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If you come to Australia, you should learn to speak Australian (multiverse.soulism.net)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/unpopularopinion@lemmy.world
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I can't stand immigrants who come here from England, and after SEVEN GENERATIONS, still only speak English. Anglos need to assimilate and learn to hold a conversation in the local Indigenous language.

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[–] [S] 5 points 4 months ago (1 child)

I think UTs are bad for society because they make us less likely to question our linguistic biases.

Language is ontology. I've been learning the local Indigenous language, alongside Aboriginal metaphysics, history, culture, and law. Aboriginal language helps Me change My perception of the world around Me, by rephrasing daily life. With new words come new perceptions. I can't learn everything I've been learning at the same depth in English. A universal translator would stunt that development.

And I think that effect isn't just academic, it's societal. A whole world of monolingual people using UTs would be a world of people who don't know how to question the preconceptions that their language encourages. It would be a less intelligent, more culturally stagnant world.

Worse, under capitalism a UT would probably be controlled by corporations. Give corporations control of language itself, and society will decay. We're already seeing the start of this with words like "unalive" that develop from corporate censorship. UTs deployed en masse would provide new opportunities for propaganda and control. Imagine an immigrant in a new country who doesn't bother learning the local language, and just trusts Grok or ChatGPT to translate everything. It would be a good world for billionaires and a bad world for people.

I dread the day society integrates UTs into daily life.

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  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago

    It seems like your fears are based in capitalism and then smeared over universal translators. There are thousands of unique languages. And people will learn the languages that allow them to converse with the most people. The only recourse left to people then is to pick a one (or, if they are lucky, a handful of) language(s) to learn. Without some universal translation, those fringe languages will be crushed and homogenized into the nearest/largest lingua franca because it's economical. Or they will remain isolated and become more a scholastic toy than a living language.

    This comment also assumes learning a language naturally will be...outlawed(?) once universal translators are on the scene. It's very pessimistic in a way that is almost misanthropic. It presumes humans will use it only and precisely in the worst ways possible: to specifically refuse engagement with other cultures, to stunt their intellectual growth. When people already don't engage with other cultures or seek true intellectual or even emotional growth, because of the strictures of daily life.

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