Learning a language with IA (Part Two)

In the previous blog, we’ve seen that when the topic is meaningful, my brain is more likely to remember. So today we’ll see how variations can tremendously amplify my learning if I incorporate them in my conversations. 

To achieve that, I plan to take a given topic and redo it once in simple Spanish, once in a more complex version, once using only the past tense, then the future and maybe – only maybe - using subjunctive triggers (“aunque”, “cuando”, “si”, “ojalá”). All this to build flexibility, not just vocabulary. It’s also my plan to prioritize listening as much as speaking by asking TalkPal to speak at native speed, slightly slower and with regional accents (Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Chile).

Based on my experience I know that listening is the bottleneck, so if I can understand fast Spanish, speaking becomes much easier. Along with speed, I’m also planning to ask for corrections in a selective manner. If TalkPal were to corrects everything, I would lose flow, but if it fails to correct me I’ll fossilize mistakes. 

I’ll ask: “Solo corrige errores importantes que cambian el significado.” or “Déjame hablar libremente y corrige al final.” Hopefully, this will keep the conversation natural. When I get good at conversing, I plan to push into emotional and philosophical topics, areas I enjoy talking about. Things like aging, dreams, fear, meaning, mountains life, lessons learned throughout my life and reflection on time that goes far too fast. If I can succeed with all this, I’ll be able to track my progress in comfort, not perfection. 

For this I’ll make my own measurements by asking: 

• Am I hesitating less? 
• Am I thinking more in Spanish? 
• Am I recovering from mistakes faster? 
• Am I enjoying the conversation more? 

All these elements are the real markers of fluency. But again, when the real hurdle to learning languages is the fear of being judged and looking stupid. I only need to keep in mind at all time that I’m interacting with a robot that sounds and talk to me just like a human, but this might be a tall call… 

Wish me good luck!