[forgotusername6]

There's really a feeling now pushing back against learning in general. The feeling is that it is pointless since technology would just do it for you. When I started learning Chinese a friend just wouldn't stop talking about how the latest airpods will just be able to translate for you. It was really rather demoralising. But there is still something incredibly rewarding about having that knowledge in your own head and not having to go find someone or something to ask. I push on regardless.

[TFNA]

Funny that your example is Chinese. Have you seen the reports that Chinese universities are cutting back on foreign-language programmes because the expectation is that AI translation is the way of the future?

So, your friend was just expressing the general zeitgeist. But something to be aware of, is that “having that knowledge in one’s own head” might be unrewarding in time. Namely, once high-quality AI translation in near-real-time becomes the social norm, Chinese people (and most other people on earth) will become much less tolerant of a foreigner trying to speak their language imperfectly. You can already see something similar if you go to countries like Netherlands or Sweden and try to speak the local language at anything short of a high B2-level: people will complain you’re wasting their time compared to just using English.

[bilsbie]

> The feeling is that it is pointless since technology would just do it for you.

Why walk or jog of the car can do it for you?

[cocoto]

Maybe because these is an obvious benefit of physical exercises and that there are no health benefits to learn a new topic after having already exhausted your brain sitting +7 hours at work?

[Summershard]

> there are no health benefits to learn a new topic after having already exhausted your brain sitting +7 hours at work

There are. Unless your work requires almost constant creative reiteration over your mistakes on new topics, learning new things even when exhausted is still healthy for your brain.

[abalashov]

I know, right? Have the AI go to the gym and work out for you.

[marginalia_nu]

Personally, my deadlifts have gone way up since I started doing them with a forklift.

[abalashov]

My love life has seen hockey stick growth since I spawned subagents to hang out with women for me.

[cwiz]

Technology is a choice. If you speak natively you get completely different immersion in culture.

Imagine your perception as a VR headset, and any gadgets and apps are inserting a layer between you and your VR headset, making it worse.

The same goes with any augmenting technology you perceive not the real thing.

[andrew_lettuce]

I've been learning Spanish and I find a big positive motivator is finding and practicing slang words and vulgar phrases. They usually have cultural roots and are highly contextual, so it requires a deeper understanding than just translation. I only speak them sparingly with my few native speaker friends, who find it hilarious when I inevitably use them incorrectly - or rarely get it exactly right.

[bilsbie]

Even if so, once I realized how pointless doomscrolling is I figured I might as well use that time to learn something pointless.

[lajisam]

Learning a language is still absolutely worth it. The feeling you get when finally being able to communicate with native speakers is not something you could achieve with technology. Sure if all you care about is exchanging information then translation technology does the job, but if you want to actually connect with people I believe you have to do the talking

[forinti]

I've been learning Russian by myself since the pandemic and along the way I've picked up bits and bobs about food, history, geography, music, and even electronics. Learning a language is not just about the language per se.

I've even realised a few things about my own language.

[abalashov]

Приятно слышать, а то иногда народ говорит, что это мертвый язык...

[abalashov]

It is helpful in such cases to look up, touch grass, and realise that "do it for you" is doing a lot of work there. The technology still can only emit a convolution of its training, and this is an ontological, conceptual limit on the technology, not something that the next model will just overcome. It's not "intelligence" -- you still have to know things.

It's easy to think, reading HN, that we're in some "post-knowledge" apocalypse, but that's just not the reality. It is, however, tragic that the irrationality of capitalism can be sustained so long, perhaps longer than some of us can stay solvent.