3 ms·

I have a bad enough time getting Siri to understand my Aussie accent. Throw in something as inaccurate as Google Translate and you'll have... A pile of garbage

by dcw303 10y ago

I have a bad enough time getting Siri to understand my Aussie accent. Throw in something as inaccurate as Google Translate and you'll have... A pile of garbage really. I desperately need something to translate Japanese into my ear, and I'm probably just good enough to relay my point back without the other party needing an eng->jp version, so I would be a prime customer for this gadget. But the technological accuracy is just not yet there in either speech recognition or translation.

Grue3 10y ago
The japanese version will be pretty terrible, I'd imagine. Too much homophones and ambiguous wording. "sounandayo!" = そうなんだよ "that's right!" = 遭難だよ "it's an accident!"
- emodendroket 10y ago
  The pitch on those are quite different and there is obviously context to rely on too. I mean whether the software can do all that is a question, but something like Siri does OK with Japanese speech recognition (at least not a lot worse than other languages from what I can tell).
GordonS 10y ago
I'm from Scotland, and on the rare occassions time I need to phone a US voice activated phone line (e.g. Expedia.com's), I have to put on a ridiculous American accent for the system to understand me. This is a hard problem.
- coldtea 10y ago
  Obligatory link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMS2VnDveP8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMS2VnDveP8
- thedaemon 10y ago
  As a Southern American, I have to put on a Northern or Western American accent. Don't feel so bad.
xutopia 10y ago
I live in Montreal and my biggest gripe with Siri is her not being bilingual! There are so many street names or place names here that are French and when I want to send a message to a francophone friend I can only use handsfree mode in English.
- stan_rogers 10y ago
  Imagine that in Northern Ontario/Val d'Or French, which still has a vowel system that's almost dead in the south now. The grammar's not as different now as it was when I was a kid (that's more than a half-century ago) but that's not quite "standard Canadian French" either, let alone continental French.

by dcw303 10y ago

Grue3 10y ago

The japanese version will be pretty terrible, I'd imagine. Too much homophones and ambiguous wording. "sounandayo!" = そうなんだよ "that's right!" = 遭難だよ "it's an accident!"

emodendroket 10y ago
The pitch on those are quite different and there is obviously context to rely on too. I mean whether the software can do all that is a question, but something like Siri does OK with Japanese speech recognition (at least not a lot worse than other languages from what I can tell).

GordonS 10y ago

I'm from Scotland, and on the rare occassions time I need to phone a US voice activated phone line (e.g. Expedia.com's), I have to put on a ridiculous American accent for the system to understand me. This is a hard problem.

coldtea 10y ago
Obligatory link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMS2VnDveP8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMS2VnDveP8
thedaemon 10y ago
As a Southern American, I have to put on a Northern or Western American accent. Don't feel so bad.

xutopia 10y ago

I live in Montreal and my biggest gripe with Siri is her not being bilingual! There are so many street names or place names here that are French and when I want to send a message to a francophone friend I can only use handsfree mode in English.

stan_rogers 10y ago
Imagine that in Northern Ontario/Val d'Or French, which still has a vowel system that's almost dead in the south now. The grammar's not as different now as it was when I was a kid (that's more than a half-century ago) but that's not quite "standard Canadian French" either, let alone continental French.