How I’ve Been Learning Languages While on the Move With ChatGPT
A simple method to practice languages alone out in the wild
So, you know how, last week, I was complaining I was starting to feel an itch to study languages again? Well, I’ve since then realized there’s a way to do it while on the move with ChatGPT.
I visited quite a few places this past week,1 which means I had a lot of time walking around, unable to sit down to study.2
So I began using ChatGPT as a buddy to chat with.
I’ve already mentioned ChatGPT’s capacity to have a fully audio conversation (that gets transcribed in the background too). So far, I had used this functionality in the comfort of my home but it works just as well while on the move.
I put my earbuds in, started asking questions, and listened to my AI teacher while enjoying the scenery or walking towards one.
My first test was to ask it to teach me a random HSK4 (Mandarin Proficiency exam, level 4 out of 6) grammar pattern, and got the following answer spoken back to me.
I asked it for 10 more example sentences and listened as they were read out, trying to understand them on the spot without any material to help me.
As I kept walking through nature, I asked it to provide a story to work through but that was too vague so I ended up with a story that got me lost in no time.
The next day, on my way to Elephant Mountain to get a magnificent sunset view, I asked ChatGPT to create a completely fake news story in Korean to study through.
It created one about a non-existent AI robot competition in Seoul and shared what had happened and expectations for the future. I then requested questions about it and worked through those before requesting a follow-up article a year later and repeating the same process.
After this, I asked it to move on to Japanese with a new topic and this time got an article about a strange creature being seen at night by some people and how police was investigating it.
It felt easy so I asked it to translate it into Korean to figure out the words I’d have failed at understanding had I heard it in Korean directly. After working through those, I moved on to getting a translation in Mandarin.
Unfortunately, that one got me lost—another proof I’ve been focusing too much on reading skills for Chinese—so I asked ChatGPT to transform the article into a conversation between two people, therefore making it more accessible.
I used this process about once a day whenever I walked in calmer neighborhoods. This helped me work on my languages even as I kept visiting and living the busy life I’ve had since I arrived in Taipei.
One aspect I didn’t dive much into but which feels like it’d be useful is shadowing.
For those who don’t know, “shadowing” is a term coined by famous polyglot Professor Alexander Arguelles. The point is to repeat a sentence (or more) of your target language to get used to speaking it, and improve your pronunciation and your overall skills. Professor Arguelles also recommends doing this while walking.
It’s a very efficient way to improve fast.
Unfortunately, ChatGPT’s Mandarin voice is quite fast3 and not the greatest from my point of view. The Korean and Japanese voices are quite alright so I’m planning on trying it some day though.
We could ask ChatGPT to create a sentence and correct us when we mispronounce any word.
So, yeah, here are again my ideas for using ChatGPT to learn languages while on the move:
Listen to a story / (fake) news article and get comprehension questions
Request a grammar pattern explained with example sentences
Shadowing
Or even have a random conversation
Finally, there’s also a way to use it when we’re unable to speak (for example in the metro or on the bus). We can write a question down and listen to the answer once generated.
To do this, long-press on the answer and choose “Read aloud.”
Updates
I’m leaving Taiwan for France in a day as you receive this. Time truly flies.
The past week was filled with incredible experiences and one that stood out more than anything else was taking part in the Pingxi Lantern Festival with 2 Korean girls and one Indian guy I had just met in the morning while waiting for a bus that never came.
Letting go of our lantern and seeing the others rise around us. Here’s one of the videos I took. Just note: while it’s beautiful like this, it’s nothing compared to the real experience.
I doubt I’ll have any such incredible experience once back in France but I look forward to (hopefully) being proven wrong!
Cheers for reading,
Mathias
Most were “just fine.” Some were beautiful. A few actually blew my mind.
And, anyway, if I could sit down, I’d instead be working, reading, or watching YouTube to relax a bit.
It feels faster than the average real-life Mandarin speaker but that might just be me. Anybody to tell me if I’m right?