How to learn a language with AI

I’m a well known Duolingo hater, but I’m still a language learning appreciator. Even with translation apps being amazing, nothing will beat actually knowing a language.

Conversation is the big missing piece. As much as tech demos of live translation are cool, the real world works differently. To understand and participate in conversations you need to actually know a language.

Many people are still stuck in a former era of language learning, but LLMs have changed the game. Here’s how I’m experimenting with learning languages in the age of AI:

• Watch videos (like Easy Spanish), TV, or movies. Write down the words and sentences you don’t understand. Ask an LLM to explain them to you and give you similar examples.
• Get an LLM to generate a short story at 2-3 year old level and include 10-20 vocab words at the end of each story. Read and listen to it simultaneously. This post goes over this method in more detail (and provides a prompt).
• For both of the above, create a vocab list you have learned and review it each day. If you need, have LLMs generate example sentences with the words and phrases you don’t know well.
• Talk to an LLM in voice mode. Set up situations you’ll actually be in. The words and phrases needed to learn your language are probably good ones. If not sure, ask it what certain words mean, to slow down, and to repeat itself whenever you don’t understand.