In the Age of AI, some in China wonder if learning English is worth the trouble在人工智能时代，一些中国人开始质疑学习英语是否值得。
A math teacher's viral post prompted a debate over the language, which some see as an optional skill – and a symbol of Western dominance.
As youth unemployment grows and artificial intelligence upends many industries, people are questioning which skills will still be useful to students when they graduate. — Unsplash
It started earlier this month when a math teacher in China posted a call on social media for the study of English to be made optional in schools across the country. Children were frantically learning English even before they had mastered their native tongue, he said, adding that Chinese people should stop their “blind worship of foreign imports.”
As AI translation tools improve and young people face uncertain postgrad prospects, the post from the teacher, Tang Jiafeng, set off a debate online that resurfaces every few years: Should schools cut back on mandatory English class time? Since the late 1970s, China has embraced teaching English, which is one of three core subjects along with math and Chinese, as crucial to its efforts to open up to the rest of the world. It takes up significant classroom time and counts heavily toward scores on the gaokao, the Chinese college entrance exam.
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随着青年失业率上升和人工智能颠覆众多行业，人们开始质疑学生毕业后哪些技能仍然有用。—— Unsplash
事情始于本月初，当时一位中国数学老师在社交媒体上发帖，呼吁全国学校将英语学习改为选修课。他指出，孩子们甚至在母语尚未掌握的情况下就开始疯狂学习英语，并补充说，中国人应该停止“盲目崇拜外国商品”。
随着人工智能翻译工具的进步和年轻人研究生就业前景的不确定性，唐家峰老师的帖子引发了一场每隔几年就会重现的网络辩论：学校是否应该削减必修英语课时？自20世纪70年代末以来，中国一直重视英语教学，英语与数学和语文并列为三大核心科目，被视为中国对外开放的关键。英语课占用大量课堂时间，并且在高考（中国大学入学考试）成绩中占有很高的比重。
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