Post AWiJpaTP8sX7CGUJSS by x0@dragonscave.space
 (DIR) More posts by x0@dragonscave.space
 (DIR) Post #AWiB4e2ZGLh9152ZAe by talon@dragonscave.space
       2023-06-14T21:15:36Z
       
       2 likes, 3 repeats
       
       Alright, listen up. I see a lot of discussion getting way too heated because you've got people with perfect English on one side, and people just struggling to get themselves understood in a language they don't speak well on the other, and then both sides just don't get what the other is saying and then things explode. I've seen this so, so many times. And honestly all this tells me is that it's really, really easy for English speaking people to think that since we have a lot of good English speakers on the internet, or that that is the bubble they always find themselves in, that everybody does. And this is so very much not the case and y'all should be careful. You're making enemies you don't necessarily have to make just because you don't consider that the person on the other side can't express themselves clearly and is just doing the best they can.
       
 (DIR) Post #AWiB4fwyA8PAwIR7iq by talon@dragonscave.space
       2023-06-14T21:19:53Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       English is really difficult. I get words wrong all the time. I don't know what different common phrases mean sometimes. Sometimes I'll say something weird and I thought it meant one thing when it meant another. English is *not* my first language. I'd consider myself to be relatively good at expressing myself in it, but I'm not perfect. Far from it. Add to this that some people just struggle expressing themselves in general. It's really hard to tell just how well someone speaks the language just by reading some text, because we potentially have a lot of time to think things through before we post, or even paste it into a grammar and spell checker before we do.
       
 (DIR) Post #AWiB4hotD988jofhPE by talon@dragonscave.space
       2023-06-14T21:21:50Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       But grammar checkers don't help us when we get an idiom wrong. And yes I had to look up how to spell idiom, too.
       
 (DIR) Post #AWiJpaTP8sX7CGUJSS by x0@dragonscave.space
       2023-06-14T21:24:21Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @talon And good AI translation won't help with common idioms either I think, it'd be a hell of a translator if it could.
       
 (DIR) Post #AWiJpbGKCzfHdzNNi4 by talon@dragonscave.space
       2023-06-14T21:28:07Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @x0 It'll be really difficult because some idioms are just not translatable at all. There might just not be such an idiom in the language you're translating to and at that point the AI would have to either rephrase the entire point, or skip the idiom entirely.
       
 (DIR) Post #AWiJpbujmjzVfKHehU by mansr@society.oftrolls.com
       2023-06-15T11:19:27Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @talon @x0 I tried a few idioms in Google Translate and ChatGPT. Both did quite well with Spanish ones, less so with Swedish. Overall, better than I would have expected.
       
 (DIR) Post #AWiKEgdpLXPzZBKbjM by mansr@society.oftrolls.com
       2023-06-15T11:24:01Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @talon I like to have some interactions with people in languages other than my native ones. Besides the opportunity for interesting discussions, it serves as a reminder of how much others have to struggle when using English.