DeepSeek and other Chinese models suffer from translationese; roleplay prompts fix it

dangerous_inference · reddit · 2026-08-18

A Reddit user highlights that Chinese LLMs like DeepSeek often output "translationese"—direct translations of Chinese idioms like "swallowing a whole date" that make no sense in English. Experiments show that while instruction-following varies, enforcing a specific persona (e.g., Data, GLaDOS) eliminates this issue and improves accuracy. The author updated their system prompt to include "NO TRANSLATIONESE" rules and specific examples of common errors.

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