Cortana in Italian and German (Some parts at least)

[neo158]

Looks like Cortana can now display certain information in Italian and German:

Some bits of Cortana now showing up in Italian in Italy: Update?Germany also

 

[Dragone]

Yeaaaa , Cortana is coming to Italy

 

[anon(8150199)]

I might change the language to German just to test it.

 

[neo158]

Trust me, it will take a while to arrive in Italy and Germany "and it'll be worth the wait!!"

 

[Panathas]

How do you know?

 

[neo158]

How do you know?

How do I know, maybe because I live in the UK and Cortana took ages to be released here!!?!

 

[neo158]

.... and now in Spanish as well, Now Cortana also shows up in Spanish

 

[anon(8150199)]

Not in German at the moment. I've change my Lumia's language to German and I don't get it.

 

[danielgr]

What I really don't know is what prevents them from giving it us in English worldwide.
Even if some of the functionality is not available, some of the other stuff is really useful (such as using reminders, quite hours, inner circle, e-mail reading for schedules, etc.), and even if our English isn't perfect, there are hundreds of millions of non-native English speakers around the world.

 

[neo158]

What I really don't know is what prevents them from giving it us in English worldwide.
Even if some of the functionality is not available, some of the other stuff is really useful (such as using reminders, quite hours, inner circle, e-mail reading for schedules, etc.), and even if our English isn't perfect, there are hundreds of millions of non-native English speakers around the world.

Because Microsoft would be damned if they do and damned if they don't, there are a lot of people who DON'T speak English. What I mean is that there are people who would complain that their language isn't supported so they can't use those features, which would be even more stupid considering parts of Cortana are showing up in Italian, German and Spanish.

 

[a5cent]

Because Microsoft would be damned if they do and damned if they don't, there are a lot of people who DON'T speak English.

Why is MS damned either way? I don't think they are. People who can't speak English well enough to use Cortana typically have little difficulty accepting that getting other languages to work is difficult and takes time. It just shouldn't take years.


However, if I set my OS and speech setting to the same language, and if Cortana supports it, then Cortana must run. There is no excuse for her not to, because the user just told the OS that he/she is proficient in that language. It shouldn't matter where that person lives, which units of measurement that person uses, or how they like their numbers formatted on on screen!


There are many people who want Cortana to work like that. For example, I live in Switzerland, were 25% of the population was born elsewhere! That explains why English is very common here, even if it is not one of our official languages (of which we have four). I work with dozens of people who were born and raised in the U.S. or the U.K. Is MS assuming they all must have forgotten how to speak their native language? I grew up here, but I also prefer my technical gear to be setup in English (shorter words, easier to use the correct terminology for internet searches, etc). Cortana understands me really well too. That I can't use Cortana without having to set my region to the U.S. seems like a very artificial restriction that serves no purpose.

 

[anon(8150199)]

Why is MS damned either way? I don't think they are. People who can't speak English well enough to use Cortana typically have little difficulty accepting that getting other languages to work is difficult and takes time. It just shouldn't take years.

However, if I set my OS and speech setting to the same language, and if Cortana supports it, then Cortana must run. There is no excuse for her not to, because the user just told the OS that he/she is proficient in that language. It shouldn't matter where that person lives, which units of measurement that person uses, or how they like their numbers formatted on on screen!

There are many people who want Cortana to work like that. For example, I live in Switzerland, were 25% of the population were born elsewhere! That explains why English is very common here, even if it is not one of our official languages (of which we have four). I work with dozens of people who were born and raised in the U.S. or the U.K. Is MS assuming they all must have forgotten how to speak their native language? I grew up here, but I also prefer my technical gear to be setup in English (shorter words, easier to use the correct terminology for internet searches, etc). Cortana understands me really well too. That I can't use Cortana without having to set my region to the U.S. seems like a very artificial restriction that serves no purpose.

People are gonna moan no matter what happens. Many people sure know English, but few are good at speaking.
I'd be very glad though if there's Cortana in German.

 

[a5cent]

People are gonna moan no matter what happens. Many people sure know English, but few are good at speaking.



I'd be very glad though if there's Cortana in German.

That depends what region of Europe you are looking at though! There are easily a million people in this country who's English is good enough. In northern Europe pretty much everyone's English is good enough. In France, yes, English proficiency is not as widespread. It depends...


Tying Jen Taylors voice to that region setting is another one of those ridiculously poor decisions. At work I know a few people with a nostalgic soft spot for Halo games. Two of them are from the U.S. If MS would allow me to setup a WP device for Switzerland but retain Jen Taylor's voice, I'm pretty sure they'd want to give WP a try, whereas right now they see no reason to even be curious about WP.


So, from where I stand, it sounds like you're saying that since some will moan no matter what, MS should ensure Cortana doesn't work well for anyone outside the officially supported regions, even for those for whom Cortana could work just fine (in terms of speech based interaction). IMHO that makes zero sense.

 

[neo158]

People are gonna moan no matter what happens. Many people sure know English, but few are good at speaking.
I'd be very glad though if there's Cortana in German.

That's what I was trying to say.

 

[anon(8150199)]

I think there should be separate voices for different regions. Accents can be very confusing (the French are especially bad at it), and there are even more troubles than just accents. IMO it's better if Cortana understands the spoken language from all regions of each country, since the differences are very noticeable between written and spoken ones in some languages, like French. The written one is stuck like 200 years in the past (thanks you, Acad?mie Fran?aise), while the spoken ones keep changing all the time, even between regions.

 

[neo158]

I think there should be separate voices for different regions. Accents can be very confusing (the French are especially bad at it), and there are even more troubles than just accents. IMO it's better if Cortana understands the spoken language from all regions of each country, since the differences are very noticeable between written and spoken ones in some languages, like French. The written one is stuck like 200 years in the past (thanks you, Acad?mie Fran?aise), while the spoken ones keep changing all the time, even between regions.

Different voices for different regions might be a little difficult but not impossible.

 

[a5cent]

Different voices for different regions might be a little difficult but not impossible.

MS already solved the technical issues, as the U.K. Cortana uses a different accent than the U.S. Cortana. For other voices it's just more work (although likely a lot of it).


For everything else, like I said, just let people choose which voice they want. MS should not assume they know which voice is best, based solely on the device's region setting. Boom. Problem solved.

 

[neo158]

MS already solved the technical issues, as the U.K. Cortana uses a different accent than the U.S. Cortana. For other voices it's just more work (although likely a lot of it).


For everything else, like I said, just let people choose which voice they want. MS should not assume they know which voice is best, based solely on the device's region setting. Boom. Problem solved.

pookyjoralyn is talking about different voices for different regions in European Countries which is a little different.

 

[a5cent]

pookyjoralyn is talking about different voices for different regions in European Countries which is a little different.

I know. Why should that be any different?