Comment by rayval | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rayval | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

I was surprised to find ChatGPT does a better job of translating than Google translate, at least for one difficult task I needed to get done.

I have been a Google Translate user for more than a decade. I use it a dozen or more times a day for multiple languages. It is a very useful tool.

I recently had to translate a passage that included this phrase: 六六大顺

Google Translate gave me: Liuliu Dashun (basically no translation, just a transliteration or romanization)

Bing Translator: Six Six Dashun (a little bit better because 六 does mean six in some contexts.

Baidu: Liu Liu (basically no translation)

Naver: Six or Six Dashun (partial translation, plus added an incorrect particle)

Only ChatGPT gave the correct answer: "Everything going smoothly"

There is a cultural context that is essential to the translation, which apparently only ChatGPT has. It turns out that the number 6 is a lucky number in Chinese. It has the meaning of being “auspicious”. In Chinese culture, there is an idiom called “六六大顺 (liù liù dà shùn)”, which means “Everything comes in a smooth way” or more naturally "Everything going smoothly".

BTW, after seeing the ChatGTP results, I found this contextual info using Google search, in a website http://www.ichineselearning.com

It is ironic that Google search "knows" (helps you find) the cultural context but Google Translate apparently does not leverage this info.

Seems far more likely to me that ChatGPT knows the meaning of specific idioms rather than knowing the cultural context of that number and using it in the translation.

Yes, one would think. However, if it were a matter of specific idioms, the other translation programs would capture this (Google, Bing, Baidu or Naver). But, for some reason, none of the others did. I think perhaps it is not that common an idiom. Or perhaps ChatGPT was just lucky.

Just to give additional context, the full passage I was trying to translate was a New Year's greeting as follows:

里祝愿在新的2023年风调雨顺，四季平安，五福临门，六六大顺，十全十美，万事如意，好运连绵，兔年吉祥

This passage has some nuance and wordplay, due to the stylistic device of starting each of the key phrases with a character that can represent a number: 四 (four), 五 (five), 六 (six), 十 (ten) and 万 (ten thousand). These characters also have meaning as words within each phrase. For example, 十 can convey perfection, in addition to the numerical quantity.

So here is Google's lumbering and broken translation attempt:

"Wishing you good luck in the new year of 2023, safe all year, Five Blessings, Liuliu Dashun, perfect, May all go well with you, good luck Auspicious Year of the Rabbit"

Baidu does a better job (including handling the problematic 六六大顺 phrase:

"I wish the new year 2023 a good year, Four seasons are safe, Five blessings are at the door, Everything goes smoothly, perfect, Everything goes well, Good luck, Auspicious Year of the Rabbit"

Neither of these is as good as the result from ChatGPT:

"I wish you a smooth wind and rain in the new year of 2023, peaceful seasons, five blessings at your doorstep, everything going smoothly, perfection in all things, everything going according to your wishes, continuous good luck, and a lucky Year of the Rabbit"

ChatGPT is not perfect. I think the phrase 四季平安 is better translated as "four seasons of peace" (this one came from the translator from Korean company Naver).

> It turns out that the number 6 is a lucky number in Chinese. It has the meaning of being “auspicious”.

isn't that number 8? (not number 6)

Cultures can have multiple lucky numbers!

Correct. Eight is by far the most common lucky number in Chinese, but six is also lucky. But I think it has to be repeated multiple times. Apparently the number 9 is also lucky.

I wonder, does it get the meaning of "10-4" when translating English to other languages?

It does.

GPT Chat: 10-4 is a phrase commonly used in radio communication that means "message received and understood." It is typically used to acknowledge a message or request.

Google does too https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-code

Reply on news.ycombinator.com