AI-Laoshi Will See You Now: How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming Chinese Language Learning

In our careers as teachers, we have cycled between embracing change while loudly proclaiming that [Insert New Technology Here] will ruin the classroom experience, doom a generation to intellectual oblivion, and possibly lead to the collapse of civilization. What can I say? Teachers can be an excitable lot, prone to excessive consumption of caffeine.

Whether it was television ("Students won't know how to read anymore!") or computers ("Students won't know how to write and do math anymore!"), to the dawn of the Internet age ("Students are just going to copy stuff from online and pass it off as their own!"), to Wikipedia ("Students are just going to copy stuff from online written by a guy who lives in his parents' basement and pass it off as their own!"), to AI ("Students are just going to ask the machine to do their work for them!"), to whatever comes next...

But in this episode, Jeremiah and David try to do a few deep knee bends and discuss, as soberly as possible with this lot, what the latest technology means for the classroom, research, and language learning. How do we teach Chinese when near-perfect translations are waiting on their mobile phones? How do we as teachers and researchers integrate AI into our professional lives while seeking ways to put guardrails on students using the same technology in the classroom?

AI might be the greatest learning tool for students of Chinese since Pleco, but how do we keep the focus on the ultimate goal: connecting with actual humans, not impressing silicon tutors?

It's an episode for Chinese language students, language teachers, study abroad administrators, those of us who live and work in China, and anyone wondering if robots will eventually make them fluent in Mandarin.