So, using voice chat with the free CHAT-GPT app, which is the 3.5 version… it's actually really good. Is it as smooth as talking to a real live person? No, not quite. But almost. It understands you perfectly, even with imperfect grammar, and responds in simple Japanese. You can have a conversation with the thing, about anything. (So there's really no reason to pay a language teaching website to set up pre-structured conversations with it. It's free and can talk about anything, well.)
I'm curious about if/how people are practicing with it and using it in Japanese, and even more curious if anyone has tried the paid 4.0 version ($20 a month) and can compare. I wonder how much better it is. For example supposedly the 3.5 can adjust its pace and speak a bit more slowly, but it's still pretty fast. I wonder if 4.0 can slow it down even more, but still sound natural. Etc.
What I do know is this is a good resource and is only going to get better. I just had a fluent conversation with it for several minutes, and it worked pretty flawlessly. And even provides a text version of the conversation as you're speaking. Good stuff. And I would think there will be (and should be) less language instructors in the future. 30 university students each having an individual, fluent conversation with AI precisely at the student's level +1, complete with error correction and feedback etc., for 90 intense minutes, sure beats 1 teacher lecturing 30 students of varying levels, 10 of them sleeping and 10 surfing their phones. I don't think the tech is perfect yet but clearly will be.
by mark777z
9 comments
I’m glad that option exists now given that there are no real persons that can talk Japanese nowadays.
Also much better to study with an AI instead of a real teacher, sure, I mean, they don’t even exist already so why be bothered about if it’s making up correct sentences or not.
just pay the lousy 10$ for online sessions with an actual teacher. Thats the only way you will get actual good feedback from a person that knows the nuances and feelings of different ways of saying things. Chatgpt won’t help you there. Another option is to get a Japanese friend
Interesting find! Obviously, yes, a real teacher is better like others have said (some seem to be really upset about you using chatgpt lol), but taking into account that you can use the AI whenever you feel like and its essentially free – it gives great value. Looking forward to the future when the tech improves even more.
Will definitely give this a try and do some random smalltalk at times when I don’t have real people to talk with.
Don’t bother bringing up AI in this subreddit. Every thread about it is filled with triggered people and fruitless discussion/unwanted advice will take place instead of anything you try to achieve.
I’ll be honest, this feels like cutting a corner that you really don’t want to cut.
You’d gain so much more by organically talking to a Japanese speaker or teacher, because when you make mistakes it can be explained and expanded upon. The AI will just try to find a way to respond to things you say incorrectly by responding in some awkward way.
hellotalk
Llms do hallucinate alot with their answers depending on the topic so my main concern would be knowing that if you’re asking it about grammar that it’s giving accurate information.
I use GPT to set up graded reading with only grammar and vocab up to the Genki chapter I’m on. It works great with GPT4 as you can get it to put hiragana in brackets after kanji (3.5 struggles with this). I also use to generate practise sentences.
People are dismissing AI voice but I disagree. It’s a good tool to work out your embarrassment of speaking before you gain proper practice with real people. That’s how AI will help.
It does not replace anything. It is training wheels.