
Ask HN: Does this exist? - nkkollaw
I have an idea for a service.<p>Basically, a bot you can voice chat with, in a language you&#x27;re trying to learn.<p>The thing is that it would use AI to learn the vocabulary you know, and try to create sentences using only words you know, throwing in a new one knowingly every once in a while, accompained by a dictionary card with the definition.<p>Compared to reading, you get used to hearing and speaking the language, and it helps build confidence.<p>Compared to doing conversation with a human being, you don&#x27;t have to worry if the other person gets bored, and you build confidence gradually even if you&#x27;re self-conscious. Also, the bot would only use words you know, and allow you to make progress little by little (or faster if it sees that you can master new words quickly).
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johntdaly
The biggest problem I see is language recognition. Dialects where once a major
problem and I can imagine having a heavy accent will be a problem here too.
Another problem would be grammar. You are not just learning vocabulary you are
also learning a new grammar and will make mistakes. Maybe this can be
corrected by knowing what the original language of the learner is.

I like the idea. But this is a hard problem and I doubt there exists a
functioning version of this.

~~~
nkkollaw
Definitely a hard problem. I was looking to leverage any existing API I can
use. I've tried Google Vision for text and it's amazing. If there was
something for audio...

I told a friend of mine who's into machine learning and AI.

I think that it's possible for the program to get to know how you pronounce
things via machine learning. I'm not an expert in this space, though.

I could start with learning English, since from my experience software often
works better than with other languages.

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applecrazy
This might be the closest thing:

[http://bots.duolingo.com/](http://bots.duolingo.com/)

If they had an API (which, they do not), somebody could build a TTS + voice
recognition wrapper for this functionality, creating the experience you
mentioned.

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skdjksjdksjdk
Even if it exists, since you don't know a dominant brand in this space,
effectively, the market is wide open for you, if you come with a superior
technology

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observation
I like your idea. Like John I doubt such a thing exists.

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nkkollaw
Probably not.

