Siri struggling to read "foreign" languages

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Siri struggling to read "foreign" languages

I live in multilingual environment, I like my phone to be set to use English, but I regularly receive messages in French, German and Polish. Anticipating some difficulties I've never used Siri till now.

Now I'm compelled by the car manufacturer to use Siri in the car - otherwise they cannot connect. Well, today mister Siri - I think I managed to change to female voice already - read aloud a message, which was a pure nonsense (it was really a compound of irrational sounds meaning completely nothing in any language). After arrival I checked and it was a perfectly correct French message (which takes a blink of an eye to be read, btw. so I could do it on the car screen without risking anything whereas grabbing for the phone is a no go).

Now, I know iphone is American, but I cannot imagine there are no bilingual communities in the U.S., aren't there? So there has to be a way for Siri to use another language. I mean not simultaneously, but at least for reading the messages? On the contact basis perhaps? In most of the cases that would do.

I haven't found the setting though. Or is there some "automatically detect changes" or similar setting hidden somewhere?

I would greatly appreciate any help.

Posted on Jun 16, 2023 02:18 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 16, 2023 02:37 AM in response to anybodycanknowmyname

anybodycanknowmyname wrote:

which was a pure nonsense (it was really a compound of irrational sounds meaning completely nothing in any language). After arrival I checked and it was a perfectly correct French message (which takes a blink of an eye to be read, btw. so I could do it on the car screen without risking anything whereas grabbing for the phone is a no go).

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Answer 2

Apr 4, 2024 11:15 PM in response to anybodycanknowmyname

It‘s shocking not more people have responded to this thread. I have had the same gripes with (dumb) Siri for many years. I believe the issue is simply that, because that particular multilingual user experience is so devastatingly terrible, many (including myself) have deactivated message announcements. If you were to look on the phones of multilingual people, I am almost certain any such features will be disabled on like 99.9% of the phones and iPads. Thereby, the problem has been „dismissed“. Siri has never been remarkable.

the same can be said for keyboard auto correction… despite all the onboard AI your phone it is still too dumb to realize you‘re typing French using your Italian keyboard or whatever and starts to mix up auto correction and dictionary updates.

I have to reset my dictionaries every quarter because of the garbage building up in them as I type along frustrated. I‘m too lazy to switch keyboards everytime I switch conversations on my phone.

so yes,…. Is a still the same dumb phone language wise… but you’re not the only one suffering every day at least.

on the bright side let’s spend a few ten thousand dollars celebrating bombastically the arrival of childish new Memoji or a new phone color at the next Apple event? Useful „in our daily lives“…

I will spend the effort of lodging a feedback given the previous respondent‘s suggestion, knowing it‘s also a complete waste of time.

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Siri struggling to read "foreign" languages

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