“As computers translate quickly and accurately, learning foreign languages is a waste of time.” What is your opinion about this statement?

In this day and age, artificial intelligence has become progressively sophisticated that it can translate from one language to another within a few seconds. Therefore, this has stirred up the controversy whether language learning is a complete waste of time with the aid of translation technology. From my perspective, I completely disagree with that viewpoint due to its inconveniences and the fact that learning languages is actually learning cultures. To begin with, it is undoubted that having to rely on a high-tech gadget to correspond is of great inconvenience. Firstly, the need to communicate tends to arise in almost all aspects of life, thus people who are dependent on technology to translate have to carry a computer whenever they go, which is a real disturbance. Even if some translation app on the phone is in use, it is invariably regarded as impolite to look at the phone in the process of talking to another person. Secondly, while talking to others in person, people have a tendency to use idioms, slang, jokes involving homonyms and some special terms. This can greatly hinder the translation process as almost all technology available is only able to translate word by word. For example, the phrase “on point” means outstanding, perfect but is always interpreted as “relevance to point”. Moreover, while technology can translate with little error, learning foreign languages is unconcernedly of great importance due to the strong association between language and culture. By learning languages, learners have the chance to get an overall and basic understanding of another country’s culture, thus enabling them to broaden their horizon and become better acquainted to that country. For instance, through learning Hindi, learners may have a better knowledge that their custom of eating with their bare hands, which is commonly regarded as unhygienic, is in fact their way to show their gratitude towards their gods. Furthermore, as there are a myriad of synonyms to a word, technology cannot decide what to use in a specific context, which may be offensive and can lead to misunderstandings. With that being said, those who consider learning foreign languages as time-consuming may claim that translation technology can help people to communicate with other easily and effortlessly. While that may be the case, they should take the monotonous voice of machine into consideration. While talking to other person, your neighbors for example, through the monotonous voice of a machine, it can leave a bad impression on him/ her and make us unable to create a long-lasting relationship with him/her. To sum up, I strongly hold my view that learning foreign languages should be encouraged due to technological inconveniences and inability to convey cultures.