Exploring AI and the newest, sneakiest way to learn

AI gets a lot of hate these days. I get it, I don’t want AI writing my novels or creating my art — works of pleasure should be left to the humans.

Does that mean that AI needs to be scrapped and forgotten? Absolutely not.

I think of using ChatGPT and other platforms like utilizing an “external brain” — that is, I let it do the thinking that I don’t necessarily want to spend my own bandwidth on. In turn, this leaves my brain free to think of the more pleasant things in life. That is, song lyrics, TV, novels, my boyfriend … you get the idea.

So what does that have to do with language learning? Well, I’ve been using AI to help me in my goal of becoming a polyglot within a year. Ever since I discovered I could do this, I’ve actually been pretty addicted to it.

Here’s the breakdown of how I’m using AI to help me achieve my goals, and how you can too:

Photo byElement5 DigitalonUnsplash

Building a Personalized Study Plan

This is the big one for me. I fed ChatGPT my goals, current schedule, and current language learning level in order for it to create me a personalized study plan for my language.

I have a very lofty and — frankly — out of this world language learning goal for the next year. In order to achieve my goal I knew that I needed the best time management possible. So I started by giving ChatGPT my specific goals and having it spit me out a study guide for the month.

My daily study guide. I use military time to avoid any confusion!Photo byImage by author

and;

Example of my monthly overview.Photo byImage by author

Now obviously your goals will look different. I told ChatGPT that I had about 30 hours a week to spend on study. Which I do, more or less, because the way my job is set up — I just needed help deciding how to fill my time.

The prompt I gave ChatGPT was: I would like you to create me a language learning plan and schedule. I will give you my availability and goals. Are you ready?

Then I gave it my specific goals (to be as fluent as possible within a year); and my specific schedule availability. Bam! AI does the rest and now I just have to follow it.

Learning Resources

While I other tools to help me compile my language resources ( I love using Notion for this, honestly), ChatGPT has also been helpful narrowing down language learning resources.

I particularly love comprehensible input, which can be a bit difficult to find if you’re just starting out in your language journey. You can ask ChatGPT to scour the internet for you, or give you some recommendations:

A screenshot of my AI conversation for language resourcesPhoto byImage by author

Practice and Exercises

This is my second biggest pro-AI point. I love using ChatGPT to help me actually practice my language. I’ve used AI to create me study guides, practice tests, grammar drills, and much more.

I especially love to journal in my target languages. It helps me put my thoughts in a new language but in my own voice. Plus, I know that new grammar and vocabulary will be exactly the grammar and vocab that I actually need. Win-win.

So I had ChatGPT make me journal prompts! Here’s an example:

A few simple journal prompts.Photo byImage by author

ChatGPT actually gave me about 10 sets of these, going from easy to gradually just a bit more difficult. I honestly love it.

I also had ChatGPT make me an A2 Spanish Grammar Study Guide, which I have opened in my Google Docs while I study. I gave me a rundown of all the verb tenses and basic vocabulary I should be familiar with at an A2, as well as a few drills to do in each category.

Since I’m self-taught this is especially helpful, because I can see the gaps in my learning and correct them.

If you’re following along, I prompted ChatGPT by asking, “What are the irregular verbs, regular verb tenses, grammar rules, and vocabulary I should know to pass the A2 CEFR Exam in Spanish? Create me a comprehensive study guide, and don’t forget to include drills and exercises for me to practice!”.

How Many Languages Can You Learn in a Year?Let’s put YouTube polyglots and my own brain to the test.medium.com

Recap

AI and ChatGPT are not your enemy. When put to the right use, it is a powerful learning tool — especially for language acquisition. No matter if you’re an overworked mom, a busy professional, or just overly ambitious like I am, you can put these valuable tools to work for you immediately.

Some of the ways I’ve used ChatGPT to help me in my goal to becoming a polyglot include:

• Having ChatGPT create me a personalized study plan
• Having ChatGPT recommend me learning resources including books, websites, and movies
• Having ChatGPT create me practice and revision drills including grammar study sheets; journaling prompts; and more

So what do you think? Do you use chat GPT for this purpose? Drop your favorite AI prompts for language learning in the comments so that others can use them!