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I was just in Colombia, and now you can use Google Lens on Android to translate posters and menus. It misses a lot but is "good enough" and you can even downloa
by mattwad 4y ago
I was just in Colombia, and now you can use Google Lens on Android to translate posters and menus. It misses a lot but is "good enough" and you can even download languages for use offline.
- fractallyte 4y agoAnd here's the original post that introduced Word Lens to the world: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2014555 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2014555 (Before Google acquired it!)
- duskwuff 4y agoLiterally translating a menu, as Google Lens would do, isn't always helpful, though. Many dishes have names which are metaphorical (like "pasta primavera" or "drunken noodles"), or which allude to the origin of a dish (like "beef Stroganoff" or "Cuban sandwich"). Simply knowing what the words mean doesn't necessarily help you understand what you're going to be eating -- a guide like the one AlbertCory is describing can expand those words to more useful descriptions.
- Kye 4y agoRestaurants near furry conventions like to change up their menus to match the theme. I wonder how well apps handle those.
- owl57 4y agoTurned out to be particularly bad in Israel. One of the first things I learned using a phone translator app was that the restaurant is mostly offering variants of "damned hummus".
- AlbertCory 4y agoI've been there. My impression was that every piece of text was in Hebrew, Arabic, and English.
- owl57 4y agoA lot, but far from every piece of text. Hebrew-only menus are quite common and I'm still a bit scared of them.
- Shorel 4y agoI wonder about translations for tamal, tajadas, pandebono or "principio".
- AlbertCory 4y agoI haven't read (or tried) menu translator books for those things (whatever they are). I doubt anyone publishes those books anymore, but you can probably find them used.