As a kid, I learned English from English language cartoons on FilmNet. I learned from German TV shows. My passion for Swedish crime series taught me Swedish.
But now, the largest tv medium of our time, YouTube, has begun auto-translating everything. Future generations will not be exposed to foreign languages and be inspired to take an interest.
There was no public review of this, no democratic vote. One company just decided to turn foreign cultures off and make the world dumber.
For profit.
@randahl Since they're automatic, I assume the translations are bad or at least leaving a lot on the table. Professional translators know when text contains culture-specific references or word play or innuendo and come up with clever analogues to make the joke or point land when translated.
So sad for people consuming content this way...
@mroach and the worst part: It is on by default.
YouTube channels like mine have to find a deeply hidden setting to turn it off.
I did that because my viewers were kind enough to inform me that YouTube had replaced my voice with a poorly implemented German AI.
But for every channel that does not realize what is happening, auto-translation is on by default, and many users will not know how to turn it off.
I find the arrogance behind this selfish corporate decision infuriating.
@LordCaramac @randahl @mroach In this case, with your language being set to English, YT will translate German spoken language to English.
It's a mess.
@LordCaramac @randahl @mroach Then you've been lucky so far.
This "feature" exists for some time now. But I'm pretty sure its availability depends on various parameters and the channels you are consuming.
At least there is hope that this is still an experiment. Maybe, if enough viewers disable the translation (per video 😵💫) or skip these videos, Google may give the viewers anoption to disable it globally🤞
@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] either way the fact that one needs a 3rd party client (i.e. #NewPipe or #invidious) or a [*specific AddOn*](https://addons.mozilla.org/en/firefox/addon/youtube-no-translation/) to undo this #Enshittification *is* the problem. - And yes, these #AutoDubbing|s are *an insult to native - speakers' ears to the point that I think I owe the folks who did the #localozation of #MLPFiM into German an apology, cuz whilst it is jarring, they at least didn't *"butcher my beautiful language"*… So obviously #sarcasm but this really is just bad.
Randahl Fink
Mike Roach
Lord Caramac the Clueless, KSC
Michael
Kevin Karhan 