Show HN: I built an AI language teacher to get you speaking

Thank you . A friend's been asking for Mandarin for a while, time to deliver on my promise to add it! Will try to get it ready within 24 hours of posting this.

> And the limitations of its speech recognition are actually a feature - it forces me to really concentrate on pronunciation

I appreciate the positive comment! People complaining about the limitations of speech recognition make a valid point, but there's an ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM of language education that I feel needs to be addressed:

Language classes ignore speaking for the most part. Speaking time is ultra-limited. Phonetics are introduced super late (or never). And text is used as a form of baby-sitting to the detriment of listening (which is really –literally– backwards because the natural order of picking up a language is as follows: 1. listening 2. speaking 3. reading 4. writing.)

There's a cost to it: most people develop a fear of speaking and a confusing accent.

We can see the current limits with speech recognition and say that it and the products that use it are no good. But this feels like throwing the baby with the bathwater.

Or, we can seize it as an opportunity to improve one's accent. (Spent thousands of bucks on accent training, this is much cheaper! )

(I do plan to improve speech recognition as tech matures (fast), but there's an opportunity for improving one's accent here that would be too bad to miss.)

Thanks. Is it better with multilingual speech recognition turned off? If you give me the convo uuid I can have a look, too.

Hopefully language teachers won't be gone, but it definitely will change the industry. It's a bit like the music industry maybe? People don't buy CDs, but they go to concerts. Language teachers for their part might have better students, eager to talk and for human contact.

@gorpomon and @jjkeddo199 Great talking points! I thought about this a lot, but still don't have a good answer: how easy should it be to translate?

- If you make it too easy, like jjkeddo199 pointed out you don't learn. e.g. it's much more useful to watch a movie and understand say 60-70% of it than to have your work cutout for you and understand everything with subtitles.

- But this also depends on the current level you're at… And getting the difficulty just right is what gets people to feel good, learn and be "in the zone" (FLOW)! Such a good feeling!

- It's more beneficial to use THE FEW WORDS ONE KNOWS than to spread oneself too thin, seeing too many words and reading too much translated text. Time spent 100% in the language is super valuable. Story time: when I first lived in Hungary I talked like a 2-year old, but became fluent (in the sense of fast, no need to think) on ultra-limited topics in two months. This created a solid basis I was later able to build on. It's a method that works.

- At times, only translations will make a meaning crystal clear.

But I may also be at a bit of a disconnect. I learn languages by just pushing through, but not everyone has the same learning style (my wife is much more organized and does just as well.)

Sorry if this turned into a ramble…

Anyway… Would love to know what people's experience and feelings are with the whole shebang of translation.

Hey! Thanks for the feedback!

> I think there are a few places where you need to fine tune your prompts, at least for Korean language learning

Can you expand on this one, please?

> I also wish there was a drill mode that is less open ended

I have something similar to a drill mode in my previous product (to learn English) and people use it 1-3 hours a day. Want to incorporate it into Gliglish, just didn't get around to it yet but you make me realize I shouldn't wait!

Is your project KoalaSRS?

Thank you! Feels good to hear. Tried to keep it simple, how I like to use sites, not pesky.

Gotta look into language schools, you're right… Someone suggested doing a deal with the Canadian government because everything is bilingual there.

Big life decisions of working on the product vs. working to promote it. Balance is hard