In last decades, technological advancements have introduced artificial intelligence which could translate one language into another language within a second. This development has raised questions about learning foreign languages. Though computers can translate a language word by word, they can never replicate the emotion, gesture and history associated with a language so that I completely disagree with the notion that learning foreign languages is unfruitful.
To begin with, learning foreign languages broadens the mental horizon of a person with the knowledge of culture, history, customs and other activities that the languages belong to. Language is not only the medium of communication, but also a bridge to connect a culture to another culture. For instance, when a person learns Spanish language, he/she also learns culture and other activities of Spanish speaking people. Besides that, proficiency in another language also gives opportunities to read books written in other languages and visit different places with comfort. Hence, learning another language has cognitive and social benefits.
In the same way, learning foreign languages is a good investment for career growth. A recent study shows that bilingual or multi-lingual people make noticeably higher amounts in comparison to monolingual. In computer translation, there are always minor mistakes. Such minor errors can cause devastating effects in certain places, like court, immigration, and bureaucracy. Thus, computer translation is not replicable to humans.
In my opinion, though computer translation has served a wide range for basic communication, people need to learn foreign languages for official uses along with understanding the essence of those languages’ users. I absolutely in favour of learning foreign languages.
Conclusively, computer translation cannot be an alternative to humans even though it is beneficial for our day-to-day activities. Learning foreign languages is not merely translation from one language to another, it is deeply connected to the history and emotion of the speakers, for these reasons, I completely disagree with the idea of learning foreign languages is waste of time.