What kind of sparks will be struck if the concept of Big Data is applied in languages? Some people believe that language is the most flexible discipline in the world, because a word can have different meanings from different perspectives. It is difficult to see the connection between Big Data and language translation.

Wu Hequan, academician from Chinese Academy of Engineering, says that through the use of Big Data, we can analyze the meanings that a person is trying to express in different languages. "Microsoft is planning to develop a phone with 26-language translation. In the future, if you speak Chinese on the phone, your overseas friends will be able to choose the English mode on the phone and listen to the conversation in English. You may not need to struggle to learn foreign languages in the future."

Professor Victor Schonberg, author of Big Data Era says that achieving automatic translation online lies in a correlation analysis between big data. He cites the case of the company Duolingo. Duolingo has developed a free language learning website and translation crowdsourcing platform to gather a lot of data from individuals. Through big data analysis, it can identify differences between the languages and different ways of thinking. Applied to translation, this analysis will greatly improve accuracy and efficiency.

Victor Schonberg believes that big data is a high quality solution to breaking down language barriers. Improving the capability of data analysis will bring accessible worldwide communication. 

This article is edited and translated from 未来可能不用苦苦学外语了, Source: China Youth Daily