This reason alone is unlikely to provide sufficient motivation to keep grinding away. Language acquisition can be a slog even though it's (eventually) super rewarding.
Let's put the question differently: let's imagine we already know Chinese. How much will we be potentially be able to capitalize on that knowledge in the coming years?
I would argue even for scientific collaboration the gains will be minimal. The LLMs are more or less capable of translating content in natural sciences biderectionally, and most researchers already have a passing knowledge of English. On the contrary I would not expect this to be applicable in humanities, since translating (for example) psychology material is much more nuanced.
On the other hand, IMO this would be quite influential in finding contacts for business or manufacturing.
I was looking through stuffs on vacuum tubes the other day. And all the interesting ones were already in the ever so slightly arcane versions of the language I'm most familiar with... that felt weird. But I also learned that ITO on glass was a common thing for a long time.
Antibabelic|5 months ago
adrianN|5 months ago
thaumasiotes|5 months ago
This is the case for many people. What else do you bring to the table?
Let's look at an example of a pretty closely related skill: imagine we're already literate. What's that worth?
e-khadem|5 months ago
On the other hand, IMO this would be quite influential in finding contacts for business or manufacturing.
numpad0|5 months ago