[JoshStrobl]

Meanwhile as an American living in Finland, I just wish I could have my directions in English, use Metric system, but have the names of streets and the like use the Finnish pronunciation. Instead it absolutely butchers the pronunciation almost beyond comprehension and gives me the streets in both Finnish and Swedish as further punishment.

[kroltan]

Ha! Try living in Santa Catarina, Brasil

Not only is the portuguese pronounciation pretty bad most of the time (in their defense streets can have very annoying names over here), they don't use location to expand acronyms, so the state/province-managed highways ("SC-401" etc) get read aloud as "South Carolina 401". Couldn't be more wrong.

I'm not sure how this happens. Most of the time, only the English (even though I use the UK variant) voice does this incorrect substitution, but in some occasions the portuguese voice can try saying the english words "south carolina" with portuguese pronounciation, which is hilarious in a disappointing way.

(Maybe the pt-BR voice model knows to pronounce SC as humans do, just the letters, but the acronym expansion happens in text, before voice is involved, in some code paths? No idea, just guessing)

[thegeomaster]

Yeah, Google absolutely butchering street names in non-English languages is a common theme. I no longer use the audio directions, they're that useless.

[dpifke]

When I was first learning German, I set my Google account (and phone) to it, despite being in the U.S.

Google Maps' decision as to which street names to translate to German when using voice directions seemed completely arbitrary. Numbered streets I could kinda understand (e.g. First Street was called out as "Erste Straße"), but others were perplexing: it insisted on calling Rainbow Blvd. "Regenboden Boulevard" despite using (non-translated, but German-accented) English for every other nearby street.

If I was a German-only speaker, looking at street signs, I would have been lost.

(This was also an educational experience re: dark patterns. I eventually had to switch back to English, because I repeatedly almost got tricked into clicking "yes" instead of "not now" on things I didn't ever want to enable. Despite my having repeatedly opted out in English, Google almost got me to "consent" in German because my language skills there weren't as good.)

[azalemeth]

Street names in Denmark are often "so-and-so way" or "such-and-such street". Way is vej. Street is gade, pronounced a bit like 'girl'.

A typical Danish name might be Ny Munkegade -- new monk's street. Google maps directions produce "noy mun keg ade", which is utterly incomprehensible.

[diftraku]

Another source of constant hilarity is when the voice guidance tries to pronounce the names of ring roads in Helsinki metropolitan area: Kehä I / Ring I. They're numbered using roman numerals (I through III) but Maps has no such knowledge of this so it just ends up rattling off the route number and "Kehä / Ring" with the ring road numerals as if they were just a literal letter I.

Sometimes the lane guidance also likes to pick up on the destinations from the overhead signs, trying to pronounce the Finnish and Swedish names with less than stellar results.

[Hamuko]

I'd also like that as a Finnish person, since I keep my phone in English, although I imagine I have a slightly easier time parsing them from "English" than you do.

[coolness]

You can change the language of Google Maps to Finnish, and still keep the phone on English. At least in the latest versions of Android. This makes it pronounce the street names properly

[theshrike79]

At least on Apple devices I found out that the Irish Siri version pronounces Finnish street names the least badly =)