As a freelance industrial translator, I spend my days wrestling with complex technical texts. One of my ways to unwind is driving my car, though modern technology sometimes adds unexpected twists to the experience, especially my car’s voice assistant.
Take navigation, for example. When I tell it, “Take me to XX Building,” it coldly replies, “I don’t know that place.” After searching for the official name online and trying again, it finally recognizes the destination. I can’t help but wish it had a bit more intuition and could suggest possible matches instead.
But the real mystery happens when I say, “Take me home.” Instead of guiding me to my registered address, it confidently declares, “Navigating to Sagamiya,” in an inexplicably Kansai-accented tone. Wait… what is Sagamiya?
The only Sagamiya I can think of is a merchant’s trade name from old Japanese samurai dramas, where shopkeepers often meet unfortunate fates at the hands of villains. Could it be that my car’s assisstant is a fan of historical dramas? Or worse, is it trying to send me into one? Amused yet baffled, I end up manually setting my home destination as usual.
As a translator, my job requires me to read between the lines and infer meaning from context. Naturally, I wish my voice assistant could do the same, but it seems we’re not quite there yet. Still, these little moments of absurdity make for amusing breaks in my busy days. And so, I continue my drives, curious about what bizarre response my car’s voice assistant will come up with next.
