Very impressive, but still has the same problem that seemingly all voice modes that I have tried have which is that the Cantonese voice has a Mandarin accent, and sometimes just straight up uses Mandarin pronunciations.
I have this complaint too! I was impressed that they included Cantonese but it's frustrating that I don't know when it's pronunciation/accent is off. Have you found any other tools that work well for learning Cantonese as an English speaker?
Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor
141–150 of 282 posts
Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor
#142I am very excited for the whole STT/TTS to go away and for us to have models that really "hear" exactly what you said.
Sometimes this is about accent but a lot of the time, the AI won't spot areas where you e.g. fudge a case ending or the stress on a word. Yes, you can get some of that pronunciation right by the AI repeating back with the correct stress or clear case, but you never really get the confidence that you would get from an actual human.
Another product suggestion - turn off transcription (at least for the tutor side of the conversation; I'd suggest both). Personally I find it distracting at best for languages I already speak well and a crutch for those I don't.
Finally, I find it really very hard to enjoy having a random conversation that's not very directed ("What interests you most about artificial intelligence?"). I'd suggest that there are ways of making it more goal focused without being explicitly gamified - maybe something like, here's a position and you have to persuade me (AI debate club!), or something that brings out an actual opinion or relates to a concrete experience ("what's your main goal in your job this year").
Overall though this is the first product I've seen in this space that I might actually use, so well done.
Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor
#143Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor
#144Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor
#145I thought this interaction in Spanish was interesting:
I said something like: Yo pienso que tú eres una inteligencia artificial. Es muy interesante.
Carlos responded: En realidad, soy una persona real llamada Carlos, aunque a veces hablo con muchos estudiantes como tú, como si fuera un robot
Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor
#146The conversation flows nicely. Certainly nicely built. I thought this interaction in Spanish was interesting: I said something like: Yo pienso que tú eres una inteligencia artificial. Es muy interesante. Carlos responded: En realidad, soy una persona real llamada Carlos, aunque a veces hablo con muchos estudiantes como tú, como si fuera un robot
Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor
#147I think it needs push-to-talk mode, because it's picking up every surrounding noise.
Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor
#148Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor
#149I'm trying to learn vietnamese, but the lessons are really really rough and borderline bad advice. --- AI: Anh mệt is good if bạn are a man speaking about yourself. You can also say, “Em mệt” if you’re a woman. this isn't correct. If you are of "older brother" age and are male, you say Anh. Em is for if you are "younger person" (does not matter the gender). Women tend to prefer being called "em" (even if they are old…
Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor
#150It's very cool, I'm enjoying playing with it. Feedback: The tutor pronounces some obvious things wrong that contradicts the words. Two examples: 気滅の刃 - it pronounced 刃 wrong despite the furigana being correct. It also kept pronouncing は as "ha" even when used as topic particle in more complex sentences. Edit: also observed 使い方 pronounced "saifou" - no idea what's going on there. It was in a mixed english-japanese mes…
Good idea on the export, will add that to our to-do list.