Guest Post: How I Use ChatGPT to Learn Foreign Languages

ChatGPT has helped me improve my language skills like never before. Here's the approach and prompts I used.

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A few months ago, I share my experience learning a language with ChatGPT and Advanced Voice. Today, I’d like to share more about it but from Frank’s experience. He covers AI, data science and programming on his Substack Artificial Corner. Check it out!

P.S. In case you want more content on learning languages with ChatGPT, please, let me know in the comments.

Since I moved to Europe, I’ve renewed my love for languages. Over the past months, I’ve been practicing the languages I speak and even started learning a new language just for fun.

Now with ChatGPT, I feel that it’s easier to learn a language because it can provide corrections with examples, high-quality translations, and a lot more!

Here’s how I’ve been using ChatGPT to learn and practice foreign languages. The first prompts listed below will help everyone regardless of their language level, while the prompts at the end will be especially useful for those at the B1, B2, and beyond.

High-quality translations with ChatGPT: This is way better than Google Translate

Google Translate is one of those tools every language learner uses on a daily basis. However, do you know Google Translate doesn’t always provide you with the best translation?

Sometimes it translates your sentences word by word
Sometimes it understands context but provides a low-quality translation

While native speakers might still understand us if we use Google Translate, many things will be lost in translation.

Here’s the prompt I’m using to improve the quality of my translations.

Act as a language tutor. I’m going to give you a sentence in my native language [Spanish] and you have to translate it into the language I’m learning [English]. You have to provide 6 alternativate translations that convey a similar sentiment.

Please, rank the translation from phrases that have words native speakers would use in everyday conversation to words native speakers would rarely use.

The prompt works wonders. Here are some examples.

The other day I was writing an article and suddenly felt stuck because I couldn’t find the right words in English to explain how after long working sessions, my body stopped working (now it seems easy, but, believe me, it wasn’t)

In such situations, I think in Spanish the phrase I want to say and then translate it. Here’s the phrase I wanted to say.

Solia trabajar mucho hasta que mi cuerpo me traiciono

The literal translation would be “I used to work hard until my body betrayed me.” That’s actually what Google Translate suggested.

I think you could understand what I mean if you read that sentence, however, the word “betray” wasn’t exactly what I meant and it just didn’t sound like a word I’d use in that context.

I know “traicionar” literally means “betray” but thanks to the prompt above I got 6 alternatives to choose from.

Eureka! Options #1 and #2 were what I was looking for.

Here’s another example that I came up with while writing this article. Here’s the phrase I wanted to say:

Quiero que la traduccion sea lo mas fiel posible al lenguage original, pero con adaptaciones para que la frase se entienda correctamente.

Google would translate the word “fiel” as “faithful” or “loyal.” I know the message would be understood with those words, but I wanted alternatives and ChatGPT gave me some.

I know I might be picky with translation, but I don’t want to sound like a research paper when talking to my foreign friends. Thanks to ChatGPT I can increase my vocabulary in that regard.

ChatGPT corrects your mistakes and provides an explanation with examples: Better than your private tutor

The most basic, yet useful way to use ChatGPT to learn a language is using it as a language tutor that corrects your mistakes, provides an explanation for the correction provided, and gives examples.

Here’s the prompt I’ve been using for this task.

Act as a language tutor. I’ll provide you sentences in [English] and you’ll correct them so it’s gramatically correct and the formality is neutral. You also need to provide an explanation to the correction provided and give examples.

I can’t tell how many times I made the grammar mistake below. Grammarly helped me correct it, but it didn’t give an explanation or examples, so I ended up forgetting about the correction.

I’ve tried the prompt with different languages I speak and it’s as helpful as with English. 

Just note that ChatGPT hasn’t been equally trained with data in different languages, so there might be a decrease in performance for some languages.

Turn ChatGPT into your language partner