Learning Chinese with an AI bot

Mandarin was my first language but I’m rusty at it since I left China as a child. I want to brush up on the language before I visit China.

My requirements

I need a Chinese conversation partner who gives me sensible Chinese responses. Why not try a chatbot? They're available 24/7.

For full transparency I have a solid foundation in the Chinese language: I was reading Chinese newspapers when I left over twenty years ago. While my reading and writing ability has decreased, my listening comprehension remained decent.

Along with the chatbot I’m using:

• Mac’s built-in speech input: I use it to read Chinese snippets.
• Google Translate for Chinese → English and English → Chinese
• A lined notebook to write Chinese characters in. Writing down characters helps memorization.

Google translate with mac speech input

Poe AI + Chinese partner

I found Poe AI by Googling for "Chinese language bots". Poe AI is a platform providing access to multiple bots. After chatting with a few I picked the ChinesePartner chatbot since it corrects my Chinese grammar and vocabulary. It also has an encouraging and friendly tone, whereas most LLMs sound formal and cold.

Notes:

• I switch topics frequently when chatting with the bot to practice certain words, which can seem rude or uncaring if I was conversing with a person
• Initially I conversed with the chatbot for an hour to use up the daily credits, whereas now I use it as an advanced dictionary eg. refer to the prompts below

Useful prompts

1. What does “a certain phrase or word” mean?

   Eg. “肥了你们” in Google Translate means “Got fat on you”, but it means your work has benefited others without benefiting yourself

2. What's the difference between word 1 and word2?

   Eg. “思考” and “想“ both mean think

3. Does this word have a positive or negative connotation?

   Eg. 乖 is good when describing children, but potentially bad when describing an adult

Pricing

I use the free tier on Poe AI which is 3000 daily credits, after which the chat is disabled. Each response costs credits. The credits reset at 4 pm PST the next day. I can pay for additional credits but the daily limit is sufficient.

Comparing the AI chat to

1. Other learning apps eg. Duolingo

   • Apps usually have set learning paths, which feels constrictive for a formerly-native Chinese learner. Also, can anyone master a language with only 5 minutes a day?
   • Many of them are phone apps, and I find being on the phone distracting. Also the Chinese letters need a larger screen to be appreciated

2. Books

   • Any book is easier on the eyes than the screen, since it doesn't have glare
   • They're less interactive, and I easily zone out of/drift into passive learning

3. A real person language teacher

   • I might feel embarrassed if I don’t improve between lessons, whereas a lack of progress won’t embarrass a robot
   • would help with accountability, and can give me more pointers eg. grammatical patterns across various sentences, and to clarify what I actually meant

Questions

• How will chatbot companies like Poe monetize?
  • Poe AI offers a monthly subscription and a free tier. Maybe it’ll add ads to pay for the infrastructure
  • The biggest winners in the LLM game are the cloud providers (Google with GCP, Amazon with AWS, and Microsoft with Azure), since they provide the infrastructure
• Given how easy translation technology is, would people still learn languages?
  • Yes but rarely: anyone can use Google translate, but translation is different from understanding.
  • The challenge is making the time and focusing, which is rare in this age of distraction