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Will language study become unnecessary? | ||
Tags: Google | Translation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5956 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes  Studies: French | Message 9 of 45 25 February 2010 at 12:38am | IP Logged | ||
Excellent! However, I still stand by my view, expressed a number of months ago in a separate thread, that essentially problem-free machine translation (including the handling of idioms) will be comfortably achieved well within my lifetime. To quote from the attached link: "It's generally a bad idea to say something can't or won't be done, especially in the realm of science and technology." Things People Said - Bad Predictions 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5585 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 10 of 45 25 February 2010 at 12:46am | IP Logged | ||
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I actually wasn't happy reading the line "this could move the world to one large monoculture"
Computer translations will never match the translation skills of the human mind. There are accent differences, pronunciation differences, and slang/idioms. I'm not happy to see this actually... :/ 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| goosefrabbas Triglot Pro Member United States Joined 6368 days ago 393 posts - 475 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German, Italian Personal Language Map | Message 11 of 45 25 February 2010 at 2:01am | IP Logged | ||
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I find computational linguistics fascinating, but the polyglot side of me isn't at ease with my linguistic side. What am I to do?!
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| minus273 Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5765 days ago 288 posts - 346 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Ancient Greek, Tibetan | Message 12 of 45 25 February 2010 at 2:07am | IP Logged | ||
Write mechanical translators that work! This way you'll learn an awful lot on both sides. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Hello Diglot Groupie Canada Joined 5420 days ago 40 posts - 45 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 13 of 45 25 February 2010 at 2:50am | IP Logged | ||
I totally agree. The fact that language learning and languages themselves could be replaced one day with ... some translation machines is not good, in my opinion. I just can't imagine that happening. Edited by Hello on 25 February 2010 at 2:51am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5567 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 14 of 45 25 February 2010 at 3:49am | IP Logged | ||
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A mechanical translator that can do as good a job as humans at interpreting idioms, intonation, context, ambiguity, word play, cultural references, etc. would have to have intelligence comparable to a human. I wouldn't worry about that happening within our lifetimes.
Even then, there is something about talking to a real human being in their language that creates a bond that a computer intermediary can't replicate, so people will continue to study languages for that. There will also continue to be people who are interested in foreign languages for their own sake, people who want to learn about another culture through its language, and people who want to move to a foreign country without relying on a gadget to understand every sign. Of course the computer translators will need knowledgeable people to program them, too. Just like calculators have not rendered it obsolete to learn how to do math, I don't think computer translators could render language study obsolete, even if they were completely reliable. Edited by Levi on 25 February 2010 at 4:06am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| vusalgustav Tetraglot Newbie Azerbaijan Joined 6276 days ago 23 posts - 56 votes Speaks: Azerbaijani*, English, Russian, Turkish Studies: German, Spanish | Message 15 of 45 25 February 2010 at 5:03am | IP Logged | ||
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That is it. That killed the fun for me! I am stopping learning languages. English should
be enough before those translators come out. Damn you Google, which pokes its nose everywhere possible. Soon they will announce that, they are working on electronic toilet papers. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5556 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 16 of 45 25 February 2010 at 3:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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'The future…looks very interesting,” added [Franz] Och. “If you have a Babel Fish, the need to learn foreign languages is removed.”'
Don't panic, there's no need to throw in the galactic language learning towel just yet! I think what Franz is trying to say in his soundbite here (well I hope anyway) is that the necessity may one day soon be partially removed for those not wishing to learn another language in order to communicate in a limited way over the phone. I must confess I use Google Translate or Systran a lot of the time, as it's generally a cool tool for gleaning rudimentary meaning when you're totally lost on the web or want a little hidden cheeky help when chatting with friends. This area of technology progressing to mobile phones and Skype was always on the cards. However it's far from satifactory as you already know, and I'm pretty sure the Google development team won't be "spawning a global monoculture" by monopolising language anytime soon...they have a LONG way to go before they'll be able to grace us with anything beyond OlafP's inspired parody. So no worries, be prepared to dial *0 for operator, and maybe this guy simply needs to stick a fish in his own ear first before making any further wild claims... ;)
edit: ...electronic toilet paper, now don't go giving them ideas! :) Edited by Teango on 25 February 2010 at 9:54pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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