AI Adventures

So as some of you know from this blog, I've been utilising AI to help get in spoken spanish practice between lessons since, well, I don't live in a Spanish-speaking country ;).  What may not be as well known is AI is becoming more common at work too and I'm finding random uses for it that I quite appreciate because it saves me a ton of time for more interesting things.

Where this collides is the topic I picked in today's practice session was "getting help from a career advisor" lol.  Shockingly, once we got through some of the basics, it had some theoretically good ideas.  It offered to send me some links, which I was actually almost into seeing and then... I remembered it's just the language app not the work app and as such it will NOT, in-fact, actually do anything other than correct and analyze my conversation skills.   lol oops.

Also amusing to me - at the end of each feedback report it has a "cultural tip" related to the conversation.   This was today's:    

Where my significant protest lay is that the AI was the first to mention PMI 😂. I only used it back in response to the question it asked me.  And, vowels are pronounced differently in Spanish so it both took me a sec to recognize what it was saying AND made me interested to know if I could say it back in a way that wouldn't get my pronunciation yelled at.

I will say, this tech is improving fast and impressively.  I had a friend try it the other day for whom English is not his first language (obv I switched all the settings around) and I was really entertained listening to the English AI - we started with British by accident but I switched it to US to make it more familiar and omg was it ever a riot.   Very definitely a real feeling and sounding conversation to what you'd hear on the street.   It still has a compartively short memory, but far less so than it used to, so it does feel like an actual conversation now.

The only part I consistently don't like, and this one actually drives me insane.  It's effectively taking dictation and then you get your feedback from that - great in that you can see what it heard (identifies pronunciation issues) etc.  Less great in that I *often* get feedback that I spelt something wrong because I missed a silent letter.  A SILENT letter.  I was *supposed* to miss it while speaking.  The AI typed it.  And I know, logically, that I can just ignore that feedback and move on.  But man it annoys me every single friggin time.   lol logic is not welcome here!   Also, potentially because it would be one simple IF statement to solve -- if the user didn't physically type the sentence, no feedback regarding silent letters that weren't typed.  But - maybe it'll learn that eventually.

Living in interesting times - I do wonder sometimes what this chapter will look like in HS History texts ;)

TIL: Spanish Edition

So I just had a lightbulb moment:

I can’t believe how long it’s taken me to realize this but I think part of the reason I can read in Spanish so much easier than I can listen is that my eyes read ahead of my brain.  So for all the critical information to understand Spanish that comes later in the sentence than in English, I need the speaker to pause after each sentence so I can mentally understand the words, restructure and translate.   But when I read, my brain gives me the meaning of the words in English, and my eyes are far enough ahead of my brain that I have the structural info already.

Realized that while reading a transcript while listening to a blog post. 

Now arguably it'd be nice if my brain could just give me the meaning in English when listening like it does for reading ;).   Maybe some day!

And while I completely get why my teachers say not to translate 😂 I’m not good enough for that quite yet!

TIL - DNA in Spanish is ADN

That DNA in Spanish is ADN (thanks Spanish Ted Talks 😂).  Idk why that struck me as so entertaining but here we are ;).  The organized part of me appreciates that the letters are in alphabetical order;)

Reminds me of a prev Spanish one - OCD in Spanish is TOC.   And in Spanish instead of knock-knock for the sound of someone knocking on a door, they use toc-toc.   I see know way in which that combination of things could go badly ;).  There’s an entire movie about it 😂 

#TIL: Comma Chaos

This post is only for those of you who are writing or grammar nerds.  The rest of you, pick a topic that interests you on the right and enjoy ;).  

Comma Chaos in English

So TIL there’s a worse trauma possible due to a lack of comma than that felt by Nelson Mandela and everyone else harmed by a missing Oxford Comma.  However, it’s not relevant in English writing only in Spanish and until now I had NO idea.  Zero.  Ziltch.  Nada.  None.  So now I’m wondering how much I’ve misread cause of it lol.

So - here’s the thing, this post is why actual live teachers are important, cause this TIL comes to you from my Spanish lesson today, and suffice to say Google Translate has never imparted this info to me ;)  Also, I’m writing this as much to solidify in my own little brain as to share this complete randomness.

These two sentences:

• Van a reformar la casa, que está vieja
• Van a reformar la casa que está vieja

Do not actually mean the same thing.

The words translate roughly into They are going to renovate the house which is old. 

The one with a comma functions similarly to how it does in English - the comma gives us extra information.  So this one house, right here, is being repaired because it’s old.  

But the other one, without a comma, means they are renovating the old house (not any of these other ones around here) 

That missing comma was donated to create a whole neighbourhood!   😂 

For those who read Spanish, here's the official version
For those who don't,  it's the pretty picture of the above ;)

This one amused me:

• Los hijos de Clara, que son simpatiquísimo, vienen a visitarnos
• Los hijos de Clara que son simpatiquísimos vienen a visitarnos

Basic Translation:

Clara’s children, who are very nice, come to visit us.

Vs: The nice children of Clara’s come to visit us (but the other, not-nice, children stay home)

So there you have both your and my educational moment of the day ;).  

When left to my own devices I discover all kinds of randomness

Some completely random things that I've recognised an appreciation for this week: 

Olympic announcers who can make a sport comprehensible to people who have potentially never even heard of it before while not sounding condescending- done right it can drive a real new interest in the sport.  Sports I’ve learned a ton about this week starting from zero:

• Surfing (hurry up and wait taken to the extreme 🤣); announcers need to fill a lot of empty space
• Skateboarding (the park variation - I still can’t get over the age range of these competitors: 11-50)
• Speed climbing, and also the boulder/lead climbing 
• Kayak cross (this to me is steeplechase with the potential of drowning!   lol would be a blast if I had skills and were the only one on the course but no way I’d want to do it w other kayakers ;))
• Breakdancing - ok gotta admit I didn’t love this one enough to learn much about it, but at least I know a little bit about it now...  

Translators of musicals.  I’ve been informed that what I need most to improve my Spanish is intake - active or passive doesn’t really matter but has to be understandable to me; sheer volume is what I need and preferably listening rather than reading.  So while I was practicing drawing, I put the TV on for passive Spanish (usually it’s just off unless C is home.  Or this week on Olympics which I’m loving) and set it to Disney.  Some of the ones I watched I’ve only seen once or twice so I couldn’t tell you the lyrics in English to know if they did a good job of changing them.  But the one I knew by heart I was super impressed- obv not always a literal translation but the same meaning, the same intent, and with words that suit the rhythm, tone, and rhyme requirements of the song.  That takes translation to a whole new level and I am in awe.

Teaching strategies that I’ve either experienced or picked up from others in all kinds of areas that I’m learning are rooted in science that makes me appreciate coaches who got there before the science did ❤️.   But also makes me 💯 more likely to apply it knowing *why* it works.   Also - if this sort of thing interests you, highly recommend the first section of “The Talent Code”.   I’m not finding much new in it (but, to be fair, I read a lot about adult learning - although this book is applicable to any age) but the way it’s put together and the science behind WHY it works, I’m finding fascinating.  It’s also a light and easy read, which helps.

AI Learning

So continuing the Spanish adventure - a while ago I dove into AI apps that have specifically targeted components for language learning (eg not chatGPT cause I'm too lazy for that ;).  I've recently been getting a lot of emails about updates to some of the options that, when I had a lesson cancelled today but still wanted to practice talking, encouraged me to go do some digging.    And my top three remain the same as previously but I have to say, one has made significant changes.

We'll start with TalkPal - which is an app I have on my phone with a year long subscription that I probably won't renew.  This one was top of the line when I first investigate and is still good - it allows for at least some back and forth and has some semi-scripted conversations that are certainly helpful to practice scenarios, as well as debate mode and the ability to chat with historical (or fictional) characters which is moderately entertaining.  My issue with it is the updates seem to be mostly cosmetic rather than functional; the advice isn't improving, you have to hit record every time (okay that's being really picky but it does take away from conversation) and it's been a long time since any new debates, conversations, etc seem to have been introduced.  Maybe coming soon?  Idk.  But also frustrating is the time delay - if you say more than a few words or pause for too long in the middle trying to think of what you're going to say, it can take more than a minute to send at which point, I've already moved on to other things ;)

TeacherAI I still have hope for and they currently have a 3-day free trial.  They are updating All The Time (I know cause I get emails - that I signed up for, not spam) but I really have issue with giving a credit card for a free trial (not that I won't do it, but I resent having to) and so I haven't looked at the latest version because I haven't seen notice of some of the updates I was hoping for.  I DO think they have excellent language learning feedback - far better than TalkPal that is really just conversation practice.  But app (website not app actually) is clunky and screen shots suggest that hasn't changed, and I'm not super-convinced the other things I was waiting for have been updated.   So I passed on that one.  It MIGHT be a superstar by now, but I'm not convinced.

So the one that won this time was Langua - this one I didn't even play with last time because it was brand new and very expensive.   However, I got an email (again - signed up for) with a significant discount.  AND an *actually* free trial.  Super short, but no CC required.   Also, this is the platform I take lessons from (one of the only one that actually interviews their instructors) and having tried many many many language lesson platforms over the years, I'd really like these guys to stay in business so I would like to support them when it makes sense.    I was SUPER impressed by their AI bot, even on my very short trial, so I sucked it up and got myself a year subscription (admittedly significantly discounted but still a lot more than the FREE I've been paying till now which basically includes everything of theirs that I'd use except AI).

Anyways - the first thing that made me think this was going to be a fun adventure was the personality expressed in one of the first options in the setup:

Edited on Day 2 to add it does occasionally hallucinate,
but no worse than my voice-to-text on my phone does and that's in English

But the best part wasn't included in their advertising (I sent them a message they should fix that!) - after my session I got an option to "receive feedback" that was so incredibly useful it'll keep me going just for that.

So I'm writing this on the basis of exactly one use but things that I found useful as an intermediate learner:

- you can choose whether or not you also want to be able to read what the AI is saying.  And if you select no and regret it part-way through, you can click on the blanked-out dialog box, it will fill in the box for just that statement.  I absolutely love this, and it was one of my big frustrations with early versions of TeacherAI that you couldn't have conversation-only.   TalkPal has it only for one area (phone calls) not for any of the debates etc.

- there is also an option to have it translate what the AI said into English (or whatever your starting language is presumably; you set current language and target language before you start). 

- for Spanish I had the option of AIs from several different countries (important for accent, vocabulary, and because there are certain core structures that are different in Spain from everywhere in Latin America)

- I also had the option of whether I wanted it to include slang (I haven't tried this one yet, but I'm looking forward to it :)

- after I spoke it wrote what I said and the conversation continued without pause.  However, I could at any point go back to something I said and get it to identify errors (literally one click), and if I didn't understand those errors it would give a bit of an explanation and an example of how it could be rewritten.   As someone whose grammar knowledge far exceeds their speaking ability, this was super helpful to me, because as soon as I see what's wrong or what it should be I know enough to understand why.   IF, however, you were a stronger speaker than grammar-nerd, this might be super frustrating and would be a good time to have a real-life teacher waiting in the wings to ask follow up questions of.   That being said, there's also a section of the AI about "ask a grammar question" so in lieu of a real person, that's where I'd go next.  But I haven't tested that out yet.  It's clunky to me to have to leave the conversation to understand something - I can see it getting there, but it's not there yet.

- However, to be fair, I didn't ask it.   I say this because at one point the casual chat, it asked me a direct question in which there was a critical word I didn't know (aka without knowing that word the sentence itself had no meaning); I asked them to explain it to me, which they did - in Spanish, and the conversation was able to continue after that as though I hadn't interrupted it.  So that was awesome - worked just as it does in my lessons.   This was also before I figured out I could cheat and translate what it had said to English, but it's a far better learning tool to ask it to explain to me so I'm going to forget I know that option ;)

- And, if you DO leave the conversation, you have the option of resuming it in the same place when you return, which is excellent.

- only other mild frustration was that one correction changed the meaning of what I was trying to say.   That was not something I was going to debate with a computer so I took a screen shot so I could check later.  Google agreed that what I wrote was the correct translation for what I wanted to say.  But despite common belief, Google doesn't know everything so I also took it to my human teacher (who also presumably doesn't know everything but I trust him more than Google when it comes to accurately translating common usage statements between Spanish and English lol) and he also confirmed I'd said it correctly.  So win for me, but may be mildly aggravating if it happens often or if it derails conversations.

- the first chat I did (talk about anything) was pretty good at staying with the conversation and it followed a natural trend that didn't forget TOO soon what we were talking about.  I'll test a longer one in the next few days to see how long before it starts annoying me for not remembering basic details.  That was my biggest frustration with TeacherAI the first time I tried it and I was ready to throw the machine out the window.   The second chat I did was under the "debates" category about Remote Working (those who know... ;)) this one appeared to flow naturally and was not repeating at all, but definitely felt a little more scripted.

- I told it I was an intermediate speaker and I'd say the whole thing was level appropriate.  I obv haven't tested how that might change if I tell it I'm a beginner or advanced.   

So yeah, I'm very excited about this one, but the follow up PDF feedback summary was HUGELY valuable to me and I didn't really see that that was going to be included when I signed up.  It identified strengths and weaknesses (which align to feedback from my real-life teachers so I tend to believe it) which was very cool to see.

I found this useful and it just appeared after I ended the conversation

It also included the script of anything that I said that had errors along with the correction, explanation for the correction, and potential alternative suggestions (regardless of whether I had clicked into these in the chat), and, interestingly, a "cultural note" at the bottom about using formal language (since this was potentially a work-related discussion; I didn't take it that way - more like talking about work than talking to people I work with, but I appreciated that they highlighted it either way).

"Cultural Tip

In Spanish-speaking countries, especially in professional settings, it's common to use more formal language and address people using "usted" instead of "tú". While your conversation seemed casual, in a real work environment, you might need to adjust your language to be more formal, particularly when speaking with superiors or clients."

So yeah - that's my summary of day one with my new toy.  It's definitely still early tech, but I was really super-impressed. 

Trying to learn two unrelated skills? Why not practice them together? ;-P

Right, so I was flipping through YouTube to find a drawing tutorial for the night (I'm taking a course but it requires more brainpower - YouTube usually delivers that quick hit of "finished product" endorphins ;) and thought I'd go back to the original driver of dragons.   However, I couldn't find any I really liked, but I did find a lion that looked good.  

When I clicked through to the video, the instruction was good, but the person was definitely new-ish to English and I couldn't tell if his accent was Spanish or Italian -- until he happened to mention he had the same video in Spanish.   So I went to his channel and while English videos are a new endeavour for him, he has a TON of Spanish ones.   And one I just LOVED and it was like 20 mins.  Perfect.

Okay so just to put in perspective - 20 min videos even in English usually take me at least an hour.  Sometimes more.  And this drawing...   well, suffice to say it's well beyond my current capabilities.   But I wanted it.   And so down the rabbit hole I jumped.

20 min video - that showed start to finish him drawing the same picture he was teaching, took me about 3h.  Maybe 2.5 given a quick "walk Sasha around the block" and a few other minor things that came up.  And I would've placed it at about 45 min.  I really lose time when I'm drawing, but I kinda love that because it's the ultimate "in the moment".    Now, let's put this in perspective.

1 - the first 3 mins of his drawing took me about 20.  It involved drawing a person.  I have never drawn a person before.  The first effort got scrapped and I started over. All good learning but wow so slow.

2 - It's FULLY possible that he filmed it first and then sped up the drawing with a voice over.  There was no time lapse that some you-tube artists use, but he was SUPER-FAST.  Speaking in Spanish and drawing faster than he spoke.   Which means I feel justified that it was taking me longer ;) 

3 - And it was more of a follow along so the language wasn't super necessary, although it certainly did add extra value it wasn't critical to understand to be able to execute the drawing.  But that also means there was no instruction beyond trying to mirror what he was doing (which conveniently applies the same techniques as in my sketching class - win!).

4 - I can understand Spanish or I can draw.  I cannot do both at the same time.  (I also cannot read out loud in Spanish and understand what I said, or listen in Spanish and write notes at the same time).   So basically I'm at the level where I can follow most things barring extreme speed or accents - both of which pro YouTubers tend to avoid - BUT, it takes 100% of my attention.   So at very least, I had to watch/listen, and then replicate.  Sometimes more than once.

5 - I've drawn some very cool animals (all with the help of YouTube) and some average things either by myself or with books, but I've never done a person, or a landscape...   And this picture?  It was a fairy looking at the sea (or some random body of water at least).  I HAVE at least drawn butterfly wings before -- that was how the teacher recommended thinking of it 😂.  And the landscape part was pretty simple.  And I've done hair before and for some reason disproportionately enjoy it.   So sure, why not?

Tomorrow am is why not.  But for tonight, it's still all good :).  In the end, I'm thrilled with what I did.  I'd like to do it again, with colour (which is not on the video so I'd be all on my own - scary!).  And I'm disproportionately pleased that both I found a channel I like in Spanish AND that it was essentially a non-issue.   All round, it's been a long time since I've had a 3am night for anything other than work or stress, and it's put me solidly in my happy place.

The end result makes me wonder what is she thinking?  What is she watching for?
I want to tell her story, but now it's bedtime.
Credit to the original artist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn3FVT3PEkw

That went right over my head

TIL that a good portion of the subconscious - or even conscious - gestures we use is language-based or location-based and may not translate if speaking to someone whose first language isn’t the same as yours.  It makes Perfect Logical Sense, but somehow had never occurred to me.

Background:

😂 I was in Spanish class and we were (somewhat ironically) talking about idioms.  And I said something about “that went right over my head.”  But since I was having a lazy moment I didn’t bother to say it, just used the hand swiping over head gesture and we continued on.  However after the lesson part, my teacher, who is a native Spanish speaker who is fluent in English and reasonably competent in Korean (random) mentioned it and said he saw someone do the same thing in an English movie the other day but didn’t know what it had meant.

So the rest of the lesson was all about gestures in each language and what they mean which was actually fairly fascinating.

Pencil Crayons vs Coloured Pencils

TIL that while in Canada we say “Pencil Crayons” while the rest of the English-speaking world says “Coloured Pencils”, the same phenomenom exists in Spanish?!?!   Apparently there is one country somewhere in South America that uses the Spanish version of pencil crayons, while everybody else uses the literal translation of coloured pencils.  So random.  And the kind of thing that actually fascinates me.

I've been told ;-P

So TalkPal, the AI I’m using to practice speaking Spanish is, obviously, new tech - with all the challenges one might expect and then a few given the whole generative AI concept.

This one happened today and I’m still highly bemused by it, so thought I’d share.   I tried the “phone call” option (ie - no text shown since it’s mimicking being on a phone.

(Squirrel moment - skip this paragraph if you just want the actual story). Some notes on this one:

• the visual display is very similar to what you’d see if someone were calling you on a generic smartphone.  It causes the same anxiety as when a real person does it ;).  I imagine if you actually enjoy your phone ringing, you will enjoy this too.  Super smart approach.
• You can still translate what the AI has said and see the text version; you can also get her to repeat herself
• You get feedback on what you’ve said if you click the feedback button but it wasn’t as obvious to me whether there was feedback there or not, and all comments from my original post still apply on the questionable quality of said feedback (validated, might I add, by my actual real-life Spanish teacher).
• There doesn’t appear to be any way to “teach” the app - which seems fairly short-sighted since that’s kinda the whole point of generative AI (regardless of which approach, this doesn’t just apply in phone mode).
• Conversation memory is still quite short.

AI Phone Screen

Now back to our regularly scheduled program.  She (AI’s name in this one was Emma) had asked me something generic about my plans for the day and I gave a pretty basic answer along the lines of relaxing by reading a fantasy novel and playing outside w my dog.

And I got this answer:

🤣 so, I mean, it does tell me my pronunciation was clearly off in a potentially fatal way somewhere because let’s be honest - that's not a challenging sentence to construct.  I *know* the words (at least the ones I was *trying* to say) were correct.  And completely innocuous.   And yet twice I got this error.   On the third time I managed to get it to understand and the conversation continued.   But because this version doesn’t script what you said, I couldn’t see what it *thought* I was saying in order to fix it.  And once you get that error, you can’t click through to where it’ll give you a translation ;)

So yeah - idk what that was about, and probably never will, but I’m still mildly amused.  If nothing else, if I can get it to understand me, people sb super easy!

Exploring some AI possibilities with Language Learning

Today I booked a hotel for a March Break trip, ordered a coffee and cookies, and had an in-depth conversation with the Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom and War.   And I did it all in Spanish.

And honestly - that's the coolest part of this post.  All the rest is boring background on how that came to be.  Read or not as you see fit :).  

So one of the biggest things that’s holding me back in comfort and usability of Spanish is the ability to practice speaking on a regular basis and a variety of topics - esp when work gets crazy so I struggle to fit in lessons which require a committed time that spans a large number of time zones that don’t include my evening.  And, well, if I’m getting up super early it’s either to exercise or to commute, not to think or talk!   And, well, to the best of my knowledge I have exactly one friend who’s a native Spanish speaker and more often than not there are others with us who do not speak Spanish, so not super appropriate to practice.

A bit before Xmas (?  I think - little fuzzy on dates between extreme work chaos and then Xmas “does the calendar even exist” period ;) the guy behind the Storylearning concept started pushing the Your Teacher AI platform.  I wasn’t holding my breath and they were very clear that it’s new and buggy and developing tech, but I gave it a try since I’m usually pretty willing to be an early adapter, but OMG it couldn’t hold a conversation past 3 exchanges.  And I hate small talk w a passion.   Now, to be fair, apparently “memory” is up soon on the roadmap, so maybe in few months or so it’ll be good, and it would be good to just talk at, but I was ready to strangle it in seconds (worse than trying to convince the grocery machine that the item IS in the bagging area), so noped out of that one.   BIG plus, I’ve since come to appreciate, was the thoroughness and accuracy of their grammar corrections (which you could set how picky you wanted it to be) AND its speed of both recording and displaying answers.   So I may go back to that one some day.  Today is not that day, because despite the advantages, if I’m not willing to talk to it, there’s no point at all.  I was truly amazed at how quickly it drove me insane.  Not a great start.  Although…. Part of that frustration is I could see so clearly how useful it *could* be.

So then I started exploring other options.

Next up was Languatalk, which is where I currently source my instructors from (5/5 stars for teachers - highly recommend! - WAY better than Italki, Verbling, Busuu, or literally *any* other teacher platform I’ve used since starting this adventure) since it seems to be the only one w any significant kind of quality control re competency of the teachers.  They also have a fairly good collection of level-rated videos and podcasts etc.   They have recently started offering a subscription-based AI web-app (Langua) that I was curious about, but it’s not super affordable and I was hesitant after the above exp.

So targeted ads being what they are, I started getting ads for MakeYouFluent - another platform that offers AI learning.  Something about it felt really scammy though, and as I read more reviews I decided it probably wasn’t for me.  This was reinforced when every day they started sending me an ad for a reduced amount off the subscription.  As of this evening I’m up to 85% off ;-P.   Which means if you DO decide it’s for you, I’d suggest doing the intro “placement” test and then ignoring it for a week or so ;).  But to me, that means it’s really not particularly worth paying for.

Moving on, I fell down a rabbit hole but one that proved fairly awesome, in that I found all sorts of options and eventually decided to give TalkPal AI a try - whose app is brand new but apparently has had a web version for a bit (app on the Apple Store only had 1 review and it was 1 star - I will have to contribute something to help fix that).   This one has both free and subscription options, as well as a free trial.   So did read some reviews, but given the whole free option I was mostly just doing due diligence that the company was legit.

And this - for what I need - so far seems fairly excellent.  To be candid, and fair, it’s NOT nearly as good about transcribing the conversation (and the AI is working from the transcription so I’ve at times be marked “wrong” for my spelling or punctuation - when IT did both!) but it’s mostly good.  My biggest complaint there is it’s VERY slow - I keep thinking the app has frozen while I wait for it to figure out what I said.   

BUT - for me - it’s worth the wait, because not only can it carry a conversation, but it can prompt all kinds of options.  I figured I’d start out simple and see what happens.  The first choice was “chat” - I told it to ask me something interesting and we had a whole conversation about what we would do if we could control time, what time periods we’d like to visit and why, and eventually how to bring about social equality in the future.

Now - it definitely still has significant frustrations, and if your answer is long, it won’t show all of it, but the conversation was enough that it got me to talk, and to think, in Spanish.  And that - for me - is the whole purpose.   Other options include: 

• Role Play (both common and completely fictional scenarios - examples: “booking a hotel” (basic - I did this one and a coffee shop one just to test it out; also cause real life interactions are where I struggle the most), “reporter interviewing a witness” (intermediate), “yearly review” (Professional), “planning a strategy to defeat a dark wizard” (fun).  Lol that last category also includes (amongst others): 

Just the concept of some of these made me laugh

• Characters - chat with a historic or fictional character (awesome range of people, no idea how much of a “personality” each will have, but they give you a brief bio when you start up a conversation and go from there.  So far I’ve spoken with Athena (goddess of wisdom and war), and Queen Tamar of Georgia.  Lol the list is wild and interesting - I’ll definitely chat w both Loki and Shakespeare at some point ;).  
• Debates - so many topics, not sure I want to debate w an AI but we’ll see :).  Here’s the first few options.  I haven’t done any of these yet (common - I only found this app yesterday!)

Lots of topics for people to have opinions about ;)

• Photo mode (describe what you see in a photo).  This one is particularly relevant to me personally as it is one of the questions on the Dele B2 exam.   However, I didn’t love how it “corrected” the answer so will be good practice if I do it and send the screen shot to my *actual* teacher ;).  It’s also good for those whose anxiety kicks in even talking to a robot because there’s no opinion or creativity required.  Literally just talk about what you see.

Now, in reality - Teacher AI (the first one) is definitely the better for actually learning the language (and even they are clear it’s not for true beginners) but TalkPal is stronger - at least for me - for just talking.  Maybe the truth there is in the name :)

What really gets me is that my notes in the first 5 mins were super frustrated w TalkPal as well, but after that I got increasingly excited.  If it has enough variety to hold my attention for a week, I’ll deem it a win :).  I will say though, the ONLY reason it’s useful to me is because my grammar knowledge well exceeds my speaking ability; this means I can critically consider the feedback it gives and reject it if it’s wrong.   Conversely the feedback in Teacher AI was almost all correct.

Neither system lets you go back, or lets you save/print a script of the conversation (would be super useful), and both have the frustrations you’d expect from talking to a machine.   But if they could combine those two systems, it’d make for one very powerful tool.

Facepalm music language learning moment

So there is a song that they played a lot in Costa Rica (like every time the dance people showed up at the resort) that I, therefore, associate with warmth, sunshine, relaxation, and general positive energy.  So of course I added it to my Spanish playlist for when I’m in that mood, but was slightly frustrated that of all the songs on the list that one has significant portions of that I really couldn’t get.  Now, fair enough, there are significant portions of some songs in English I don’t get either ;).  And Apple Music didn’t have the lyrics to it.   So okay - it’s not something I ever think about when I’m not either driving or on the train, so file under life’s little mysteries and/or “I’ll figure it out some day” and move on.

Then today it popped up as a “currently playing” in the music app I use to supplement listening training.  Perfect - at least I’ll *see* the words, which will greatly improve my chances.   Yeah.  Turns out, the parts I really couldn’t get my head around - are in Portuguese (Alexa had to help me spell that!  🤦‍♀️).   The two languages sound very close - especially in song, at high speed 🤣.  And I never even clued in it wasn’t all in Spanish till I saw it written.  Also, have never been so grateful for accents that made it very clear it was a different language ;).