Google Translates 'country' as 國家/地區?

I noticed something this morning…

I know that users can submit suggestions for translation corrections. Although I don’t know how Google Translate’s algorithm works, I have a feeling that with enough of the same contributions the “correction” becomes canon.

So why translate “country” as 國家 / 地區?

Interestingly, just last month I had written something in Chinese (maybe an online comment?) regarding Taiwan and I used the word 國家, and a Chinese netizen (I assume because of their use of simplified characters) “helped my Chinese” and said that I should write 國家/地區.

Maybe this sounds conspiracy theory-ish, but do you think PRC folks/bots are making these “corrections” to Google Translate?

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Taiwan isn’t a country. If you look at your immigration documents they say ROC.

My question wasn’t whether or not Taiwan was a country.

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I doubt that the PRC is “interfering”. It’s all machine learning.

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Definitely interfering with the machine learning. Push back by reporting it as incorrect. Taiwan is a country.

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Did you help the netizen write PRC as “Peking region and surroundings”?

But Taiwan isn’t a country. Taiwan doesn’t officially exist. RoC is a region or island which is correct. (And as of now, officially, includes the area currently occupied by the PRC)

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I got another but for iPhone:

Brazil Spain taiwan Taipei Russia United States of America

^^^ notice how “taiwan” is not automatically capitalized to “Taiwan” when writing it in the middle of a sentence - iPhone is smart enough to capitalize the rest of them when writing a string of countries but not Taiwan…Taipei is capitalized automatically but not Taiwan, pretty interesting right? - Anyone else have this issue?

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No. Taiwan is a country in every sense of the definition.

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Taiwan Taiwan Taiwan Taiwan

It doesn’t happen on my iPhone

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China Taiwan England Thailand the United States of America

No problems here, but I’m using a third-party keyboard.

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The op should write it as “Beijing region and surroundings” The English translation came from the bopomofo system rather than pinyin.

I have noticed a lot of weird fuggery on translate as well. But not sure if its just connecting dots where there arent any. Regardless of.china, i notice that newer google and microsoft products are becomming ever more invasive and annoying in general.

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I appreciate the comments and related passion, but whether Taiwan is/isn’t a country wasn’t my main point here; I was simply wondering about this translation of the word country as 國家/地區 and what’s triggering it.

I did some experimenting and found this…

It seems the 國家/地區 translation is triggered by “outside of [country name].” I wonder why that is. Is it some grammar point that I don’t understand? Because this translation isn’t across-the-board, I’m pretty sure it isn’t some PRC conspiracy now, lol.

I’ve edited the title.

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Hope you told him where he can shove his 地區.

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May not be your point. But it is the point of users who use it. And the app learns from the users.

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I’m thinking it has to do with your account…just like how Google is optimized for what you want to see. Go into incognito mode, use another browser, clear cookies, etc…let us know how it goes.

Youre on the list now boy, watch out!

Haha. Yeah someone is watching his translation. Anyways won’t change the fact that Taiwan or RoC isn’t a country as of now.

Another mini-experiment on Asian food searches. Some interesting results.



Vs.



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Have you tried turning it off and on again? :sweat_smile: