A robot playwright - now even more up-to-date with SearchGPT.

Topical Dialogues with SearchGPT

November 3, 2024

As if recent voice improvements weren’t enough of a treat, OpenAI has just introduced another killer feature to ChatGPT, one that can likewise beef up your custom language learning resources. SearchGPT enhances the LLM’s ability to access and incorporate bang up-to-date information from the web.

It’s a development that is particularly beneficial for language learners seeking to create study materials that reflect current events and colloquial language use. With few exceptions until now, LLMs like ChatGPT have had a ‘data cutoff’, thanks to mass text training having an end-point (albeit a relatively recent one). Some LLMs, like Microsoft’s Copilot, have introduced search capabilities, but their ability to retrieve truly current data could be hit and miss.

With SearchGPT, OpenAI appear to have cracked search accuracy a level to rival AI search tool Perplexity – right in the ChatGPT app. And it’s as simple as highlighting the little world icon that you might already have noticed under the prompt field.

The new SearchGPT icon in the ChatGPT prompt bar.

Infusing Prompts with SearchGPT

Switching this on alongside tried-and-tested language learning prompt techniques yields some fun – and pedagogically useful – results. For instance, you can prompt ChatGPT to generate dialogues or reading passages based on the latest news from your target language country/ies. Take this example:

A language learning dialogue on current affairs in German, beefed up by OpenAI’s SearchGPT

SearchGPT enables content that mirrors real-life discussion with contemporary vocabulary and expressions (already something it was great at). But it also incorporates accurate, up-to-the-minute, and even cross-referenced information. That’s a big up for transparency.

Unsure where that info came from? Just click the in-text links!

Enhancing Speaking Practice with Authentic Contexts

Beyond reading, these AI-generated dialogues serve as excellent scripts for speaking practice. Learners can role-play conversations, solo or group-wise, to improve pronunciation, intonation, and conversational flow. This method bridges the gap between passive understanding and active usage, a crucial step in achieving fluency.

Incorporating SearchGPT into your language learning content creation toolbox reconnects your fluency journey with the real, evolving world. Have you used it yet?

A taxi driver keen to start a conversation!

Captive Conversation : Taxi Cabs and Language Learning

October 27, 2024October 27, 2024Leave a comment

If there’s one frustration for language learners visiting their target language countries, it’s the lack of opportunity for conversation practice beyond “please” and “thank you”.

It’s a product of the short trip that most interactions will be pretty short and prosaic. If you’re not travelling there to meet someone in particular, you’ll be limited to service environments.

Not exactly scintillating conversation.

That is, except for one, quite particular scenario: the taxi cab.

Captive Conversation

Perhaps it’s the captive environment. Perhaps it’s just the fact that taxi drivers tend to be chatty folks anyway, happy to alleviate the day’s grind with some interesting convo. But I’ve had some of the best speaking practice ever when taking cabs abroad.

There’s such an easy structure to the start of a typical taxi cab chat. “Are you very busy today?” or “how’s the traffic been?” is the cabbie equivalent of asking about the weather, and it’s always worked as a nice way in for me. More often than not, you’ll get some kind of surprise response – wow, you speak Greek? – and then you can get in all of your language chat about why and how you learn.

The Art of Cab-versation

Most of the time, taxi folk are completely warm and lovely about chatting with you as a learner. And if they’re not in the mood for deep chats, you’ll soon know (and can try again next time). Most recently, I had a good natter with a couple of Greek cabbies in Athens and Crete (I’ve never had a Greek cabbie not want to chat). Somehow, both managed to turn the conversation to complaints about the government (probably a universal thing rather than a Greek, or even a cabbie thing!).

But one of my dearest cabbie convo memories is getting a guided tour of the area around Cape Town by a Xhosa speaker, back in 2007. I don’t speak Xhosa – I wish I did – but as well as telling us about the history of the area, he took us through some Xhosa words and phrases, and, of course, its click sounds. I have a video of it somewhere, which I promise I’ll share on here at some point!

Cabs can be a slightly pricier way to travel on holiday, for sure. But if you get 30 minutes (or more) of friendly – often very impressed – cab driver convo, just think of it as paying for a mobile iTalki lesson!

A robot dressed for a true crime podcast!

True Crime Podcasts – Suspenseful Language Learning

October 20, 2024

Looking for language listening practice with a thrilling – and sometimes macabre – twist? Then true crime is where it’s at.

I’ve fallen down a bit of a foreign language true crime rabbit hole of late. It’s a surprise, to be honest, since it was never really a thing for me in my native English. The same could be said for Scandi noir, though, which – inexplicably – I seem to love in Norwegian and Swedish, but never touch in English. Maybe we do have different personalities in different languages, after all.

Anyway, it turns out that true crime podcasts have everything you might want from target language listening practice. They have a predictable, narrative structure. They’re quite compelling, encouraging you to keep listening as the plot unfolds. And stylistically, they’re often delivered in a dramatically slowed-down, crystal-clear ‘acting’ voice.

The downside? The language probably differs quite a bit from ‘on-the-street’ language. Incidentally, that’s the same criticism often levelled at reading children’s books in your target language, which is still a great way to increase your exposure despite the naysayers. And narrative language is far from useless – it’s what I use weekly with my Greek teacher when talking about what’s been going on in my life, for example. A bit of Greek true crime has done wonders for my simple past.

Not that I’ve been involved in any crimes, I hasten to add.

True Crime and the Urge to Understand

As they’re resources intended for native speakers, true crime podcasts are something you’ll probably want to work in once you have a solid A2-ish level at least. I’m still working on my natural-speed Greek listening at these levels (B2+), and it’s far from perfect yet. Often, I’ll understand a key plot element in an episode of Αληθινά εγκλήματα, then half-understand the next (he did what with the frying pan?).

But there’s something about the suspense of a true crime story, told well, that makes you desperate to get that detail. I tell you, I’m 10-second back-skipping more often than I do with current affairs podcasts!

If you’re looking to work some of this suspense in your own language learning routine, true crime podcasts are not hard to come across. The word for ‘crime’ in your target language will probably yield quite a few in your podcast app of choice. That said, they’re vastly more popular in some languages than others. German, for some reason, is absolutely spoilt for true crime podcasts. A Teutonic slant for intrigue, perhaps? In any case, here are a few of my favourites in some of my target languages!

🇦🇹 delikt – Wahre Verbrechen aus Österreichs Süden
🇩🇪 Wahre Verbrechen
🇫🇷 L’heure du crime
🇬🇷 Αληθινά εγκλήματα
🇬🇷 Μέχρι Θανάτου
🇸🇪 Svenska brott

Apples and oranges, generated by Google's new image algorithm Imagén 3

Google’s Imagén 3 : More Reliable Text for Visual Resources

October 13, 2024October 13, 2024Leave a comment

If you use AI imaging for visual teaching resources, but decry its poor text handling, then Google might have cracked it. Their new algorithm for image generation, Imagén 3, is much more reliable at including short texts without errors.

What’s more, the algorithm is included in the free tier of Google’s LLM, Gemini. Ideal for flashcards and classroom posters, you now get quite reliable results when prompting for Latin-alphabet texts on the platform. Image quality seems to have improved too, with a near-photographic finish possible:

A flashcard produced with Google Gemini and Imagén 3.

The new setup seems marginally better at consistency of style, too. Here’s a second flashcard, prompting for the same style. Not quite the same font, but close (although in a different colour).

A flashcard created with Google Gemini and Imagén 3.

It’s also better at real-world details like flags. Prompting in another engine for ‘Greek flag’, for example, usually results in some terrible approximation. Not in Imagén 3 – here are our apples and oranges on a convincing Greek flag background:

Apples and oranges on a square Greek flag, generated by Google’s Imagén 3

It’s not perfect, yet. For one thing, it performed terribly with non-Latin alphabets, producing nonsense each time I tested it. And while it’s great with shorter texts, it does tend to break down and produce the tell-tall typos with anything longer than a single, short sentence. Also, if you’re on the free tier, it won’t allow you to create images of human beings just yet.

That said, it’s a big improvement on the free competition like Bing’s Image Creator. Well worth checking out if you have a bunch of flashcards to prepare for a lesson or learning resource!

Language Lessons from Packaging (And A Little Help from ChatGPT)

October 6, 2024Leave a comment

If you love scouring the multilingual packaging of household products from discounter stores (a niche hobby, I must admit, even for us linguists), then there’s a fun way to automate it with LLMs like ChatGPT.

Take the back of this packet of crisps. To many, a useless piece of rubbish. To me (and some of you, I hope!), a treasure of language in use.

Greek text on a packet of crisps

Normally, I’d idly read through these, looking up any unfamiliar words in a dictionary. But, using an LLM app with an image facility like ChatGPT, you can automate that process. What’s more, you can request all sorts of additional info like dictionary forms, related words, and so on.

From Packaging to Vocab List

Take a snap of your packaging, and try this prompt for starters:

Create a vocabulary list from the key content words on the packaging label. For each word, list:

– its dictionary form

– a new, original sentence illustrating the word in use

– common related words

The results should be an instantly useful vocab list with added content for learning:

Vocabulary list from food packaging by ChatGPT

Vocabulary list compiled by ChatGPT from a food packaging label

I added a note-taking stage to round it off. It always helps me to write down what I’m learning, adding a kinaesthetic element to the visual (and aural, if you’ve had ChatGPT speak its notes out loud). Excuse the scrawl… (As long as your notes are readable by you, they’re just fine!)

Handwritten vocabulary notes derives from crisp packet packaging

Notes on a crisp packet…

It’s a fun workflow that really underscores the fact that there are free language lessons all around us.

Especially in the humblest, and often least glamorous, of places.

ChatGPT takes conversation to the next level with Advanced Voice Mode

ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode is Finally Here (For Most of Us!)

September 29, 2024September 29, 2024Leave a comment

Finally – and it has taken SO much longer to get it this side of the Pond – Advanced Voice Mode has popped up in my ChatGPT. And it’s a bit of a mind-blower to say the least.

Multilingually speaking, it’s a huge step up for the platform. For a start, its non-English accents are hugely improved – no longer French or German with an American twang. Furthermore, user language detection seems more reliable, too. Open it up, initiate a conversation in your target language, and it’s ready to go without further fiddling.

But it’s the flexibility and emotiveness of those voices which is the real game-changer. There’s real humanity in those voices, now, reminiscent of Hume’s emotionally aware AI voices. As well as emotion, there’s variation in timbre and speed. What that means for learners is that it’s now possible to get it to mimic slow, deliberate speech when you ask that language learning staple “can you repeat that more slowly, please?”. It makes for a much more adaptive digital conversation partner.

Likewise – and rather incredibly – it’s possible to simulate a whole range of regional accents. I asked for Austrian German, and believe me, it is UNCANNILY good. Granted, it did occasionally verge on parody, but as a general impression, it’s shocking how close it gets. It’s a great way to prepare for speaking your target language with real people, who use real, regionally marked speech.

Advanced Voice Mode, together with its recently added ability to remember details from past conversations (previously achievable only via a hack), is turning ChatGPT into a much cannier language learning assistant. It was certainly worth the wait. And for linguaphiles, it’ll be fascinating to see how it continues to develop as an intelligent conversationalist from here.

Mapping out conversational probabilities - it's much easier with flowcharts.

Vocabulary Flowcharts : Preparing for Probabilities with ChatGPT

September 22, 2024Leave a comment

The challenge in preparing for a speaking task in the wild is that you’re dealing with multiple permutations. You ask your carefully prepared question, and you get any one of a number of likely responses back. That, in turn, informs your next question or reply, and another one-of-many comebacks follows.

It’s probability roulette.

What if you could map all of these conversational pathways out, though? Flowcharts have long been the logician’s tool of choice for visualising processes that involve forking choices. Combined with generative AI’s penchant for assembling real-world language, we have a recipe for much more dynamic language prep resources than a traditional vocab list.

And, thanks to a ready-made flowchart plugin for ChatGPT – courtesy of the charting folks at Whimsical.com – it’s really easy to knock one together.

Vocabulary Flowcharts in Minutes

In your ChatGPT account, you’ll need to locate the Whimsical GPT. Then, it’s just a case of detailing the conversational scenario you want to map out. Here’s an example for ‘opening a bank account in Germany’:

Create a flowchart detailing different conversational choices and paths in German for the scenario “Opening a bank account as a non-resident of Germany planning to work there for six months.” Include pathways for any problems that might occur in the process. Ensure all the text reflects formal, conversational German.

The result should be a fairly detailed ‘probability map’ of conversational turns:

A ‘vocabulary flowchart’ in German, created by the Whimsical.com GPT on ChatGPT.

Vocabulary flowcharts are another tool in your AI arsenal for speaking prep. Have you given them a whirl yet? Tell us about your own prep in the comments!

ElevenLabs Reader is the TTS robot you need!

ElevenLabs Reader : Enjoy it while it’s free!

September 8, 2024Leave a comment

I’ve raved before about the fantastic text-to-speech facility at ElevenLabs. Voices so realistic they pretty much pass for human, that work across languages, and can even clone your own.

Well, there’s a little-feted app that the ElevenLabs team are behind that is a similar show-stopper in its category. It’s simply called Reader, and is a free text-to-speech narration app for Android and iOS.

Like the company’s web-based TTS service, it has the same range of emotive, expressive, ultra-realistic voices. It can also cope well narrating many languages, which are autodetected. Best of all for me is that it links with your device’s documents, so I can quickly import the papers I’m reading. Listening AND reading has made a massive difference to my comprehension and recall – multimodal is definitely the way forward for me!

You do get the odd strange artefact in the readout, but the product is still in Beta (likely the reason it’s currently completely free), and glitches are rare. What I’m also missing in it is the ability to tweak imported texts in-app, as you can do with Speechify. This would allow some cleaning of the file pre-narration (I lost count of the number of times I had to skip the page footer DOI link, which it hilariously mis-narrated many times). You can, of course, simply export and clean the files as text before importing, which gets round that.

In any case, they’re worth putting up with while the app is still free and in Beta. Even as it is, you have features here that you’d pay a small fortune for in other apps (ahem, Speechify). Definitely worth a punt if you’re looking for TTS support in your reading! Find download links for Android and iOS here.

The cover of Scottish Gaelic - A Comprehensive Grammar (Routledge)

Scottish Gaelic : A Comprehensive Grammar Released This Week!

September 1, 2024Leave a comment

It’s a moment Gaelic learners and general language aficionados have been waiting a long time for. Routledge has finally added the language to its Comprehensive Grammar series!

Released this week, the new reference work by Edinburgh University’s Professor William Lamb fills a real gap on the Gaelic bookshelf. Learners looking for a modern guide have had a much narrower choice of much briefer handbooks, such as Michel Byrne’s excellent, but rather slim Gràmar na Gàidhlig. Either that, or explore the ambitious descriptive grammars of old, like Shaw’s 18th-Century Analysis of the Gaelic Language, which is fascinating, but not particularly contemporary (although you know I love an ancient language manual).

The new Routledge tome weighs in at a hefty 580 pages, and looks to be an exhaustive tour of the contemporary language. It’s also very reasonably priced at around the £30 mark (compare, for example, the price of the Swedish counterpart!). If you’re a student, then you can get an additional 25% off that by buying directly from Routledge via a student discount site like Student Beans.

Suas leis a’ Ghàidhlig!

A Cultural Exchange After The Vows

August 25, 2024August 25, 2024Leave a comment

As people fixated on all things language, we often assume that those outside our bubble are oblivious to the joy we get from dabbling, finding out about and having fun with words. But at a cross-cultural wedding this weekend, I was delighted as the topic of language came up, again and again – and people just ran with it.

The ceremony was between a Scottish-English friend and her Latvian partner, with a small group of celebrants on either side. The Latvian party spoke both Latvian and Russian amongst each other, all with very good English (of course!). The Brits were, encouragingly, a multilingual lot too, which is always good to see (our reputation preceding us all too often).

The touch-point was simple curiosity. It was time for the toasts and the meal, and someone piped up how do you say cheers in Latvian? That’ll be priekā! Soon on its heels followed how do you say bon appetit in Latvian? (Labu apetīti!) Before we knew it, we were deep in linguistic exchange. It wasn’t one-way, either; when it transpired that a waitress was a Doric Scots speaker, like one of our party, a whole other language lesson was delivered back to our Latvian friends. Fit, faa, foo…yes, they really are question words in Aberdeenshire!

The loveliest thing was that it didn’t stop at the initial tidbit of info. The newly shared Latvian and Doric phrases kept ringing out throughout the meal, practised by the guests in much the same way as kids show off a new skill. It was an absolute joy to witness – learning about each other through language, and using that knowledge to keep a new dialogue going. When the time to say goodbye arrived, I’d already Google Translated and memorised a snippet to part on, tipsily:

Bija jauki iepazīties (it was lovely to meet up)

Making connections like this and seeing them flourish refreshes our faith in humanity. When we explore and celebrate our diversity, we are truly at our best.

Polyglossic

Love Learning Languages

Category: Language Learning