The case for learning a second language: Counterargument

Introduction

Translation software is now good enough that a traveller can order a meal, read a sign and hold a rough conversation without speaking a word of the local language. It is reasonable to ask what is left of the argument for spending years learning one properly.

First argument

The first thing translation cannot give you is the ability to listen. A conversation runs faster than any device can mediate, and the moment you need a phone between you and another person, you are no longer really in the conversation. You are receiving a summary of it, slightly late.

Second argument

The second is that languages are not simply different labels for the same set of ideas. Some distinctions one language insists on, another leaves to context, and learning where those lines fall teaches you something about your own language that you cannot see from the inside of it.