Will technology remove the need to learn languages?

Hi everyone. There has been a lot of talk recently in the press about OK Google's latest translation technology and clearly the press has been very impressed by what they have seen at their recent London event. This kind of internet-based translation has come a very long way since the early days which has produced some pretty hilarious results. So I was actually asked the question, "with technology make such amazing advances in this field, would it make it unnecessary for any of us to learn a foreign language in the future?"  Let's explore that that very interesting question.

Firstly, the technology isn't perfect - it is impressive, but it isn't perfect. Go ahead and give it a try here: now let's take two simple question, "Can I have an orange juice please?" and "Is there any more bread left?" and we shall see how well or badly they get translated into some languages on this app.

English: Can I have an orange juice please?

French: Puis-je avoir un jus d'orange se il vous plaît? (Verdict: 10/10, perfect)
Spanish: ¿Puedo tener un zumo de naranja por favor? (Verdict: 8/10, awkward, you'll be understood but a real Spanish person wouldn't really say that.)
German: Kann ich einen Orangensaft bitte? (Verdict: 7/10, poor translation, you'll still be understood, but that's not even grammatically correct German).
Mandarin: 我可以有一个橙汁吗？(Verdict: 6/10, very awkward, you'll probably be understood,but no real Chinese person would say that.)
Welsh: A allaf gael sudd oren os gwelwch yn dda? (Verdict: 4/10, where do I even begin? They got orange juice (sudd oren) and please (os gwelwych yn dda)  but no real Welsh person would ever make a sentence like that.)
Swedish: Kan jag ha en apelsinjuice tack? (Verdict: 9/10, near enough but used the wrong verb for 'to get' vs 'to have')
Finnish: Saisinko appelsiinimehua please? (Verdict: 7/10 - very strange, Saisinko appelsiinimehua would have been sufficient but it just failed to translate the word 'please' and left it in English? Like seriously, WTH?)

English: Is there any more bread left?

French: Est-il à gauche de pain? (Verdict: 0/10 - completely wrong)
Spanish: ¿Hay alguna izquierda pan? (Verdict: 0/10 - completely wrong)
German: Gibt es eine Brot links? (Verdict: 0/10 - completely wrong)
Mandarin: 有没有面包的左侧？ (Verdict: 0/10 - completely wrong)
Welsh: A oes unrhyw chwith bara? (Verdict: 0/10 - completely wrong)
Swedish: Finns det något bröd kvar? (Verdict: 10/10 - amazingly, this gets translated perfectly in Swedish)
Finnish: Onko mitään leipää vasemmalle? (Verdict: 0/10 - completely wrong)

Now in the first question, it is clear that you will be understood in all the languages even if the phrasing of the question is a little awkward/incorrect at times. But in the second question, I asked if there was any bread remaining, like if you had some bread this morning but there have been loads of people eating breakfast and I am wondering if all the bread has already been eaten? Hence in this context, the word 'left' has nothing to do with direction (right/left) but that was what Google translate has wrongly assumed it to be. So I thought, okay, let me try again by phrasing that same question in a different way and see if this is the kind of expression in English that would trip up Google translate.

Is there any bread left?

English: Has the bread run out?

French: A le pain manquer? (Verdict: 3/10 - people will be wondering what the hell you're trying to say and may hazard a guess at 'is the bread missing?' which isn't quite the same as saying that the bread has run out. And the grammar is wrong too.)
Spanish: El pan se ha acabado? (Verdict: 8/10 - the grammar is wrong but it does capture the meaning of "has the bread finished?")
German: Hat das Brot aufgebraucht? (Verdict: 8/10 - the grammar is wrong but it does capture the meaning of "has the bread been depleted?")
Mandarin: 有面包跑出来了？(Verdict: 0/10 - with hilarious consequences - this question has nothing to do with "running bread"!)
Welsh: A yw'r bara yn rhedeg allan? (Verdict: 0/10 - same problem as with Mandarin above)
Swedish: Har brödet tar slut? (Verdict: 8/10 - the grammar is wrong, but it does capture the right meaning)
Finnish: Onko leipä loppuu? (Verdict: 8/10 - the grammar is wrong, but it does capture the right meaning)

So as you can see, the results are a bit hit and miss - some languages like Swedish, German and Spanish would perform much better than Welsh and Chinese but actually, there isn't really any language that can deliver a totally accurate translation every time and so far, I have only tried some really simple sentence. Imagine trying to do a business meeting and trying to negotiate the terms and conditions of a contract using Google translate - no, there technology simply isn't ready for it yet. Perhaps if you were visiting a country like Japan where you didn't speak the language, such an app would be great when shopping or reading a menu but let's not get carried away here: it is limited in what it can achieve (for now). Whilst I don't want to knock it, trying to say that you can give up learning languages now that you have this app is like declaring you are going to sail around the world when you are given a 5 foot rubber dingy for Christmas. At least wait till you are given a boat that can get you across an ocean realistically.

Visiting Japan on holiday? Don't forget the Google Translate app.

Maybe the technology will improve significantly in the next few years - already, significant advances have been made. I am most impressed with the app that allows you to take a picture of a sign in Chinese and the app will scan for Chinese characters and then translate them into English (or any language of your choice). Damn, if only I had that as a student - all those frustrating years of studying Chinese when I would stare and glare at the words on the page that I simply didn't recognize. Undoubtedly, such an app would be incredibly useful to students who are studying Chinese. Of course these apps are impressive - but is it a viable substitute for actually studying the language?

Studying a language is very hard work - it takes you few minutes to familiarize yourself with the way Google Translate functions, it will take you a few years to become fluent in a new language. There are only so many languages that even a linguist like me can choose to learn - I may speak ten languages but that is ten out of 6500 languages in the world. My language skills may be more impressive than 99% of population of the world, but it is still a tiny drop in the ocean really. I recently met a Latvian person who was disappointed that I hadn't gotten round to learn her language yet - well, sorry, I never claimed to have been able to speak Latvian and so if you were to send me to Latvia on a business trip this week, I would definitely appreciate a language app that would help me read the local language and communicate with the locals. I never say no to good technology like that and Google Translate does include Latvian.

I speak 10 languages.

But why should this technology ever change the reasons why we would want to learn a foreign language? The fact that there are now (reasonably good but not perfect) language apps out there right now doesn't change anything: there are great advantages to being able to speak a foreign language or three and it goes far beyond being able to translate a phrase like, "is there any bread left?" When you learn a new language, you are giving your brain a massive workout to understand a completely different way of communication - you have everything from a brand new set of vocabulary to learn, a new system of grammar to possibly a new way of reading/writing. Your brain becomes so much more refined and learned after having been subjected to that process and it prepares you for other tasks in life.

Imagine having trained to run a marathon, what do you think happens to your muscles, your fitness and your stamina? You are not the same person at the start of the process - you have become so much stronger both mentally and physically to be able to endure the punishment of training to get you through that marathon. Let's assume that we do have an app that can translate languages perfectly - that would be the same as taking a taxi to drive you for the full length of the marathon. Sure you can get from A to B, but you do not reap the same benefits to your body and brain that doing it the hard way would give you. Why do we make kids learn math when we all have calculators anyway?

Limpeh in Russian - yes I speak some Russian.

We shall all embrace and enjoy this new technology, but it changes nothing in terms of the benefits that one can reap from learning a foreign language or three. Do let me know what you think about this, many thanks for reading.