Two days ago, I sent a news article to a friend in Japan. She informed me that a software immediately translated the Dutch texts into Japanese, and that she had no problem understanding the article. Part of me was glad that the language barriers are low these days. That people do not have to go through too much trouble to share and understand information that are presented in foreign languages. But part of me is a bit sad that we do not have the need to learn each other’s languages.

When I was in my first year of college in Malaysia, I had an instructor who taught communication. The man cannot spell, even if his life had depended on it. One day during our lesson, a frustrated classmate spoke up and asked the instructor how he ever got through school and life when he never bothered with his spellings. The instructor shamelessly uttered two words: Spell check.

There you go. Computers, smart phones, AIs… We no longer need our brains?!