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I've been downvoted for this and I'll be downvoted again, but average user is monolingual and for them, shitty automatic translation is better than no translati

I've been downvoted for this and I'll be downvoted again, but average user is monolingual and for them, shitty automatic translation is better than no translation. Nobody cares about the fact that a small percentage of users speak more than one language. It's mind-boggling that HN users don't understand that they're not the target audience of most major platforms. Anyway, I recommend Revanced. It has an option to turn off both subtitles and dubbing. This makes YouTube usable again.

amanaplanacanal 1y ago
Average American is monolingual, anyway.
- johannes1234321 1y ago
  While even in America (as in USA) there is a large community of people speaking English and Spanish. And tech companies (including Google) have a lot of immigrants, who should be aware of the existance of bilinguals. For broader America, including Canda there is Quebec with French+English. etc
- jcranmer 1y ago
  Apparently about 20% of the US is multilingual (per census data). So while the median might be monolingual, it is still so large of the US as to be a market segment worth catering to.
Wowfunhappy 1y ago
> but [the] average user is monolingual That's certainly true in America, but my understanding (as an American myself) is that it's not true in much of the world! In Romania for example people speak Romanian and English; in Ukraine they speak Ukrainian and Russian. I'm not sure how this nets out in terms of the overall population of technology users, but it's a large chunk of people! P.S. For what it's worth, I downvoted you because you said "I'll be downvoted for this", not because I thought the rest of your comment was bad. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- anal_reactor 1y ago
  It's just frustrating to see how clueless people here are on the topic of multilingualism, despite being otherwise well-rounded. They genuinely think that the reason why platforms support multilingualism so poorly is different from "market forces proved that multilingual support is not an important feature".
  - Wowfunhappy 1y ago
    It could also be a market failure borne of how America-focused the big tech companies are!
    - anal_reactor 1y ago
      Not really because in many cases American big tech replaced local solutions, so from purely economic perspective, they must've been better.
thrance 1y ago
> small percentage of users speak more than one language. Are you paid by Google to astroturf us into being accepting of their laziness? We're only asking them to allow us to specify two languages in the YouTube app, nothing more. > Anyway, I recommend Revanced. It has an option to turn off both subtitles and dubbing. This makes YouTube usable again. Really? I happened to check this today and found no such features.
- anal_reactor 1y ago
  > Really? Yes.
  - thrance 1y ago
    It was a rhetorical question, I checked the GitHub and all. There is no such features. I don't know why you keep lying through your teeth, that's frankly disturbing and rather lame.
    - anal_reactor 1y ago
      https://github.com/ReVanced/revanced-documentation/blob/main/docs/revanced-resources/troubleshooting.md https://github.com/ReVanced/revanced-documentation/blob/main... Number 5 Am I talking to AI chatbot, or a plain-old idiot?
- adastra22 1y ago
  Or to respect user language settings at all, rather than geolocate and assume.
tavavex 1y ago
> Nobody cares about the fact that a small percentage of users speak more than one language Everything I can find online claims that ~40% of the world, if not more, is at least bilingual. It's not some crazy rare single-digit percentage trait. In some nations, multilingualism is near-universal. Do you think it's reasonable for a company like YouTube to deliver a frankly hot garbage experience with no opt-out to about half of its userbase, if not more? That's billions of people we're talking about here.
- thrance 1y ago
  My advice would be to stop feeding this troll. Just look at their comment history.
- anal_reactor 1y ago
  This statistic is complete bullshit because it relies on self-reporting. When you ask average person "do you speak English?" they understand "can you ask in English where toilet is?", not "can you consume content in English comfortably?". Ignoring this, sure, there are some countries where true bilingualism is common, but even there, most people are effectively monolingual consumers because what happens is that they just pick one favorite language and consume most content in that language.
  - tavavex 1y ago
    > This statistic is complete bullshit because it relies on self-reporting. Do you have a source for this? I couldn't find the primary source for those numbers (everyone says 43%, quoting each other), but my assumption for anything that quantifies people across the entire planet is that it's probably not based on polling, but making statistical inferences and relying on other data from individual countries, so a mix of different things. Regardless, even if you disagree with that number, true fluency in multiple languages is still extremely common. And it's not just countries that have multiple official languages. People from one country who live close to another country with a similar language will commonly be fluent in both. Depending on your culture, you may be exposed to English to an extent where you'll have a good understanding of it. Try talking to a Dutch person in their language without being fluent in it. And sure, if what you're watching is news or knitting videos, you'll watch them in your first language. The reason why I watch content in another language is because there's often stuff that doesn't even exist in my own. Lots of people with bad formal English education became proficient in English because of the internet, they want to consume English-speaking content because the English internet is far larger and more international than, say, the Norwegian, Polish or Korean internet. It's very, very common.
Xelbair 1y ago
even if average american is... then launch that cesspool of feature in US only.
viraptor 1y ago
Everyone who finished highschool with me knows at least 2 languages. Anyone who wants uni knows 3 at least vaguely. And that's in a country with a single official language. There are places with 2+ of them.
kjkjadksj 1y ago
60 million people in the US are spanish speakers.

amanaplanacanal 1y ago

Average American is monolingual, anyway.

johannes1234321 1y ago
While even in America (as in USA) there is a large community of people speaking English and Spanish. And tech companies (including Google) have a lot of immigrants, who should be aware of the existance of bilinguals. For broader America, including Canda there is Quebec with French+English. etc
jcranmer 1y ago
Apparently about 20% of the US is multilingual (per census data). So while the median might be monolingual, it is still so large of the US as to be a market segment worth catering to.

Wowfunhappy 1y ago

> but [the] average user is monolingual That's certainly true in America, but my understanding (as an American myself) is that it's not true in much of the world! In Romania for example people speak Romanian and English; in Ukraine they speak Ukrainian and Russian. I'm not sure how this nets out in terms of the overall population of technology users, but it's a large chunk of people! P.S. For what it's worth, I downvoted you because you said "I'll be downvoted for this", not because I thought the rest of your comment was bad. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

anal_reactor 1y ago
It's just frustrating to see how clueless people here are on the topic of multilingualism, despite being otherwise well-rounded. They genuinely think that the reason why platforms support multilingualism so poorly is different from "market forces proved that multilingual support is not an important feature".
- Wowfunhappy 1y ago
  It could also be a market failure borne of how America-focused the big tech companies are!
  - anal_reactor 1y ago
    Not really because in many cases American big tech replaced local solutions, so from purely economic perspective, they must've been better.

thrance 1y ago

> small percentage of users speak more than one language. Are you paid by Google to astroturf us into being accepting of their laziness? We're only asking them to allow us to specify two languages in the YouTube app, nothing more. > Anyway, I recommend Revanced. It has an option to turn off both subtitles and dubbing. This makes YouTube usable again. Really? I happened to check this today and found no such features.

anal_reactor 1y ago
> Really? Yes.
- thrance 1y ago
  It was a rhetorical question, I checked the GitHub and all. There is no such features. I don't know why you keep lying through your teeth, that's frankly disturbing and rather lame.
  - anal_reactor 1y ago
    https://github.com/ReVanced/revanced-documentation/blob/main/docs/revanced-resources/troubleshooting.md https://github.com/ReVanced/revanced-documentation/blob/main... Number 5 Am I talking to AI chatbot, or a plain-old idiot?
adastra22 1y ago
Or to respect user language settings at all, rather than geolocate and assume.

tavavex 1y ago

> Nobody cares about the fact that a small percentage of users speak more than one language Everything I can find online claims that ~40% of the world, if not more, is at least bilingual. It's not some crazy rare single-digit percentage trait. In some nations, multilingualism is near-universal. Do you think it's reasonable for a company like YouTube to deliver a frankly hot garbage experience with no opt-out to about half of its userbase, if not more? That's billions of people we're talking about here.

thrance 1y ago
My advice would be to stop feeding this troll. Just look at their comment history.
anal_reactor 1y ago
This statistic is complete bullshit because it relies on self-reporting. When you ask average person "do you speak English?" they understand "can you ask in English where toilet is?", not "can you consume content in English comfortably?". Ignoring this, sure, there are some countries where true bilingualism is common, but even there, most people are effectively monolingual consumers because what happens is that they just pick one favorite language and consume most content in that language.
- tavavex 1y ago
  > This statistic is complete bullshit because it relies on self-reporting. Do you have a source for this? I couldn't find the primary source for those numbers (everyone says 43%, quoting each other), but my assumption for anything that quantifies people across the entire planet is that it's probably not based on polling, but making statistical inferences and relying on other data from individual countries, so a mix of different things. Regardless, even if you disagree with that number, true fluency in multiple languages is still extremely common. And it's not just countries that have multiple official languages. People from one country who live close to another country with a similar language will commonly be fluent in both. Depending on your culture, you may be exposed to English to an extent where you'll have a good understanding of it. Try talking to a Dutch person in their language without being fluent in it. And sure, if what you're watching is news or knitting videos, you'll watch them in your first language. The reason why I watch content in another language is because there's often stuff that doesn't even exist in my own. Lots of people with bad formal English education became proficient in English because of the internet, they want to consume English-speaking content because the English internet is far larger and more international than, say, the Norwegian, Polish or Korean internet. It's very, very common.

Xelbair 1y ago

even if average american is... then launch that cesspool of feature in US only.

viraptor 1y ago

Everyone who finished highschool with me knows at least 2 languages. Anyone who wants uni knows 3 at least vaguely. And that's in a country with a single official language. There are places with 2+ of them.

kjkjadksj 1y ago

60 million people in the US are spanish speakers.