Learning foreign languages: Will it become obsolete (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

Learning foreign languages: Will it become obsolete
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Language Learning Forum : General discussion

42 messages over 6 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6

shk00design
Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 4449 days ago
747 posts - 1123 votes

Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin
Studies: French

Message 41 of 42

20 May 2013 at 5:33am | IP Logged

Medulin wrote:

Foreigners don't bother with Indian languages, because:
1. English is more than enough for a shorter stay (<6 months) in India
2. Many people in India think English is more prestigious than any Indian language
3. There is no ''common'' Indian language, so when a person from the North (Delhi or Mumbai) wants to
communicate from someone from the South (let's say Chennai or Kochi), they use English.
4. All learning material (especially dictionaries) focuses on Indians learning English,
most English-Tamil, English-Hindi, English-Malayalam, En glish-Bengali dictionaries
are not user friendly to foreigners (because everything is explained in an Indian language)
which limits their user-friendliness to non-Indians.

Someone asked: where are Indian languages on the Internet?
Indians like using English when they're on the Internet, that's all.
(And then they DO use an Indian language, they write it in Latin alphabet and not in an Indian alphabet).

Rather interesting comment about the use of Indian languages online. Chinese is 1 of the harder languages to
learn to write because of the characters. Over the years there are a number of input methods for computer use.
Currently the 2 most widely input methods include phonetics (Pinyin in Mainland China & BPMF in Taiwan) and
writing pad with your finger on the screen or with a light pen on a pad. As cumbersome as it is to input individual
Chinese characters, people sent E-mail, post comments online in Chinese except for words in between that cannot
be translated or foreign terms that are awkward to translate. Otherwise I've seen Chinese people use BPMF
phonetics to input characters for electronic messages on a phone.
1 person has voted this message useful

Richard Burton
Newbie
Spain
Joined 4337 days ago
34 posts - 64 votes

Speaks: Ancient Greek*

Message 42 of 42

20 May 2013 at 7:41pm | IP Logged

What I dont understand about this is the whole linguistic situation, how it would be, what kind of devices would be available, because is not solely about written translation.

For example, you have to move to another country as it happens now so often unfortunately among young people from South Europe who see absolutely no future there, and how does it work: first they have to find accomodation; they get a paper which by the format seems to contain adds; to interpret an add, they produce a device which, with a little camera, take a snap of the add, and wait for the device to get a translation? then they read it; then they have to call, assuming texting is not really an option; you get your device, or maybe another device, to utter "wait"; you put that through to the other side when you get some imput; then press a botton to get a translation that you read, or maybe listen to? and the process is repeated...

Then if you are finally accomodated, one day someone knocks on your door because of some problem in the garden; you signal with your hand, "wait", go inside for your device, come back and signal somehow: "talk"; then the person speaks and you listen or read the translation, say something to your device, and put it forward for the other person to listen? Or maybe you offer the person headphones? certainly if he gets simultaneous interpretation that would resemble better a real conversation, but that requires tremendous "knowledge of the world" infused into the computer programs. There's something in language that defies deterministic programing, and non-deterministic programming, i.e. artificial intelligence, I hear, belongs to sci-fi movies mainly...

Then one day you want to get to meet a girl. Smile and think of making some joke or nice comment, produce your device, etc. Will you pull it off, really ?!!

If you are interested about something, go to the library or local archive, somehow manage to order what you want, then focus the camera of your device onto each page and wait for the translation?

I really dont understand how this world with linguistic devices would work. Of course it can work in limited contexts, such as vending machines or something like that, but the whole social, intelectual, even spiritual I would say complexity of it, one cannot see how could be managed with little translation devices.

Also how would you manage to enjoy the music of the language in songs, or feeling the spirit of people in their personal pick of words and subtle intonation patterns.

I honestly dont understand how it would be, but frankly telepathy seems better positioned to make languages obsolete; now that very few are able to develop by now, unless some big surprise.

Another side of it is the general assumption the humankind is progressing, that technology will improve and will be available for regular humans; that's arguable and unclear at this point.

Edited by Richard Burton on 20 May 2013 at 8:01pm
4 persons have voted this message useful

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