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Comment by ginkoutest | Hacker News Reader

Where did you find these German native speakers to practice with? And you said "such an app already exists", but not for German and Japanese. Do you know the name? I have a lot of experience building language learning services so am very curious to hear what you feel is currently missing in your current tools to learn German/Japanese.

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I use iTalki to find native speaker to practice with.

I say such app exists because I just read about Speak: https://www.speak.com/blog/speak-announces-27m-series-b-led-...

It's for studying English.

What I don't like about a real tutor is because it's expensive and I have to book in advance. ChaptGPT is free and I can practice with it whenever I want. Besides, ChaptGPT is not a real human so I don't feel embaraced when I made stupid mistake.

How much does it currently cost you (per session) to book someone on iTalki?

And which would you prefer: a cheaper, on-demand version of iTalki (you get matched with someone already online versus booking in advance), or an AI-based app/service that you can chat back-and-forth with whenever you want?

I pay $15 to $20 per session (around 45 ~ 60 mins), depending on teachers.

The problem with matching with someone already online is that it might not be the right person. There are tutors that are very good, helpful and inspiring. I don't think I want to talk to random person online. A long term relationship with several tutors are helpful because we know each other better and I'm more comfortable speaking in front of them.

So I would prefer AI > random someone

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