My name is Ann. I've been in China in a few years. With the help of Li Hua, a good friend of mine, I've been used to live in China. Li Hua, like other girls, are beautiful and lively. We became friends after we meet each other a few years ago. Although her English isn't easy to understand, but we enjoy chatting and we usually talk a lot about our favorite books. We're all surprised that Chinese culture and American culture are so differently. Now we are planning nice party for next Sunday. There, I will introduce Li Hua to my friends, one of who has been to China several time.

Thank you for listening！

   Wouldn't it be wonderful to travel to a foreign country without having to worry about the headache of communicating in a different language？

In a recent Wall Street Journal article，technology policy expert Alec Ross argued that，within a decade or so，we would be able to communicate with one another via small earpieces with built-in microphones. That's because technological progress is extremely rapid. It's only a matter of time. Indeed，some parents are so convinced that this technology is imminent that they're wondering if their kids should learn a second language.

It's true that an increase in the quantity and accuracy of the data loaded into computers will make them cleverer at translating“Noes Bueno dormer mucho” into“It's not good to sleep too much”. Replacing a word with its equivalent（对等词）in the target language is actually the easy part of a translator's job. But even this seems to be a discouraging task for computers.

It's so difficult for computers because translation doesn't — or shouldn't — involve simply translating words，sentences or paragraphs. Rather，it's about translating meaning. And in order to infer meaning from a specific expression, humans have to interpret a mass of information at the same time. Think about all the related clues that go into understanding an expression: volume, gesture, situations, and even your culture. All are likely to convey as much meaning as the words you use.

Therefore, we should be very skeptical of a machine that is unable to interpret the world around us. If people from different cultures can offend each other without realizing it, how can we expect a machine to do better? Unless engineers actually find a way to breathe a soul into a computer, undoubtedly when it comes to conveying and interpreting meaning using a natural language, a machine will never fully take our place.

What is American Sign Language?

American Sign Language （ASL）is a complete, complex language that employs signs made by moving the hands combined with facial expressions and postures of the body. 【小题1】 It is also one of several communication options used by people who are  deaf or hard of hearing.

Is sign language the same in other countries?

No one form of sign language is universal. 【小题2】 For example, British Sign Language（BSL）is a different language from ASL, and Americans who know ASL may not understand BSL.

【小题3】

The exact beginnings of ASL are not clear, but some suggest that it arose more than 200 years ago from the intermixing of local sign languages and French Sign Language （LSF）. Today's ASL includes some parts of LSF plus the original local sign languages , which over the years have combined and changed into a rich,complex, and mature language. Modern ASL and modern LSF are distinct languages. 【小题4】

How does ASL compare with spoken language?

【小题5】 But for people who are deaf （particularly those who are profoundly deaf）, the sounds of speech are often not heard, and only some speech sounds can be seen on the lips. Sign languages are based on the idea that vision is the most useful tool a deaf person has to communicate and receive information.