Friends often ask me whether I’m scared that AI is making — or will soon make — my work obsolete.
The supposed “threat” of AI to foreign language teaching is usually framed as two-pronged.
The first argument is that learning foreign languages will become unnecessary because instant translation will handle everything.
Why learn English at all, the argument goes, when you can use an app as an instant interpreter, or let AI write everything for you?
My view is that, in any realistic present or near-future timeline, this simply is not true.
If you are a student or a working adult, you cannot rely on AI blindly.
Even if AI is extremely useful — for example, in writing essays, drafting proposals, or helping with workplace emails — you still need to understand what it has produced. You need to check, edit, verify, and make sure the meaning, tone, or style in the AI output is right for your purposes. You cannot outsource understanding.
Sure, in some distant future, if all cross-linguistic communication (spoken and written) becomes fully AI-mediated, then I suppose foreign language learning will become obsolete. If that world comes, then yes — all language teaching, including my work, would disappear! Haha.
The second side of the “threat” is the idea that human teachers themselves will become obsolete because AI will take over all foreign language instruction.
A friend recently told me that several universities in Hong Kong are planning to cut first-year foreign language courses and replace them with AI-based instruction. This, admittedly, hits closer to home.
But, even here, I am not existentially worried.
The reason is simple: the core of my work is not just “teaching English content.”
It is the development of a deep, systematic, Linguistics-based paradigm for understanding English — or creating a bridge between formal Linguistics and mass adult language learning, in a way that hasn’t really been done before.
AI, by virtue of massive data access, is excellent at teaching English with volume — with endless examples, scenarios, exercises, and formats that already exist in the ecosystem – but it cannot create a coherent system for learners. It cannot discover or articulate the structural logic of English in a way that transforms how adults understand the language at a fundamental level.
AI can scale patterns, but it cannot originate a paradigm.
And this is where my work lives — in building the paradigm itself, in giving learners a clear, unified way to understand English structure that they have never been offered before.
So, no, I am not worried that AI will erase what I do.
AI may change many aspects of foreign language learning, but the creation of a conceptual framework — a deep structure — still requires a human mind, human insight, and human clarity.
And honestly, the more AI fills the world with “volume,” the more valuable my paradigm becomes. 😌
If you want to learn English with an actual system – one created through human insight, linguistic analysis, and years of work – you are welcome to start with my courses. They’re made for learners who want a framework and not just endless examples:
朋友常常問我，我是否害怕 AI 正在（或即將）令我的工作變得過時。
AI 對外語教學所構成的「威脅」，一般被分成兩大方向。
第一個方向是：既然 AI 翻譯可以處理所有事情，學外語便會變得不必要。
反正有翻譯 app 做即時口譯；反正寫甚麼英文都可以交給 AI；那為甚麼還需要學英文作外語呢？
但我覺得在任何現實的、可預見的時間線裡，這其實都不成立。
如果你是學生，或是需要用英文工作的成年人，你都不能盲目倚賴 AI。即使 AI 在寫作文、寫 proposal、甚至在工作上草擬英文電郵時非常有用，你仍然需要明白它為你產生了甚麼內容。你需要檢查、編輯、確認，並確保 AI 生產出的意思、語氣和風格是適合你的目的。你不能把直接把「理解」外判出去。
當然，若在遙遠的未來，所有跨語言的交流（無論說話或書寫）都會完全由 AI 介入，那麼外語學習或許真的會變得過時。若那一天真的到來，那的確所有語言教學，包括我的工作，都會消失吧！
然後，第二種「威脅」的方向，是認為人類外語老師本身會變得過時，因為 AI 會接管所有外語教學。
我有朋友最近告訴我，香港有不少大學正打算削減第一年（初級）的外語課程，把這些初級課替換為 AI 教學或 AI 資源。這個確實比較貼近我自己的領域。
但即便如此，我也沒有擔憂。
原因很簡單：我的工作從來不只是教英文內容。
我的工作核心，是建立一套深層、全面、系統性、並基於語言學的「paradigm」—— 一套將語言學知識和大眾成人英文學習連接起來的框架。這其實在市場上從未真正被建立或普及過。
AI 憑藉龐大的數據量，確實能做到「以大量例子」來教授英文——大量的例句、大量的場景、大量的練習、大量已存在的教學模式——但它不能為學生創造一個連貫和完整的系統。它不能自行發現或闡明英文結構的核心邏輯，也不能以真正改變成人學生理解的角度出發，建構出一個深層的分析框架。
AI 能夠擴散和大量複製既有的教學模式和資源，但它沒法自己創造出一套新的框架。
而我的工作正正在這裡展開——去把整套概念框架建立起來，並讓學生第一次擁有一個清晰而統一的方式去理解英文的結構。
所以，我並不擔心 AI 會抹去我所做的事情。
AI 或許會改變外語學習的很多層面，但要建立一套真正的概念框架——一套深層的結構框架——始終需要人的頭腦、人的洞察力、和人的清晰度。
其實 AI 越是為世界提供大量的內容，就對我建立的框架越有用，因為學生可以在這系統的框架中不斷鞏固和學習無限例子。😌
如果你想用一套真正的系統來學英文——一套由人的洞察、語言學的分析、和多年經驗而建立的系統——那歡迎你參加我的課程：