Independent Post 2

                                                            Bilingualism
        Technology advances as time progresses. As time goes by, more and more computer programs get written. More scientific discoveries are made. The world globalizes. Everyone uses many different language. Westerners widely use English, people from China use Chinese, people from Japan use Japanese. These are just few examples of languages different people use. The world globalizes. People gather to share and discuss ideas. Communication is bound to be an issue. Therefore, it is advised that we be bilingual. This would enable us to speak in two different languages, making it easier to communicate with others who knows the language. However, there are so many languages which one can choose to learn. With the advancement of technology, and with programs like Google Translate, being bilingual may not be necessary.
        As technology advances, no doubt these translation programs become more and more sophisticated. Google may even create a device like the iPod, mobile and fast, with the sole intention to translate. This device can detect through the sound waves, what is being said. From there, a translation to the selected language would be displayed on the screen. This would allow fast and efficient communication with people of other languages, without even knowing the langauge.
         Such technology has its down sides too. There is a lot of noise in places like supermarkets and the wet markets. Such devices which detect sound waves may be inefficient, as there are many sound waves picked up by the device. Also, if no one learns each other language, as more things are discovered, more words are invented. The words stored in the device may become irrelevant, which would result in a disability to communicate.
         Therefore I feel that there is still a need to learn at least the basics of the language. With translation devices and certain rules for pronunciation of words, I feel that it is no problem to every now and then check Google translate for the exact meaning of the more difficult words. At first, it may seem inconvenient to repeatedly take out the device and keeping it again just to translate 1 or 2 words. However, after some time of usage, you may start to pick up the language, without having to read textbooks and go for language lessons. The day may come when such a thing happens but for now, technology is not advanced enough. Textbooks and lessons still need to be conducted, and languages still need to be learnt.