Some people think that machine translation is highly developed in today’s society. Therefore it is not necessary for children to learn a foreign language. What’s your opinion?
An argument occasionally these days is that some people often think machine translation can take place of the children's study of a foreign language. As far as I am concerned, I can't totally agree with this opinion.
It first comes to the point that machine translation is not high efficiency. The human language is so complex that nowadays no such machine can translate one language to another sufficiently and totally. The machine can only provide some words or pieces of half-baked sentences. So we human beings, especially children, may not rely on this kind of machine, at least recently.
On the other hand, if the real machine that the whole sentence can be translated completely turn to reality, children should not be taught not study a foreign language. The reason is the language (especially speaking) is made up of not only the grammar and words but also tones and mood. And when children are studying a language, he is not discovering an unknown area, but wild his logic and ideation. Additionally, even if the machine will be out of work one day occasionally in future, he can talk with other foreigners freely.
Frankly, the loss of language sensitivity is much popular these days. Many people's speaking and grammar is terrible. Children often study wrong speaking from annoying TV programs and untrained broadcasters. The invention of translation machine will make it worse. The problem whether to teach the boys and girls foreign languages or not needs to be treated seriously.
In a word, in modern society the translation machine is stealing our sensitivity of the language. People should do something to prevent the loss of language ability, especially in the childhood.