As I write this, I am in the middle of accompanying my Finnish students on a study trip to China, and this has got me thinking: with technology taking care of the communication for us, do we actually need to learn languages any more?
Everywhere we go, the first thing that the locals do is to grab their phones and use an app to translate what they wanted to say from Chinese to English. A salesperson in a shop, a waiter in a restaurant, the hostess on our train: out comes the phone and an English translation on a screen is waved under our noses. There’s no attempt to communicate verbally at all.
And it has to be said that the translations are getting better. Most of the time, you can get a pretty good idea of what the other person wants to say – although there are still a few funny ones around: want to order four flavour roasted husband, for example?
And then we can type English into our own translation app and get something Chinese – and hopefully reasonably accurate – to show in return. (Note: don’t try this with a less common language such as Finnish, or things can go very wrong…)
Confronted by Chinese characters on a sign or on a menu? Again, you can point your phone’s camera at the mysterious text and get some kind of an English version in return – at least enough to get some idea of what kind of dish you’re ordering. (Again, don’t even think of asking for the same translated to Finnish…)
So the question is: do we actually need to learn languages any more? Is there any point to it, if AI-powered translation apps can let us decipher menus and understand what other people want to say quickly and easily, without us needing to think too much about it?
I would argue that, yes, we do still need to learn those languages – even the harder ones like Chinese.
Conversing through machines deprives you of that basic reason for communication: human interaction. Two people typing into their phones lacks spontaneity and personal contact. Their eyes are on their screens sooner than on one another, so there’s really not much point being in the same space at all.
But try speaking even a few words in Chinese and people are usually delighted; they suddenly see you as a person, sooner than as a (slightly scary) foreigner with whom they’re forced to interact.
Here, even a few words go a long way to build relationships and create a more positive atmosphere. You want to ask for directions or to get the price of a purchase lowered a little? Start with a friendly greeting and as much Chinese as you can manage: people will feel more positive about you and will do their best to help you. Arguing over prices in the market is so much more fun if you know a few basic phrases – and you’re more likely to get a bargain too.
Living life through a translation app also makes for a very monochrome experience. Yes, you can get your message across (as long as it’s simple), but you can’t listen in to the conversations around you or greet the old men sitting on the street corner (watch them smile!) You can’t ask your bus driver to tell you which is the right stop for the place you want to visit, and you can’t spot the sign for the tea shop without trawling laboriously through all the other signs on the street first.
It also has to be said that translation apps are not much help when you are trying to understand spoken language. Simple speech with a particular purpose, perhaps; but throw in a regional accent or a not-so-common topic and they (and you) are lost.
They’re also not good at deciphering announcements. On the train we’re sitting on as I write this, the standardised announcements in English tell us that we’re arriving at a station, but don’t actually mention the name of the place that we’re coming to; handy information that is mentioned in the Chinese version. Even basic listening skills could help with that.
And it’s not only visitors who need to make the effort. It’s hard to tell that English makes up 25% of the points on the Chinese matriculation exam. Very few young people seem able/willing to communicate directly; they prefer to channel everything through the phone screen instead. How to improve, or even maintain, your English if you outsource everything to tech, and never actually engage your brain to use it?
And all of this translation app business demands a reasonable command of English in the first place. As I mentioned above, asking an app to translate to and from a less common language like Finnish is a challenging experience, to say the least; so Finns wanting to use a translation app need to learn English anyway.
Empowerment is not the latest AI-powered translation app, but rather the ability and willingness to communicate directly with people, by learning at least a little of the local language. By all means, use technology to support your language learning – and there are plenty of ideas to help you do just that in our project resources. But don’t rely on tech to communicate for you; you will miss out on all the little details and the human reactions that make communication truly worthwhile.
