Due to technological inventions, mostly computers are becoming capable of translating any languages precisely in a short time, some people argue that learning foreign languages is a completely waste of time. However, I disagree with this view, since focusing solely on translating new words would not help them get into top-tier universities as they require some certificates such as ILETS or CEFR and also the process of translating would definitely not help them strengthen their communication skills – arguably the most crucial one to show off some language.
As the overreliance on technologies have became a trend among most people in the last couple years, especially among those, who are willing to learn some language by using translators. This sudden change, can offer variety of choices for the ones, whose job is computer-related or for those who have a white-collor jobs. The USA, for example, could be notable example in this case, where most part of their citizens have an office-related jobs – designers or administrative assistants. Whenever they were done with their tasks, they would easily google some slangs or idiomatic expressions and can eventually expand their inputs. By doing so, on a daily basis, they may enhance their language-related skills, espeically the vocabulary part while also focusing on their jobs too.
However, using machine translations would not be that helpful, if they were trying to get into some top-ranked universities. University of Harvard would be a great example, where there are a few requriments including having a minimum IELTS score of 8.0 – the dream band score which requires not only just knowing the words, but actually being able to use them in a real-life conversation too. In order to reach this level, they should more focus on linguistic competence meaning paying attention more on output rathan than input. Solely by putting some effort into their real-time communication as well as human intuition skills, their communicating abilities can get better and better.
In conclusion, I believe focusing only on translating would be helpful to increase their vocabulary, while communication skills would left being underdeveloped. Since, top-ranked universities usually require international certificates, for those who acquisitioned some slangs or words from translators, but never actually used them in practise before may face problems during the interviews.