There's no doubt that technology is advancing all the time. However, that doesn't mean it's taking over the world the way everyone seems to think.

I want to be a translator – particularly for film scripts. It seems that every time I tell people that, they respond, "Well pretty soon we won't need human translators. There's technology for that!" Most likely, these people are referring to Google Translate or those new earpieces that supposedly translate spoken language for you.

First of all, online translators like Google Translate are not as accurate as some might think. People think they're a perfect scapegoat when enrolled in a mandatory foreign language class, but in high school, I had a handful of classmates get caught using translators. Why? Because they aren't all that accurate.

Malinda Kathleen Reese has a feature on YouTube called "Google Translate Sings" where she inserts the lyrics to certain songs through several layers of Google Translate and then puts the words back to English. She then performs the songs with the new lyrics provided.

Since Pokemon is a rather big deal right now, I think I'll share this with you.

Obviously, after watching that video, you can see that language is a very complex concept. Not all words are translatable. Also, there are certain figures of speech that, when literally translated, don't make sense. It takes a highly-qualified, complex, human mind to translate properly. On top of that, translation devices need to be developed by, you guessed it, linguists and translators.

Mechanical translators don't understand the concept of, audience, passive voice or slang words. If you say something is cool, meaning awesome, they will probably try to translate it as cool, meaning, cold. If you say the word "you" they will interpret that as, directly and singularly, "you" even if you kind of meant it in a general way. Have you ever said "you" in a formal essay and gotten docked for it? That's what I mean -- it doesn't understand your intent. In Spanish (and probably other languages), there are plural forms of the word "you" so since it can't read the situation, its translation will probably be wrong.

The phrase to "kill two birds with one stone" might translate literally, but a native Spanish speaker will not understand because figures of speech are different in each culture/language. I don't know Japanese, but the part in the video above when it says, "a fly in the ointment" might even have something to do with figures of speech that pertain to Japanese language and culture. However, the translated version doesn't make sense to me because I live in the United States and only speak English and Spanish.

What if I told someone with a Ph.D in physics that we don't need legitimate physicists anymore because we have things like Wolfram Alpha and calculators? What if everyone used WebMD instead of getting actual advice from a real human doctor? Yeah, technology is advancing, but it will always have its faults.

Stop delegitimizing my skills and choice of profession because you obviously don't know enough about linguistics to make that judgment in the first place. Even though technology is a big part of society, it can't take the place of legitimate human knowledge and experience.

P.S.

Even if you have one of those ear translators, how are you supposed to communicate back to the person unless the other person has one, too? Your artificial conversation would be a mess.