TalonAlright, 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.
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.
miki@talon Having a “fix my language” or “make this sound like I was a <profession>” feature will probably be a must have in most writing / social media apps over the next few years. These things have the potential to make AI the greatest force against classism of all time, and this is already happening, with demonstrably great results.
@miki I'd be careful with that because idioms are notoriously difficult to transform. I don't like overly dry text and will stop reading it, and I like a bit of personality to shine through the actual text. Just a little bit of understanding from people reading would already help a lot. Sometimes you might not be able to actually check what the AI is saying due to language barriers, and then you're right back at square one.
@talon I mean things like “translate “previous programmer did shitty jobs, I need to fix code before I can do what you want” into a professional email. People with even the most basic command of English, who now struggle in the job market because of communication issues, can now write like natives. It’s not translation, but it’s not supposed to be,