A.I. - The END of Language Learning?

In this video I talk about whether artificial intelligence will eliminate language learning in the future. As you can imagine, there's no black and white answer, but hopefully my predictions give you food for thought!

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Вайзефакнот

[meditatio]

I speak on behalf of Turkish. The translation is incredibly good. If I didn't know the tone of your voice and saw a video of yours for the first time, I would definitely think you were a foreigner who later learned Turkish as his native language. Ofc, it isn’t localised it, but perfect for formal conversations

[Joy-]

I'm a native Mandarin speaker, yes, I'm very impressed. I think it imitates how non-native people tried to learn Chinese: the tone is somewhat unnatural and a little robotic. When it says "zhong guo ren" (Chinese people), it's a very typical (or stereotypical) foreign accent. But overall, the tone is very good. The grammar is flawless. If a non-native speaker can speak Mandarin like this, I would say "Your Mandarin is perfect!"

[tarraknyc]

Paul,
You forgot to mention another reason why some folks learn foreign languages: Keeping your brain active. It becomes more important as you get older. I wouldn’t call myself old yet, but I have been learning French for the last 2 years exactly for that.

[justinspindler]

Would be nice to see these tools used to help preserve endangered languages in a way that would make it accessible for people to learn interactively.

[mexicounexplained]

4:36 What you say here, Paul, hits very close to home. I am American but learned how to speak Portuguese and Spanish. I founded an imports business in 1999; I import mostly handcrafted items from Latin America. Knowing the languages of my destination countries - and something about their cultures - has bridged the gaps and brought me closer to the people I've done business with. This is something not taught in business school! (I have an MBA). I have had numerous instances where people felt honored that I would care enough to learn their language. I wish I had a lempira, a peso or a real for every time someone said to me something like, "Of all the other Americans who have come down here, you are the only one to speak to us in our language." And next year I celebrate 25 years in business. I feel that bridging the gap through language has had a lot to do with the longevity of my business. Please, people, don't lean on AI for everything!

[thepetehill]

In the years of watching your videos because they’re so fascinating, I knew you were passionate about language, but this video showed the emotional part of your passion and added more of my appreciation for your work. Well done Paul!

[River_Betty]

I’m currently learning Japanese, and no matter how frustrating it gets, I have never dreamed to have someone snap their fingers and instantly make me fluent in Japanese. Language learning is such a joy, and I would hate to lose the chance to experience it with the language I want to learn the most.

[Juarqua]

Listening to the German part I can state that it's consistently high German without any regional accent. Using a regional accent is something a native speaker does automaticly and thus giving you a hint about where exactly he/she is from. AI won't - unless it's trained to mimic a certain accent. Regional accents spoken by people from that region are something only real human to human communication can provide. For me these accents are a big part of what makes a language interesting.

[DistrarSubvoyikar]

Well as a professional language tutor I already feel like I've been automated away by A.I., because no one hires me anymore even though I'm clearly great at my job and used to be quite successful, and I assume it's because everyone has flocked to free automated learning resources. And while my heart is happy that language learning is no longer gated behind having money, my wallet (and my paranoia about misinformation being potentially taught frequently by automated resources) is kinda peeved at this, heh

[John_Weiss]

Recent studies have shown a correlation between dementia and polyglotism: The more languages you know, the less likely you are to have dementia in old age.

The biggest "drop" is going from monolinguals to bilinguals.

And it makes sense: humans are the "conversing ape". Language is quite fundamental to human brain function.

So, maybe AI translation will be a tool that people use _alongside_ their Native and Second languages, with everyone learning a second language as part of good mental hygiene.

[amj.composer]

Paul you're seriously one of my favourite YouTubers ever. I look nowhere else when I want some info on any language. Amazing job as always

[johnwood]

The Atlantic has a really good article about this called "learn a language before it's too late." The idea is basically that the "you" speaking Turkish isn't actually you, and that an ai will never be able to convey the lived experiences behind the words we use. Might be fun to check out!

[cardenova]

Very interesting that you posted this video. I never considered this reality 😢 I love your point about the point of language learning. People uninterested in languages don’t really seem to understand why we actually study languages. It’s very rarely for work or a resume 😂 It’s for fun and mental challenge!

[celalergun]

As a Turkish speaker, I am impressed that the quality of the speech is very good although it uses a tense we normally never use during a conversation. "Konuşmaz" is in simple present tense, and we usually tend to use present continuous tense.

[christopherbonis]

I don’t even need to watch the video to know the answer: no. AI may augment the language learning process—dramatically, in fact, but it can’t kill the invaluable human-to-human connection that actually learning someone else’s native language affords.

[ukaszbadura]

I think you nailed this topic. I agree with all you say. Nothing replaces watching news or even talking to strangers on the street in their own language while traveling.

[yigiterbug]

As a native Turkish speaker, even though there were some minor mistakes in the translation, it was pretty good. And I am pretty surprised by it.

[callum]

Personally, when I learn a language, most of the words I learn come from a teacher. However, I also believe that Google Translate would probably be better off as a dictionary for single words or short phrases and I occasionally use it to try and improve my vocabulary.

[zackleonard]

Maybe it can replace texting a bit but the shared experiences and nuance of a language can't be communicated through AI translation. The translation would have to be a full-on language course of footnotes to properly get all the meanings across.

[Joy-]

Thank you, Paul. I totally agree with you.

I'm learning Welsh currently. People often say it's "useless" because almost all Welsh native speakers can speak perfect English (or Spanish, if they are in Patagonia). But I still want to learn. I'm living in Wales. I love Welsh culture and history. I see the Welsh people fighting for the destiny of the language. I want to respect their efforts. I want to talk to them in their native tongue rather than in English.

Even if nobody speaks a language, so what? It's just people's nerdy hobby. Learning a language makes me happy and makes many people happy. Does Klingon have many speakers? But it's very important to Star Trek fans.

By the way, the invention of bikes, cars and trains makes running much less functional. But many people still love running.