If AirPods instantly translate, then why learn a language?

INRECENT WEEKS, Apple’s Live Translation for the latest iPhone and AirPods models has been everywhere.

- HOSSAM ELSHERBINY GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

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LANGUAGE classes and labs build lessons around the things Apple's Live Translation can't teach.

The pitch is simple: Two people speaking different languages can understand each other instantly. In the same season, Congress moved to trim federal support for international and area studies under Title VI, and agencies have begun signaling tighter priorities. The timing is coincidence, but the juxtaposition invites a tempting mistake: that live translation technology means we can spend less on language education.

But live translation doesn’t equal understanding. What matters in real encounters is how something is said and what it signals: respect, doubt, humor. Even flawless live translation carries the words, not the relationship. In real world settings, meaning lives in tone, register, dialect and trust — capacities that are taught and practiced, not downloaded.

I direct four critical-language programs at Rice University and have taught second languages my entire adult life, so I see up close what’s at stake — for students, public institutions and the communities they serve. In today’s classrooms and budget meetings, I hear the same story: that we can outsource language learning to devices and allocate funds elsewhere. That story misunderstands what language learning builds, and mistakes a gadget’s value in the real world.