> technology is clearly going to make the idea of speaking different languages completely irrelevant
Only in certain contexts. Business, transactions, news and, to some degree, science, can all be done with machine translation already. You can literally walk into a store right now somewhere that you don't speak the language and have a full conversation with the staff using Google Translate. But once you move beyond straightforward transactional interactions, start caring about expressing feelings and experiences, or understanding diverse cultures, no translation app is going to help you. I'm not sure how relevant this is in West Virginia, because it's such a culturally homogeneous and isolated place. But in multicultural places and places near cultural borders, it's absolutely essential for harmonious relationships between cultures. What happens when people from West Virginia move to Texas or Florida and start to encounter Spanish in their daily lives? Until they learn Spanish, they're going to build cultural walls that prevent them from seeing and understanding the Spanish speaking culture around them. And that will have profound implications on society at scale.
Personally, I think language learning is important if not for practical reasons, for reasons of personal development. Everyone should become fluent in at least one language other than their native one simply for the ability to see and express different cultural perspectives.
> start caring about expressing feelings and experiences, or understanding diverse cultures
I'd add that speaking in a different language, once you get good enough at it, is just plain fun. Google translate isn't fun, and I don't think it ever will be.
Only in certain contexts. Business, transactions, news and, to some degree, science, can all be done with machine translation already. You can literally walk into a store right now somewhere that you don't speak the language and have a full conversation with the staff using Google Translate. But once you move beyond straightforward transactional interactions, start caring about expressing feelings and experiences, or understanding diverse cultures, no translation app is going to help you. I'm not sure how relevant this is in West Virginia, because it's such a culturally homogeneous and isolated place. But in multicultural places and places near cultural borders, it's absolutely essential for harmonious relationships between cultures. What happens when people from West Virginia move to Texas or Florida and start to encounter Spanish in their daily lives? Until they learn Spanish, they're going to build cultural walls that prevent them from seeing and understanding the Spanish speaking culture around them. And that will have profound implications on society at scale.
Personally, I think language learning is important if not for practical reasons, for reasons of personal development. Everyone should become fluent in at least one language other than their native one simply for the ability to see and express different cultural perspectives.