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> Without Google Translate I'd have had a much harder time in a recent trip to Japan.

I haven't used Google Translate in years. You do know there are alternatives, don't you?

I do. I try them from time to time, they weren't better.

I didn't say they were better. Just that without Google Translate, I doubt you would have had a much harder time in your recent trip to Japan because you could have used them, and they aren't particularly worse :-).

It's not just about whether you yourself use Google Translate, it's that - much more than anywhere else I've ever travelled - Japanese people will regularly use Google Translate to communicate with you, usually by typing or speaking into their tablet and then showing you the machine translation.

Actually in quite a few places there (mostly in Kyushu) they used a bespoke handheld device or DeepL.

Try out the big LLMs for translating and explaining translation (e.g. ChatGPT). Much better than Google translate in my experience.

I don't think switching to an LLM is exactly in line with what GP was trying to say :)

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