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Would you use a mental language module? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4828 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 1 of 9 29 August 2012 at 10:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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There is never enough space, but the question should be something like:
If in the future, they were to invent something you could plug into your brain to instantly know perfectly any language (and you could do it for as many as you wanted), would you use it, or do you actually like the "blood, sweat, toil, and tears", to borrow Mr Churchill's phrase? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| BaronBill Triglot Senior Member United States HowToLanguages.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4689 days ago 335 posts - 594 votes Speaks: English*, French, German Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Persian | Message 2 of 9 29 August 2012 at 11:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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If it were that easy, would anyone even bother? I imagine one of two things would happen:
1. Everyone would jump on the most popular language (maybe English as it is now) and so many minor languages would go by the wayside because it would be far more convenient to just "learn what everyone else knows" kind of thing. 2. Language learning would become like a shopping list item like toothbrush or toothpaste that one makes sure to pack for any trip. Now, I know this is not exactly what the OP was looking for so in response to his actual question I would say that I would not like this because part of the wonder of languages is the learning process. In a way I kind of feel like the hard work is what makes it "special". Just my 2 cents. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4828 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 3 of 9 29 August 2012 at 11:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks Bill. (Oder vielleicht, soll ich "vielen Dank" sagen?).
A thought I had after posting was that people might not take seriously something that will never actually happen, so if you prefer, you could think of it as some new "miracle" language learning method, like sleep-learning was supposed to be (until it proved to be a crock). But there might be some realistic scientific method in the future (maybe in our children's time) that would (by today's standards) make language learning relatively "instant". I mean, look how far google translate has come in a few years. Imagine a version of google translate that was a bit more intuitive and intelligent, that worked for audio as well as text (so you could plug it into your phone, or your computer audio). Would you still bother to learn a language under those circumstances? p.s. good point about lesser languages dying out, by the way. Edited by montmorency on 29 August 2012 at 11:57pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| clumsy Octoglot Senior Member Poland lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5178 days ago 1116 posts - 1367 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi | Message 4 of 9 30 August 2012 at 12:27am | IP Logged | ||
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Why would it endanger lunpopular langs?
we want to revive Lakota? sure thing, let's give a pill to every Lakota Indian who forgot her mother tongue and the problem is solved. but me, personally, I would prefer the Churchill's method, if everyone can do it, what's so special about it? I couln'd show off to anyone! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6582 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 5 of 9 30 August 2012 at 11:48pm | IP Logged | ||
GT already works with audio, and it's getting more sophisticated all the time. But this new question is very different from your original one. Instant translation and instant learning are two very different things. I wouldn't stop learning languages because I had instant translation availible, but I would if I had instant learning availible. I do like the studying process, but surely that wouldn't stop with native-like knowledge? I'd spend the time studying culture and history, etymology, linguistics, literature, poetry and so on. Surely language study is not finished just because you have native-like knowledge? Edited by Ari on 30 August 2012 at 11:49pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 9 31 August 2012 at 12:09am | IP Logged | ||
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I am more worried about something quite basic, namely the physical effect such a module would have on the brain cells. I guess we'll get a good test of that soon when the blind get their implanted vision gadgets - and I think that technology is underway right now. I have seen documentaries about crude experiments with few pixels delivered direcly to a suitable area in a living brain, but that number will explode. Many late-blind persons would probably take the risk if they could get a 1 mB pixel device that worked.
If those experiments succeed and they don't result in infections, changed brain chemistry or other nasty effects then I guess the next thing will be youngsters who not only functionally, but also physically have merged with their cell phones. And from cell phones there is just a tiny jump to tablets and then Youtube and Google and Google translate and Google maps and the internet as a whole has effectively been merged into people's brains. The next step would be to produce a fully functional and native-like language app, and if the statistical methods of Google are supplemented with some kind of error correction (partly list-based, partly rulebased) then the level of the language produced by the module will soar. I do think that this is realistic, but the thing I can't imagine right now is how my brain will communicate the 'shape' of the thought I want to communicate to the electronic device so that it can propose a solution in impeccable Lakota or Irish or English or whatever. But if I could formulate the thought in at least my native language then it might pick up some subvocalizing and translate that. So we might see something close to Montmorency's device within 10-20 years, but probably not a thought detector with the required degree of accuracy. But assume it happened and I still was alive. Would I get that transplant? Probably not. So far I don't even have a cell phone or MP3 player. Edited by Iversen on 31 August 2012 at 12:20am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ZombieKing Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4527 days ago 247 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin* | Message 7 of 9 31 August 2012 at 12:27am | IP Logged | ||
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I would never get a cell phone implanted in my brain... Nothing of the sort is ever going inside my body.
I've watched too many Ghost in the Shell episodes to think the idea is cool or worth it... Think of all the hackers who could tap into that brain module and corrupt it D: Then all your memories are fried and you're under their control. If brain modules/cellphones/mainframe thingys become possible, then brain hacking will be too. Edited by ZombieKing on 31 August 2012 at 12:29am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6620 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 8 of 9 04 September 2012 at 9:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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It would certainly take the fun out of things, wouldn't it? And probably put sites like this out of business. And then what would we do for fun?
Actually, I hope they don't come up with something like that in my lifetime because it would make studying a language rather pointless. Though I imagine some people would still do it, just like some people still write letters rather than sending e-mail or using a telephone. I'm not sure what I would do personally. I think I might possibly use it if I had a "language emergency," for example if I suddenly and unexpectedly had to go to some other country and needed the language (a rather unimaginable situation in my case, but who knows). I can imagine that I might also feel compelled to consider the Norwegian module since, although my Norwegian is already very good, it's not perfect. Of course, I can always improve it a little, but the gains would be insignificant compared to the work involved and I would never reach the same level as a native. Also, if these modules existed, you would be expected to speak any language you were using as if you were a native. So I would probably be at quite a disadvantage if I didn't. My English could always be improved too. So maybe I should get that one as well. But I think it would be boring if we all spoke the same way. I feel like something would be lost. However, with languages I don't actually need, I think I would continue to puzzle through them just like I do now even if there is no need or reason other than that it is fun. I like to do logic problems and puzzles and add things up in my head too. All of those are useless or could be done in an easier fashion, but it's fun and it's good for the brain. So my answer is: maybe, or maybe not 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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