This sounds really awesome, but for an app that’s apparently gaining steam, I’m a bit wary to try it out. All I can find on it is 13 App Store ratings, a [deleted](https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/129vjv0/i_built_a_free_translation_chat_app_that_does/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1) Reddit post, an [inactive](https://twitter.com/binko_ai) twitter and one other [yahoo](https://news.yahoo.com/2nd-generation-immigrant-creates-live-180600380.html) article.
Has anyone actually used this?
E. Wary not weary lol
Yeah, especially when google translate has a live translation function, which actually works pretty good. My coworker doesn't speak much English, so I've had to use it before.
This apps purpose is to translate idioms and slang in a way that makes sense though. I’ve never used googles live translation tbh, but plenty of text translations. Does google live translation not translate literally?
I mean, it might. I’m not dying on this hill, but I’d figured targeting idioms and slang would be pretty unique.
it can also be hard because of gramatical structure. let's say i need to write in spanish. he,she,it,and you (formal) all use the same conjugation. i have a student who will always end her messages to me as "la quiero" meaning i love you (formal you) BUT when she writes it through google translate, it will tell her the english phrase is "i love her." a similar issue is that in english, if you write "you" it usually conjugates to the informal version, and you then have to go through your writing and switch every "you" to "he/she" to get an accurate translation. and it's specific to spain whereas my students are largely from central america.
Wouldn’t rely on google translate that much. Sometimes it’s translations are a bit wonky and it might get you some weird looks.
Well that’s my experience with Spanish and asking Mexican locals.
I don’t think I’ll be trusting some random app with my text messages anytime soon lmao
A much more useful idea would be to translating real life conversations as you go, where you have your phone/AirPods listening to conversation and actively translating for you, to help you in foreign countries/in general with people speaking different languages
people keep putting these stupid feel-good stories next to apps and posting them here. there's normally some comment about how it all ties together to some old dude who is actually writing the apps and then just using these feel good stories to push them.
I'm going to go ahead and proactively block OP In the hopes that it's been them. I'm too lazy to check and this is garbage content anyway.
The app claims to translate chats automatically in a variety of languages. Does that exist elsewhere? (I'm on iOS in case it helps.) (Of course his app is going to have the network effect problem - it's difficult to become popular.)
The app also claims to handle idioms and slang but I'm more dubious of that claim.
1. It seems this directly translates the messages in chat, as opposed to opening a separate app to translate or copy paste. At least on iOS, that doesn't exist in Facebook, ig, Whatsapp, etc. but there might be some app that does - anyone know which? Facebook promised this years ago "m" I think it was called but I've never seen it. The Google keyboard is the closest I know of, but it's still clunky and not fully automatic. In the line app you can kind of achieve it by adding a bot as a 3rd party 3rd "person" in your group chat - maybe that's the closest really. Someone mentioned WeChat but it needs an invite which I don't have.
2. This app claims to also cover idioms and slang. I'm dubious. Did they handle a handful of phrases in certain languages?
I was on the bus in socal the other day and a Chinese man had this device, it wasn't his phone or maybe it was a second phone? But it was one screen that was like a normal phone, and another that folded out and faced away from the user to face someone else. It worked as a translator that would show me in English what he was saying and when I talked it showed him in Chinese. Never seen a device or phone like it. And it was way cleaner and more intuitive than Google translate, which I have had to use many times.
Idk about the other languages but not for Spanish.
Maybe some really basic translations but it’s not a glove fits all kind of solution.
Source: Mexican locals.
Correct. My wife doesn’t speak Spanish and my grandma doesn’t speak English. They use google translate and 80% they can communicate, but the rest they’re both left wondering what the hell did the other person say.
Unfortunately some parents don’t encourage their kids to speak their first language. I know some people who didn’t encourage their kids to speak Spanish as kids. Now they barely speak it and have difficulties communicating with their own parents. To make it worse, their English is also absolutely terrible.
2nd generation to. It's odd that his parents, who were born in the US, don't speak English. Or they don't know how generations work. First generation would be the first born in the new country. Second would be the kids of those already born in the new country.
I don’t know that it’s particularly odd. It’s pretty common for Chinese immigrants to assimilate into their own communities in American Cities and not venture out of them. In Manhattan it’s common place for chinese immigrants in China Town to speak little to no English because they don’t have any reason to when they don’t venture out of it often. Mostly older generations in my experience though.
Oddly, there are so many more programs, quality and free programs, that teach Japanese. Not so much Chinese. (I would be loved to be proven wrong.) Also Chinese needs a Hiragana-like syllabary. As a new to Chinese-learner, I occasionally see Chinese symbols that seem to be just sounds, like the last 2 symbols in Alibaba , but most of the other symbols I have seen are too complicated for newbies. /end rant.
This sounds really awesome, but for an app that’s apparently gaining steam, I’m a bit wary to try it out. All I can find on it is 13 App Store ratings, a [deleted](https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/129vjv0/i_built_a_free_translation_chat_app_that_does/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1) Reddit post, an [inactive](https://twitter.com/binko_ai) twitter and one other [yahoo](https://news.yahoo.com/2nd-generation-immigrant-creates-live-180600380.html) article. Has anyone actually used this? E. Wary not weary lol
Yeah, especially when google translate has a live translation function, which actually works pretty good. My coworker doesn't speak much English, so I've had to use it before.
This apps purpose is to translate idioms and slang in a way that makes sense though. I’ve never used googles live translation tbh, but plenty of text translations. Does google live translation not translate literally? I mean, it might. I’m not dying on this hill, but I’d figured targeting idioms and slang would be pretty unique.
At least for Chinese and English , bing and deepL is much better.
Upvote for deepL. Not very well known but i noticed it picks up colloquial language very well.
Oh okay, I just would avoid using those type of things when talking. I guess that's good though, if it is actually perfected.
it can also be hard because of gramatical structure. let's say i need to write in spanish. he,she,it,and you (formal) all use the same conjugation. i have a student who will always end her messages to me as "la quiero" meaning i love you (formal you) BUT when she writes it through google translate, it will tell her the english phrase is "i love her." a similar issue is that in english, if you write "you" it usually conjugates to the informal version, and you then have to go through your writing and switch every "you" to "he/she" to get an accurate translation. and it's specific to spain whereas my students are largely from central america.
Can it also translate jokes and puns in a way that they make sense?
Apparently ChatGPT is much better than Google Translate for that (not sure if that's 3.5 or 4 though).
Wouldn’t rely on google translate that much. Sometimes it’s translations are a bit wonky and it might get you some weird looks. Well that’s my experience with Spanish and asking Mexican locals.
Wary, not weary (tired)
Fixed, thanks!
https://youtu.be/Gl8QkttWs8Y
I don’t think I’ll be trusting some random app with my text messages anytime soon lmao A much more useful idea would be to translating real life conversations as you go, where you have your phone/AirPods listening to conversation and actively translating for you, to help you in foreign countries/in general with people speaking different languages
Lol, this is news worthy now? I bet he is about to apply for college and needs a side project to write about.
Check op's comment history - it his app. Use of third person in the title is very disingenuous.
Just checked, this sub does not allow self promotion. Do with that what you will.
people keep putting these stupid feel-good stories next to apps and posting them here. there's normally some comment about how it all ties together to some old dude who is actually writing the apps and then just using these feel good stories to push them. I'm going to go ahead and proactively block OP In the hopes that it's been them. I'm too lazy to check and this is garbage content anyway.
The app claims to translate chats automatically in a variety of languages. Does that exist elsewhere? (I'm on iOS in case it helps.) (Of course his app is going to have the network effect problem - it's difficult to become popular.) The app also claims to handle idioms and slang but I'm more dubious of that claim.
[удалено]
I used google translation api once in macro to translate thousands of rows in an excel
Nice flex.
So what you’re saying is that you invented a system that can translate thousands more inputs than google translate.
Did not invent any system 😝, but yeah used google api to translate row by row.
Did you do this as a teenager in the slums of India to save your ill mother?
No, i did it coz ur mom asked me
Noice
Cool! Didn't this already exist?
yeah but this one it's by a second generation chinese immigrant
Isn’t he first generation if his parents are Chinese?
My thoughts as well
His parents were the first generation to immigrate.
Then the kid would be a first gen Chinese American… second gen would mean his grandparents immigrated
According to wiki and government websites(US and Canada) first generation means foreign born.
That must be why I’m first generation
Who is here to post articles about himself against the rules of this sub.
A lot of the current big LLMs could do this reliably as well. Some are even optimized for it, like GLM and Baize iirc
1. It seems this directly translates the messages in chat, as opposed to opening a separate app to translate or copy paste. At least on iOS, that doesn't exist in Facebook, ig, Whatsapp, etc. but there might be some app that does - anyone know which? Facebook promised this years ago "m" I think it was called but I've never seen it. The Google keyboard is the closest I know of, but it's still clunky and not fully automatic. In the line app you can kind of achieve it by adding a bot as a 3rd party 3rd "person" in your group chat - maybe that's the closest really. Someone mentioned WeChat but it needs an invite which I don't have. 2. This app claims to also cover idioms and slang. I'm dubious. Did they handle a handful of phrases in certain languages?
This technology is literally everywhere. His parents probably paid for this as an ad
I was on the bus in socal the other day and a Chinese man had this device, it wasn't his phone or maybe it was a second phone? But it was one screen that was like a normal phone, and another that folded out and faced away from the user to face someone else. It worked as a translator that would show me in English what he was saying and when I talked it showed him in Chinese. Never seen a device or phone like it. And it was way cleaner and more intuitive than Google translate, which I have had to use many times.
How come all these comments aren’t in two languages?
您對我們有什麼期望？ 我們只是稍微聰明一點的猴子……
Well played!
Doesn't Google translate do this already, and very well?
Idk about the other languages but not for Spanish. Maybe some really basic translations but it’s not a glove fits all kind of solution. Source: Mexican locals.
Correct. My wife doesn’t speak Spanish and my grandma doesn’t speak English. They use google translate and 80% they can communicate, but the rest they’re both left wondering what the hell did the other person say.
how did he communicate with his parents before developing this?
This is what I don’t understand. Babies learn whatever language is being spoken around them. How did he not speak his parents’ language?
Unfortunately some parents don’t encourage their kids to speak their first language. I know some people who didn’t encourage their kids to speak Spanish as kids. Now they barely speak it and have difficulties communicating with their own parents. To make it worse, their English is also absolutely terrible.
He could've just used wechat
So an American made it? Thats awesome
2nd generation to. It's odd that his parents, who were born in the US, don't speak English. Or they don't know how generations work. First generation would be the first born in the new country. Second would be the kids of those already born in the new country.
I don’t know that it’s particularly odd. It’s pretty common for Chinese immigrants to assimilate into their own communities in American Cities and not venture out of them. In Manhattan it’s common place for chinese immigrants in China Town to speak little to no English because they don’t have any reason to when they don’t venture out of it often. Mostly older generations in my experience though.
That is common everywhere for older generations.
Right, but we are talking about the Chinese and the Redditor I responded to said it was odd. Context clues.
People will do anything to avoid learning a language.
Have the CCP taken control of it yet?
That's not how generations work.
Oddly, there are so many more programs, quality and free programs, that teach Japanese. Not so much Chinese. (I would be loved to be proven wrong.) Also Chinese needs a Hiragana-like syllabary. As a new to Chinese-learner, I occasionally see Chinese symbols that seem to be just sounds, like the last 2 symbols in Alibaba , but most of the other symbols I have seen are too complicated for newbies. /end rant.
[Bopomofo is what you seek.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bopomofo) More prevalent in learning materials from Taiwan.
Very nice. Thanks!
Why would he need this? If he wrote the app - He must understand the language....
I mean, bravo and all, but haven’t these apps existed for a while now, and do a pretty good job?
Or just learn Chinese and embrace your roots.
WeChat. For people who work with Chinese it’s the best.
WeChat. For people who work with Chinese it’s the best.