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The advent of globalization has resulted in a large-scale exodus of immigrants to various countries in search of better jobs and living conditions. The prominent problem faced by those living in foreign nations is the language barrier. However, despite multiple troubles arising from lack of lexical knowledge, I assume these are not so serious that cannot be resolved as we have advanced technology in our modern era.
To begin with, not knowing the native language would reduce the interactions amongst locals and the newcomers which would pave way for misunderstandings. It would eventually lead to demographical changes in that locality, where all migrants would live in a separate area and the locals would be living separately. For instance, in many developed countries like the USA, Canada, and the UK, the migrants form a society and live separately. Thus, not knowing the local language would result in self ostracizing of an individual, which is not good for modern society.
However, these problems are getting mitigated with the emergence of new technologies. Applications like Google Maps and Google translate are providing a great helping hand for people who do not speak the local language. If someone doesn’t know the language of the country where they live, they can still find restaurants to their liking on Facebook and get simple directions through Google Maps. They can even order food online without having to use another language at all. If they need to communicate with someone who does not speak their language they can simply take out their phone and use Google translate to slowly, but effectively, convey a message. The problems that not knowing the language of the country where you live causes are therefore minimal and easily overcome.
To summarize, I partly agree with the statement of the creation of social problems due to lack of lexical knowledge but the same is now getting mitigated with the help of new technologies. In the future, it will become even less important to know the language of the country where you live although there is great potential for increased social unrest and heightened tensions in many parts of the world.
