I’m not talking about translations of basic dialog such as “How are you?” or “Nice to meet you.” from English to let’s say Japanese, Mandarin, French, Spanish & whatever. Rather the topic dwells more on translation apps or LLM’s failing to capture the nuance of a conversation since words can connotate different definitions as well as being understood differently when applied.
Take the word 蛇行 (だこう) which is defined as amongst the lines of “meandering” but when compounded with 蛇行運転 for example, the definition leans closer to “erratic driving” but most online translatiors mess this up on saying “driving in a serpentine manner” which sounds stupid. No wonder why Japanese is hard for LLM’s to work with.
That’s how language is. Changing to another language is a complex problem because there aren’t always exact words for an exact concept. Really good Human translators that have lived both languages can understand the nuance and implied meanings, that even normal human translators might miss.
For example in the UK if you are totally tired out, worn out, you might say “I’m shattered”. Translated that to other languages it will probably give you " I’m broken like glass", while that is sort of the underlying meaning its not a good translation.