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

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141–150 of 282 posts

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

#141
post #93

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?

Sadly there isn't one perfect resource. I find Hambaanglaang kinda useful. The complete cantonese books are good. And I have just started making flash cards. But, I am still just a beginner so take it with a huge grain of salt!

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

#142
For me this is great for practice (I tried Russian). However the big missing piece for all these language learning apps is the lack of support for spotting and correcting errors in your pronunciation - as long as you say the word more or less right, the transcription gives you a pass.

I 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

#145
The 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

#146
post #145

The 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

Ouch it looks like all the personality promoting has made it confused about its identity.. thanks for pointing it out

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

#148
I learned Spanish to an advanced level (B2) many years ago with a combo of Duolingo, Anki flashcards, and real tutors. One of my biggest regrets is focusing too much on the grammar and vocabulary and not enough on having conversations with natives. I'm convinced it would have taken me half the time to reach B2 if I had focused more on conversations. I think this app is going to be really effective. Congrats to you guys on the launch!

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

#149
post #26

I'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…

Hey, it’s great to see other people learn Vietnamese! And your feedback is on point. I’m still at the beginning and just built a tool to help me learn basic phrases. I will very much appreciate the feedback! https://envn.app

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

#150

It'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…

May I ask which tutor you were using? The TTSs have different strengths and weaknesses.

Good idea on the export, will add that to our to-do list.

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