In 1977, when Zhao Yi took the college entrance examination, English was actually only required for special majors, and many majors did not require English.
However, after 1983, major domestic universities have included English as a required subject for the college entrance examination, so English has also been included as one of the major subjects in middle and high school education.
Of course, there was no problem with this before. Since our country wants to integrate its economy into the world, it must learn other people's languages, and English is indeed the world's universal communication language.
This plays a very important role in our country's economic development, especially when our country's trade becomes increasingly dependent on foreign markets.
But this was before, and the current situation is very different from before. The difference is that Zhao Yi has developed rudimentary artificial intelligence and at the same time developed an intelligent translation expert with an accuracy rate of 99.99%.
Now that we have such an artifact in hand, the need to master English is not as strong as before. This is Zhao Yi's view. If we can use technological means to achieve our goals, why bother ourselves.
In fact, the teaching videos recorded by Tianwen University include English, and the relevant intelligent teaching courses submitted to the Ministry of Education by Chinese education companies also include English.
However, in the relevant statement materials submitted by China Education Company, it is planned to use English as an elective subject, rather than as a required subject for majors as it is now. This is what Wang Huaijun said, and it is an issue that needs to be dealt with by Zhao Yi personally.
Because the Ministry of Education has objections to Zhao Yi's suggestion, it does not agree with Zhao Yi's change of English education in the compulsory education stage from a compulsory main course to an elective course, which is contrary to the country's development policy.
At present, Zhao Yi has not publicly demonstrated it in other places except for the application of intelligent translation experts in Tianwenshe. As a result, the Ministry of Education does not understand the current extent of the development of translation technology.
To be honest, although everyone has learned English in the past life, the number of people who actually use this skill is very small. As time goes by, only a few people can fully understand an 800-word English article. .
Those who can communicate fluently in English are only a minority among the minority, and this takes up about one-third of students' learning time in compulsory education.
In Zhao Yi's view, instead of using so much time to learn a language that will not be used much in the future, it is better to increase learning efforts in Chinese education, which is more meaningful to the cultural inheritance of our country.
Just like in previous lives, some people may speak fluent English, but their Chinese proficiency cannot be complimented. Not to mention that writing is like scratching chicken feet. Even for many ancient texts, no one can explain why.
As a result, most students in our country have only a superficial knowledge of Chinese and have not reached the level of cultural inheritance. Among so many university graduates, only a handful can be said to be proficient in the native language.
In Zhao Yi's opinion, this is indeed a bit regretful. As a Chinese, he is not proficient in his own language. Some people even write a sentence that is full of loopholes, let alone write it aesthetically.
This is the main reason why Zhao Yi wants to reduce the compulsory main course of English to an elective, because from now on, communication between people will no longer be so difficult, and it is not worth spending so much energy on learning.
Of course, for those researchers who study Western culture, they still need to be proficient in English, otherwise they will not be able to have a deep understanding of the culture of these English-speaking countries.
But for most people, as long as they can communicate, it doesn't matter whether they are proficient or not. And this group of people can completely devote their energy to other subjects such as Chinese, mathematics, and science.
Moreover, everyone actually has a huge difference in talent for a certain language. Some people learn science and feel like a god, but they are not talented enough in language.
If English is still included as a compulsory subject in the college entrance examination as before, then these students who are seriously partial to subjects will not have a chance to go to university, at least not to the top universities in the country, which is a pity.
In fact, China Education Company did not know the situation on Zhao Yi's side. He just followed Zhao Yi's instructions and suggested in the relevant documents submitted to the Ministry of Education that English should be removed from the required subjects for admission to higher education and changed to an optional subject.
In fact, in our country's education system, if it is changed to an elective, then basically no one will spend much energy to learn it, which is equivalent to abolishing the English subject.
However, the reason why it has not been completely abolished is because there are still a large number of formulas and theorems expressed in English in the current natural sciences. Students should at least know the 26 letters such as A, B, and C.
Not only that, in the smart courses submitted by the Chinese education company, Zhao Yi also deliberately added the learning content of ancient Chinese literature, hoping to change the dilemma of many people who cannot even speak fluent Chinese.
Regarding the questions raised by Wang Huaijun, Zhao Yi said that he knew about it and would deal with it personally. At the same time, he also invited Wang Huaijun to his home to show him what the fully proficient natural language intelligent translation system is.
Wang Huaijun, who was invited, immediately followed Zhao Yi to Prince Gong's Mansion after the progress meeting, wanting to hear about the intelligent translation system that Zhao Yi said was quite magical.
Although what Zhao Yi said was miraculous, Wang Huaijun didn't really believe it in his heart. This was partly the result of his knowledge system.
Because it is impossible to achieve the translation effect Zhao mentioned with current technology. Wang Huaijun is also a scholar and has some knowledge of the trends in the world's scientific and technological circles. He has not discovered any relevant technological trends in this area.
On the other hand, Wang Huaijun joined Zhao Yi for a short time, and the time he spent with Zhao Yi was even shorter. Moreover, he had never seen Zhao Yi’s research and development capabilities, and he didn’t have much understanding of the black technology born in Zhao Yi’s hands. .
If he were the president of other high-tech companies such as Fanxing Software Company, he would definitely trust Zhao Yi unconditionally, because Zhao Yi had demonstrated his R&D capabilities to them countless times before.
In their opinion, Zhao Yi's knowledge is unfathomable, and his research and development strength is endless. As long as they have needs, no problem can stump Zhao Yi.
This was the impression Zhao Yi left on them, so if Zhao Yi wanted them to develop something, they would never say it was impossible. Although they might not have any ideas, they would at least give it a try.
Because they know that if they really encounter problems and bottlenecks, they can definitely solve the problem by asking their boss for help. Zhao Yi is their strong backing on the research and development road.
After Wang Huaijun followed Zhao Yi to Prince Gong's Mansion, Zhao Yi directly turned on the computer and dragged an English academic paper into a software in front of Wang Huaijun. Within two seconds, it prompted that the generation was complete.
When Zhao Yi downloaded the generated professional papers and opened them, he found that they were all in Chinese. Wang Huaijun, who was watching from the side, immediately widened his eyes and stared at the Chinese papers on the computer screen.
"How about it? The translation software I developed has an accuracy rate of more than 99.99% in professional translation. It can be said that it is much better than ordinary professional translators." Zhao Yi said with a smile.
"It's really amazing. I just compared it and the translation is completely accurate. If I were to translate it, I might not be able to do it better than this software." Wang Huaijun said while watching.
After looking at the translated professional papers, Wang Huaijun personally translated several English professional papers one after another and found that the translated Chinese papers fully met or even exceeded his expectations.
With this powerful tool, students in higher education in the future will not have to work so hard to learn foreign scientific and technological knowledge, and it will indeed save them time in language learning.
But this is just text translation. Learning a foreign language is not only used for professional translation work, but also for communication, which is more important than professional translation.
Zhao Yi seemed to know what Wang Huaijun was thinking. After Wang Huaijun tried to translate the paper several times, he opened another software. This software was natural language speech intelligent translation software.
There is a big difference between this natural language speech intelligent translation software and the intelligent translation expert just now, that is, this speech translation software is very small compared to the intelligent translation expert.
This point is very important. Now, unlike in later generations, mobile Internet is everywhere. If the voice software cannot be made small enough, it cannot be actually used in relevant application scenarios.
Of course, the reason why this intelligent voice translation software is so small is that it sacrifices part of its accuracy, but this is only for professional terms. If it is a daily conversation, the accuracy rate is still over 99.99%.
But if it comes to professional voice translation, the accuracy rate is only about 90%, and the gap is very obvious compared to intelligent translation experts.
The reason for the huge gap here is that this convenient intelligent voice translation software does not require the establishment of a large number of language databases, but a natural language translation processing algorithm specially developed by Zhao Yi.
In other words, this intelligent voice software only stores the basic vocabulary and language structure of the relevant language, and then uses intelligent algorithms to automatically generate relevant translation voices based on these two basic data.
When data samples are significantly reduced, it is inevitable that the accuracy rate will decline. Just like humans, the more we know about the various characteristics of things, the deeper our understanding of the matter will be.
However, in Zhao Yi's opinion, this intelligent voice translation software has no problem at all in dealing with daily communication, and is even more accurate than most professional language students.
It is entirely possible to use this compact intelligent voice translation software to develop an intelligent translation hardware product and sell it to the outside world. This related work has been handed over to Polaris Company.
It's just that it's still in the research and development stage. If it comes out, the Ministry of Education will probably understand why Zhao Yi asked to change English from a compulsory main course to an elective course.
Wang Huaijun was currently speaking various words into the microphone, and what came out from the speakers were various English translations that had been translated. In such a short period of time, no problems were found at all.
Although the translated speech lacks personalized translation, the meaning expressed is contained in it, and there will be no obvious deviation in semantics after translation. This is enough.
If you really want to achieve personalized translation or imitate various tones, you need to connect to a professional voice translation in the background. It is impossible to do this with such a small software.
To be honest, Zhao Yi does not intend to launch too high-end voice translation software or products. The best thing is of course reserved for himself, and this compact intelligent voice translation software is enough for the outside world.
Just like Zhao Yi's products for Hengchen Technology Company, in terms of language processing, they are no different from real people, and have more advantages. Of course, such black technology should be reserved for yourself, and the benefits it will bring to you will be even greater. .
After Wang Huaijun finished the test, he exclaimed: "It's incredible. Has technology developed to this extent now? How many people in the field will be eliminated in the future?"
In response to Wang Huaijun's second question, Zhao Yi said with a smile: "It's not that the world's technology has developed to this level, but that my technology here has developed to this level. There is a very big difference between the two.
It’s hard to say how many jobs will be replaced by machines in the future, but there is a high probability that they will not be introduced all at once, but will slowly integrate people with technology. In this case, it will not cause too much disruption* *. "
There was another sentence at the end that Zhao Yi did not say. Of course, black technology products of this level can only be used by oneself. Otherwise, how can one widen the gap between one's own industry and that of others.
After this demonstration, Wang Huaijun became more confident in persuading the Ministry of Education to cancel the compulsory major in English. Again, the time cost of learning English is not proportional to the benefits gained.
On the same day, Zhao Yi called the leaders of the Ministry of Education and said that he would go to the Ministry of Education tomorrow to conduct an on-site defense on the cancellation of the English major subject qualifications. He hoped that they could summon relevant personnel to attend the meeting.
Early the next morning, Zhao Yi packed himself up and then drove to the office building of the Ministry of Education.
When I came to the conference room, I found that the place was filled with many education experts and representatives from various universities. The cancellation of English major subjects in the compulsory education stage also involves the issue of university admissions.
If the university ignores the fact that English is a main course in compulsory education and still takes English into consideration when enrolling students, it will definitely cause Zhao Yi's plan to fall short.
Because in the compulsory education stage, no matter how much emphasis is placed on the importance of independent development, the hurdle of the college entrance examination cannot be circumvented, and the admission subject requirements of each university cannot be circumvented.
After the meeting started, as usual, the leader first delivered the keynote speech of the meeting. Because the main role in this meeting was still Zhao Yi, the leader simply gave some explanations and left time to Zhao Yi.
Zhao walked to the stage, picked up the microphone, tried the microphone, and then said: "The purpose of this meeting is to explain why the qualifications for compulsory main courses such as English and other foreign languages in compulsory education should be cancelled.
We all know that in the past few years, the country has included English as a compulsory subject for majors on the same level as Chinese and mathematics. At that time, this was in line with the requirements of my country's reform and opening up and was a measure in line with the interests of my country's development.
No matter in the past or in the future, if our country wants to participate in international competition, English and other foreign languages are unavoidable and are the basic languages that we must master. "
When the audience heard this, there was a sudden buzz. It was not that the scholars and experts in the audience were unqualified, but that what Zhao Yi said was completely contrary to the theme of his speech today, leaving them confused for a moment.
Zhao Yi also noticed the situation in the audience, smiled, raised his hand to signal for silence, and then said: "I also know that these words are completely contrary to the purpose of my speech today.
There is a reason why I say this, because English will play an important role in our country's economic and trade development for a long time to come. This is an irrefutable fact.
Unless our country's economy becomes the largest in the world and our country's technology is also the world's largest, then others will start to learn our language. This priority relationship is entirely determined by strength.
We need English to communicate internationally, but it does not mean that we must spend a lot of time learning English.
At least in my opinion, most people in our country may not be able to use a few words of English in their lives, which results in a serious mismatch between giving and receiving.
Maybe those of you who are doing this think that I am fanciful. I don’t want to spend time and work hard to learn English, but I also want to use English to communicate with the world. This is contradictory in itself.
Let me explain here that I think there is no problem with this sentence, because we have ignored one fact, and that is the power of technology.
When technology can do something for us, it can completely liberate humans from it and let machines do things for us that we don’t want to do or don’t need to do. "
Having said this, Zhao Yi completely ignored the comments below, but went to the computer next to him, inserted the large-capacity USB flash drive in his hand, and then clicked on an icon directly.
Said: "This is the English-Chinese intelligent translation software that I have developed after a long period of research and development, and the accuracy of daily communication has reached 99%."
When he said this sentence, the loudspeaker at the scene had already started to repeat this sentence in English, and then Zhao Yi continued: "Don't you think it's amazing that what I just said can be translated on the spot, And there's basically nothing wrong with it.
This is the power of this intelligent voice translation software. This is the power of technology. This is what I want to say. When machines can replace certain human abilities, we should decisively learn the knowledge that machines cannot replace. . "
When he said these words, the intelligent voice translation software translated them on the spot, and he still used a pure London accent, which was much fluent in spoken English than the experts who were doing it.
“What I said before is not that we don’t need English, but that we don’t need to learn English, at least we don’t need students across the country to devote a lot of time to learning it.
If there are students who really like to study European and American history and culture, they can study it specifically at the university level. This will be more targeted and can also release the energy of other students to learn other professional knowledge that is more needed.
Moreover, this intelligent translation software can not only translate English, but also almost all mainstream languages in the world. In the future, with this translation software, there will be no communication barriers in international trade.
This intelligent translation software is not a test product. In no more than two months, Polaris will officially launch related hardware products based on this language translation software.
At that time, everyone here is welcome to purchase and taste it. If you have any good suggestions, we will humbly accept them. Thank you everyone! "
The people who attended the meeting originally thought that there would be fierce arguments at the meeting. After all, they were already mentally prepared for this.
As a result, the entire meeting lasted less than half an hour, and was completely ended by Zhao Yi's set of tricks.
The people here are all experts and scholars. Many of them have been abroad and studied abroad. They can still distinguish the quality of the words they just translated. They are no worse than most of their translations, and the wording is better than theirs. Be more rigorous.
If it is as good as it is, as Zhao Yi said, there is no need for students across the country to spend a lot of energy on learning skills that are destined to be replaced by machines.
This kind of work can be completed by machines in the future, saving time and energy to learn knowledge and skills that cannot be replaced by machines for the time being.
After Zhao Yi finished his speech, many experts and scholars were invited to the stage to conduct on-site testing of this intelligent language translation software, allowing them to experience the power of technology on the spot.
After these experts and scholars conducted on-site testing, they all dispelled the remaining doubts in their hearts. This is real and not used by Zhao Yi to deceive people.
Of course, in the face of such a big deal, Zhao Yi would not dare to lie no matter how bold he was, otherwise he would be in trouble after being exposed.
How could Zhao Yi do such an unwise thing? Those experts who did not go up to test it themselves thought so, and they did not believe that Zhao Yi would use this method.
Moreover, many experts at the scene had participated in the Q&A meeting on Tianwen University's undergraduate textbooks, and many of them had been slapped in the face by Zhao Yi on the spot. This time they were much more cautious.
After testing by many experts and scholars, it is determined that this language translation software is indeed capable of daily communication tasks, and it can also translate obscure and difficult content to make it understandable to the other party, even if it is not serious. .
This is enough, at least for most people. As for professional things, it is better to leave them to professional translators.
To be honest, they are really afraid that Zhao Yi will develop software that exceeds the level of professional translators, so that they may face unemployment, and their students will also encounter this problem.
For them, translation software of this level is "enough".
After this meeting, Zhao Yi no longer paid attention to this issue, and left all remaining matters to China Education Company to handle.
A few days later, Wang Huaijun called and Zhao Yi's proposal was approved by the Ministry of Education. From now on, English will only be an elective course in the compulsory education stage, with only two classes per week. (End of chapter)