How To Learn Any Language Efficiently With AI?

Author(s): Nicolas MARTIN

Originally published on Towards AI.

Learning a language is often difficult and requires dozens of classes until reaching a reasonable level. Unfortunately, a lot of people in the world cannot afford to have quality classes. In addition, we can learn a language from books, but we don’t have feedback about our pronunciation or actual level.

What if AI is a great solution for learning any language efficiently and for free?

This guide will teach us practical solutions to learn from chatbots in any language, using both textual and vocal features.

As I live in India, we will take the example of Tamil, one of the most difficult languages for Europeans and Americans to learn. The language I master the most is French. I will adapt this article to any language using the expressions [language_to_learn] for the language we want to learn and [my_language] for the primary language we already know. Note that you don’t have to learn a language using English; you can use this guide based on any language you want.

All the solutions are completely free and accessible with a smartphone, although a computer is recommended for reading long text and typing fast with any keyboard layout.

1. Ask some questions about the language history and geography (5 min)

A language never came out of the void; it always has a long story that is worth knowing to have a complete picture of its evolution and geography.

This will help us connect the dots between the language and the people using it daily. A lack of general culture about a language can lead to misunderstanding and incomprehension between us and the people. We can be more specific by asking about the main differences in our culture, and the AI will answer more accurately.

Therefore, we can first ask the question:

In 300 words, explain the origin of [language_to_learn], its geographic limitations, and three critical things worth knowing about the [language_to_learn] culture today that differs from my [my_language] culture.

2. Make a learning plan for one month (5 min)

Now that we have general knowledge about the language we want to learn, we can prepare a learning plan according to the main rules.

Learning a language needs practice, and we can define the limits to have a realistic learning plan, such as the available time or if we want to know both writing and speaking. I recommend learning both, as writing and speaking create a strong connection with each other.

To learn a language efficiently, discipline is vital, and learning 30 minutes every day, 6 times per week, is better than 3 classes of 2 hours per week because memorization works better daily.

The smartphone version of ChatGPT is very useful as you can ask for the pronunciation of the words and get valuable tips. The free version is limited to 10 minutes, but it is enough for us to learn daily.

How can I learn [language_to_learn] to reach a good basis in one month? Give a learning plan with the main steps, knowing that I have 30 minutes per day and I have some conversational tools with AI to check my pronunciation (with ChatGPT vocal) and my knowledge. Keep in mind I must learn to write and speak. Organize it in a table.

As chatbot sessions are limited in request per page, I recommend keeping the learning plan structure and copying/pasting it every day on a new page to be able to handle questions and answers and maintain track of the conversation.

Optional: Use tips and resources given by the ChatBot (see example above) if they are relevant to our learning habits.

3. Follow your learning plan every day (30 min)

The following steps are straightforward.

Once you copy the learning plan in any chatbot, ask:

Give the material for the Day [n] lesson.

About the vocal chatbot on a smartphone (ex, ChatGPT), click on the bottom right button and first ask:

What is the [content of the lesson n]? Check my pronunciation.

Here is an example of Tamil. I should have asked in French, but I have done my best to do it in English for a better understanding.

Keep in mind that the pronunciation function is very accurate in many languages. I have also tested the pronunciation in German, one of the languages I know the best, and the pronunciation advice was very accurate.

In some cases, like in English, we can ask to learn a language with a specific accent so that we can choose the proper pronunciation we want.

Here is a funny example of how ChatGPT can speak with specific English accents, including Japanese:

https://x.com/minchoi/status/1857467047493480475?s=46&t=MxrSpRHarlH_X7ulzALqHw

About the writing, we can take a picture of what we wrote and ask the chatbot whether it is well written or not.

(click on “+” and Take Photo at the bottom left corner) Is this correctly written in [language_to_learn]?

As you can see, the chatbot detected some mistakes in my writing style in some characters that I can correct to reiterate the process until the writing is fine.

4. Know the major pronunciation difficulties from the beginning

Some fundamental pronunciations are very different from one language to another, and it is essential to know them at an early learning stage.

Give the 3 most difficult things in the [language_to_learn] pronunciation for someone who only speaks [my_language].

5. Additional thoughts

• The best learning solution is to have a teacher. This guide is helpful for people who can’t afford to have a teacher and want another efficient way to learn a language.
• A teacher is better because we have to go to classes and get direct feedback for our evaluation. Using AI grants us feedback but requires much more discipline to study every day, which is difficult overall when it is free (paying to learn something gives us more credit and commitment).
• Human interaction is still essential to learning a language. It is great to have AI tools to learn many things faster, but most of us are social beings with social needs. Discussing with people always plays an important role.
• Speaking about AI tools, hundreds of existing ones are worth testing. Here is a list from There’s An AI For That, including Lingolette or Jarggin.
• AI is evolving very fast, and learning solutions based on AI will probably get better and better. It also applies to translation AI tools where instant translation is already possible.

Conclusion

Learning a language is a tedious activity that requires patience, effort, and regularity. Even though a teacher is the best solution, not everyone can afford one and AI can be a good alternative. Indeed, more and more text and vocal AIs can organize a learning plan and evaluate our knowledge, including our pronunciation or writing style. Some might argue that learning a language is unnecessary, given the rapid advancements in AI, but isn’t the ability to learn and speak languages essential to our humanity, just as chess remains beloved by human players despite AI surpassing human capabilities?

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Published via Towards AI