WEBVTT
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00:00:00.190 --> 00:00:02.990
This is Yuji Beleza. You might have seen his videos
2
00:00:03.029 --> 00:00:04.730
where he goes out on the street and tries to
3
00:00:04.809 --> 00:00:07.469
guess what language people speak and then talks to them
4
00:00:07.570 --> 00:00:08.390
in that language.
5
00:00:08.750 --> 00:00:14.849
Don't say where you're from, but say your language.
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00:00:15.990 --> 00:00:19.960
His videos are incredibly popular. People say they're moved, they're impressed,
7
00:00:20.600 --> 00:00:23.379
and they're inspired to learn languages themselves. Do you know
8
00:00:23.420 --> 00:00:24.539
how many languages you speak?
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00:00:24.780 --> 00:00:33.880
I would say I can converse easily in English. In English, Japanese, Russian, German, Turkish, Serbian,
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00:00:36.020 --> 00:00:39.119
also in a bit of Arabic, Persian.
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00:00:40.299 --> 00:00:42.270
I wanted to talk to Beleza because I wanted to
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00:00:42.409 --> 00:00:44.609
ask him a question I've been thinking about a lot.
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00:00:44.729 --> 00:00:47.509
Does it still make sense to speak other people's languages
14
00:00:47.990 --> 00:00:50.570
when technology can do it for us? The fact is,
15
00:00:50.649 --> 00:00:53.250
for the first time in human history, you don't need
16
00:00:53.270 --> 00:00:56.079
to learn someone's language in order to have a one-on-one
17
00:00:56.140 --> 00:00:59.539
conversation with them. The technology might not be perfect, but
18
00:00:59.560 --> 00:01:03.820
the rapid acceleration of artificial intelligence means that digital translation
19
00:01:03.859 --> 00:01:06.939
through your phone, your smart glasses, or some other device
20
00:01:07.060 --> 00:01:10.359
is now faster and cheaper than a human interpreter. The
21
00:01:10.379 --> 00:01:13.840
best devices have only a one second delay. AI hasn't
22
00:01:13.890 --> 00:01:18.109
replaced human translation yet, but linguists who study language learning
23
00:01:18.150 --> 00:01:20.829
believe it's going to change everything about how people from
24
00:01:20.989 --> 00:01:23.650
different countries and different cultures communicate.
25
00:01:23.909 --> 00:01:28.500
There is a very real risk that learning foreign languages
26
00:01:28.900 --> 00:01:29.859
will be outdated.
27
00:01:30.200 --> 00:01:33.359
This is Ali Alhoury, an expert in how AI is
28
00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:34.659
influencing language learning.
29
00:01:34.900 --> 00:01:40.000
In the past, people used to ride horses to go everywhere.
30
00:01:40.340 --> 00:01:45.519
Then once we had cars, horse riding became a niche
31
00:01:45.560 --> 00:01:50.140
hobby that some people still practice and there are still competitions.
32
00:01:50.189 --> 00:01:53.049
There are, you know, a whole industry, but it's still niche.
33
00:01:53.409 --> 00:01:57.700
So if we apply this, Now to language learning, now
34
00:01:58.599 --> 00:02:01.239
somebody may say, why should I spend all this effort
35
00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:06.739
learning a language when I can learn science, when I
36
00:02:06.780 --> 00:02:09.930
can learn other subjects that will help me in my
37
00:02:09.990 --> 00:02:10.870
future employment?
38
00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:13.780
The field of foreign language study is in decline, and
39
00:02:13.819 --> 00:02:15.530
it didn't start with ChatGPT.
40
00:02:15.969 --> 00:02:16.689
I think even.
41
00:02:16.550 --> 00:02:20.689
Before the advent of AI, generative AI tools, I think
42
00:02:21.169 --> 00:02:26.360
there has been quite a significant increase development, I suppose,
43
00:02:26.400 --> 00:02:30.810
this century, in the 21st century, in people's motivations for
44
00:02:30.819 --> 00:02:31.620
learning languages.
45
00:02:31.780 --> 00:02:35.009
This is Dr. Emma Ushioda. She's a linguist who studies
46
00:02:35.050 --> 00:02:37.210
what motivates people to learn foreign languages.
47
00:02:37.430 --> 00:02:40.729
I think one of the main factors or influences has
48
00:02:40.810 --> 00:02:43.550
been the dominance of English as a global language.
49
00:02:43.849 --> 00:02:46.270
In the 20th century, students around the world began to
50
00:02:46.310 --> 00:02:50.000
learn English and only English. And in anglophone countries, students
51
00:02:50.060 --> 00:02:51.919
lost interest in speaking anything else.
52
00:02:52.120 --> 00:02:54.460
It's quite tragic because, you know, here in the UK,
53
00:02:54.500 --> 00:02:57.599
it means that more and more universities, every week we
54
00:02:57.639 --> 00:03:00.800
seem to hear about a university that is reducing or
55
00:03:01.099 --> 00:03:05.639
closing down its modern languages department because it's not sustainable
56
00:03:05.719 --> 00:03:09.719
as there simply aren't enough students coming into university and
57
00:03:09.759 --> 00:03:11.039
wanting to learn languages.
58
00:03:11.319 --> 00:03:14.699
In the United States, for example, since 2013 up to now,
59
00:03:16.860 --> 00:03:22.009
there have been over 650 language departments that have been
60
00:03:22.050 --> 00:03:28.490
shut down. And this is since 2013. So now with AI,
61
00:03:29.009 --> 00:03:31.930
probably the situation is going to be worse. People will
62
00:03:31.990 --> 00:03:35.930
start to ask questions like, why do we need to
63
00:03:35.990 --> 00:03:39.729
learn a second or a foreign language? Especially now, the
64
00:03:39.770 --> 00:03:44.689
bigger problem is when companies And employers have these tools
65
00:03:45.129 --> 00:03:48.860
so that they don't need to employ workforce that is
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00:03:48.939 --> 00:03:54.819
skilled in foreign languages. Then suddenly, learning a foreign language
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will not be attractive to many people. Now, most people
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around the world learn a foreign language for what researchers
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call instrumental reasons. They expect a job at the end
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of the day. If there are no jobs, For foreign
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language graduates, then less and less people are going to
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study it.
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And some linguists are warning that could be a massive mistake.
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AI tools may seem like they can get the job done,
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but they can't replace human learning and maybe never will
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be able to. For one thing, there are basic practical
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problems with translation that AI hasn't been able to solve.
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My own language background is Japanese. And Japanese is a
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language where we tend not to be very direct. When
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we speak Japanese, a lot of the important content of
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our message is actually left unspoken, but is implied. So
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it's what we call a context-dependent language, where a lot
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of the meaning is implied, is implicit in the context
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in which we are speaking, but we don't actually have
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to express or verbalize those specific ideas. And so an
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AI is not going to help you there, because an
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AI can only base its translation on the words itself.
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you know, in the transcript or whatever. But the important
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message might not be actually verbalized in that transcript.
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And even more important shortcoming of AI translations that, well,
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it's not human.
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It is quite superficial. I used the word transactional earlier,
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and I think it is at that kind of transactional
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level where you need, you know, to get some information
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across or to understand some information, to perform some kind
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of tasks. But if you are thinking about actually wanting
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to connect with people and develop some kind of emotional connection,
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emotional bond to really understand people, build friendships, your networks,
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and feel a sense of belonging in a community where
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another language is spoken, then AI is not really going
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to help you with that. I think the other aspect
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of it in terms of why people should still learn
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languages even in the age of AI. So I'm thinking
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of Older people, so people at the sort of, you know,
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other age spectrum, you know, it's important as we grow
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older and maybe, you know, stop working and so on
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to maintain our cognitive and, you know, mental stimulation, mental
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health as well. And of course, learning a new skill
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at that age in one, you know, the older phase
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of one's life is really valuable from that point of view.
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And learning a new language could be that new skill.
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And also if you are learning a new language by
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attending classes and so on, that can also bring the
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kind of social benefits as well, which are also important. So,
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you know, that would be another reason why it's still
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important to learn languages, even in the age of AI.
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So let's go back to Yuji Beleza. I asked him
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what keeps him so interested in learning languages in the
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age of AI.
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For example, maybe in one video, like I tried to
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talk to someone i went up to the person and
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said i speak your language and then he's like why
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are you filming yeah and then he turned out to
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be a person for ebo tribe from nigeria and i
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spoke some of his language and also some a proverb
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saying like like everything is going to be fine something
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like that you know like very it's very specific but
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i remembered it so i used that and he was
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wow and then later on he invited me to uh
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eat and i took i had that on video as
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well but that's one crazy thing I had I think
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what's most important is the human connection language itself you
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don't in my perspective like I feel what's most important
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is like respecting the other person also kind of valuing
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them and that human connection is the most important just
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AI is just with robots it's just talking I mean
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it could be used as practice but the most ultimate
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aim is to like having that human connection and I
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think AI can't really give that.
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People spend a lot of time just like scrolling on
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their phone and dealing with like computers and dealing with
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screens and not actually talking to people. And then they
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see you go out there and like do exactly the opposite. It's,
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do you feel like that's kind of like your antidote to, um, being, uh,
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addicted to your phone?
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Maybe.
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Yeah.
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Thanks for saying that. You know, um, I feel, you know, like, um,
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people are on their phones a lot and we kind of,
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If you talk to the older generation, I've talked to
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a lot of older generation people, they say human connection
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has really gone down. We don't talk to as much
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people as we used to back in the day. For example,
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if you're on the train or at a restaurant, people
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used to talk to each other. Now people will eat
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while they're watching their phones. So I think that human
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connection is kind of gone. and asking people questions, for example,
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that's kind of like, you know, interest in others, interest
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in other people and culture kind of disappeared. It's all
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on their phone, all like digital. And I feel like
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what I try to do in my videos is like,
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maybe be curious in other people. I try to want,
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I want, I want people to kind of like realize
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there's other lives, the other cultures worth discovering. And maybe like,
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maybe try to talk to your neighbor or try to
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talk to your, to your, to your, person person next
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to you yeah i would say.
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And maybe what's your piece of advice for somebody who
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has never tried to learn a language before but is
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kind of setting out on that journey.
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I would say don't be afraid to make mistakes i
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make it all the time like all the time i
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make mistakes but it's just fun um the most important
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is just like have fun with it you know so
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um yeah that's that's what i would say just.
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Have fun you may not like it but your high
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school teacher was right Learning languages can be fun. And
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if there's one thing AI can't do, it's have fun.
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I'm Amin Isif in Berlin. Thanks for watching.
1
00:00:00.190 --> 00:00:02.990
This is Yuji Beleza. You might have seen his videos
2
00:00:03.029 --> 00:00:04.730
where he goes out on the street and tries to
3
00:00:04.809 --> 00:00:07.469
guess what language people speak and then talks to them
4
00:00:07.570 --> 00:00:08.390
in that language.
5
00:00:08.750 --> 00:00:14.849
Don't say where you're from, but say your language.
6
00:00:15.990 --> 00:00:19.960
His videos are incredibly popular. People say they're moved, they're impressed,
7
00:00:20.600 --> 00:00:23.379
and they're inspired to learn languages themselves. Do you know
8
00:00:23.420 --> 00:00:24.539
how many languages you speak?
9
00:00:24.780 --> 00:00:33.880
I would say I can converse easily in English. In English, Japanese, Russian, German, Turkish, Serbian,
10
00:00:36.020 --> 00:00:39.119
also in a bit of Arabic, Persian.
11
00:00:40.299 --> 00:00:42.270
I wanted to talk to Beleza because I wanted to
12
00:00:42.409 --> 00:00:44.609
ask him a question I've been thinking about a lot.
13
00:00:44.729 --> 00:00:47.509
Does it still make sense to speak other people's languages
14
00:00:47.990 --> 00:00:50.570
when technology can do it for us? The fact is,
15
00:00:50.649 --> 00:00:53.250
for the first time in human history, you don't need
16
00:00:53.270 --> 00:00:56.079
to learn someone's language in order to have a one-on-one
17
00:00:56.140 --> 00:00:59.539
conversation with them. The technology might not be perfect, but
18
00:00:59.560 --> 00:01:03.820
the rapid acceleration of artificial intelligence means that digital translation
19
00:01:03.859 --> 00:01:06.939
through your phone, your smart glasses, or some other device
20
00:01:07.060 --> 00:01:10.359
is now faster and cheaper than a human interpreter. The
21
00:01:10.379 --> 00:01:13.840
best devices have only a one second delay. AI hasn't
22
00:01:13.890 --> 00:01:18.109
replaced human translation yet, but linguists who study language learning
23
00:01:18.150 --> 00:01:20.829
believe it's going to change everything about how people from
24
00:01:20.989 --> 00:01:23.650
different countries and different cultures communicate.
25
00:01:23.909 --> 00:01:28.500
There is a very real risk that learning foreign languages
26
00:01:28.900 --> 00:01:29.859
will be outdated.
27
00:01:30.200 --> 00:01:33.359
This is Ali Alhoury, an expert in how AI is
28
00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:34.659
influencing language learning.
29
00:01:34.900 --> 00:01:40.000
In the past, people used to ride horses to go everywhere.
30
00:01:40.340 --> 00:01:45.519
Then once we had cars, horse riding became a niche
31
00:01:45.560 --> 00:01:50.140
hobby that some people still practice and there are still competitions.
32
00:01:50.189 --> 00:01:53.049
There are, you know, a whole industry, but it's still niche.
33
00:01:53.409 --> 00:01:57.700
So if we apply this, Now to language learning, now
34
00:01:58.599 --> 00:02:01.239
somebody may say, why should I spend all this effort
35
00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:06.739
learning a language when I can learn science, when I
36
00:02:06.780 --> 00:02:09.930
can learn other subjects that will help me in my
37
00:02:09.990 --> 00:02:10.870
future employment?
38
00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:13.780
The field of foreign language study is in decline, and
39
00:02:13.819 --> 00:02:15.530
it didn't start with ChatGPT.
40
00:02:15.969 --> 00:02:16.689
I think even.
41
00:02:16.550 --> 00:02:20.689
Before the advent of AI, generative AI tools, I think
42
00:02:21.169 --> 00:02:26.360
there has been quite a significant increase development, I suppose,
43
00:02:26.400 --> 00:02:30.810
this century, in the 21st century, in people's motivations for
44
00:02:30.819 --> 00:02:31.620
learning languages.
45
00:02:31.780 --> 00:02:35.009
This is Dr. Emma Ushioda. She's a linguist who studies
46
00:02:35.050 --> 00:02:37.210
what motivates people to learn foreign languages.
47
00:02:37.430 --> 00:02:40.729
I think one of the main factors or influences has
48
00:02:40.810 --> 00:02:43.550
been the dominance of English as a global language.
49
00:02:43.849 --> 00:02:46.270
In the 20th century, students around the world began to
50
00:02:46.310 --> 00:02:50.000
learn English and only English. And in anglophone countries, students
51
00:02:50.060 --> 00:02:51.919
lost interest in speaking anything else.
52
00:02:52.120 --> 00:02:54.460
It's quite tragic because, you know, here in the UK,
53
00:02:54.500 --> 00:02:57.599
it means that more and more universities, every week we
54
00:02:57.639 --> 00:03:00.800
seem to hear about a university that is reducing or
55
00:03:01.099 --> 00:03:05.639
closing down its modern languages department because it's not sustainable
56
00:03:05.719 --> 00:03:09.719
as there simply aren't enough students coming into university and
57
00:03:09.759 --> 00:03:11.039
wanting to learn languages.
58
00:03:11.319 --> 00:03:14.699
In the United States, for example, since 2013 up to now,
59
00:03:16.860 --> 00:03:22.009
there have been over 650 language departments that have been
60
00:03:22.050 --> 00:03:28.490
shut down. And this is since 2013. So now with AI,
61
00:03:29.009 --> 00:03:31.930
probably the situation is going to be worse. People will
62
00:03:31.990 --> 00:03:35.930
start to ask questions like, why do we need to
63
00:03:35.990 --> 00:03:39.729
learn a second or a foreign language? Especially now, the
64
00:03:39.770 --> 00:03:44.689
bigger problem is when companies And employers have these tools
65
00:03:45.129 --> 00:03:48.860
so that they don't need to employ workforce that is
66
00:03:48.939 --> 00:03:54.819
skilled in foreign languages. Then suddenly, learning a foreign language
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will not be attractive to many people. Now, most people
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around the world learn a foreign language for what researchers
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call instrumental reasons. They expect a job at the end
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of the day. If there are no jobs, For foreign
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language graduates, then less and less people are going to
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study it.
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And some linguists are warning that could be a massive mistake.
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AI tools may seem like they can get the job done,
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but they can't replace human learning and maybe never will
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be able to. For one thing, there are basic practical
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problems with translation that AI hasn't been able to solve.
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My own language background is Japanese. And Japanese is a
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language where we tend not to be very direct. When
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we speak Japanese, a lot of the important content of
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our message is actually left unspoken, but is implied. So
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it's what we call a context-dependent language, where a lot
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of the meaning is implied, is implicit in the context
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in which we are speaking, but we don't actually have
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to express or verbalize those specific ideas. And so an
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AI is not going to help you there, because an
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AI can only base its translation on the words itself.
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you know, in the transcript or whatever. But the important
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message might not be actually verbalized in that transcript.
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And even more important shortcoming of AI translations that, well,
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it's not human.
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It is quite superficial. I used the word transactional earlier,
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and I think it is at that kind of transactional
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level where you need, you know, to get some information
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across or to understand some information, to perform some kind
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of tasks. But if you are thinking about actually wanting
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to connect with people and develop some kind of emotional connection,
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emotional bond to really understand people, build friendships, your networks,
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and feel a sense of belonging in a community where
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another language is spoken, then AI is not really going
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to help you with that. I think the other aspect
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of it in terms of why people should still learn
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languages even in the age of AI. So I'm thinking
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of Older people, so people at the sort of, you know,
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other age spectrum, you know, it's important as we grow
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older and maybe, you know, stop working and so on
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to maintain our cognitive and, you know, mental stimulation, mental
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health as well. And of course, learning a new skill
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at that age in one, you know, the older phase
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of one's life is really valuable from that point of view.
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And learning a new language could be that new skill.
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And also if you are learning a new language by
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attending classes and so on, that can also bring the
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kind of social benefits as well, which are also important. So,
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you know, that would be another reason why it's still
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important to learn languages, even in the age of AI.
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So let's go back to Yuji Beleza. I asked him
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what keeps him so interested in learning languages in the
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age of AI.
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For example, maybe in one video, like I tried to
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talk to someone i went up to the person and
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said i speak your language and then he's like why
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are you filming yeah and then he turned out to
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be a person for ebo tribe from nigeria and i
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spoke some of his language and also some a proverb
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saying like like everything is going to be fine something
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like that you know like very it's very specific but
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i remembered it so i used that and he was
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wow and then later on he invited me to uh
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eat and i took i had that on video as
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well but that's one crazy thing I had I think
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what's most important is the human connection language itself you
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don't in my perspective like I feel what's most important
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is like respecting the other person also kind of valuing
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them and that human connection is the most important just
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AI is just with robots it's just talking I mean
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it could be used as practice but the most ultimate
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aim is to like having that human connection and I
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think AI can't really give that.
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People spend a lot of time just like scrolling on
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their phone and dealing with like computers and dealing with
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screens and not actually talking to people. And then they
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see you go out there and like do exactly the opposite. It's,
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do you feel like that's kind of like your antidote to, um, being, uh,
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addicted to your phone?
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Maybe.
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Yeah.
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Thanks for saying that. You know, um, I feel, you know, like, um,
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people are on their phones a lot and we kind of,
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If you talk to the older generation, I've talked to
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a lot of older generation people, they say human connection
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has really gone down. We don't talk to as much
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people as we used to back in the day. For example,
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if you're on the train or at a restaurant, people
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used to talk to each other. Now people will eat
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while they're watching their phones. So I think that human
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connection is kind of gone. and asking people questions, for example,
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that's kind of like, you know, interest in others, interest
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in other people and culture kind of disappeared. It's all
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on their phone, all like digital. And I feel like
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what I try to do in my videos is like,
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maybe be curious in other people. I try to want,
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I want, I want people to kind of like realize
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there's other lives, the other cultures worth discovering. And maybe like,
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maybe try to talk to your neighbor or try to
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talk to your, to your, to your, person person next
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to you yeah i would say.
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And maybe what's your piece of advice for somebody who
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has never tried to learn a language before but is
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kind of setting out on that journey.
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I would say don't be afraid to make mistakes i
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make it all the time like all the time i
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make mistakes but it's just fun um the most important
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is just like have fun with it you know so
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um yeah that's that's what i would say just.
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Have fun you may not like it but your high
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school teacher was right Learning languages can be fun. And
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if there's one thing AI can't do, it's have fun.
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I'm Amin Isif in Berlin. Thanks for watching.
