In the podcast “While you worked” in the episode dealing with Israeli high-tech, it is said that to work in high-tech you must know English at a good level. It’s true… today, but… soon knowing English will not give any advantage in the field of employment as any translation app will be of a better quality than using a non-native language. So why do I learn English? For the same reason I study history – interest and development of cognitive abilities. In this post I will try to imagine how it will be possible to learn in the (not so distant) future any field, for example a language.
Ira has been learning Spanish for some time – the beginning was when we traveled around South America for six months with the help of Duolingo, a free language learning app. Then we spent several months in Barcelona and this time she attended a language school, several sessions a week, and now when we travel in non-Spanish speaking countries Ira studies with a private teacher (from Spain) once or twice a week remotely. All in all, an investment of quite a few hours a week in classes and preparing homework. I, as one who does not understand Spanish, was thrilled by the quality of the conversations in Spanish between Ira and her teacher. Now let’s turn the clock forward ten years and imagine how 12-year-old Ira learns a new language with the help of an artificial intelligence-based application in her classroom.
Ira, like all her friends, has a personal (digital) advisor who communicates with her through virtual reality glasses. In the last conversation with the educator (in the flesh), after Ira finished watching the series Don Quixote, and expressed curiosity about Spain and Spanish, the educator felt it was a good time for a new challenge, so it was agreed that Ira would start learning Spanish, a new language for her. The personal advisor (let’s call her Zaresh) offers a window of time of about an hour once every two days to study the language – the window of time chosen in the late evening hours, when Ira’s reception is at its best and there are no other people around (Ira is shy). During this time window, all communication with Zaresh is done in Spanish, even when Ira addresses her in Hebrew, Zaresh answers in Spanish.
According to Ira’s preferences – rhythmic gymnastics, comedies, nature walks, cooking… a program is being built that emphasizes the use of language in these areas, such as watching a sitcom that Ira has already seen but dubbed into Spanish, virtual trips in Spain, cooking Spanish dishes, and the like. In addition, a contact was made with a girl in England with similar interests, who is also learning Spanish and they talk once in a while. Ira and Zaresh concluded that the goal is to see the series Don Quixote in the original language within about a year.
As Ira’s command of the language improves, the content and activities are adapted to Ira’s abilities. The teacher (flesh and blood) monitors Ira’s progress from a distance and intervenes as needed, for example, when at a certain period it seemed that Ira was losing interest and skipping many lessons, or when it was necessary to enagage with other students who are also learning Spanish (Zaresh knows everything).
Now the question arises, what is the difference between the imaginary scenario described here regarding the young Ira and the way the adult Ira learns Spanish today? The difference lies in the fact that in young Ira’s class there are 30 students who study different subjects such as table tennis, programming, cooking or yoga, with most of which the educator, who is a philosophy teacher, is not familiar. Furthermore, the school does not have a Spanish or yoga or table tennis teacher and there is no need for that, because the role of the educator is not to teach but to accompany the students and instruct them when necessary.
HE