Considerable advances have been made in machine translation that utilizes artificial intelligence, to the point that it now provides the average English skill level of a university graduate.
使用人工智慧的機器翻譯已經取得很大進展，現在，它能提供一名大學生的一般英語水平。
How much might machines be able to achieve in the future? For what purpose, and to what extent, should the Japanese develop their English skills?
在未來，機器可能會實現多少?為了何種目的，到了什麼程度，日本人應該發展他們的英語技能嗎?
We asked an American translator who teaches English at a university and the president of a machine translation company about these issues.
我們諮詢了一名在大學教英語的美國譯者以及一家專注這些問題的機器翻譯公司的總裁。
Tom Gally / Professor at the University of Tokyo
湯姆.蓋利 / 東京大學教授
Until now, machine translation has been used in place of a dictionary when reading and writing English, but it hasn’t been usable to comprehend or compose larger texts.
直到現在，機器翻譯已被用作讀寫英語之時的一本字典，但它無法理解或編輯更大幅度的文本。
Machine translation using AI made its first appearance in autumn last year, and from my point of view as a translator, it’s not uncommon for English compositions produced by such machine translation to be better than those produced by unaided Japanese students.
使用人工智慧的機器翻譯於去年秋天首次亮相，作為一名譯者，我覺得並不稀奇的是，此類機器翻譯生產的英語文章比無援助的日本學生們所寫的英語文章要好。
However, it also has weak points. It can’t check for mistranslations, mistakes or languages it doesn’t understand.
然而，它也有各種弱點。它無法檢查錯譯、錯誤、或其無法理解的語言。
The accuracy of AI translation is high for relatively formal texts, but it can’t be used for things like more casual texts, conversational text within novels, and song lyrics. Further, it does not translate with a firm grasp of the meaning of the text that it is translating.
對於較為正式的文本而言，人工智慧翻譯的準確性很高，但是它不能被用於更為隨意的文本、小說中的對話文本和歌詞。此外，它無法準確翻譯其正在翻譯的文本含義。
For example, translations such as "I was born in 2001, and my younger sister was born in 2000" can occur.
例如，像「我出生於2001年，我的妹妹出生於2000年」這樣的翻譯也有可能出現。
As can be seen from mistranslation examples such as this, the ability to discriminate correctly when translating such things as words with multiple meanings in context is not fully developed yet. However, as machine translation continues to improve, I think it is just a matter of time before such problems are solved.
從這個錯譯的例子中可以看出，在翻譯文本當中具有多層意思的詞語時，其正確辨別詞義的能力還不完全成熟。然而，隨著機器翻譯的不斷改進，我認為解決這些問題只是時間問題。
Why do we currently teach English to all Japanese children? I think there are two answers to that.
我們現在為何要教所有日本孩子們英語?對此，我認為有兩個答案。
The first reason is to build character: English for general education.
第一個理由是塑造人格：通識教育類英語。
By gaining an understanding of overseas politics, economics, society and culture, and drawing comparisons with Japan, they can come to understand Japan better. Similarly, they can understand the Japanese language more deeply by comparing it with English.
通過了解海外政治、經濟、社會、和文化，並與日本進行比較，他們可以更好地了解日本。同樣地，他們也可以通過日語和英語的比較更深入地了解日語。
Using a language requires gaining an understanding of something, and the act of practicing English itself plays a role in intellectual training. These reasons apply not only to English, but could equally apply to other languages such as Chinese, Korean, Spanish or Arabic.
使用一種語言需要掌握一些東西，練習英語本身對智力訓練起重要作用。這些原因不僅適僅用於英語，也適用於其它語言，例如漢語、朝鮮語、西班牙語或阿拉伯語。
The second reason is that English is useful. It has practical uses, and allows global communication.
第二個理由是英語是有用的。它有著實際用處，並且允許全球溝通。
There are a wide variety of business uses for English, and it can also be used to communicate with foreigners visiting Japan. It further allows people to gather information from overseas reports. Ever since the Meiji period the original and main aim of Japanese people learning English has been to learn about overseas technologies.
英語有著各種各樣的商業用途，它也可以被用來與訪日的外國人進行交流。它還允許人們從海外報告中收集信息。自明治時期以來，日本人學習英語的初衷和主要目的就是學習海外技術。
Another reason is to enable them to communicate with foreigners about themselves or Japan. Yet another reason is for entrance exams, and for English proficiency and TOEIC exams and qualifications.
另一個原因是英語能讓他們與外國人談論他們自己或日本。此外就是入學考試、英語水平、託業考試和資格考試。
（編輯：何瑩瑩）