{"id":847,"date":"2013-02-11T09:45:59","date_gmt":"2013-02-11T14:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/?p=847"},"modified":"2020-10-02T13:51:32","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T17:51:32","slug":"why-learn-a-language-if-machines-translate-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/2013\/02\/11\/why-learn-a-language-if-machines-translate-for-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Learn a Language if Machines Translate for You?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Computers already facilitate communication, but will they someday allow real-time conversations between speakers of different languages?\u00a0 The Economist believes they might.\u00a0 In an <a title=\"Economist article machine translation\" href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/news\/science-and-technology\/21569014-simultaneous-translation-computer-getting-closer-conquering-babel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">article about machine translation<\/a>, the author speculates that we may see computers doing this \u201cStar Trek\u201d kind of work someday soon.\u00a0 Still, this is a difficult feat for machines.\u00a0 They struggle with slang, accents, multiple speakers, and other interferences.\u00a0 And this is merely the set of \u201cacoustic\u201d problems.\u00a0 This doesn\u2019t even touch on the \u201cmeaning\u201d problems that one encounters when trying out Google Translate, for example.\u00a0 Picking up on nuance is certainly an area where humans surpass machines.\u00a0 Yet we\u2019ll surely see machines improve in this area over time.\u00a0 As they leverage the power of crowds, machines will get better at identifying and and conveying meaning accurately.<\/p>\n<p>This raises a good question, though: are there other benefits, (aside from the ability to convey meaning) that we gain from speaking different languages?\u00a0 This writer would argue yes.\u00a0 Conveying meaning is important, granted, but don\u2019t we also hope to convey respect?\u00a0 Learning another language demonstrates respect for those around us and shows a willingness to put effort into the connections we make.\u00a0 Even <a title=\"learn language online\" href=\"http:\/\/www.transparent.com\/personal\/connect\/live-classroom\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">learning to say \u201chello\u201d and \u201cthank you\u201d in a new language<\/a> shows that we care about making a good impression.\u00a0 That\u2019s something that machines will never replace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"240\" height=\"160\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2013\/02\/conversation-feb-11.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"conversation\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><p>Computers already facilitate communication, but will they someday allow real-time conversations between speakers of different languages?\u00a0 The Economist believes they might.\u00a0 In an article about machine translation, the author speculates that we may see computers doing this \u201cStar Trek\u201d kind of work someday soon.\u00a0 Still, this is a difficult feat for machines.\u00a0 They struggle with&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/2013\/02\/11\/why-learn-a-language-if-machines-translate-for-you\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[542801],"tags":[61179,8,1851,238808,2588],"class_list":["post-847","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archived-posts","tag-computers","tag-language","tag-learning","tag-machines","tag-translation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8269,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847\/revisions\/8269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}