Say Good Bye to Language barriers ( ili device ), is it the end of our learning languages?

“…I was astonished by the making of new device that is called ili, and will start to be distributing by the company in June 2017, there is a video which I saw that show how the device works, where you just say the sentence you wanted, and then it will be translated into the targeted language, it is made for travelers only so far…”

These devices will be useful to tourists and to some business people - those folks whose interest in any given language is narrowly limited to practical communication.

Any suggestion that they would replace language learning for people who have a deeper interest in a language, its culture, literature, etc, would be a complete non sequitur, IMO.

It’s a bit like suggesting people who are passionate about off-road mountain biking may stop doing so because it’s quicker to travel to work by car!

Of course, even people who are only interested in the practical communicative aspect (‘the guy who cycles to work’, if you will) may very well choose to continue doing so - just because they like it.