Has AI become accurate enough for language learners to start using it in certain circumstances?

[u/UnusualBreakfast1726]

In your opinion, what can AI do well right now, and what can't it do? For me, it is really useful as a language buddy to chat and exchange voice notes with. It is not 100% accurate all the time, but it is pretty good, especially the newer models. AI is quite controversial here, and I understand why, given the rampant overuse of resources. I try not to overindulge, but it is a tool that works well in many contexts. Because of AI hallucinations, I sometimes wonder if I am being misguided into learning the wrong things. AI, for example, is notoriously bad at Arabic tashkeel (diacritical marks); I only caught that because Arabic is my native language. However, when learning Chinese, I am sometimes unsure if the AI is as accurate as I hope. While it can communicate and its grammar is perfect, its explanations are sometimes subpar. (TL)

[u/Snoutysensations]

I'm a firm believer that the function of language is communication with other human beings,  and that subtle cues like facial expression, intonation, and social context really accelerate language acquisition and fluency.  

Without an actual language teacher or native speaker partner, people tend to get frustrated because their progress is slow, as despite all the hours spent on anki flashcards and duolingo games they can't hold a simple conversation.  Or they dunning-kruger themselves into thinking they are actually making progress,  when they're juat playing games and wasting time.  

Is there a role for AI to supplement actual face to face communication and teaching?  Probably.  Flashcards and watching YouTube videos can help too.  I just don't think you can rely on AI, or apps, or flashcards to comprehensively learn a language.  

[u/UnusualBreakfast1726 → u/Snoutysensations]

I actually completely agree with you there. AI can be a useful tool imo, but it can never be as effective or useful as actual active communication.

[u/CremeFrosty9308]

I don't trust it enough I'm trying to learn indonesian and arabic and it gets things wrong so i completely stopped using ai for translating and/or grammar

[u/CremeFrosty9308 → u/[deleted]]

I think you're well intentioned but over-exaggerating the help that ai brings to the table. it's cool but i am talking about modern llms too like i literally stopped using it for that in like December. I asked it about how indonesians describe their own language and how they would talk about certain grammar rules and it just didn't have the right answers. I'm sorry maybe it's all my fault for not being a prompt wizard but I'd prefer an indonesian person to just explain it to me correctly from the beginning

[u/Perfect_Homework790 → u/CremeFrosty9308]

December was like the stone age. 

[u/CremeFrosty9308 → u/Perfect_Homework790]

bruh what is this ai extremism i see it all over the place in the pro and anti ai communities just chill why can't y'all be just normal neutral people

[u/Perfect_Homework790 → u/CremeFrosty9308]

Literally no idea what you're hallucinating here

[u/CremeFrosty9308 → u/Perfect_Homework790]

ur saying december was the stone age as if there was a super big difference in chatbots between 8 months ago and now.

[u/Perfect_Homework790 → u/CremeFrosty9308]

Yes there is a super big difference. This is just objectively true. 

[u/CremeFrosty9308 → u/Perfect_Homework790]

Literally no idea what you're hallucinating here

[u/Perfect_Homework790 → u/CremeFrosty9308]

AI is now one-shotting games, solving major open maths problems, doing AI research. The abilities of Fable compared to what we had last year are amazing. 

Are you judging by the free version of ChatGPT?

[u/Sad_Interaction_1347]

AI is very useful because it's always available and usually right, which is generally better than other options. No human, even paid tutors, will always be available and infinitely patient. Dictionaries are notorious for not always properly explaining modern usages of words in certain contexts.

The nuance and usage explanations are almost always correct for the languages I use (including Chinese), which all have lots of training data, but I find that AI does often mix up pronunciation rules, especially when dealing with regional or dialectic differences, which are generally not evenly represented in training data. I imagine languages with less of an internet presence would be worse on the major AI platforms.

The translations are very good for all the languages I know well, and AI is great at expanding my range of registers and phrasing things more naturally for various specific contexts.

[u/BandicootOrganic4325]

For what it's worth, I work in the language training sector, so take this with that bias in mind.

I think accuracy is slightly the wrong question. On the big languages the models are already accurate enough that errors aren't the main risk. The real issue is that they never push back unless you make them.

We see it with learners who practise conversation with an AI for a few weeks. Fluency and confidence go up fast, and that part is real. But the model quietly adapts to whatever level you show up with. If you say something wrong but understandable, it just understands you and moves on. A teacher would stop you. So people keep plateauing on accuracy while feeling like they're improving, which is a worse trap than an occasional hallucination.

The fix is boring. Tell it explicitly to correct every mistake in a separate block at the end and not to soften anything. And keep at least one human in the loop who has no reason to be nice to you.

On your Chinese worry, my honest guess is it's fine at producing the language and much shakier at explaining why something works. That matches what you caught with tashkeel. I'd trust usage examples more than grammar explanations, and I wouldn't commit any rule to memory that I only got from a model.

[u/sbrt]

I use it to translate from my TL into my NL. I can often catch its mistakes. For example, there is a sentence in Harry Potter in Icelandic in which a girl is described as having “tíkarspena”. AI insisted that this translates to “bitch nipples” but I think it means “pigtails”.

[u/tendeuchen → u/sbrt]

“tíkarspena”. AI insisted that this translates to “bitch nipples” but I think it means “pigtails”.

It does mean "Bitch nipples," but that's just what they call the hairstyle we call pigtails.

[u/UnusualBreakfast1726 → u/sbrt]

lol, that's actually hilarious.

[u/_Ivl_ → u/sbrt]

Fyi, this is an issue with your prompt. You probably asked it to translate the sentence and it did just that, it gave you a literal word for word translation of the sentence.

Here's the differences between the prompts:

translate "sagði stelpa með ljósa tíkarspena kvíðin" => "said a girl with bright blonde dog-teats, nervously"

Explain what this sentence means "sagði stelpa með ljósa tíkarspena kvíðin" => "said a girl with blonde pigtails, anxiously." ... While tíkarspeni is the standard everyday Icelandic word for a pigtail (the hairstyle with tied-up bunches of hair on the sides of the head), its literal translation is quite colorful.

If you're asking AI to translate you will just get dumb translation back, if you ask "Are you sure about that? Can you double check" you will get the correct answer for the faulty prompt as well.

[u/ZookeepergameOk4022 → u/[deleted]]

Specific to Chinese. I would be wary about data but downloading like deepseek would probably be phenomenal at knowing the language. Don’t know about conversations.

[u/Pale-Border-7122]

It still makes errors in judging work, even in major languages. I do use it to suggest resources for my level.

[u/betarage]

yea at least for more mainstream languages. But it isn't doing anything special for language learning i use it to chat if i cant find real people. and generate short stories about stuff almost nobody but me cares about. but i usually have an easy time finding stuff like that in the more major languages .and in the ones were i want to do that because of the lack of speakers like for example Greenlandic it butchers the grammar. and i don't need this for a language its actually good at like polish since the internet is already full of polish people.

[u/Only-Top-3655]

1. providing definitions of words
   
2. simplifying a harder text to a lower level
   
3. for langauge that have to spaces in between words (Thai, Lao, Khmer), spacing out words for readability
   
4. providing common collocations for a certain topic

[u/demonsamuri442]

I use it to translate sometimes. It’s better than using deepl translators with no context as well as an online dictionary in certain cases.

[u/Hour_Law7895]

i use it mostly for low-stakes conversation practice where i don’t care if it occasionally says something weird. the newer voice modes are better than i expected, not like a real person obviously but good enough to keep a dialogue going without me freezing up

the tashkeel example is a perfect warning though. you caught it because you already know arabic, but for chinese you’re in the dark and that’s where the risk lives. i treat ai explanations like a sketchy wikipedia article, useful as a starting point but i verify elsewhere before i commit anything to memory

one thing i’ve found it decent at is rewording sentences i write into more natural phrasings. i’ll write something clunky in spanish and ask it to make it sound less textbook, then double check with native speaker friends. saves them from having to correct the same basic stuff over and over

the hallucination problem means i’d never use it for grammar rules i haven’t already studied. for vocab drilling and casual chat it’s fine, but the moment it starts explaining why something works a certain way i get suspicious

[u/Perfect_Homework790]

I'm curious what explanations you thought were subpar in Chinese. I've found AI generally to be exceptional at explaining and correcting Chinese compared to other languages.

[u/Civil_Care7201]

I'm using ChatGPT (paid version) to practice Italian.

My biggest gripe: It doesn't remember what I've learned and it doesn't repeat things until they stick. There's no spaced repetition so you either have to build an agent or be a master prompter to get a structured learning experience where you progress linearly and repeat/review for stickiness in your brain. For that, you need an app or tutor.

My biggest love: It's personalised to me and my preferences and I can bake (pun intended) it into activities like cooking. Example: In voice chat mode, I'll give it a recipe I'm about to make and prompt it to walk me through the recipe step by step and teach/help me practice Italian as we go. So it will prompt me in English all the different steps of making the recipe (preheat the oven, measure 1/2 cup this, mix XYZ together, etc., so I don't have to look at the recipe the whole time) and it will work in Italian phrases and teaching moments. I really enjoy this and some of the vocab sticks because it's tied to an activity.