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Launch HN: Univerbal (YC W23) – Language learning with a conversational AI tutor

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Launch HN: Univerbal (YC W23) – Language learning with a conversational AI tutor

#41

Post by Hadjimina »

tkgally wrote: post #18

It looks like you’ve made a good start. I tried it now with Japanese, and it worked pretty well. I wish you the best of success. A few comments: For Japanese, you might want to offer a choice for the amount of kanji to use in the written transcriptions that appear on the screen. Your current transcripts use the standard orthography, including kanji; some learners might like that, while others, especially beginners, w…

Great point! The 3 person conversation is a super interesting point, since then the user can take more of a passive role and only occasionally intervene.

Re: Launch HN: Univerbal (YC W23) – Language learning with a conversational AI tutor

#42

Post by Hadjimina »

convivialdingo wrote: post #8

I really like it! It worked the first time after asking for mic permission. But second time, I did have a problem with the mic button on iOS 16.6.1 getting stuck on but not taking audio input. Pushing the button again (to cancel perhaps) did nothing. Switching to tutor mode fixed it for another input.

Just to clarify:

So it showed that it was recording but it actually wasn't? Then you switched to tutor, clicked on the mic again and it worked?

Re: Launch HN: Univerbal (YC W23) – Language learning with a conversational AI tutor

#43

Post by kebsup »

I've built an MVP similar to this when GPTs came out, but somehow I just did not find it very appealing and I have the same experience with this one.

I wonder if it's the delay or just the bleak conversation with an AI. Might get to usable level for me once LLMs get faster and more fun. (Twitter model maybe? :D)

Re: Launch HN: Univerbal (YC W23) – Language learning with a conversational AI tutor

#44

Post by Hadjimina »

ncfausti wrote: post #38
Hadjimina wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that really made the difference for us was the traction we got through the original launch HN post.

re: DuoLingo, I always hear the same thing and feel the same reaction :) If you are looking for another team member I'd love to help.

can you send me your details at philipp@univerbal.app

Re: Launch HN: Univerbal (YC W23) – Language learning with a conversational AI tutor

#46

Post by codersfocus »

Some feedback:

When you start the intro, and it says "Hi, what language do you want to learn" the button should be labeled "Select..." not a default language. It was unclear I had to click it to select a different language.

The languages in the app, and on your FAQ about which languages are available, aren't in sync.

Re: Launch HN: Univerbal (YC W23) – Language learning with a conversational AI tutor

#47

Post by codersfocus »

codersfocus wrote: post #46

Some feedback: When you start the intro, and it says "Hi, what language do you want to learn" the button should be labeled "Select..." not a default language. It was unclear I had to click it to select a different language. The languages in the app, and on your FAQ about which languages are available, aren't in sync.

One other thing is with alphabets. If I highlight over a word, and you could show me how to sound out the word in latin characters, that would be super helpful and no other language app I know of does that.

Re: Launch HN: Univerbal (YC W23) – Language learning with a conversational AI tutor

#48

Post by poulpy123 »

That's interesting. I just ran a session in english to french starting by writing /replying in english then adding french words in the sentence at the end to see how it reacts.

- The errors in my english sentences, mainly word order and missing articles, are involuntary and the corrections are reasonably coherent with deepl and deepl writer (that also uses AI).

- the french words were correctly identified as french words, and the words were correctly translated, except maybe for one: "essentiellement" that I used in the meaning of "mainly" and was translated as "essentially" which I'm not sure it's the good choice

in any case I add it to my bookmarks

Re: Launch HN: Univerbal (YC W23) – Language learning with a conversational AI tutor

#49

Post by grbsh »

Wow, I just tried it, and this is exactly what I’ve been looking for (something that actually makes you think conversationally, not just memorize vocabulary).

Love the rebrand, by the way - I saw your posts about Quazle, and I never wanted to try it then for some reason. Can’t really explain it, but I guess that’s the power of branding right?

One suggestion I would have is that it takes a while when I click on a word to get a definition. Is there a way you could preload definitions on device to make this faster? Sometimes I want to click like 7 words in a row, and I don’t do that now because it’s so slow.

Re: Launch HN: Univerbal (YC W23) – Language learning with a conversational AI tutor

#50

Post by hrududuu »

I'm just a hobbyist building tools for my own use (to learn Finnish), but I love the space, so happy to connect if you'd like: here's a video https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H_W6i4aa0Ak-vSAh99zYjJ4LcUT...

My core task loops are phrase translation and audio transcription, and I've always been motivated by gamification and eventually data driven task selection

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