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Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor

#41

Post by kevmo314 »

anavat wrote: post #20

Thanks for working on this! Language learning really needs a breakthrough. Now, I tried the web app and chose to learn Greek as a beginner. And while I had better experience with your app than with ChatGPT or Gemini voice modes, I still got lost 5 minutes in because the AI tutor doesn't seem to have a plan for me, nor does it "see" my struggles. For example, after asking me about a hobby, it gives me a long sentence…

I think this is a pretty big limitation of the architecture (STT->LLM->TTS) they've chosen. The intonation around struggling to speak or difficulty with certain phrases is totally lost when the text is transcribed.

Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor

#42

Post by rahimnathwani »

iandanforth wrote: post #39

Which spaced repetition algorithm are you using? I recently learned that there is a much improved one that has been adopted by Anki. ( https://domenic.me/fsrs/ ) Have you adopted that as well?

Jarrett Ye, the creator of FSRS, is a big fan of Math Academy. He records some of his sessions and posts them to YouTube.

https://x.com/JarrettYe

Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor

#44

Post by mariano54 »

Ocha wrote: post #36
mariano54 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah we need to improve the beginner experience, it's more tailored towards intermediate/advanced students at the moment.

So basically if you are starting a new language from zero, then this is not for you?

That's correct.

Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor

#46

Post by iandanforth »

Alright, having tried this with Japanese I can say it's frustrating. As a near complete beginner the tutor kept speaking in Japanese even when I said "sorry I don't understand" repeatedly and then when I asked it to start in English and then gradually transition to Japanese it lasted all of one sentence in English before switching back. I can totally see how this would be useful conversation practice if you've progressed that far, but I'd love to have something for even earlier beginners. Also since many of the models you use are natively multi modal this could readily integrate visual media for discussion and grounding.

Also, for the transcription it would be great to get pure romanji to start with!

Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor

#47

Post by serjester »

Cool stuff! Probably one of the less popular languages, but I noticed that the transcription with Russian is often quite poor.

Part of me loves this—no judgement, endless convenience, cheap. But another part mourns, sensing it strips away the grit, the stumbles, the soul of language learning. The kind that only comes from fumbling through conversations with another human.

When I was learning Spanish, I used italki extensively and found having a live Columbian tutor invaluable and very affordable for most Westerners. It would genuinely make me sad if those excellent tutors start losing work to this kind of AI.

Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor

#49

Post by accidentalrebel »

Thank you for sharing this.

I've been learning Arabic, and I noticed that the app uses Arabic script right from the start. This can be quite challenging for beginners who haven't learned how to read it yet. May I suggest adding an Englishized (romanized) version of the Arabic text to help ease the learning curve?

It also seems to not listen to me when I asked to give me shorter sentences. It seems to not care that I'm struggling despite my pleading.

I later switched to Spanish, which was a better experience. This one seems to listen to me better. I can ask the tutor to repeat what they said in English and give me shorter sentences, and thankfully, it does.

Interacting with the tutors does feel I have to drive the conversation which is taxing. Compared to a human tutor, where I feel assured that I can be guided properly.

Still an interesting app. Would love to try Spanish some more, in the future.

Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor

#50

Post by antonaf »

iandanforth wrote: post #46

Alright, having tried this with Japanese I can say it's frustrating. As a near complete beginner the tutor kept speaking in Japanese even when I said "sorry I don't understand" repeatedly and then when I asked it to start in English and then gradually transition to Japanese it lasted all of one sentence in English before switching back. I can totally see how this would be useful conversation practice if you've progre…

Yes, I can understand and empathize with your experience. Quite honestly our current focus is more for B1+ students. That 0 -> 1 / bootstrapping of the language is much better served by traditional material that is less talking / listening-heavy.
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