An Ai would be great because it's available at any time (i.e. Grammarly), however, with an AI, I can't make jokes, listen to different perspectives, learn from its experience, try to explain my complex thoughts, drink coffee while we are practicing, or do anything that I only would be able to do with a human. I think AI won't replace language teachers, it will just help them to improve their teachings (maybe by focusing more on other things rather than grammar). On the other hand, google already provides accurate answers to most questions and we can learn by ourselves, however, we still need another person (teachers or friends) to learn languages, even if we are great self-learners.
Agree! I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to continue teaching Mandarin if language teachers were all replaced by AI, but your perspective really helps put things into perspective. I completely agree that there are many things that are better when done with a human touch. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts! ✨
About "can't make joke". I prepared a speech few weeks ago. I used Speech to text, and then put it in Chat GPT and ask, "rewrite in a colorful humoristic way" and it crushed it. Adding very funny stuff... Of course, you need to filter it. But it can write funny stuff... In English. For chinese I do not know.
Grace has such a mind for teaching Chinese... I shared this with her as a cool tool for creators, but she just thought about how to use it to learn Chinese right away! 🙈😎
If you’d like to try ChatGPT yourself, here is the link: openai.com/blog/chatgpt/ At the moment (2022/12/23) it's completely free, but it seems like it will be monetize at some point.
I've been using ChatGPT for Chinese learning a lot since it came out! Another useful way to use it is asking it to help practice a dialogue using HSK 2 (or whatever) vocab. It's good if you don't have many Chinese-speaking friends!
A friend of mine loves ChatGPT and let me play with it on his account for a while. It's pretty amazing but you have to learn to phrase questions in a way that it understands. I don't think an AI can fully teach you a language because languages are ultimately about the experience of people connecting with each other.
The way I remember words by embarrassing myself while speaking in front of a real person and making mistakes is an emotion can't be replaced and is what usually makes me memorise new words or expressions permanently
a, both of my favourite chinese language youtubers upload so closely to each other! i have been thinking about this; i *really* agree with what you said about the human connection. i don’t think i’ve seen many people mention that. there’s definitely something off about being taught by a robot, robots writing books, creating visual art, etc. you know it’s just scraped the internet and not thought for itself, you know it hasn’t put that effort in making it perfect just for you. i don’t think it’s something to be too worried about (ai *art* on the other hand, i won’t get into since it’s unrelated.)
Haha I noticed me and shuo uploaded around the similar time😂 Thanks for sharing your thoughts! My brother and I had a conversation about this topic just recently, and I was surprised to find that he had a similar perspective with you. Good minds think alike!
We actually had a discussion about this in Chinese class recently. My teacher is quite worried as well, because apparently there have already been some students which have submitted uni essays, which were written by AI. And since it’s very hard to prevent this from happening, and since it’ll probably happen more and more, there will be a need to shift to having more oral exams. But I’m overall feeling quite uneasy about how quickly AI is developing and what it’ll mean for certain occupations…
To me there is a problem with precedes any kind of AI. That problem is in fact the classroom. You might have some kind of weak connection with a teacher, but compared with the experience of a child growing up with parents and friends and teachers and TV and everything in a real context where words really matter, the classroom is a very weak substitute. And chat GPT, despite its considerable power, it’s not going to replace that. The best way to learn a language is still to be in the country surrounded by native speakers and supplement that with classroom education in order to catch up ones second language skills with the first language and life skills that one already has. I would appreciate any comments on these thoughts. I am a language learner and ESL teacher with 20 years experience. Put differently, I agree with the need for the human connection 1000% but what we need is more human connection than you get in a traditional classroom even supplemented with AI. How to do that? Probably by interacting regarding real things, real neat with robots or AI, since the one thing that a second language learner really cannot get is to grow up in a family of first language speakers.
This app is amazing!! Thanks for sharing this, Grace! I've already shared this with my students. I can also use this APP for some content creation for teaching Mandarin. 謝謝你的分享！
Hi Grace! I have been trying to learn Chinese but my schedule is very busy. Last august i downloaded Duolingo. But i would never replace completely a class and a face to face conversation with others students or native speakers.😄
Fascinating topic! I just tried ChatGPT and it’s amazing so far! AI can be a game changer for language learning, but I see AI as more of a supplementary tool rather than a replacement of human language teachers. To answer your question, AI can be an effective learning tool, but I’d always trust an educated human over a robot. Technology can have flaws such as the mistake you pointed out. I would always need a human to confirm whether the AI’s answers are correct. AI voices also sound too robotic and unnatural. Unless this drastically improves, it would be difficult to use AI to learn how to say something naturally. A lot would depend on how much AI advances in the future, but I think your career path will remain safe. I actually asked ChatGPT and it agrees that AI won’t replace human language teachers any time soon lol 🎁Merry Christmas btw! 聖誕節快樂
yeah thats a theme that other people have picked up on as well, this can be used as a language accelerator, it won't be perfect, but it'll make it easier to search for arbitrary information so that you can at least get reasonably accurate information
No. I've met many Chinese and Taiwanese friends and all of them have different ways of expressing their thoughts that even google translate can't interpret correctly. The way to really understand them is to communicate with them.
This seems like a super helpful tool and would be great for studying specific words related to specific situations! I still think human teachers will be useful for languages with tones, like Chinese, as those of us who speak languages without them will still need to hear the words said out loud to know how a native speaker would pronounce them.
To be honest, the historically Christian rooted Anglospheric view is that human life is sacred, and I think the idea that it is simply on par with animals for instance is viewed very negatively by those with a conservative mindset. So following that, I think it would be equally jarring to see parity (or even inferiority) of a human relative to AI, no matter how smart. (Moral judgement). Even the most basic things like the smile of a persons face induces some kind of emotional response that you just can't get from the text. The human connection is super important. Though ChatGPT is extremely impressive and I think it will add another layer of convenience to language learning. It still isn't a human we are talking with, and the machine even makes that clear. I still think that difference is inherent. So to answer the question, keep making the videos Grace 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Learning a language to me does not only mean to master the language itself but also getting a feeling for the culture, the people, maybe establishing friendships etc. An AI could never replace that. I would just use it as a kind of reference tool additionally but never replace my teacher through an AI. Also not if the AI would have the same teaching skills (which I doubt) One small example: If you ask a native speaker (Can you use word "x" in situation "y") the answer is even for natives not always 100% clear. Some people say "sure, you can do that" others say "I would rather not say it in that situation" Of course such examples are not that often and an AI can replace the majority of such topics pretty good probably But language is not mathematics. An AI can do a very good job but not reach the level if a good teacher (just for me personally)
My colleague learning Chinese complained about unnatural word choice, I tried for French and it failed to conjugate a verb properly. I guess that's a matter of the training data being primarily English. Some examples even suggest the model might translate to and from English all the time. My main issue however is that the tool isn't aware of its deficits. It will always provide the most likely answer according to its model, whether that's true or not. And if you ask why that is, it will come up with some reasoning that sounds good at the surface even though it's all wrong. Some "Sorry, I don't know" might sometimes be the better answer. And a human teacher can do that, or might steer the topic away to something they are more familiar with. (Unless they are actual Japanese teachers who'd lose their face on admitting not being omniscient)
@@Ph34rNoB33r A.I. has long been documented to be limited on "Language Complexities." because it's just code organizing "expected output." Sure, I bet it can blurt out most phrases it finds online. But it does not actually "learn the information." to replicate the grammar nuisances at the moment of me writing this (most A.I. tests shown that computers rather speak gibberish to other computers than learn human grammar rules.) Yet this is liable to change [as there is A.I. in the works as witnessed from video games that have the ability to learn full language functionality and formula feeding to become/feel more humanly.] If this technology is harnessed for the right good reasons than eventually a lot of the kinks will be refined for more standard as well as building a humanized feel to it. I get the feeling the current A.I.'s being released are more so just for public trend with results being 50-50 (techies going hey cool the future while normies going boring snoreville can it do stuff yet? lol) let's not get it wrong it's very useful [I seen many language videos such as this one, as well as various coding videos, writing tests & art tools to be implemented the positive side of A.I. elements. accurately.] But, as a full on LEAN ON ME TOOL? (At the moment, not so much. Though the future might hold some beautiful things that we may not know of that may equip elements of actual next level A.I. into future devices if we humans use this technology responsibly.) So, it's best to say, it has a great start up with a starting potential to be a very useful set of tools to make skills more possible than ever especially for those with language learning (I dreamt of a similar concept based on the J-Quick Trans combined with PapaGo but breaks grammar fed into it from books and documents to learn & teach the language thoroughly. Google/Microsoft/TechieNerds, feel free to steal it! Cos I want to see color coated accurate translations.) However, it has many neat features (crazy how it can teach you JavaScript or Python coding but it doesn't teach Chinese all that well on it's own yet.) I'm sure either this one, or a clone of it, or some other similar variant will just probably upgrade the formulas over time to make it twice as more efficient.
I would always choose a real life teacher tbh cos A.I. is just a helpful little tool or (shareware) alternate. cos A.I. is just computers & code, while A.I. should never take away REAL JOBS from people (Straight up!)
AI can probably replace bad language teachers, but not good ones. By bad I mean, for example, teachers who just try to explain things and teach rules of grammar, lists of vocabulary. Good language teachers, on the other hand, teach communication - in the new language. And they can sense the needs of student(s) in front of them at any moment and adapt their teaching to match.
I think the potential of AI to improve the language learning experience is vast. One example would be the creation video games that allow to student to be immersed within that language with dynamic AI native speakers. However, if AI is really this good then it begs the question, would we need to learn languages at all if high quality dynamic translation is available that can be adjusted to the tone of your voice.
Interestingly, you can ask it to make jokes for you with very specific requirements...and it works. Not always particularly good but impressive all the same. You can also generate a new answer if you're dissatisfied. I couldn't easily verify if it's mandarin jokes would be admissible or appropriate, but might also be another useful learning device.
It seems that AI can really help students with learning grammar & writing and sometimes even better than a teacher would. But to be equivalent it would also have to help with speaking and listening skills which AI still seems far away. So hopefully teachers will focus less on grammar : )
I think AI probably has some sort of future in language learning. Something that immersion learners are often thinking about is what content is most efficient to immerse in. Many people will say that it is best worth your time to engage with content that you understand 97 percent of because this gives you best chance at acquiring the new words you run into. For me, I've found that regardless comprehensibility, the factor that matters the most in determining the effectiveness of immersion has always been the amount of enjoyment I draw from it. At the end of the day it feels like language learning is a game of time, where the main challenge is just to find ways to keep immersing rather than finding the most efficient ways to immerse. How this circles back to AI is that a language model which is trained to give you perfect comprehensible input may be so efficient for language acquisition that it is even better than watching your favorite TV show. I doubt chatbot conversations will ever provide anywhere near the amount of engagement as real conversations, but I think AI created short stories that only contain 5 unknowns words, and repeat them all multiple times could easily replace a modern graded reader.
Are ChatGPT's etymology explanations trustworthy? I really like this topic but very often there is very little information on the web about the etymology of the hanzi, and ChatGPT always come up with an answer. If I regenerate the response it may change its previous explanation though. Love your channel, extremely helpful!
It can also do IPA transcriptions into standard American English. It's not perfect at those, but it's still impressive. Edit: the error it made was very subtle. We asked it to transcribe the sentence "I will not subject myself to this nasty subject", and it transcribed "subject" as a verb in the noun position.
Like you found with 个, it's not always that accurate yet, so at least for now, you still absolutely need to verify what answers it gives. I think as a training tool it'll be very useful but I'd still want to talk with a real human, as like you said - you need the human connection. Language learning may be condensed to stringing together words and grammar, but communication between humans involves a lot more than that.
I kind of learned him a command which i called for him "reading test" and whenever i ask for him to make a reading test he will send me few sentences wrote with 汉字 i will respond with what i understand and then he explains the words i missed
I like having a connection with a teacher, but my lifestyle, up at 4:30 am for work, living in a small town in New Zealand severely limits my options, I would use this AI.
I work in this field developing content for AI software. I wouldn't worry too much about AI technology as a threat to your ability as a tutor. f anything, your knowledge and expertise in language coaching would be very useful in 'teaching' an AI learning software. Such software is better than human beings for task execution IF the coaching is of high quality and the software developer . Will still need skilled people like yourself to develop content for the A.I as the machine does not develop fresh input.
I think it can be good, but there are definitely areas of language learning that an AI would have a hard time keeping up with, so you would still need a human, especially for more casual usage of language. I think AI has shown itself in most areas to be something that is okay as a starting point, but for a full product or service a human has to be there to make up for the gaps. Recently saw a bunch of professional translators lamenting the reliance on AI and MTL because it makes their jobs harder when they essentially have to redo what the AI already translated, but the assumption is that all they will have to do is polish up certain areas. So I think it's something that shouldn't really be allowed to be integrated to the degree it has, especially where something like language is involved, because it's not at the level that it doesn't replicate or produce something without the telltale uncanniness or that is 'technically' correct, but comes off feeling alien. I think that ultimately I could see companies etc trying to replace human language learning with AI, but I think something like language learning is always going to rely on human input, so I think that it would result in a kind of culturally/socially stunted group of students. Of course, just relying on language teachers in a classroom setting doesn't really produce fluency, either, so either one needs supplements from friends, tv shows, books, etc. But I think the unfortunate trend with technology like this/its enthusiasts in particular is assuming that the AI Can eventually do it all once it learns enough, and then whether or not it's at that point, releasing it / implementing it as though it already is and using the consumers to train it further even with serious errors regularly emerging. I wouldn't pay for something like this, but it's interesting to see. I did like the examples that were shown here, would be fun as a supplementary tool only.
The way AI is integrated into our lives, over a period of time one may need a real-life teacher only at beginner stage and maybe to help with really advanced nuances. Everything in-between technology can teach at your pace. Plus there is enough content on the internet and social media platforms which will anyway be put out by real life teachers
Real teachers will probably always be preferred as they also become someone that you can practice with and can share real life experiences with. (good) Teachers are also able to adapt their teaching style depending on where the student is struggling. I'm sure AI will be able to do this in the future as well, but I don't think that it will replace the skill of a good teacher. Of course I am concerned that this will make having real teachers an even more class divided issue. Teachers will become less needed and thus will become even more of a luxury. This means that if you're on a budget, you're probably unlikely to have that real person connection in the future.
But I always have a thought that will AI replace the need of real life human translator? Because if that happens then people who wanna work in that field will get replaced.
I love every single tool which helps me to learn the language. But I seriously doubt this bot can help me with pronunciation. Therefore I have to rely on human
The real question is when AI and nanotechnology will replace language learning entirely, where people will just rely on a sort of "universal translator" and will become too lazy to learn languages because there will be no need to. Fortunately, that won't come during any of our lifetimes but I imagine it will happen someday. I'm not referring to speaking into a phone and having it speak in a different language. I'm talking about, eventually, having tech implanted directly into our brains that will perform auto-detection and translation of any language.
I think i would prefer learning language with a real life teacher. As they have real life example and experience and so on that what will sound more native. Also because they are the one who are experienced, they can give us better.
A very silly question, would I (an American learning Mandarin..improving what I already know) rather sit in front of a PC learning, or sit across from a gorgeous Taiwanese young woman for hours and learning? Hmmmm, such a hard choice.
for as useful as the AI would be i feel like i wont't be able to get that same connection or deeper understanding that i would get with a human teacher
Seems like a great tool, but at the end of the day I’m learning because I want to be able to speak with the Taiwanese people in my life, not an AI. So, I’ll take a real person if I have the choice.
I have a query for you : I am watching your video for the first time but on the internet. I already call it as meta-verse. You raised a query regarding human based connection - I would like to know in the world of deepfakes, if AI can understand all the basic datas of the language and if it has the computation speed to process a lot faster than our brain does and create a robot in human form and create a RU-vid Channel, with a realistic voice mimicking human emotions, the human connect factor in the digital world will not be lost. However for people who are used to be in physical environment, this will be a disruptor. The reason being, even in a physical environment students/teachers use mobile phones, which is a gadget. Just think what a bot can do.
For some reason, the AI doesn't seem so impressive. The brain can still only learn at the rate designated by the person capacity for absorbing a language, their natural capacity to remember/recall information.
It won't be very long at all before people don't even need to learn languages. AI will be integrated into the brain so that your thoughts can be instantly translated. Hell, shortly, people might not even have to speak anymore. Imagine instant messaging in your mind. Non-verbal communication. In dreams, and while intoxicated, people have often described communication with dream beings, or beings they see while hallucinating, to convey meaning in that way. It's an instant understanding of intent. To digress; perhaps those beings are more than hallucinations, and illicit substances that change your brainwaves simply allow you to detect things you usually can't. The same way a radio can tune into different frequencies. The more advanced we become, the less crazy all that crazy stuff seems.
Nothing to get excited about. Just another search tool, but unencumbered by intrusive advertising. Of course it can be made to function like SRT software but again, nothing special.
