In the past two years, AI has been in a mess. Moreover, many colleges and universities have begun to accept the influence of AI, and even opened some AI-related majors to adapt to the changes of the times.
But you may not have expected that in the wave of AI, the first wave of professions that cannot follow the footsteps of new technologies will be eliminated.
And the first to bear the brunt is the language major. Under the wave of artificial intelligence, the problem of language translation is being overcome. The advent of various intelligent translation devices has made cross-language communication more and more accessible. The rapid development of this technology has directly put it in an embarrassing situation for traditional foreign language majors.
Deokseong Women's University, a well-known university in Seoul, South Korea, announced that it will stop recruiting French and German majors from next year, a decision that has been speculated in the industry to be the first major to be eliminated by the times after the emergence of AI.
Deoksung Women's University, which has a history of 100 years in South Korea, is known for its humanistic heritage and rigorous teaching style. However, in the face of the development of the times, we must also consider the great changes in the modern education environment. According to the university, the suspension of enrollment of French and German majors is mainly due to multiple factors such as the decline in the number of students, changes in the educational environment, and changes in educational needs brought about by the intelligent era.
In fact, this decision of Decheng Women's University is not an isolated case. In Seoul, and in South Korea as a whole, many universities have begun to reduce or eliminate foreign language majors in recent years. According to statistics, the number of language majors at four-year universities in South Korea has plummeted by one-fifth over the past five years, and the number of students enrolled in language majors has also fallen by 18% year-on-year. Behind this trend is the far-reaching impact of the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology on the needs of social occupations. And this trend actually exists in China, for example, the weakening of English now also has the influence of this factor.
Language itself is a tool, can be used to solve the problem of language barrier, except for a few foreign Chinese language and literature researchers and professional technicians, most people only need basic nouns and conversation is enough, these functions can now be solved with electronic products, even the Internet is not needed.
According to Korean media sources, in South Korea's job market, students majoring in cutting-edge technologies such as mechanical engineering and life engineering are significantly more popular, and their employment rate and annual salary are generally higher than those of humanities students. South Korea's large enterprises such as Samsung and Hyundai are more inclined to recruit talents in semiconductors, automobiles, electronics and other specialties. At the same time, there seems to be a gradual decline in the focus on humanities majors.
According to statistics, between 2019 and 2021, the number of humanities majors at universities in the Seoul area decreased by a full 17, while the number of new engineering majors reached 23 during the same period. This increase and decrease undoubtedly reflects the new trend of Korean higher education in the era of intelligence.
However, the Korean academic community generally believes that although artificial intelligence technology has made significant progress and development in related fields, the heritage, emotion, connotation and creativity contained in the humanities are irreplaceable by any technology. Therefore, how to actively evaluate the contribution of the humanities in the process of economic and social development and find new breakthroughs for it has become an urgent problem for the education community in Korea and even in the world.
Author's point of view:
It remains to be seen whether this trend will emerge domestically in the next step. However, in any case, the general trend is that foreign languages are less important. Now domestic universities have begun to lower the foreign language category. Many years ago, CET-4 began to be unlinked to the graduation certificate.
Of course, positions that require "hard skills" are easy to be replaced, such as design and technology, but it is not easy to need "soft skills", such as communication skills, coordination skills, organizational skills, management skills, emotional support skills, etc., don't you say?