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Will language study become unnecessary? | ||
Tags: Google | Translation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5569 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 25 of 45 06 March 2010 at 6:01am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think the whole issue really boils down to this: languages are tools for interpersonal communication and always will be. Isn't that why we're all learning languages? I want to sing along to that beautiful Japanese song, not just understanding all the words but also understanding the nuances of the songwriter's message. I want the French Canadian tourist I meet to be pleasantly surprised that I took the time to learn their language, and I want to experience the increased friendliness that comes with that. I want to impress the cute Chinese girl on the bus. I want to connect with the large Hispanic minority in this country, and to share in their culture. I want to exchange jokes in German and have a good laugh.
So much of what we actually do with foreign languages can't be done with a mechanical translator, no matter how sophisticated. Where it can, the presence of a computer intermediary would make the experience that much less personal. Human lives are meaningful primarily because of our relationships with other human beings. It is through language that we make, maintain and enjoy those relationships, so I don't think the utility of language learning will ever go away. In fact, I can only see it becoming more useful as globalization continues and people from all over the planet seek meaningful personal interactions with each other. Edited by Levi on 06 March 2010 at 6:38am 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| FrenchLanguage Senior Member Germany Joined 5738 days ago 122 posts - 135 votes | Message 26 of 45 06 March 2010 at 5:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
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@Ari: I agree that we dont want to look as stupid as the record industry does by complaining about it :-)....However, I think your prediction isn't much more helpful than a random guess or a pure opinion.
The other day I heard a guy - who has never learned a language - say: "Im not good at learning languages here..in school..that just wouldnt be for me...BUT..if I go to the UK, give me 1 year, and Ill speak it fluently afterwards". He was completely sure about it. It made me want to ask him: "Ho would you know? How would you know when you dont have any relevant experience to this, as you have never attempted to learn a language before?". Obviously he wouldnt have known it was simply a pure guess, wish, opinion. It also reminded me of people who can speak English (here in Germany) and then went to South America believing 1 year later they would be fluent in Spanish, but were fairly surprised when they weren't (one factor might be that simply being in a foreign country isnt of much use for learning the language during the first couple of month if you cant speak a single word of it, yet) Are you knowledgeable about the state of machine translation, how it works, which issues they're facing, etc.? If not, then your prediction is completely irrelevant. If you are, then I apologize :-). Im really not trying to be an annoying asshole (sorry if it comes off a bit like it :P), but I wanted to major in computational linguistics a while ago, and read a bit about it, and machine translation replacing human translators, etc. (I'm not a translator:P) supposedly (should have) happened a few decades ago, already. And making predictions about it without having any knowledge about the issues being faced, etc. is pure speculation. Again, Im not trying to be an annoying asshole (even if it might come off a bit like that to you), but Im typing this mostly b/c of the other forum members who might be influenced by your prediction as you made it sound somewhat authoritative (which doesnt make it any more valid of course), which they shouldn't if you aren't knowledgeable about the topic. Unless you are knowledgeable about how this stuff works, the issues they're facing and need to overcome, etc. there's no telling whether what you predict will happen in 5 years or in 500. (if you are, then..I apologize....actually let me apologize even if you are not as I realize I might sound a bit like an ass, which I didnt mean to..but felt this needs to be clarified) PS: Obviously youre right abotu the google part, though ;) Edited by FrenchLanguage on 06 March 2010 at 5:29pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sayumi Groupie Japan Joined 5420 days ago 51 posts - 75 votes Speaks: Japanese | Message 27 of 45 06 March 2010 at 6:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I don't know. I'm not making any predictions, but there mere possibility is rather frightening.
My knowledge of computer programing is pretty basic. I can write simply programs to solve word puzzles or whatnot, but it's not the kind of knowledge that would allow me to either assess that rate at which this technology is going to improve, or change my major into anything incorporating programing and the sort. I know there's computational linguistics, but what I really like is contrastive linguistics. Moreover, I don't know if they offer the former even at Toudai, which for those of you who don't know is the top Japanese University. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Faim de Siècle Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5809 days ago 36 posts - 39 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 28 of 45 07 March 2010 at 6:00am | IP Logged | |||||
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Technology is wretched. Yes, I realize that I'm typing on a computer, and without science in general my life would supposedly be exponentially "more difficult." Et patati et patata. Thankfully I'll always have the world in my head to inhabit.
There's no denying that Camus nailed it when he said, "Culture: the cry of men in face of their destiny." 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Pyx Diglot Senior Member China Joined 5737 days ago 670 posts - 892 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 29 of 45 07 March 2010 at 6:01am | IP Logged | |||||
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Don't worry about the need for humans being replaced by software (in this sector) soon.
Just for fun I tried a sentence a friend sent me this morning: "汉语很多是和我们的文化有关系的" It's a pretty simple sentence meaning "The Chinese language has a strong connection to our culture". Google translate butchered that to "Many Chinese culture and our relationship". As long as these things are too stupid to understand context - and that will be for the longest time - they won't replace the need to learn languages... PS: - yahoo babelfish: "Chinese many are and our culture has the relations" - microsoft translate: "Many Chinese culture and our relationship" Edited by Pyx on 07 March 2010 at 6:02am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hello Diglot Groupie Canada Joined 5422 days ago 40 posts - 45 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 30 of 45 07 March 2010 at 6:14am | IP Logged | |||||
I approve. I had my own experiences with Google translate and it's kinda bad, like really kinda bad... Considering that, I think that there won't be any ''translation machines'' of some sort invented any time soon. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sayumi Groupie Japan Joined 5420 days ago 51 posts - 75 votes Speaks: Japanese | Message 31 of 45 07 March 2010 at 9:35am | IP Logged | |||||
Technology isn't necessarily evil and, in all fairness, neither are the people behind these inventions. Many are driven by curiosity and a real desire to improve the lives of people. The problem is that technology is too powerful. Computers are useful, but the truth is that using computers people deceive others by sending malware and spam. These people made 150 million dollars scamming people out of their hard-earned money. Whenever developers come up with some new "killer app" or plugin, do they think of the adverse impact their products can have on the market? Probably not. Yet there are people who exploit flaws in the code. Buffer overflows, for example. Same thing for MT. We're honestly reaching a stage where people have the ability to communicate with anyone on Earth but are so illiterate they have nothing meaningful to say. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Pyx Diglot Senior Member China Joined 5737 days ago 670 posts - 892 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 32 of 45 07 March 2010 at 9:45am | IP Logged | |||||
Technology per se is never evil, and it surely isn't "too powerful". You're mentioning some bad things.. nay, just annoyances, really, and don't mention all the good things! The communication of the world! The life saving technology! The technology that brought mankind onto the moon, and is helping us to understand the universe! 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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