Language Learning Is Dead, Long Live Language Learning!

“In the future, noone will have to learn languages,” my grandpa said and adjusted his ski goggles. “With the help of technology you’ll one day be able to speak and understand every tongue on earth.”

We were inching our way up over a steep ridge deep in the French Alps, the chair lift swaying and creaking in the icy headwind.

“Perhaps for translating single words,” I said, thinking of my recent failed attempts to use Yahoo’s Babelfish for my French homework. “But a machine wi...