Surprise Languages: Rapid-Response Cross-Language IR

Sixteen years ago, the first "surprise language exercise" was conducted, in Cebuano. The evaluation goal of a surprise language exercise is to learn how well systems for a new language can be quickly built. This paper briefly reviews the history of surprise language exercises. Some details from the most recent surprise language exercise, in Lithuanian, are included to help to illustrate how the state of the art has advanced over this period.