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Super smart idea. I ostensibly do this sort of thing manually to expand my vocabulary in other languages I speak. What does adding a new language involve other
by jszymborski 3y ago
Super smart idea. I ostensibly do this sort of thing manually to expand my vocabulary in other languages I speak.
What does adding a new language involve other than adding a dictionary? It doesn't seem like there are too many language-specific features at first blush.
- qnleigh 3y agoHaving built a similar app, maybe I can comment on this. 1. Languages that have conjugation (I am -> you are -> she is...) need a way to recognize different forms of the same word, as dictionaries typically don't have this information. 2. In some languages, nearby words dramatically modify a word's meaning (in Spanish quito=I take away, me quito=I take off). The modifier words can appear quite far away in the sentence (especially in German I think). 3. Languages that don't put spaces between words are a nightmare. 4. Even for languages that do put spaces, the set of characters that act as a separator can differ slightly. 4. Languages like Chinese and Japanese with their enourmous 'alphabets' need UI changes to help learners with pronounciation of new characters. 5. Fonts and text entry! Does your framework support all 10-jillion Chinese characters and the 5+ different types of on-screen keyboards that people use? Did you remember that Arabic is read right-to-left? Those are all of the main challenges I encounted implementing Spanish, French, Chinese and Japanese. I have no idea what new challenges would come up in Finish, Hindi, Swahili...