Some issues I have with Google Translate

Poll of the Day

Poll of the Day » Some issues I have with Google Translate
I use it often, but I've come to have some concerns with how it works.

It seems that most European languages translate well into English. They're all pretty similar to each other anyways, so it makes sense. Slavic languages tend to have issues and a lot of times come out not making much sense, or having wildly different translations on different attempts. Nordic languages I think are somewhere in between where you'll get something passable, but it still sounds weird or just doesn't use the same context. Asian languages are hit or miss, sometimes they'll translate perfectly and others it will give me something totally wrong. It'll even give me a completely different audio reading than what the text is.

But something I discovered recently has me concerned. It seems like it's using AI to scrub the internet and give localizations for certain inputs rather than an actual translation. For example, I posted a comment on a Japanese channel talking about a gecko I used to have that I named Charmander, and it translated it to Hitokage, which yes, that's the Japanese name for it, but that's not the point. Another is translating "Bokujou Monogatari" to "Harvest Moon" when it actually translates to "Ranch Story". It's essentially giving me misinformation for the purpose that I was intending to use it for.

Overall it's a really useful tool, but it really makes it difficult to determine if it's actually giving me the right information or not.
I find with most Asian stuff its good for odd words and maybe a phrase but usually goes wrong on sentences.

Occasionally, it leads to hilarity, like when I saw a flavour of Fanta I hadnt come across before and it told me it Spicy Boys Ice Cream flavour.
A fun game I'd play is typing something out and swapping the two languages back and forth to see how far off it would retranslate it.
https://www.ravbug.com/hypertranslate/

Sounds like youd enjoy this. I find famous quotes and plot synopses are the most fun.
Glob posted...
I find with most Asian stuff its good for odd words and maybe a phrase but usually goes wrong on sentences.

Occasionally, it leads to hilarity, like when I saw a flavour of Fanta I hadnt come across before and it told me it Spicy Boys Ice Cream flavour.
It does seem to have gotten a lot better with translating Youtube comments. Stuff mostly comes out making complete sense with barely any inconsistencies. But sometimes it still has trouble. Slavic languages seem to get the worst of it. Someone commented on one of my videos

"A to ty gupek tylko gupiego liska ktry pokazuje jak dzieci Tobie zrobi nowy kana"

and it came out as

"And you're just an idiot, just a stupid fox who shows you children, I'll make a new channel for you"

I don't know, maybe the person was just batshit crazy and wasn't making any sense to begin with, but I have no idea what they're getting at.
Glob posted...
https://www.ravbug.com/hypertranslate/

Sounds like youd enjoy this. I find famous quotes and plot synopses are the most fun.
Oh that's interesting. Looks like it translates through a series of languages, that even funnier!
Salrite posted...
Oh that's interesting. Looks like it translates through a series of languages, that even funnier!

Thats exactly what it does.

For example:

Small-town California teen Marty McFly is thrown back into the '50s when an experiment by his eccentric scientist friend Doc Brown goes awry. Traveling through time in a modified DeLorean car, Marty encounters young versions of his parents and must ensure they fall in love, or he'll cease to exist. Even more dauntingly, Marty has to return to his own time and save Doc Brown's life.

becomes

Marty Macfar is 50 years old in California. If you change the key to the state changes sweet and sweet, make sure it is there. Back to Martin to participate and save the pool.

Glob posted...
https://www.ravbug.com/hypertranslate/

Sounds like youd enjoy this. I find famous quotes and plot synopses are the most fun.


Oh not sure if that's the same site that was around years ago. I remember they started limiting the language retranslations so it was no longer fun.
Gamertag: Kegfarms, BF code: 2033480226, Treasure Cruise code 318,374,355, Steam: Kegfarms, Switch: SW-1900-5502-7912
Salrite posted...
But something I discovered recently has me concerned. It seems like it's using AI to scrub the internet and give localizations for certain inputs rather than an actual translation. For example, I posted a comment on a Japanese channel talking about a gecko I used to have that I named Charmander, and it translated it to Hitokage, which yes, that's the Japanese name for it, but that's not the point. Another is translating "Bokujou Monogatari" to "Harvest Moon" when it actually translates to "Ranch Story". It's essentially giving me misinformation for the purpose that I was intending to use it for.

Its done that for a long time, even before AI became a big thing. Like, it would translate Dobutsu no Mori into Animal Crossing instead of Animal Forest.

That can be helpful if youre translating a Japanese webpage and youre not familiar with games, but it can get kind of annoying when youre trying to check an actual Japanese title.

Also, it doesnt know every game, some of the more obscure ones stay as direct translations instead of the localized title. So you cant be sure if its a direct translation or not, unless you copy and paste individual words from the title to see if they translate the same.

The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense.
Hejiru posted...


Its done that for a long time, even before AI became a big thing. Like, it would translate Dobutsu no Mori into Animal Crossing instead of Animal Forest.

That can be helpful if youre translating a Japanese webpage and youre not familiar with games, but it can get kind of annoying when youre trying to check an actual Japanese title.

Also, it doesnt know every game, some of the more obscure ones stay as direct translations instead of the localized title. So you cant be sure if its a direct translation or not, unless you copy and paste individual words from the title to see if they translate the same.



That's bad since machine translations are supposed to translate literally. They shouldn't program it to localize translations.
Gamertag: Kegfarms, BF code: 2033480226, Treasure Cruise code 318,374,355, Steam: Kegfarms, Switch: SW-1900-5502-7912
Poll of the Day » Some issues I have with Google Translate