Is the foreign languages sector saturated with too many people?.





   The  answer  to  the  above  question  is  an  absolute  NO. The  foreign  language  sector  isn’t  saturated  with  too  many  people. And  I  doubt  if  it  ever  will. You  see, one  can  never  eliminate  the  need  for  people/professionals  who  are  conversant  in  different  languages. As  much  as  automization  is  moving  rapidly  across  all  industries, it’s  impossible  to  eliminate  the  human  element. For  example, I  struggle  to  envision, or  imagine  flight  attendants  being  robots. Also, consider  a  sport  like  football  which  calls  for  real  time  communication  by  the  referees  and  linesmen  with  the  players. It’s  not  unusual  for  teams  to  have  players  drawn  from  across  different  countries/regions  where  different  languages  are  spoken. Can  you  imagine  a  robot  teaching  a  Spanish  course?. Languages  are  as  old  as  humanity  itself, and  they  are  going  nowhere. These  are  some  of  the  many  examples  that  I  think  would  present  situations  where  it  would  be  impossible  to  replace  the  human  aspect. As  much  as  robots  are  useful, they  cannot  communicate  emotions  and  empathy, something  that  human  beings  are  capable  of  doing. Therefore, if  your  fear  was  based  on  the  argument  that  the  foreign  language  field  is  somehow  full  of  professionals  and  there’s  no  room  for  more  people, you  can  now  rest  assured  that  linguists  and  languages  are  here  to  stay. So, go  ahead  and  start  on  that  language  course. The  rewards  are  great  and  the  opportunities  are  many.

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