Learn a Foreign Language Before It’s Too Late学外语不宜晚

AI translators may seem wondrous but they also erode a major part of what it is to be human.

AI翻译看起来了不起，却正慢慢消磨掉很大一部分生而为人的意义。

A few weeks ago， my very dear Italian friend Benedetto Scimemi passed away， and I spent hours writing heartfelt emails of condolence to all the members of his family. It happens that I lived in Italy for nearly three years and， on top of that， my two children and I have spoken Italian for 30 years as our family language， so my Italian is very fluent and comfortable—but， even so， it is not the Italian of a native speaker. In writing those difficult and emotional emails， I was constantly adjusting my words and phrases， lovingly remembering Benedetto and all the wonderful things we had done together， and pushing my Italian to its very limits. It took me perhaps two or three times as long as it would have taken me in English， but I did it with all my heart. I was proud of myself and of the manner in which， over decades， I had come to be able to express myself clearly， strongly， and with a deeply felt voice in a tongue that was not my mother tongue.

几周前，我亲爱的意大利朋友贝内代托·希梅米走了，我花了好几个小时写了一封电子邮件，由衷地向他的每个家人表达了哀悼之情。我曾在意大利待了近三年的时光，不仅如此，30年来，我和我的两个孩子在家里一直讲意大利语。所以，我的意大利语讲得流畅自如，得心应手，但即便如此，我的意大利语听着还不像母语。在写这些富含情感、比较难写的邮件时，我得不断地调整措辞，把我的意大利语水平发挥到极致，深情地回忆起贝内代托和我们一起经历的所有美好往事。这比我用英语写差不多要多花上一两倍的时间。但我写这封信是全身心投入的。我为自己感到骄傲，为数十年来我终于能学会用一种我母语之外的语言，将深切的情感清晰、强烈地表达出来而感到骄傲。

Leaving aside my native tongue， I have devoted many thousands of hours of my life to seven languages （French， Italian， German， Swedish， Russian， Polish， and Chinese）—sometimes flailing1 desperately and sometimes finding enormous gratification. But through thick and thin2， I have relentlessly bashed my head against each of those languages for years， because I love each one’s sounds， words， intonation patterns， idioms， proverbs， poetry， songs， and so on.

抛开母语不谈，我曾投入数千小时学了七门外语（法语、意大利语、德语、瑞典语、俄语、波兰语和汉语）——有时毫无章法地拼命乱学，有时却能从中找到巨大的满足感。但不管遇到怎样的困难，我一直不屈不挠，对每种语言都绞尽脑汁钻研，多年坚持不懈，因为我喜欢每一种语言的发音、单词、语调模式、习语、谚语、诗歌、歌曲等等，不一而足。

But today we have Google Translate. Today we have DeepL. Today we have ChatGPT—and so on. Today it’s a piece of cake to send an email in a tongue you don’t know a word of. You just click on “Translate” and presto！ Assuming that there are no egregious3 translational blunders （which there often still are）， what you are sending off is slick but soulless text.

但今天我们有谷歌翻译，有DeepL翻译引擎，有ChatGPT，林林总总。今天，用你一窍不通的语言发送一封电子邮件不过是小菜一碟。你只需点击一下“翻译” 即可！即便翻译没有产生令人大跌眼镜的错误（常常仍然会有），你发送的也不过是个流畅有余但毫无灵魂的文本。

Today’s AI technology allows people of different cultures to communicate instantly and effortlessly with one another. Wow！ Isn’t it a wonderful miracle？ Isn’t the soon-to-arrive world where everyone can effortlessly speak every language just glorious？

今天的人工智能技术使不同文化背景的人能够即时、轻松自如地相互交流。哇！这难道不算一个伟大的奇迹吗？在不久的将来，每个人都可以毫不费力地讲每一门外语，这难道不美好吗？

Some readers will certainly say “yes，” but I would say “no.” In fact， I see this looming scenario as a great tragedy. I see it as the beginning of the end of the age-old tradition of learning foreign languages.

有些读者肯定会说“不错”，但我却会说“不对”。事实上，我将这种日益迫近的情境视为一场巨大的悲剧，将其看作是学习外语这一古老传统宣告终结的开始。

Suppose I had composed my condolences to Benedetto’s family in English and had then run them through a translation program such as DeepL. The words would have come out very differently from what I wrote in Italian. When I was writing in Italian， I was thinking in Italian， not in English. I was using words and phrases that I have made my own over decades， by having countless intimate conversations with close Italian friends （such as Benedetto himself）， by reading hundreds of children’s books in Italian to my kids when they were little tykes4， by listening hundreds of times to CDs of lilting5 Italian songs from the 1930s， by devouring Italian newspapers， by giving untold dozens of lectures in Italian， by watching scores of old Italian movies， by memorizing a few Italian poems， and so on. All that unique flavor， reflecting the myriad6 idiosyncratic7 pathways by which I lovingly internalized the Italian language， would be missing from an email that I composed in English and that was instantly converted into Italian by a machine.

假设我用英语先写好给贝内代托家人的悼词，然后用DeepL之类的翻译程序翻一下。这样翻译出来的意大利语与我用意大利语写出来的将会有天壤之别。我用意大利语写的时候，我是用意大利语而非英语思考的。我使用的是本人几十年来已经内化了的那些单词和短语，那可是通过与亲近的意大利友人（比如贝内代托本人）进行了无数次亲密交谈、在孩子们还是小淘气鬼的时候给他们念上数百本意大利语儿童读物、听了数百遍20世纪30年代动听的意大利歌曲CD、津津有味地阅读意大利语报纸、用意大利语做了好几十场讲座、看了几十部意大利老电影、背了一些意大利语诗歌等方式得来的。这种独特的味道反映了与众不同的纷繁经历——我正是经由这些经历将钟爱的意大利语内化于心，但如果我用英语写好电子邮件，再用机器立马转化成意大利语，这种特色将荡然无存。

Speaking any language， for me， is a living， dynamic process that is permeated8 by my own unique humanness， with all its frailties and strengths. When I speak any language， I am always searching for the most appropriate word or idiom， frequently hesitating， stumbling， or suddenly changing course midstream; constantly joking by playing with ambiguity; having fun by putting on droll accents and personas; citing proverbs and quoting snippets of poetry; mixing metaphors; etc. How is all of this wildly bubbling richness in Language A going to be mirrored in real time in Language B by a mechanical device that has nothing of those qualities driving it， that has no sense of humor， that has no understanding of irony or self-mockery， that has no awareness of how phrases are unconsciously blended， and so on？