The newsletter is up, and the podcast is live:

It was time for me to mention something about generative AI and language learning. Things have changed so dramatically from when I started studying Japanese 25 years ago, and even at that point I think it was already unrecognizable to people who started studying 50 years ago. Electronic dictionaries and computers must have felt like a total cheat code that would undermine students’ ability to learn the language. And I’m sure it has reduced the number of non-native speakers who are writing kanji at a decent level. Heck, the Nikkei reported on Japanese feeling unable to write kanji back in 2012.

But the change does seem to be speeding up. SRS was an interesting mix to the loop, and I’d argue a beneficial one that has probably contributed to improved learning outcomes, but technologies like SRS and electronic dictionaries/computers seem different from generative AI. An electronic dictionary or SRS isn’t looking to replace the fundamental effort of doing the language. They do ease some friction, but you could say the same thing about a kanji dictionary, which I guess some old Japan hands must’ve been cursing back in the nineteenth century: “Why look up a kanji when you could spend decades living on a small island off the coast of Nagasaki to truly understand the language?”

AI does the language for students. It asks the question, “Why learn the language at all?” And when students get stuck and reach for a gen AI solution, they are implicitly answering that question with, “I don’t need to learn the language.”

I would caution students (especially new students) to be extremely careful with your use of generative AI. Can you avoid using it for at least the first three years of study? If I were a Japanese teacher, that’s what I would do to challenge my students. Commit to the language for three years without any AI assistance at the very least. Give yourself a strong foundation, and understand what it means to fail and the necessity of failure to build future success.

Reassess after three years, and at that point, you might find that you’re comfortable with the pain of language study and don’t need AI after all.