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> I do think AI could be a better language tutor than an average language teacher, but I don't think Duolingo's approach is very effective.

No offense, I can tell you're neither a linguist nor a language teacher.

This is one are where the human input is invaluable and irreplaceable. Because language (the complex kind) is inherently human. It quite literally is.

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A lot people on HN got their early programming chops from Stack Overflow and spotty internet tutorials, and have made the mistake of thinking that everything else can also be learned this way.

I'm describing how I learned Spanish.

Spanish is not a programming language.

I'm neither, but I tried learning Spanish from a "language teacher" and it didn't work. I'm not alone. I've spoke to dozens who had the same experience.

Years later I learned from people with the same method I described.

The AI models (large LANGUAGE models) of today seem very close to replicating that experience.

Try telling ChatGPT with voice mode "let us talk about X in [pick language]... Correct me when I'm wrong and explain why".

I'm curious where you think it's failing.

What do you feel is missing to replicate a good language teacher?

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