Super-charge your language learning with these AI recipes

Did you know that iPhones have a back-tap gesture? Check out how to use AI to speed up your language learning.

While I have studied English, French, Spanish, and Finnish, I don’t think I am particularly “good" with languages. So, when I made progress, it was primarily due to lots of elbow grease and hours dedicated to the old-school methods: textbooks, exercises, and endless hours in group and private classes.

In 2023, I decided it was time to give Swedish another try. I studied for a couple of months in 2017, but work and other interests came in the way, so I dropped the classes. This time, I wanted to try using AI to complement the studies - I knew it could be helpful, but I wasn't sure how.

As I probed my network for tips on using AI to learn languages, I received only a few suggestions. So I started experimenting with a few tools and ideas called “recipes.” Those involve using ChatGPT or Azure Speech services.

After four months of regular use of these techniques, I can attest with confidence that it sped up my learning of Swedish. I’m still not fluent, by the way, but I will start level B1 (CEFR) in January 2024.

Disclaimer: a few of these are not off-the-shelf solutions and might require some coding; a few others are only applicable if you use Apple devices. This is why I call them recipes - you might need to cook the solution yourself ?? Also, keep in mind that ChatGPT will sometimes provide you inaccurate or just plain wrong replies.

Recipe 1: Parrot AI How to use speech-to-text to improve your pronunciation.

Recipe 2: AI-powered dictionary Go beyond translating words.

Recipe 3: Language buddy AI Practice your writing skills with instant feedback.

Recipe 4: Language coach AI Get yourself a personalized study plan.

Wrap-up: What else do I use? Non-AI-based study tools.

Recipe 1 - Parrot AI: How to use speech-to-text to improve your pronunciation

You can use speech-to-text to practice pronunciation. The exercise goes as follows:

1. Find a short text on an interesting topic (8 Sidor is a good source).
2. Using the speech-to-text tool, record yourself reading the text, one or two sentences at a time.
3. Review the text that the speech-to-text tool will output. Is it correct according to 1? If not, repeat the recording and focus your pronunciation on the wrong words.

With little practice, you will notice that this works best with some adjustments. For example, if your original text has names, replace them with the equivalent pronouns (han, hon, etc.).

Super-charged version

You can use APIs to streamline the exercise. I compared the speech-to-text models from OpenAI (Whisper 2) and Azure AI Services, and in a non-scientific way, I found Azure was better. With that, I created a Shortcut in MacOS that receives an audio, submits it to the API, and gets the text back.

Bonus tip: You can use an accessibility option on the iPhone to trigger the shortcut with a back-tap gesture (that’s right, tap on the back!).

Recipe 2: AI-powered dictionary

You can use ChatGPT to translate words, but with some creativity, you can get much more out of it.

It is helpful to know the parts of speech and instruct ChatGPT to give you idiomatic equivalents of words, phrasal verbs, or idioms. This can help you get results that are less ambiguous, more accurate, and that would sound more natural.

Here are some prompts that I find useful:

• Explain “[word in Swedish]”
• Explain the wordplay in the sentence “[aphorism, joke, ad in Swedish]”
• What is the idiomatic way to express this in Swedish “[phrasal verb / expression in English]”

You can also expand your vocabulary with these prompts:

• List compound words based on “[prefix / suffix / word in Swedish]”
• List words semantically related to “[food / movies / traveling …]”
• Make example sentences with the word “[word]”.
• Make a table with example sentences containing the word(s) “[word / expression in Swedish]”. Add a second column with the idiomatic equivalent in English

Recipe 3: Language Buddy AI

You can use ChatGPT to give instant feedback on your writing and gently push you forward. The most crucial sauce here is to pick a topic about which you are very interested! Make it matter to you, and it will be easier to stick to the exercise.

This is how I initiate the conversation:

You are going to play the part of a language partner. When I write something, your replies will have two parts. In the first part, you will write in parentheses, and there, you will correct my sentence - grammar mistakes, typos, etc. Try to highlight the correction using Markdown. In the second part of your answer, reply in Swedish, trying to keep a natural conversation between two friends. Is this clear?

I had a great conversation about movies!

You:

Har du sett den sista film fr?n Kaurismaki?

ChatGPT:

(Du menar "Har du sett den senaste filmen fr?n Kaurism?ki?") Nej, jag har inte sett den ?n. Var den bra? Vad handlade den om?

I also challenged ChatGPT to give me the name of a Wes Anderson movie, based on my very poor description:

You:

Vet du vad filmen heter, som handlar om en artist som ?r i f?ngelse?

ChatGPT:

(Ja, din mening ?r korrekt nu!)

Om du t?nker p? en Wes Anderson-film, ?r det som sagt "The French Dispatch". I en del av den filmen f?ljer vi en historia om en f?ngslad konstn?r. ?r det den filmen du menar?

Continue chatting, and after a while, check out the most powerful tip, the language coach AI, recipe 5.

Recipe 5: Language Coach AI

This recipe can be very powerful if you're in for the long run! I think it would take much longer to receive such feedback from a language teacher.

This is how you get a personalized study plan. Once you have had a conversation for a good 30 minutes, you will accumulate many mistakes - this is a precious raw material. Ask ChatGPT for a summary of the areas you should work on:

Now, we can stop the conversation. Based on my mistakes above, could you list areas I should practice more in my Swedish studies?

And the reply:

Based on the conversation, here are some areas you might want to focus on in your Swedish studies:

1. Definite and Indefinite Forms: Practice the use of definite (best?md form) and indefinite (obest?md form) nouns. For example, "den senaste filmen" instead of "den sista film".
2. Gender Agreement: Remember the gender of nouns (en/ett) and ensure adjectives agree with them. For instance, "en ?ldre bror" instead of "en ?ldst bror".
3. Verb Conjugation: Work on the correct form of verbs, particularly in past tense. For example, "s?g" instead of "s?".
4. Prepositions: Pay attention to the use of prepositions in phrases, such as "i f?ngelse" instead of "i en prison".
5. Word Order: Practice the correct word order in sentences, particularly in subordinate clauses.
6. Vocabulary Accuracy: Enhance your vocabulary, particularly with synonyms and specific terms (e.g., "filmregiss?r" instead of "filmdirektor").
7. Phrase Construction: Work on constructing phrases and clauses correctly, ensuring the sentence flows and the meaning is clear.

This is just an example of the prompt. You can get more specific, for example asking for a table with words, translations, and examples:

Wrap-up: what else to use?

The most important pre-requisite to learn something new? Knowing yourself. Figure out what topics you enjoy, and combine them with different methods. Know which techniques keep you engaged and motivated. What I found out is that the level of the content is important, but is secondary to the subject (in other words, it will be easier to stick to somewhat more difficult content if you are passionate about it).

With that said, here are a few suggestions.

• Transcription Listen, write it down, listen, repeat. Find audio material from your study books, podcasts, or use Nyheter p? l?ttsvenska (which has an audio and text version). Here is a great article about transcription exercises and geeky stuff like "phonological decoding" and "micro-listening skills".
• Reading Find books, e-books or audio books on topics that interest you. I found a few books to read on Kindle, and a few print books from the publisher Nypon och Viljar. I can highly recommend Astrid Lindgren Ett Liv - a short biography about the prolific author.
• Regularity Signing-up for a class was the best way for me to have a study routine. Try habit stacking to combine old habits with new ones.