Show HN: LearnLingo – Converse with an AI-powered language tutor (learnlingo.dev)
Hey folks! I'm Callum, and I'm working on a way to practice a new language with an AI powered tutor.
I've always found that the hardest part of learning a new language is finding someone to actually converse with. Even if a partner can be found, the pressure can mean that you are more focused on not making mistakes than on actually learning new grammar or vocabulary.
The service that I have been working on allows you to practice with a language tutor via online chat messages, or you can have a turn-based voice conversation.
I'm working on a number of other features that will be coming out shortly, including a few games for practising pronunciation and listening skills, as well as a plan to release some lesson plans for specific languages later on.
Have a try, and let me know if you have any feedback!
108 comments
[ 2.3 ms ] story [ 150 ms ] threadGrammar correction and suggestions are something that are on the top of my feature list; I hope to have them released shortly!
Your HN account seems to have been created only to present this one project.
Do you have a website, or are you on Twitter or anything?
Who is the legal entitiy referred to in "© 2023 LearnLingo. All rights reserved."?
A privacy policy is in the works and will be put out for display ASAP.
Personally, I wouldn't use something (let alone provide my credit card details) by a party that deliberately hides who they are.
What can be the reason for this approach?
A solo developer, busy building the product is one feasible explanation.
I'm not saying you should blindly trust the site, but acting as though this is somehow inexplicable is a tad unfair.
I did that ages ago, before everyone was storing user data; these days I'd definitely suggest incorporating and getting public liability insurance, just in case a GDPR accident happens.
Best of luck, I hope you're more successful with this than I was with my adventure. :)
Obviously, if this gets traction, it will be worth incorporating, getting insurance, accounting and legal services, etc, but if you do all of that before putting anything on the market, you're not going to get anywhere unless you're already wealthier than most people.
Likewise insurance.
Also, quick Google immediately found that Australia has an equivalent to GDPR in the form of the Privacy Act (1988).
And GDPR has, by design, extra-territorial effect: https://gdpr.eu/companies-outside-of-europe/
(Extra-territorial rules may seem unreasonable, but they are the flip-side to the internet not recognising national borders: everywhere gets to say you're operating in their jurisdiction).
Yeah, but they have no jurisdiction.
Millions of EU citizens use WeChat, which is obligated by Chinese law to collect information not allowed by the GDPR, and the EU have not and will not be able to enforce an "extra-territorial effect" against Tencent.
I know this is a new product so it will come eventually, but the mobile experience is really bad, lots of people are gonna want to use this out and about, so it should at least be useable, atm it's not.
If you are just planning to support all of the languages that ChatGPT can respond in, then be ready for complaints, because its performance reportedly drops off sharply for less common languages.
I like the landing page style; did you use a theme/template? I feel like I've seen this style on a lot of tech products -- whilst I really like it, I don't think it matches the nature of the site/product in this case.
What advantages do you offer over ChatGPT, other than the text messages?
prob its not gonna be free to test to avoid extra costs around chatgpt calls
Too many sites like this come and go, and just harvest info.
https://www.parcero.ai/
What does this offer over that?
Sorry, i can't trust such bad engineering.
i learned english to a significant degree by simply conversing with ppl on the internet and watching tv shows/movies in english
for me something like this would be tremendously useful
Found that too learning French that once I got enough proficiency to read was really useful in the amount/style of French I could expose myself to and helped me push up past a plateau of confidence in my spoken French (though not fluent still, so just IMO, take that for what it's worth!)
I thought of going the way you went with a product, but my takes are
- B2C is incredibly hard, especially with a subscription. People are just going to compare the price of your product to netflix and say it's not worth it
- What we do is fairly easy, the whole "value" is in some fairly simple prompt on top of openAI APIs. Even if it's a success, the likes of DuoLingo can copy that in a month and have so much more marketing and money to win the market
- Ultimately, people can have the same thing for free with ChatGPT and just a bit of copy and paste. As times goes on and other models become better / cheaper, it will be even harder to compete.
- I think open sourcing means that ultimately people can create their own scenarios etc. and maybe create a community around it.
Only theoretically; in practice, Duolingo have a specific brand — IMO aimed at helping younger kids with schoolwork — they don't want to risk damaging, so if you target your language course at people who chafe at the style of art, animation, voice, and/or content of Duolingo[0], you still have a business opportunity even though Duolingo is also already working with GPT-4.
[0] This is why I've stopped using Duolingo entirely, while also having paid versions of Clozemaster and Babbel, which are also very different from each other.
IMO duolingo is aimed at peopple(adults) who say they want to learn a language but aren't ready to take it seriously
In US/Japan etc. the largest age-group of learners is 13-22
- Found the source: https://blog.duolingo.com/dear-duolingo-how-does-language-le...
Any sort of LLM-based tutor is tricky with children as you can't guarantee that it won't come up with something inappropriate, even with the various guardrails in place. As a parent, I'm happy to take that risk especially if I am around to explain anything, but if I were a teacher for example then I probably wouldn't be and I imagine businesses are going to be in a similar situation.
Same.
For over a year before I finally gave up on it, I was force-quitting the app and reopening it for the next lesson because that was faster.
Anywhere I can find out more or be notified?
We are seem a lot of these apps nowadays. People come up with a prompt, send to OpenAI with the user data, hide it behind a certain web interface and it's an app they can charge for.
I've thought about this a million times for scratching my own itches but I just talk to ChatGPT and it's fine.
But for GPT not correcting me, it's "a feature not a bug"©. Specifically, he's supposed to act like a Japanese person and if he can understand what I'm saying, even if the conjugation is wrong etc. it should work with it. However if I speak in complete giberish or english etc., then you have a "game over" where you fail the scenario.
It's supposed to be a "japan simulator" so to speak, and in real life, people make effort to understand you, you can use gestures also, even write stuff on paper if necessary.
However I'm currently adding a "validate your answer" button where he should tell you if it's grammatically correct etc. and allow you to take it back.
Ultimately, it's not going to be perfect, especially not with 3.5, but at my level of Japanese I think it's more about forcing me to be creative when I speak, in scenarios that matter to me. Not just following a script from Genki, but needing to explain stuff specific to my situation etc.
Yes this is indeed a key barrier, particularly if your own language is already the language of your work/play, and if native speakers of the target language are typically fluent in your language.
This should be a (the?) killer app for AI, particularly LLMs, as the potential benefits are enormous (facilitating better communication between peoples), and the problem is ideally suited to current AI (e.g. it doesn't have to be 100% accurate all the time, and it doesn't have to have any understanding of the reality underlying the language itself - it is just a word interpreter/regurgitator that you are using to practice speaking and listening)
Audio woule be the killer feature, I would make beginner easier or add starter/kid level, now it's still quite complicated:
"¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás? ¿Listo para practicar un poco de español sobre el tema del trabajo? ¿Hay algo en particular que te gustaría aprender o discutir?"
A little bit more guidance in type of conversation would also be great, maybe some tracks, or some maybe some scene to start with (as duolingo does with stories) so you don't have to put mental effort in. (you are in a restaurant order food, the waiter drops drink etc....)
https://www.parcero.ai/
- There is a rogue pr-4 on the free tier pricing card which makes the content sit left-aligned instead of in the center of the card.
- In dark mode the clerk login / signup link at the bottom is hard to read in that dark blue color
- Upon signup and first login the initially created conversation is not selected.
Other than that it looks like a good MVP. It looks like you are using Shadcn/UI which I am a big fan of and I'd like to give a shout out to them here.
From a business standpoint, I would suggest focusing on one language, and targeting people who are learning it with the AI + courseware. One of the GitHub founders started chatterbug.com specifically to teach German, and they delivered an exceptional experience that was easily worth $100/month (including video chats with a German coach). Now they've taken that successful model and expanded to other languages. If I could get the same conversation going with an AI, that's great, but the real secret sauce to any online learning play is the content.
- The chatbot ("Bianca") starts off with "grazie per chiedere!" which is a literal translation of "thanks for asking!" but not how you would say that in Italian. E.g. Google translating "thanks for asking!" to Italian gets it right at "grazie per avermelo chiesto!", which literally would be "thanks for having asked that!". Though really most often in Italian you'd just say "grazie!", for "thanks!".
- "voi siete" as plural or formal is not wrong but... weird. Using second person plural for formal form (which is how you'd do that in French), in Italian is quite rare. Currently it's only used in some regions or in very formal bureaucratic lingo. In most circumstances, you would say "lei è" (i.e. same as third person singular, feminine) - this has been the standard for a long time, Mussolini fought it back to introduce the "voi siete" again (which I guess it's why it's still there in formal lingo, which hasn't changed much since Fascism), but well, for most people that experiment ended 80 years ago?
- When the user asks "E "voi siete", "noi siamo", corretto?" (which is not great Italian, but that's fine, the user isn't supposed to be fluent; though it's weird to ask literally something which the bot stated exactly the line above), somehow the bot gets overly sheepish and apologises for an error where there was none, just to repeat the very same thing it said (because, well, indeed it was already correct).
But yes, it has no place on a language learning course for the reasons you listed.
https://www.openlang.ai (very rough MVP, please try it on desktop)
It has an AI tutor also like yours, but the main function is to learn via podcasts and YouTube using the language showing technique.
Based on my own experience learning a language, once you reach an intermediate level you usually hit a plateau, and you need to watch and listen to as much content as possible to improve.
The key is to keep your motivation high, and you do that by using content you actually care about. Learning a language shouldn't be something tedious but something you look forward to.