diff --git a/config.ini.dist b/config.ini.dist
index c761d2c..4c57655 100644
--- a/config.ini.dist
+++ b/config.ini.dist
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ redis_url = redis://localhost:6379/0
 redis_prefix = botbot-
 plugin_dirs = /home/skull/dev/botbot-plugins
 plugin_blacklist = 
+lang = en
 
 [Links]
 mode = whitelist
diff --git a/ircbot/plugins/translate.py b/ircbot/plugins/translate.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ffcc3f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ircbot/plugins/translate.py
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+import requests
+import json
+
+from langdetect import detect, detect_langs
+from ircbot import bot
+
+
+def translate(bot, text):
+    api_key = bot.config['Yandex']['translate_key']
+    lang = detect(text)
+    translate_url = "https://translate.yandex.net/api/v1.5/tr.json/translate?key={}&text={}&lang={}-{}".format(api_key, text, lang, bot.config["System"]["lang"])
+    api_response = requests.get(translate_url).text
+    api_json = json.loads(api_response)
+    print(api_json)
+    return api_json['text'][0]
+
+
+@bot.hook()
+def message_hook(bot, channel, sender, message):
+    # gibberish messages are still assigned a language, however the level of confidence is always less than 0.9
+    if detect(message) != bot.config["System"]["lang"] and float(str(detect_langs(message)[0])[3:]) < 0.9:
+        bot.message(channel, "translation: {}").format(translate(bot, message))
diff --git a/ircbot/plugins/translate_ru.py b/ircbot/plugins/translate_ru.py
deleted file mode 100644
index de20f80..0000000
--- a/ircbot/plugins/translate_ru.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,31 +0,0 @@
-import requests
-import json
-
-from ircbot import bot
-
-cyrillic_latin = {u'а': 'a', u'б': 'b', u'в': 'v', u'г': 'g',
-                  u'д': 'd', u'е': 'ye', u'ё': 'yo', u'ж': 'zh',
-                  u'з': 'z', u'и': 'i', u'й': 'j', u'к': 'k',
-                  u'л': 'l', u'м': 'm', u'н': 'n', u'о': 'o',
-                  u'п': 'p', u'р': 'r', u'с': 's', u'т': 't',
-                  u'у': 'u', u'ф': 'f', u'х': 'h', u'ц': 'ts',
-                  u'ч': 'ch', u'ш': 'sh', u'щ': 'sch', u'ы': 'i',
-                  u'э': 'e', u'ю': 'yu', u'я': 'ya', u' ': ' ',
-                  u'ъ': '', u'ь': ''}
-
-
-def translate_text(bot, text):
-    api_key = bot.config['Yandex']['translate_key']
-    api_url = "https://translate.yandex.net/api/v1.5/tr.json/translate?key={}&text={}&lang=ru-en".format(api_key, text)
-    api_response = requests.get(api_url).text
-    api_json = json.loads(api_response)
-    print(api_json)
-    return api_json['text'][0]
-
-
-@bot.hook()
-def message_hook(bot, channel, sender, message):
-    if set(message) <= set(cyrillic_latin.keys()) and message.strip():
-        translit = ''.join(str(c) for c in map(lambda x: cyrillic_latin[x], message))
-        translate = translate_text(bot, message)
-        bot.message(channel, '{} <{}> ~ {}'.format(message, translit, translate))
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 631d832..b87a334 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -25,3 +25,4 @@ traitlets==4.0.0
 urbandictionary==1.1
 dnspython==1.15.0
 raven==6.4.0
+langdetect==1.0.7