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With AI translation tools, what’s the point of learning different languages?
Much is lost if we fail to master the cultural context and nuances behind other languages.
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The belief that instant translation renders language learning redundant rests on the fallacy that meaning travels neatly across languages, but human language is far more complex than that, says the writer.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: PIXABAY
Daniel Chan
We have all experienced the moment of digital magic: opening a foreign website, clicking “translate”, and watching a wall of incomprehensible text transform instantly into fluent English. Artificial intelligence-powered earbuds augmented-reality glasses
It feels like the fulfilment of a long-imagined prophecy – the Star Trek universal translator brought to life, finally bridging divides in a world that was once linguistically fragmented.
