Some seem to 'put our lives on the line to study and improve our English.

I wonder whether such people would find the recent translation-generating AI services via smartphone apps objectionable.

More than that, I am interested in what those in the field of English education and the services that provide services in English are feeling right now and what kind of logical armament they have to defend their jobs.

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There is a hypothesis that 'if we have AI and smartphones, we don't need foreign languages.

I cannot adopt/reject this hypothesis with certainty at this time.

Click here for directions to "adopt."

So this is where the "reject" comes in.

Click here for more information about the person who is testing this hypothesis and has stopped experimenting.

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Recently, I heard that my second daughter is working with a student from China on a research project.

But with communication, she seems to be having a lot of trouble.

'Why don't we just have a conversation on our phones?' I asked, but conversations do not flow well through a device (smartphone).

Well, I can sort of imagine.

Conversation is not only about meaningful content but also about "whatever you want to talk about.

We know it from experience and robustly prove it in academia (social capital, well-being, etc.).

If an application that supports real-time communication appears, in which the speaker "forgets that a device (smartphone) is involved," we solve the problem more quickly than one might think.

'Such things don't just appear as easily as they used to!' -- and I can't be as definitive as I used to be. I'm looking at recent AI technology.

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I also saw the current situation in which restaurants are screaming in response to the over-tourism of foreign tourists.

A "small restaurant with no English" is not an object to blame.

I have discussed the massive investment in English by the Japanese and the meager return on that investment many times here.

The English language does not love We Japanese.

We cannot discuss this issue regarding effort, cost, or any other dimension.

If I use the metaphor of a mathematical equation, then "English proficiency" is a "constant A, B" and not a "variable x,y" (Could it be any more confusing?).

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Therefore, the hypothesis that "with AI and smartphones, we don't need foreign languages" seems unadoptable now.