Systems and methods for establishing a language translation setting for a telephony communication determine whether first and second parties to the telephony communication are likely to speak different languages. If so, one or both parties are queried to determine if they would like a language translation to be performed. One or both parties' response to that query is used to establish a language translation setting for the telephony communication. If one or both parties request a translation, some form of real-time translation may then be provided.