When I turn on the translation feature for each lesson, the overall interpretation often sounds very unnatural and sometimes even incorrect. When I run the same text through ChatGPT, I finally get a much more accurate meaning.
So I’m starting to question whether LingQ’s script translation feature is actually using AI. When I didn’t know this at first, I relied on LingQ’s translations while creating my LingQs—and that caused serious confusion and mistakes in my learning.
This really needs improvement. I like using LingQ overall, but issues like this, along with the inability to select separable verbs properly, are seriously affecting my motivation to study.
Please consider improving the translation quality and fixing these usability limitations.
ChatGPT does create odd german sentences, too. I sometimes use it for translation practices, just the other way round, as a German learning Korean. It has happened in the past, that when I should translate korean sentences into German, it called my translations unidiomatic, despite me beeing a native speaker. And from what I’ve heard thus far, the Korean ChatGPT generates is to be taken with a grain of salt, too.
An additional issue is the combination of those two languages. There are a lots of aspects present in one language that aren’t in the other and there are some aspects of how the language is used (beyond the syntax and grammar rules) that differ heavely. For example, even in the intermediate Korean material I use there are lots of sentences that are way longer than anything anyone would ever use in German, while at the same time the language is quiet elliptic at times, leaving out informations you cannot leave out in German and the general way how we say things (Germans are very direct, which is often perceived as inpolite by foreigners), how we address each other (we say he, she and they when refering to third persons and call each other by their names, not necessarely their titles) etc…
You really need to have a good understanding of how the society a language is used in is working and how the language is used on an everyday base. This requires to be part of said society. An ai isn’t, so it produces odd products.
I would assume that most native English speakers more or less immediately notice me not beeing a native speaker, because the way I use the language sounds very unnatural and sometimes even incorrect, too. The difference is noone is expecting me to do it right. I am not sure you can expect this from an ai.