Auto-Translate functionality

I've heard the excuse of PS2 limitations for nearly every "How come SE doesn't do this..." question I've had in the past 5 yrs, but now we have this glorious forum with which to ask the questions in a place where we might possibly receive a more definitive answer.

I was wondering if there's anything that can be done to make the Auto-Translate function more... functional? There have been numerous occasions over my lifetime on FFXI where I have been in a party with Japanese players: XP Party, NM camping for Magian Trials, coincidentally running into a JP player at a BC and teaming up for a mission, etc.

And while there is usually "sufficient" terminology available to discuss a very basic strategy using the translate functions, I was unable to find any translations for greetings and basic conversational skills - basically friendly, shootin' the breeze - kinds of words. I'd love to be able to have a basic conversation where we could learn more about each other as a person, our cultures, etc.

I know some smartass is going to tell me to learn Japanese, but I have tried in the past to teach myself basic conversational skills and I get overwhelmed rather quickly because I feel like I'm learning 3 languages at once.

But yeah, we can't even ask "How are you doing today?" lol... All we get is "Hello! Nice to meet you^^ Thank-you, See you again!^^"

We've needed game days of the week in the auto-translate since the game started.

auto translate and functionality are oxymorons. there are some great translation programs out there so it puzzles me why ours is so lacking. the thought just struck me that it really isnt normal translations. there are just so many game terms that the translater is basically writing two new languages throwing in english, japanese, german etc as well.
Ok I wanted to test this idea out so went to google translate and picked the opening post on gladiator job. I copied the text into the form and asked it to be translated to latin but any language would have shown the same thing.
Now this is what I got.

Job Gladiator (A + GreatSword)
Ante caret lege FFXI main job Greatsword alit et videre illam pis ex Iob FFTA lusus et usus est scriptor defensoris Abilitys pariter.

Add officium

Gladiator (principale greatsword telum) Sub arma cuspide Club gladius, scutum
(Dicere hoc Sam / Sch / thf / Bellum)

Abilitys:

Beatdown (2HR) (proxima facit, tela rudis damnum duplice tollit hafe tua acc)

(Double manibus) ~ (dualwield Disables)
(Main Hold telum manu tenes manibus) (telo artes & meliorem & atk eludere)
Hoc lineamentum eu mos opus manu arma I ut gladium, etc fustibus

Blitz (Eva et omnes concursus ad impetum contra statuit temporis)

Rush (def extulit resistit & accipi damnum crastino)

Meltdown (proxima facit, tela rudis sed damnum hafe hafe in tollit in arma Eva enemys artes)

Blades particularum (hit concursus Next Element # resistit tollit in hostem tela meliorem particularum impetus magicis artibus) (Fire lv95 particularum tollit resistere LX)

Lv40 Fireblade
Lv60 IceBlade
Lv35 WaterBlade
Lv40 Thunderblade
Lv35 Earthblade
Lv50 Windblade
Lv60 ShadowBlade
Lv50 Lightblade

Wild Swing (proxima unius weaponskill Facit aga)

Job lineamenta

Lv10 Greatsword1 (greatsword iniuriis Impoves acc)

Double lv20 tradidit (Alow ornare aliquam telum manu I II damnum melior manus)

Lv30 Greatsword2

Element lv35 Blade1 (uno elemento ORDO X resistit tollit ab hoste)

X% ancipiti lv40

Element lv45 Blade2

Lv50 Greatsword3






Merits1:
-2 Blade particularum plus resistit per elemetal -10 semel INAEQUO V / V
Blitz oppugnemus addit cum impetus Eva (uno gradu% counter damnum oppugnationum)


Merits2:

Do you see the problem? Even though english has a lot of latin based words it should not have so many words from english just not translated at all because there is no latin equivalent. In all truth there isnt really an english equivalent either. The words just look english to us but they have entirely unique meanings.
This has to make the whole auto translate more difficult from the start. I do not like the autotranslate feature at all but its probably a lot harder thing to make than looks like at first glance.

A couple years ago I attempted to chat with JP party members using freetranslation.com and using Ctrl-V to copy into chat from my clipboard. I would translate basic phrases like "Hello. How are you doing today?" and paste it into party chat. The problem with this is that the JP party members assumed I was fluent in Japanese, and that I knew kanji/romaji and responded with that those characters (not sure, is that kanji?) So then I had to try and explain that I was using a translate function and that I didn't really know the language. It worked all right I guess, I'd greet new party members, congratulate people on levelling up, etc. and I praised myself for at least giving a shit enough to make an effort to be friendly with Japanese players. Around that time I also bought a few introductory "Learn Japanese" books from the bookstores and started the painstaking process of learning each symbol which represents a syllable. I don't think this is exactly right but basically the word hello which is kohnnichiwa is composed of the symbols for koh - n - ni - chi- wa... so to translate it you'd have to figure out what the symbols sound like phonetically, and then translate that word into english. So it was like learning 3 different languages lol.
On a side note about freetranslation.com... it isn't 100% accurate. I have a decent understanding of the Spanish language and just playing around with translations to and from Spanish, I noted that the translations were sometimes wrong... (For example, when I translated "My wife is very hot" the translation it gave me more closely meant "My wife is a slut..." So be careful when using this website to communicate with people in a language you don't understand. You might end up insulting them or making a fool of yourself lol.

Guess I'll just have to try and learn the language... The translate function has been severely limited for this long, I doubt if its going to be changed in the life of FFXI. (Maybe FFXIV, who knows... FFXI might outlive FFXIV lmao...)

Does anyone here have experience learning Japanese? I was thinking about buying Rosetta Stone to have another go at it. I'd be interested in learning Japanese, not only because of FFXI (would be kinda silly to learn a new language just to enhance the playing quality of the game) but because I am interested in Japanese culture. I visited Japan when I was in the Navy and it was really awkward being a tourist in a country and not knowing the language. Someday I'd like to go to Hiroshima and visit the atomic bomb memorial. But I refuse to be an ignorant tourist that doesn't know the language of the country I'm visiting. Sasebo, Japan was very cool - visiting the temples, castles, the downtown shopping district... the sake factory lol...
I really enjoyed visiting Japan though and I'm really interested in its people and its culture, it would be really cool to be able to conversate with Japanese players once the game is back online and ask them how they are doing, and offer condolences for their losses in the recent events.

To Square Enix and the Final Fantasy XI staff. [Please use the auto translate function.] [Thank you.]

I do not think its silly to learn a language to communicate on a game. Its just using the game as an incentive to you learning japanese. Its a good approach and I doubt you would ever regret it at all.

No you're right, I'm sure I'd not regret it. Learning another language is just something that would require a serious commitment of time, not something as easy as learning how to do an oil change or something. I had a friend who used to order delivery from a Japanese restaurant and he'd do it completely in Japanese... And the little experience I have trying to speak Japanese with JP players, I've noticed that they are very patient, friendly, and eager to teach and share a little bit of their language and culture.
Anyone have any feedback on Rosetta Stone? Doesn't necessarily have to be the Japanese version, just looking for information on the program itself. Is it straight forward, can I approach it casually (like maybe 30 min - 1 hr a day), and is it really as easy to learn a language using Rosetta Stone as the commercials make it sound? I'm kind of hijacking my own thread here lol...