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As a multi-lingual speaker I've even had problems with speech synthesis. For instance, Google Maps insists on narrating driving directions in the system languag
by rav 9y ago
As a multi-lingual speaker I've even had problems with speech synthesis. For instance, Google Maps insists on narrating driving directions in the system language, which is set to English; this makes the narrated local non-English place names incomprehensible. If I succumb and change the system language I can understand the narrated place names, but in return I have to put up with the poor speech synthesis of non-English languages.
- theresistor 9y agoI was just in France last week suffering through the same problem. I’m American, so I want to keep my system set to English both due to familiarity of the interface and because I want data in familiar units (miles, degrees Fahrenheit), but it kills me when every street and place name is absolutely butchered.
- theresistor 9y agoAn interesting observation I made last week was that the poor synthesis of French street names in English mode was worse than American-mispronouncing-French level. I wonder if that exposes some level of mismatch between how the synthesis engine models language and how humans do.
- ghaff 9y agoIn the case of French names it probably depends on if you have any exposure to French pronunciation rules at all. I have a pretty crappy level of high school French but I can usually manage not to butcher pronunciation. I was with a friend in Montreal though and she had absolutely no idea how to pronounce many things.