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DeepL cannot accurately translate vertical Japanese #149

@MakotoJohn

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@MakotoJohn

I’ve noticed DeepL has some troubles while trying to translate Tategaki (vertical Japanese), as it follows in the screenshots.

Screenshot_2025-11-22-06-21-25-021_com.deepl.mobiletranslator.jpg
This is the basis picture to translate.

Screenshot_2025-11-22-06-21-17-247_com.deepl.mobiletranslator.jpg
This is the mistakenly translated Tategaki sentence.

Beside not translating the whole sentence, it displays incorrect kanji, such as 細 (/hoso/ = thin) over 話 (/hana/ = talk to), including 目 (/me/) that's simply nonexistent in the picture, and changing from 満 (/man/ = full) to 清 (/kiyoshi/ = clear). Seems like the API cannot recognise characters based on the typeface or something. Maybe not really trained enough for it.

Just like Arabic and Hebrew, the Tategaki logic is right-to-left, but the DeepL’s API treated it as if it was in the common order (left-to-right).


Estimated phrase:
「満月になったら、君について月とたくさん話すよ。」

Estimated translation:
“When it’s full moon, I talk to the moon a lot about you.”

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