Miniguide to Autotranslate: Usage and potential pitfalls

[Ooshima]

Hm... Yes, but there's a difference in English between "No problem" as in "I did this for you and you don't need to thank me" and "No problem" as in "It's ok. I don't mind that a mistake was made."

TBH Japanese people aren't that bad in English. My language input are 99% of the time in EN and I play full screen, so I'm usually lazy to go out and change IME to type in Japanese. Usually I'd just say "I'm sorry" and they would reply "np".

Some of them even use "wb" when I return from a 90k. Most of the basic net abbreviations, they can understand.

[Sylkis]

I am curious from a game production stand point how feasible something like this is.

Would they have to make some sort of deal with Google that would lead to Google ads all over the place? Would they have to start their own translation software from scratch? Would it be problematic in implementing, making the chat interface heavy or things like that?

I've never seen anything comparable to Google Translate (which is far from perfect too) in any game and wondering when we will (not if, it'll certainly happen eventually, maybe years away but eventually).

It's not feasible. Best chance is for some 3rd party app or addon to do the job instead of SE doing anything official.

[Sadana]

Actually I found one.
{Don't worry about it.} -> {気にしないでください。}
It seems to fit both situations.

Awesome! Thanks for finding that one!

TBH Japanese people aren't that bad in English. My language input are 99% of the time in EN and I play full screen, so I'm usually lazy to go out and change IME to type in Japanese. Usually I'd just say "I'm sorry" and they would reply "np".

Some of them even use "wb" when I return from a 90k. Most of the basic net abbreviations, they can understand.

Well, kind of like people in the States, you get some who are fluent at more than one language and many that aren't. I've met both on Atomos.

[Aeyis]

Thanks Jesse.

Ugh. Yah this one might be worth asking the Localization Team to change for English. As others have said, in English "Take care" is like "See you later. Take care"... kind of feel. But it's true it can also mean "Watch out" but it's not used that way as much currently.

It's actual meaning is to be careful. It became used as a goodbye saying at some point tho. Since games with a fantasy setting often use language in a more proper way; I find no fault with this auto translate option.

All auto translaters are limited in their capacity for accuracy. They are ok for single words (usually) and basic sentances, anything more complex can fail miserably XD Due to auto translaters not able to convey the context of the original text, also grammer and sentence structure can be inacuratly translated thus making almost gibberish or translating to mean something different to your original intent.

Being multi-lingual it is kinda funny seeing some of the auto translations into languages I speak XD

The ingame auto-translate does not have those limitations. It does not actually translate.
It simply displays each corresponding option in the users client language.
That means each option is individually phrased or translated to ''mean the same thing'' regardless of grammar or sentence structure that one or another language's version may have.

Simply put, technically it is manual translation, not auto.

I wish that auto translate is same like Google translate.

That would create a whole new level of Crystal Tower Trolls.

[Kiara]

It's actual meaning is to be careful. It became used as a goodbye saying at some point tho. Since games with a fantasy setting often use language in a more proper way; I find no fault with this auto translate option.

Except the issue is that the far more prevalent usage by English-speaking players of {Take care.} *is* the "Goodbye"-type meaning.

If the vast majority of FF XIV players were, say, Role-Players or those being more "proper" or "formal," there might be a case for leaving it, but I've *never* seen {Take care.} used even *once* in the Auto-Translated meaning of "Be careful" in 2.0.

Not once.

And it definitely matters for Bilingual / International Servers.

[Chihaya]

I was on Mandragora, which was not a bilingual server - the second you use auto-translate = gaijin... some will accept you, and some will discriminate you right off the bat.

But just in today on Balmung ! (which is a english server so it doesn't matter...)

{fat chocobo} {race} doesn't mean what you think it means.

[Khyra]

Awesome! Thanks for finding that one!
Well, kind of like people in the States, you get some who are fluent at more than one language and many that aren't. I've met both on Atomos.

Yeah it varies widely. Most Japanese only learn English in school (previously about 6 years worth, now they get a little more exposure earlier). The older they are the more likely they are to have forgotten it, unless they work in a job where they would use it (like at a hotel). Conveniently for FFXIV, most will be better at reading and writing than speaking (since the tests prioritize vocabulary and grammar over conversation).

But the majority of Japanese I know could not, for example, easily read and follow this entire thread. (When I'm in Japan I'm mostly in a more rural/suburban area with very few foreigners, so most people have no day to day use for English. My wife is Japanese and her English is getting pretty good, but most of her family and friends have difficulty with it. Especially when speaking.)

On the other hand, if you went to Tokyo and mostly stayed in foreigner-friendly areas, or hung out with college students at a top university, your impression will be very different

[Khyra]

Also to the OP: this is interesting! I speak Japanese but never looked into what the auto-translate was doing before (I don't think I've ever run into a Japanese speaker on Cactuar, one thing I miss about the FFXI days was the mixed-language servers!).

And yeah, explaining the usage/meaning of よろしくお願いします is tricky as it has a cultural usage that doesn't map 1:1 onto American English.

[Alistaire]

Still think it's funny when we have an english phrase <All right!> when chances are that should be <Alright!>...unless they truly mean to say <Nobody left!>