10	Vietnamese	Hanoi	Ở Hà Nội, nó dừng lại ăn một bát phở.	In Hanoi, it pauses for a bowl of pho.
11	Lao	Vientiane	ຢູ່ແຄມແມ່ນ້ຳຂອງໃນວຽງຈັນ ພະສົງຍ່າງຜ່ານໃນຜ້າສີເຫຼືອງ.	Along the Mekong in Vientiane, monks walk past in saffron.
12	Thai	Bangkok	ที่กรุงเทพฯ เรือด่วนบีบแตรทักทาย	In Bangkok, the river taxis honk hello.
13	Burmese	Yangon	ရန်ကုန်မှာ ရွှေစေတီက နေရောင်ကို အရင်ဆုံး ဖမ်းယူတယ်။	In Yangon, the golden pagoda catches the sun first.
14	Bengali	Dhaka	ঢাকায় একসাথে হাজার রিকশার ঘণ্টা বেজে ওঠে।	In Dhaka, a thousand rickshaw bells ring at once.
15	Telugu	Hyderabad	హైదరాబాద్‌లో, ఫోన్ పాత చార్మినార్ దాటి వెళ్తుంది.	In Hyderabad, the call passes the old Charminar.
16	Tamil	Chennai	சென்னைக் கடற்கரையில் மீனவர்கள் வலைகளை இழுக்கிறார்கள்.	On the beach at Chennai, fishermen pull in their nets.
17	Kannada	Bengaluru	ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಕಾಫಿ ಸಿದ್ಧವಾಗುವ ಮೊದಲೇ ಒಬ್ಬ ಪ್ರೋಗ್ರಾಮರ್ ಉತ್ತರಿಸುತ್ತಾನೆ.	In Bengaluru, a programmer answers before the coffee is ready.
18	Malayalam	Kochi	കൊച്ചിയിൽ പഴയ ചീനവലകൾ കടലിൽ നിന്ന് ഉയരുന്നു.	In Kochi, the old fishing nets rise from the sea.
19	Marathi	Mumbai	मुंबई गर्दीच्या लोकलमधून हसत उत्तर देते.	Mumbai answers on a crowded train, laughing.
20	Gujarati	Ahmedabad	અમદાવાદમાં પતંગો પહેલેથી જ પવનની રાહ જુએ છે.	In Ahmedabad, kites are already waiting for the wind.
21	Hindi	Delhi	दिल्ली में चाय गरम है और आवाज़ का स्वागत है।	In Delhi, the chai is hot and the voice is welcome.
22	Nepali	Kathmandu	काठमाडौंबाट फोन हिमालतिर उक्लन्छ।	From Kathmandu, the call climbs toward the mountains.
23	Punjabi	Amritsar	ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ ਵਿੱਚ ਹਰਿਮੰਦਰ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਪਾਣੀ ਉੱਤੇ ਚਮਕਦਾ ਹੈ।	In Amritsar, the golden temple shines on the water.
24	Urdu	Karachi	کراچی میں سمندری ہوا اسے مزید مغرب کی طرف لے جاتی ہے۔	In Karachi, the sea breeze carries it further west.
25	Pashto	Kabul	په کابل کې یو ماشوم ځواب ورکوي او موسکا کوي.	In Kabul, a child answers and smiles.
26	Tajik	Dushanbe	Дар Душанбе кӯҳҳо субҳидам гулобӣ медурахшанд.	In Dushanbe, the mountains glow pink at dawn.
27	Uzbek	Samarkand	Samarqandda moviy gumbazlar qadimiy Ipak yo'lini eslaydi.	In Samarkand, blue domes remember the old Silk Road.
28	Kazakh	Almaty	Алматыда қарлы шыңдардың етегінде алма піседі.	In Almaty, apples ripen beneath the snowy peaks.
29	Persian	Tehran	در تهران، کسی یک بیت شعر در گوشی می‌خواند.	In Tehran, someone recites a line of poetry into the phone.
30	Sorani Kurdish	Sulaymaniyah	لە سلێمانی، نان لە تەنوورەوە گەرمە.	In Sulaymaniyah, the bread is warm from the oven.
31	Azerbaijani	Baku	Bakıda Xəzərdən əsən külək onu götürür.	In Baku, the wind off the Caspian picks it up.
32	Georgian	Tbilisi	თბილისში სიმღერა სიტყვაზე ადრე პასუხობს.	In Tbilisi, a song answers before a word does.
33	Armenian	Yerevan	Երևանում Արարատ լեռը նայում է, թե ինչպես է առավոտը գալիս։	In Yerevan, Mount Ararat watches the morning arrive.
34	Turkish	Istanbul	İstanbul'da arama Asya'dan Avrupa'ya geçiyor.	In Istanbul, the call crosses from Asia into Europe.
35	Hebrew	Tel Aviv	בתל אביב, רצים מנופפים מהחוף.	In Tel Aviv, runners wave from the beach.
36	Arabic	Cairo	في القاهرة، يحمله النيل جنوبًا.	In Cairo, the Nile carries it south.
37	Amharic	Addis Ababa	በአዲስ አበባ ቡና ይቆላል፣ ይጋራልም።	In Addis Ababa, coffee is roasted and shared.
38	Somali	Mogadishu	Muqdisho, gabayaa ayaa gabay ku jawaabay.	In Mogadishu, a poet answers in verse.
39	Swahili	Zanzibar	Huko Zanzibar, simu inanukia karafuu na chumvi.	In Zanzibar, the call smells of cloves and salt.
40	Luganda	Kampala	Mu Kampala, ensozi nkiragala era essimu ewulikika bulungi.	In Kampala, the hills are green and the line is clear.
41	Shona	Harare	MuHarare, miti yejacaranda iri kutumbuka ruvara rwepepuru.	In Harare, the jacaranda trees are flowering purple.
42	Zulu	Durban	EThekwini, abagibeli bamagagasi babamba igagasi lokuqala nocingo.	In Durban, surfers catch the first wave and the call.
43	Afrikaans	Cape Town	In Kaapstad dra Tafelberg sy wolk.	In Cape Town, Table Mountain wears its cloud.
44	Lingala	Kinshasa	Na Kinshasa, miziki ebandi kobeta na ebale.	In Kinshasa, music is already playing on the river.
45	Yoruba	Lagos	Ní Èkó, ọkọ̀ ń kọrin, ìpè náà sì ń jó kọjá.	In Lagos, the traffic sings and the call dances through.
46	Hausa	Kano	A Kano, ramukan rini suna haske da shuɗi.	In Kano, the dye pits shine in indigo.
47	Pulaar	Fouta Djallon	E pelle Fuuta, aynaaɓe ina njaaraa subaka.	In the hills of the Fouta, herders greet the morning.
48	Wolof	Dakar	Ci Ndakaaru, Afrig nuyu na géej gi ci suba si.	In Dakar, Africa says good morning to the ocean.
49	Maltese	Valletta	Il-Belt Valletta, il-qniepen idoqqu madwar il-port.	In Valletta, church bells ring across the harbor.
50	Greek	Athens	Στην Αθήνα, η Ακρόπολη γίνεται χρυσή.	In Athens, the Acropolis turns to gold.
51	Macedonian	Skopje	Во Скопје, Старата чаршија ги отвора вратите.	In Skopje, the old bazaar opens its doors.
52	Bulgarian	Sofia	В София един пекар подава обаждането заедно с хляба.	In Sofia, a baker hands the call over with the bread.
53	Romanian	Bucharest	În București, apelul trece grăbit prin parcuri.	In Bucharest, the call hurries through the parks.
54	Ukrainian	Kyiv	У Києві соняшники повертаються до світла.	In Kyiv, sunflowers turn toward the light.
55	Russian	Moscow	В Москве купола сверкают инеем.	In Moscow, the domes are bright with frost.
56	Finnish	Helsinki	Helsingissä joku vastaa suoraan saunasta.	In Helsinki, someone answers straight from the sauna.
57	Estonian	Tallinn	Tallinnas tervitavad vanalinna tornid hommikut.	In Tallinn, the old town towers greet the morning.
58	Latvian	Riga	Rīgā tirgus paviljoni piepildās ar kūpinātām zivīm.	In Riga, the market halls fill with smoked fish.
59	Lithuanian	Vilnius	Vilniuje virš stogų plaukia oro balionai.	In Vilnius, hot-air balloons drift over the rooftops.
60	Polish	Kraków	W Krakowie z wieży kościoła gra trąbka.	In Kraków, a trumpet plays from the church tower.
61	Slovak	Bratislava	V Bratislave nesie Dunaj hovor po prúde.	In Bratislava, the Danube carries the call downstream.
62	Hungarian	Budapest	Budapesten gőz száll fel a termálfürdőkből.	In Budapest, steam rises from the thermal baths.
63	Serbian	Belgrade	У Београду се спајају две реке, а и ми.	In Belgrade, two rivers meet, and so do we.
64	Croatian	Zagreb	U Zagrebu se nad tržnicom otvaraju crveni suncobrani.	In Zagreb, red umbrellas open over the market.
65	Slovenian	Ljubljana	V Ljubljani zmaji na mostu stražijo.	In Ljubljana, the dragons on the bridge keep watch.
66	Italian	Rome	A Roma, un espresso al banco, e poi avanti.	In Rome, an espresso, standing up, and then onward.
67	Czech	Prague	V Praze orloj odbíjí celou hodinu.	In Prague, the astronomical clock strikes the hour.
68	German	Berlin	In Berlin fährt der Anruf mit dem ersten Bus durch die Stadt.	In Berlin, the call rides the first bus through the city.
69	Danish	Copenhagen	I København ruller ti tusind cykler mod arbejde.	In Copenhagen, ten thousand bicycles roll toward work.
70	Swedish	Stockholm	I Stockholm glittrar öarna som utspritt glas.	In Stockholm, the islands shine like scattered glass.
71	Norwegian	Oslo	I Oslo ligger fjorden stille og sølvblank.	In Oslo, the fjord is still and silver.
72	Dutch	Amsterdam	In Amsterdam luidt een rondvaartboot zijn belletje.	In Amsterdam, a canal boat rings its little bell.
73	French	Paris	À Paris, les croissants sont chauds, et la voix aussi.	In Paris, the croissants are warm, and so is the voice.
74	Catalan	Barcelona	A Barcelona, la trucada baixa corrent fins al mar.	In Barcelona, the call races down to the sea.
75	Welsh	Cardiff	Yng Nghymru, mae côr yn hymian yr alwad ar draws y cymoedd.	In Wales, a choir hums the call across the valleys.
76	Irish	Galway	I nGaillimh, stopann an bháisteach díreach fada go leor le freagra a thabhairt.	In Galway, the rain stops just long enough to answer.
77	Icelandic	Reykjavík	Á Íslandi stekkur síðasta ljós Evrópu yfir hafið.	In Iceland, the last light of Europe leaps over the ocean.
78	Portuguese	Rio de Janeiro	No Rio de Janeiro, a praia responde com samba.	In Rio de Janeiro, the beach answers with samba.
79	Spanish	Havana	En La Habana, un carro viejo pita buenos días.	In Havana, an old car honks good morning.
80	English	Home	And back home, the phone rings once more, and someone picks up and says: hello?	And back home, the phone rings once more, and someone picks up and says: hello?

About this series

This is Part 5 of Language Week, five pieces on language and voice AI published November 9 to 13, 2026. Part 1, Speaking Languages It Was Never Taught, reviews the research. Part 2, When to Switch, shows how our agents decide when to change languages. Part 3, One Voice, Twelve Front Desks, profiles twelve underserved languages our agents can now speak. Part 4, Every Caller, Every Language, makes the business case.