A system and method of providing a location-based translation service is disclosed. A wireless device receives from a wireless network an updated priority target language list according to the location of the wireless device. The wireless device and/or wireless network are capable of automatic speech recognition (ASR), text-to-speech (TTS) services and language translation services. A language and location database module associates probable target languages in a given area. The wireless network node receives the location of the wireless device through a network-based location means or through a GPS system and compares the location of the wireless device to the language and location database. The wireless network transmits to the wireless device an updated priority language list based on the data in the language and location database such that the wireless device pre-selects the most likely target language if the user launches the language translation application. When the user launches the language translation application, the selection of the target language is simplified since the most likely target language is pre-selected.