Chatbots Are Here Now to Help You Learn a Language. I Gave It a Try. 5 hours ago

Last fall as I was lying on my lumpy living room couch in Brooklyn, I did a quick Google search regarding something I’ve long been interested in learning: “Croatian teachers near me.”

While very few in-person teachers popped up, various online options appeared, such as language tutors who can work with you remotely. As I perused the options and for the first time seriously considered signing up for a lesson, I began to also think about my work here at CNET.

I’ve used Chat GPT to help me grocery shop better, while others have used it for financial budgeting. ChatGPT, a generative AI tool, uses large language models to give users human-like answers to all of life’s questions. This is why it is also a popular tool among students and teachers for homework and lesson planning.

So if all of that is possible with generative AI, could I also use it to mimic real-life Croatian conversations or immerse myself into the language and culture even while I’m in the US? Furthermore, if someone can’t afford traditional language tutors or to study abroad, could they fully rely on AI to teach them from a beginner level?

Learning a second language can take years depending on which one you’re learning, if you have any prior knowledge of the language and if you have the ability to visit the country where the language is used. Some popular languages learning resources that use AI are Duolingo and Babbel, which offer numerous languages but, neither offer Croatian, so I turned to chatbots to help.

I began practicing with ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot, and spoke with a language learning expert to find out if doing so was a full-proof way to learn a new language. Here’s how it went, including what worked well and what not so well.

Putting AI to the language test

When I decided I wanted to learn Croatian, I was motivated by various factors. One being that Croatia is my favorite place on Earth. The rock beaches, crystal clear water and perfect summer temperatures are only partly what puts me in a dream state when I think about the beautiful country where my dad was born.

But an even more driving force is that when I visit the country, one thought always crosses my mind: “The only thing that could make this trip better is if I was fluent in the language.”

Although Croatians will speak English to the tourists, and I have picked up basic phrases throughout my life, I know there’s a lot of context I miss out on during conversations. This is why I’ve committed myself to learning this notoriously difficult language.

Croatian is ranked as a category four language by the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute, which means it will take approximately 1,100 hours of studying to reach speaking and reading proficiency. (Spanish and French, by contrast, are category one.) But, I wondered, could practicing with AI help speed that timeline up?

I opened up ChatGPT and typed a prompt: “Can you help me learn Croatian?”

“Of course!,” it responded before giving five options of how we could start.

Copilot had a similar response, stating it can help with “vocabulary, conversation practice, grammar tips, and even share cultural insights.” Both ChatGPT and Copilot did a good job of creating short scenarios that I could read in Croatian, and I could also ask for them to be translated into English if needed.

One thing did give me pause. While practicing, I realized I was blindly trusting these tools. I know enough already to tell if the greetings and other basic words were correct, but for longer conversations, I didn’t have anyone telling me that it was the correct translation, and AI chatbots do have a history of hallucinating wrong answers. When a chatbot “hallucinates” a wrong answer, it presents it as fact, which could confuse you or steer you in the wrong direction, especially if that wrong answer is in another language.

So although I chose to trust the tools, it stayed in the back of my mind that parts of the translations could be incorrect given the difficulty of the language, the different dialects used in the country and minimal learning tools available on the web for Croatian. This might not be an issue for more commonly used languages, but it’s worth keeping in mind.

A language expert I spoke with, who teaches Italian at Southern Methodist University, says that although the translations she receives from ChatGPT are largely correct, there are often pronunciation mistakes, which could pose some difficulty for people who are trying to reach fluency. These possible issues are a reason why it is typically best to use AI as a tool while learning rather than your sole teacher, she says.

My favorite part of using the chatbots was to create scenarios that I could then walk through and answer to the best of my ability. ChatGPT also did a really good job of explaining complicated grammar rules to me in an easy-to-understand manner.

“You can also ask it to create little quizzes for you,” Aria Cabot, director of the World Languages and Literatures Teaching and Technology Center at SMU, tells me. “You can ask it to create fill in the blank questions, so in terms of vocabulary acquisition and correcting you, I think that there are a lot of tools that you can do on your own depending on the language that you’re studying.”

In addition to using generative AI, I did end up hiring an online tutor who creates weekly lessons for me that focus on grammar and the building blocks of the language. I’ve found it immensely helpful to use ChatGPT to check my homework and sentence structure, then I’m able to double check that work with my tutor, who is a native Croatian speaker. While practicing with the tools, I did also notice that the translations on ChatGPT were often more accurate than using Google Translate.

Although I’ve enjoyed using ChatGPT in this way, I don’t believe I would solely be able to use AI to learn the language. I’ve realized that I need to have a face-to-face conversation with someone — whether that’s through video chat or in person — to retain a good portion of the information and a strict study schedule.

I also want to ensure that all of the information I’m getting is correct, and I feel more confident leaving that in the hands of a native speaker for the time being. Cabot believes that for the foreseeable future, ChatGPT and other AI tools are great additions to language learning, but they are not going to replace real-life language teachers anytime soon.

“I use ChatGPT pretty frequently, but I can’t imagine a scenario where I wasn’t drawing heavily on my experience as a teacher to know how to prompt it with the initial ideas and then, of course, the extensive editing for whatever it gives me,” Cabot says. “So it’s hard for me to imagine at this point somebody completely learning on their own using what’s available right now.”

I also haven’t seemed to be learning at an accelerated pace, and it hasn’t negated the fact that learning a new language — especially as an adult — takes time, patience and a lot of dedication. Nevertheless, both students and teachers can, and often do, still find new and better ways to use AI to their advantage.

Where AI does play a helpful role

“I think in terms of both designing a class and designing a lesson plan, ChatGPT can be an excellent starting point,” Cabot says.

In addition to using ChatGPT to help design lessons, she also encourages students to use it as a language partner when needed, especially since it’s available at any time of the day.

“I use ChatGPT for a lot of asynchronous practice where I say, ‘Okay, ChatGPT, imagine that you are a native speaker of this age, living in this place, ask me some questions about…’ Then I’ll insert whatever it is that we’re studying,” Cabot says.

She says she prompts ChatGPT to discuss various topics, including family life and entertainment, and uses the tool to mimic conversations that can help her students prepare for real-life situations that may happen in the future.

All in all, AI tools are great at being just that: tools. They aren’t a magic solution that will allow you to learn a language overnight, but they can be a great help along the way.

“It can be so overwhelming to know where to start,” Cabot says. “But I think if you put yourself in the mindset of, ‘What is the first thing that I would want to be able to do?’ You can take that as your first step.”

Additional language learning tips and tools

If, like me, you’re on a language learning journey, there are some additional things that can help you.

“I think finding the community is just essential,” Cabot says. “Even if it’s an online community or a native speaker or somewhere far away, seek out connections to the culture and let that be the driving force behind the language.”

“Without the cultural, historical emphasis below it,” she adds, “the language really loses its meaning.”

Cabot also points to virtual reality, which can open up even more possibilities if you’re unable to travel abroad but still want to feel immersed and connected in a certain country or culture.

For me, learning Croatian, combining ChatGPT practice and lessons with a native-speaker teacher has been extremely helpful, as well as listening to the Let’s Learn Croatian Podcast and using the resources on Easy Croatian.

If you’re learning Croatian, try to not get overwhelmed with the difficult grammar and spellings and remember there are a few basics words that will get you far in the country: “Hvala” for thank you, “dobar dan” for good day, a common greeting in Croatia, and “živjeli” for cheers.

Whatever route you decide to take to learn a language, I wish you good luck, or as ChatGPT taught me, “sretno!”