Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

riam

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 7, 2010
110
4
Mty, Mexico
My Main language is Spanish, but siri understands me better in English i can't communicate with it, it only gets 2 out of three commands, not the case in english it works great.

Any one having issues with it in the other new languages?
 
I'm sorry to hear that. Hopefully things will be sorted out through the beta process. The more you use it now, the better it'll be for the rest of us! ;)

My wife's first language is Spanish, as she's originally from Mexico. Her mom can barely speak english, and had actually shown interest recently in wanting a smartphone/iPhone. I'm sure she'd have a lot of fun with a Spanish speaking Siri!
 

Bezetos

macrumors 6502a
May 18, 2012
739
0
far away from an Apple store
Siri is not reliable for any non-American accent/dialect/language. I've tested it in 3 different languages (including British English) and it worked only 20% of the time. This is a known problem.
 

bushido

Suspended
Mar 26, 2008
8,070
2,755
Germany
My lady's iPhone works fine...but then again she speaks German with a light touch lol.

have u asked siri to play a song? its USELESS cuz she cant get english words right if shes set to german, she comes up with all kind of random words
 

*Calypso*

macrumors regular
Dec 16, 2011
161
0
Germany
have u asked siri to play a song? its USELESS cuz she cant get english words right if shes set to german, she comes up with all kind of random words

Yeah, Apple needs to sort that out somehow. If I set my Siri to German I can't say anything in English (e.g. English song names) and if I set it to English and use turn-by-turn navigation Siri pronounces German street names in English which makes the feature absolutely useless.

I wish Siri was just multilingual by default, so that you have one language for commands and can use any language for inputs (when you say names or dictate text, and the output language for street names, names, text is determined by the country/language.
 

RoboCop001

macrumors 68000
Oct 4, 2005
1,561
451
Toronto, Canada
I wish Siri was just multilingual by default, so that you have one language for commands and can use any language for inputs (when you say names or dictate text, and the output language for street names, names, text is determined by the country/language.

I wouldn't want to be on the programming team for multilingual Siri, haha. That would be an insane undertaking I think.

Tim Cook:
Friends, we're now announcing... multilingual Siri. The programming team.... wanted to say a few words. ...... But unfortunately they've gone..... mad. Very mad. In fact, we can't say ... just how mad they've gone. It's off the charts. Really... really mad.

The multiple periods are his dramatic pauses :D
 

virginblue4

macrumors 68020
Apr 15, 2012
2,017
682
United Kingdom
Siri is not reliable for any non-American accent/dialect/language. I've tested it in 3 different languages (including British English) and it worked only 20% of the time. This is a known problem.

I'm British and it's works perfectly for me and everyone else who I know that uses it....
 

*Calypso*

macrumors regular
Dec 16, 2011
161
0
Germany
I realize that the error rate would be a lot higher if Siri also has to determine in which language you are speaking. So maybe one solution would be to select two languages in settings, one "command language" (open, search for, call, ...) and an "alternative input language", so if you e.g. say "call (name pronounced in German)", Siri will determine whether the name you say is German or English and use the respective algorithm. It's kind of like the separate setting for Language and Region Format - and highly appropriate in a world where many people are multilingual in their every day lives. Eitherway, they should definitely add a feature that allows you to have Siri pronounce street names in the language of the respective country in turn-by-turn-navigation. That is easy to implement.
 

nuckinfutz

macrumors 603
Jul 3, 2002
5,539
399
Middle Earth
have u asked siri to play a song? its USELESS cuz she cant get english words right if shes set to german, she comes up with all kind of random words

I've had little trouble with languages but a whole heap of trouble trying to get songs to play so I'm there with you on that.
 

Sensamic

macrumors 68040
Mar 26, 2010
3,006
641
My Main language is Spanish, but siri understands me better in English i can't communicate with it, it only gets 2 out of three commands, not the case in english it works great.

Any one having issues with it in the other new languages?

Hey, can you post a video on youtube to see it?
 

bp1000

macrumors 65816
Jul 7, 2011
1,476
185
Siri works great for me and the mrs, both British English. I've got a deep voice and thought I would have issues.

My sister is a speech therapist and Siri can't understand a word she says sometimes, yet she speaks crystal English.

I swear it improves over time. The more you talk to it.
 

Bezetos

macrumors 6502a
May 18, 2012
739
0
far away from an Apple store
I'm British and it's works perfectly for me and everyone else who I know that uses it....
You're one of the lucky ones then, everyone I know complains about it. It's very weird that it works for some and it's useless for others.

Siri works great for me and the mrs, both British English. I've got a deep voice and thought I would have issues.

My sister is a speech therapist and Siri can't understand a word she says sometimes, yet she speaks crystal English.

I swear it improves over time. The more you talk to it.
Maybe it improves, or maybe you get used to speaking to it in a certain way ;) I got mine to work by speaking slowly and dividing commands into small chunks, but since that's tedious I just don't really use it; plus the 4S stopped being my main phone.

S Voice understands me without any issues, but that's probably because it's based on Google's voice recognition technology, which is superb. The voice itself is worse than Siri's though.
 

Gurtz

macrumors member
Aug 11, 2009
69
0
Columbus, Ohio
Spanish is my second language but I tried it out. Here are some screenshot examples. It can do things like make reminders in both languages, but even though it understood me in both Spanish and English for "Where can I eat a hamburger?" only English Siri came up with places nearby. Spanish Siri told me "I don't know any interesting stories." It is beta though.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_8253.PNG
    IMG_8253.PNG
    714.4 KB · Views: 190
  • IMG_8254.PNG
    IMG_8254.PNG
    653.7 KB · Views: 210
  • IMG_8255.PNG
    IMG_8255.PNG
    680.4 KB · Views: 179

vodkaPT

macrumors regular
Jun 10, 2012
106
27
Lisbon, Portugal
I wish they had Portuguese from brazil. My mom would find that useful.

My mom too. But Portuguese from Portugal :p. I hope that Apple be kind an avoid a Brazilian version of siri in Portugal, there are two different language despise having the same name.

Siri works fine with me, but unfortunately I need to sent SMS in English instead of Portuguese ( primary language ), it's a little but awful but they understand lol.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.