Isn't ChatGPT better than Google translate or deepl? Why doesn't google use a modern LLM to translate?
Has Google Translate been fixed yet?
11–20 of 229 posts
Re: Has Google Translate been fixed yet?
#12Taiwanese here. I have a mixed opinion about this site. Some of them are just weird: - mega → 巨型 (百萬) Really? Do you really want to translate mega to 百萬 (million) in every context? *Edit: every, not any - text → 文本 (文字) Seriously? 文本 is the formal, academic way to say it, even in Taiwan. Have this person never been any academic environment? - through → 通過 (透過) Seriously???
> Really? Do you really want to translate mega to 百萬 (million) in any context? Would its use as a metric prefix not be a correct context for this?
My point is this site doesn't provide any context. It's very weird to say "mega should be translated to 兆/百萬/超級/巨型" without specifying the context first. A Reddit "megathread" is definitely not a 百萬討論串.
*Edit: my word choice was wrong in the parent comment. I meant to say "every context", not "any context".
Re: Has Google Translate been fixed yet?
#13google maps also in taiwan made me ride on the highway on a motorbike which isn't allowed and got a nice ticket for following googles directions even with avoid highways enabled.
Google maps is particularly useless in this sense. I desperately wish they'd open source it so local could just add features as needed. In Taiwan, we don't have "highway," "motorcycle roads," etc, as Google understands it (with its notoriously difficult to activate "motorcycle route option"). There's specific rules that should be just implemented by name, flags like "no flower road," "no highspeed highway (red plate and car OK, yellow and below not ok)", no "highspeed highway (red, yellow, car ok, white and green plate not ok)," or maybe just "white scooter only" or even "greenplate only" routes modes. Better if you could just input your exact vehicle type per Taiwan law and get a legal route that way. The information is quite available on data.gov.tw for those that want to have machines read it. Can't speak for other countries.
This on top of the fact that I'm pretty sure google maps uses some USA centric constant for traffic light timer estimations. Traffic light timers are very, very long in Taiwan compared to other countries. One time I had to wait 500 seconds (they had to add an extra big countdown timer to account for this). Usually it's more than 99 (the maximum the 2 digit counters can display). When you're in a car, motorcycle, or scooter, it's safe to multiply travel times by 1.5x to 2x. As for bicycle, I have no idea why google thinks bicycling is so fast in Taipei, but always multiply by at least 2x whatever time Google tells you.
Edit: the 500 seconds was an extreme outlier. Around 99 seconds is the usual in major Taipei intersections.
Re: Has Google Translate been fixed yet?
#14I now use chatGPT for translating english to traditional Chinese and give me some variations. Definitely works better than Google translate.
For example for "I want to build a good gym routine":
我想建立一個良好的健身計畫。 Wǒ xiǎng jiànlì yīgè liánghǎo de jiànshēn jìhuà.
Here are some variations of the sentence along with their English translations: 我想制定一套有效的健身計劃。 Wǒ xiǎng zhìdìng yī tào yǒuxiào de jiànshēn jìhuà. I want to create an effective workout plan.
我希望安排一個健康的健身日程。 Wǒ xīwàng ānpái yīgè jiànkāng de jiànshēn rìchéng. I hope to set up a healthy fitness schedule.
ps: I am building an app to make learning chinese easier. Feel free to ping me privately for testing :)
Re: Has Google Translate been fixed yet?
#15> A lot of times the translation would sound like how Chinese is used in China instead.
Ignorant person here (sorry if I'm asking a dumb question), but given the larger population of China to Taiwan, why is that not the correct thing to do? Or is this "Traditional Chinese" a language spoken only in Taiwan?
When translating to Dutch, I wouldn't expect it to output Dutch as it is spoken in Belgium, Suriname, or Limburg either; I'd expect it to output Dutch as the main body of speakers speak it. They should get their own language designation instead, if the software wants to support translating into variants of the language
Re: Has Google Translate been fixed yet?
#16This is an interesting issue.
Simplified and Traditional are different (but closely related) writing systems that can be used to express the exact same text. They are not different linguistic variants of Chinese.
It looks like regardless of which writing system you choose, Google still translates into the most widely used variant of Chinese: Standard Chinese, as spoken on the mainland. It just writes the result using the requested characters. It doesn't decide to use more characteristically Taiwanese phrases if you select traditional characters.
In order to address the complaint here, Google could allow one to select the writing system (Simplified vs. Traditional) independently from the regional variety (Mainland, Taiwan, etc.).
Re: Has Google Translate been fixed yet?
#17That is on the basic assumption those are incorrect and required to be "fixed". What makes you think Google "would" fix it? Facebook has sided with Mainland China during 2019 protest in Hong Kong simply because there are more Chinese working inside Facebook than people from HK. Youtube has sided with mainland China to censor words in Chinese comments simply because the censorship team employ, of course Chinese. Just…
It's incorrect per the language code they're using, zh-tw. They obviously side with the CPC on political issues, but that's a separate issue, they should just change the code to the more accurate "zh-Hant." zh-tw exists to specifically identify Taiwanese Mandarin, which is a defined separate dialect (we really should stop using "Chinese" as a word to describe the various flavors of Mandarin, let alone including entirely different languages (NOT dialects!) such as Hakka, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Ninghainese, etc).
Re: Has Google Translate been fixed yet?
#18> A lot of times the translation would sound like how Chinese is used in China instead. Ignorant person here (sorry if I'm asking a dumb question), but given the larger population of China to Taiwan, why is that not the correct thing to do? Or is this "Traditional Chinese" a language spoken only in Taiwan? When translating to Dutch, I wouldn't expect it to output Dutch as it is spoken in Belgium, Suriname, or Limburg…
> Or is this "traditional Chinese" a language spoken
It's not a spoken language. It's only for written text.
> only in Taiwan?
Only in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and oversea Taiwanese/HK communities.
Re: Has Google Translate been fixed yet?
#19I think DeepL is considered to be quite good for translations nowadays https://www.deepl.com/translator
It doesn't support Traditional Chinese though, let alone the Taiwanese dialect...
Re: Has Google Translate been fixed yet?
#20Is it just me or is translation in android completely broken as well? In the past I could select a word and translate it with the translate button. Now it most of the time triggers a Google search and adds words I didn't select.