Japanese Language

remotelove , in Just a reminder to never trust Google Translate
cerement ,
@cerement@slrpnk.net avatar

OP’s version is more poetic

remotelove ,

I agree. Translation is much better these days and I am sure someone else was going to be curious about what the actual translation was.

hypertown OP ,

Good they fixed it but I wouldn't be surprised if it broke again. Once I was doing a coding project that involved Google Translate and I was using the same sentences for testing. In a week translation has changed 3 times, from bad to good to bad.

june ,
@june@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Out of curiosity, did it change back to the previous bad translation, or create a new bad translation?

hypertown OP ,

New bad.

sparkle ,
@sparkle@lemm.ee avatar

The different Google translate frontends have different translations sometimes, it might be that. I think it's the web result and the website being different? Or the app and the website/web result? Idk.

el_abuelo ,

Or maybe they didn't use Google translate at all? There are other ways to translate things.

sparkle ,
@sparkle@lemm.ee avatar

Who? The post OP specifies Google Translate and the comment OP specifies Google Translate.

el_abuelo ,

Yeah I meant the post OP. While the title says "Google translate" I see no reason to believe it's that rather than some other product....especially as it's not reproducible.

Probably just something they came across and made an assumption, rightly or wrongly.

Klear , in My mom has this souvenir from Japan and doesnt remember which side is up... 🤦

Voting for 90° clockwise to spite that other guy.

PotatoesFall OP ,

you show him.

astraeus ,

I voted for the other guy, but now I’m conflicted and just decided to vote for you too even though I know the other guy is technically correct

Klear ,

That averages to not rotating it at all, which seems to be correct.

Pretzilla , in My mom has this souvenir from Japan and doesnt remember which side is up... 🤦

Vote here for right side up

turtlepower ,
@turtlepower@lemm.ee avatar

It is definitely right-side up in the pic. I can’t read it, but I can recognize the signature and hanko as being right-side up.

PotatoesFall OP ,

thanks!

ShrimpCurler , in Just a reminder to never trust Google Translate

Might not be an accurate translation but it still speaks the truth. Unfortunately there aren't many ways of avoiding the future.

Etterra ,

There's one way that I know of which while not technically evading the inexorable grinding misery of entropy, will ensure that you remain blissfully unaware of it.

Zoboomafoo ,
@Zoboomafoo@slrpnk.net avatar

Good thing I'll never reach the future, there's only the eternal now

Ageroth , in My mom has this souvenir from Japan and doesnt remember which side is up... 🤦

Can I vote for rotate 90° counter-clockwise? I know it’s objectively wrong, but I also think it looks the nicest.

PotatoesFall OP ,

I’m tempted to tell her this is the answer just for shits and giggles

1Fuji2Taka3Nasubi , (edited ) in Just a reminder to never trust Google Translate

This problem stems from この先 being able to mean “ahead from here in space”, or in time which (mis)translated to “the future”. Without proper context (that it is a sign on a road) the translation software had to make a guess, and it guessed wrong.

It may be possible to infer from 前へ行く in the second sentence that it is more likely referring to space than time, but I still think it is possible to construct some similar sentences which even humans might misunderstand.

Lemminary , in I just had a conversation with two Russian people in Japanese.

That’s awesome! I once had a conversation with a Japanese woman in Mexico. She was speaking to me in Japanese and I was speaking to her in English while a couple of Spanish speakers looked on. It was a bit surreal but also pretty cool.

hydroptic , in Just a reminder to never trust Google Translate

Google Translate is generally hot garbage. I've actually found DeepL surprisingly good especially with more "niche" languages like Finnish, although it does definitely sometimes get things hilariously wrong

Bagel5941 ,

https://aussie.zone/pictrs/image/8002779d-8ca2-4652-bceb-cc3dbcb33640.jpeg

It seems like the sign is trying to kill me in this translation.

hydroptic ,

Is that DeepL's app? I've never used it so I have no idea what the UI looks like and I didn't try to translate the sign's text with the web version.

Edit: out of curiosity I tried out how the web version handles this sign:

https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/75dbbbc5-d920-41e6-9766-bf03e37f3e5f.webp

Bagel5941 ,

Yeah, it's the android version.

To be fair, It looks like a problem with the OCR from the app rather than the translation. When I use the phone's native OCR and copy/paste the text into DeepL Translate, I get the same result as you.

hydroptic ,

Ah right, that definitely makes sense. I can imagine OCR'ing Kanji could be a bit of a nightmare

LwL ,

I distrust DeepL ever since I found out it translates "irritating" into german as "irritierend" (which means confusing, and is a common mistranslation for obvious reasons). Though I'm sure google translate does similar dumb things.

Tja ,

It also does mean annoying/irritating, I don't think it's wrong.

LwL ,

Duden apparently agrees but it's a rare enough use case that I've never heard it used that way in my life, fair enough tho. Still not a great default tl but at least somewhat acceptable then.

Tja ,

Could it be regional? I hear it relatively often in Munich in that meaning.

LwL ,

Maybe, since I live in the north! (Fwiw the meaning of irritating as in irritating skin is pretty common here too, just not as annoyance).

Raamah , in My mom has this souvenir from Japan and doesnt remember which side is up... 🤦
@Raamah@lemmy.world avatar
PotatoesFall OP ,

Thanks! Is that the same kanji? they look so different.

Raamah , (edited )
@Raamah@lemmy.world avatar

My wife is from Osaka, Japan. She read it as that kanji, so I’m trusting her 😆

Edit: This page has an image of the same kanji (Michi) that looks more like the one posted. www.towofu.net/soft/e-kanji.htm

zero_spelled_with_an_ecks ,

That’s the one I thought of as well. Additionally, the signature is correct in this orientation.

PotatoesFall OP ,

Oh haha then I’m sure its right!

parpol , in My mom has this souvenir from Japan and doesnt remember which side is up... 🤦

I am terrible at reading handwritten kanji, but that red stamp on the signature, however, is without a doubt the right orientation.

zero_spelled_with_an_ecks , in 吉 is pronounced き↑ち↓ but 不吉 is ふ↑きつ

Because Japanese is a spoken Japanese pizza topped with Chinese writing on half of it but a few bits snuck on the other side, too. Or some better metaphor.

Single kanji -> stand in for whatever the Japanese word is, read it like the Japanese word, probably. Two kanji -> oh shit, maybe, if you’re lucky, it’s the Chinese reading of both. But sometimes it’s not, sometimes it just gets slapped on the Japanese word. And if you’re really unlucky with a word, they mix. Which is first, I don’t know, you don’t know, the Japanese might know, or they might just add the pronunciation right on there. Four kanji -> I dunno, ask a linguist.

Also, thank you for introducing me to that video. Why indeed.

Nihongo OP ,

Thanks!
Curses, きち and きつ are apparently both onyomi.

TheHobbyist , in Whoa the sidebar says how to do furigana

I don't see any furigana, it is all rendered as regular text without any formatting. Is it a voyager issue?

1Fuji2Taka3Nasubi ,

Seems so, if you use Lemmy’s web interface directly it does render as furigana (including the sidebar)

Umechan OP , in TIL Japan has something called アメリカンコーヒー, often referred to in English by the unintentionally condescending name "weak coffee".

I thought maybe it was supposed to say Americano, but it’s not the same. There’s an explanation here. It’s made from light roasted beans, and they say it most likely got it’s name from Americans in post-war Japan brewing coffee with lots of water or diluting it further before drinking.

I’m not American, but the name sounds a little judgemental to me.

breadsmasher ,
@breadsmasher@lemmy.world avatar

It seems as well to refer to light vs dark roast? For example some coffee shops sell “Blonde” coffee which is much lighter

PreachHard ,

Weirdly enough, lighter roasts have more caffeine typically if measuring by volume.

eramseth ,

This was semi-debunked by James Hoffman semi-recently.

Technically yes lighter roast has more caffeine in the beans because less is burned off.

However, you use more darker roast because lighter roast is heavier (because darker is effectively more dry). Also because the darker roast is more roasted, the caffeine in the beans may be more easily accessible/dissolvable.

I think roughly it evened out in the end.

PreachHard ,

Yeah I’m a huge fan of James but no one measures by weight really unless you’re a nerd like us. So hence why I said if measured by volume specifically.

eramseth ,

Needs unite!

(Here’s the clip… it just happened to pop up on my Instagram feed today - www.instagram.com/reel/CvhUPXVIzZl/?igshid=MzRlOD… )

IDe ,

the name sounds a little judgemental to me.

The only way it really sounds judgmental is if you get hung up on the word “weak”.

Umechan OP ,

Weak has a very negative tone to it. Using weak to describe food or drink is rarely, if ever, used in a positive way.

Rentlar , (edited ) in My mom has this souvenir from Japan and doesnt remember which side is up... 🤦

Generally when you have “dots” like the ones you see on the top, the thinner side of the brush stroke starts at the top. (道)

Zevlen , in I just had a conversation with two Russian people in Japanese.

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

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  • hatchet OP ,

    Yes, in Japan.

    Zevlen ,

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

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  • Ele7en7 ,

    The original post says that they are a native English speaker, so it must have been an issue with the Russians’ English.

    Zevlen ,

    Makes sense now. TY.

    hatchet OP ,

    The Russians were less comfortable with English, much less so than with Japanese. I am a native English speaker.

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