[avhception]

My computer is set to English even though I'm German, and sometimes Youtube will treat me to this really uncanny machine voice with really weird phrases because it auto-translated some German video or advert. Lidl is worth it, ja!

[FinnLobsien]

I absolutely hate this. I have the exact same thing. Even if the technology was good, I speak both languages and want to see the original.

Why is it so hard to just add something as a setting/feature and offer it to people without forcing it on the user?

[bunderbunder]

> Why is it so hard to just add something as a setting/feature and offer it to people without forcing it on the user?

Office politics. Google is famously "performance-driven", so the manager in charge of that feature needs usage metrics to be high for the sake of their own career.

(Speculating, of course.)

[FinnLobsien]

That's a funny idea—if the KPI was boosting adoption of a feature and the PM just made that feature the default and suddenly adoption was through the roof.

The sad part is we can't rule that out.

[preisschild]

This would also be good for movies :D

I can speak german, I don't need forced subtitles for the nazis

[jiehong]

Sometimes we do, when actors actually don’t speak German very well (or Russian or Chinese or French)

[avhception]

I wonder if Lidl or the other advertisers know and approve of this.

[FinnLobsien]

I mean it's probably somewhere, deep in the ToS but pretty sure if you showed that machine voice to the advertisers they wouldn't approve.

[dgb23]

Same here. My native tongue is German, I live in Switzerland, but my settings on all devices are English.

I do this on purpose, because I find everything is more searchable. I don't even know any German terms for most technical things I might search or look for. So even if the automatic translations were good, which they aren't, this would be a non-feature.

My browser already tells them what my preferred language is. Just use it.

[netsharc]

Living in Zurich (German part of Switzerland for those who don't know), Windows 10 in English, the built-in Microsoft Store used to offer content in... French.

Now it's a mix of German and English, e.g. 1 heading is "Spiele-Bestseller", and the next is "Best selling apps". And prices displayed as "28,00 CHF" (correct would be to use the decimal point).

Like Van Halen's brown M&Ms, it just shows how sloppily this thing is programmed: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/brown-out/

[pjmlp]

I thought I was the only one getting such a messy ads.

At least I know I didn't mess anything on my WebOS TV.

[qiine]

its especially funny with asmr video, not gonna lie the first time I was beyond confused

[numpad0]

idoundernotstandwhothisfeatureisdivisiblebytwoinproductionandi

just dislike video and move on. I'm guessing Google wants uploader penalized, and I do feel sorry but it's not my problem.