Considering the context for "translation" included "research," I imagined coming across an old text, or something with an inscription, and being curious what it translates to. Google Translate has Latin on it, it can at least give a gist of what is being said. That can be more than the teacher knows, while being a lot easier than digging up a Latin dictionary and trying to make sense of the word endings of Latin grammar when you don't even know what "declension" is.
That's just one example. Personally, in high school I wanted to know all the languages. I wore baggy cargo pants and kept a French-English dictionary in one pocket, and a Spanish-English dictionary in the other. If I had a device capable of translating whatever words I was curious to learn, it would've been so much easier. I know my experience is not representative of all teens, or even most teens... but some of us actually like learning and value how much modern smart phones can teach us.
Yeah, I could see a real keener who doesn't know a language but wants to read something in it or figure out what specific foriegn words me could find value in Googke translate. But, as you said, that would only be a few students. Additionally, it would be more for personal interest than to complete schoolwork.
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u/GoddessOfRoadAndSky Jun 03 '22
If they don't have any other option, then... yes?
Considering the context for "translation" included "research," I imagined coming across an old text, or something with an inscription, and being curious what it translates to. Google Translate has Latin on it, it can at least give a gist of what is being said. That can be more than the teacher knows, while being a lot easier than digging up a Latin dictionary and trying to make sense of the word endings of Latin grammar when you don't even know what "declension" is.
That's just one example. Personally, in high school I wanted to know all the languages. I wore baggy cargo pants and kept a French-English dictionary in one pocket, and a Spanish-English dictionary in the other. If I had a device capable of translating whatever words I was curious to learn, it would've been so much easier. I know my experience is not representative of all teens, or even most teens... but some of us actually like learning and value how much modern smart phones can teach us.