Did you know you can now learn English(or any other language) with AI?
I tried out the platform Langua to see if you can really learn a language with AI.
Let’s find out.
Why Trust My Reviews?
Well, you can trust my reviews because I have been an English teacher for over 10 years. I also speak 5 languages(3 very fluently) and I have tested nearly every damn tool available for learning English on this website.
I am very opinionated about how to learn languages as I see so many people doing it wrong and not practicing the skills of learning a language(Speaking, Listening, Writing, Reading). I put them in that order because that is the order of importance. 99% of people who fail at learning languages don’t practice speaking because they are afraid of making mistakes and looking stupid.
What is Langua?
Langua is an AI tool that you can chat with an AI Avatar to practice your language skills. But it also has a podcast and video section to help you with your Listening Skills.
Langua is a part of the language teacher marketplace LanguaTalk. You can find qualified teachers to teach you any of the main languages.
Demo of how it works and what you can do
The main feature of Langua is the ability to talk to an AI avatar. I have tried this before with some popular other language tools and their speech recognition tools were awful. They could never understand what I was saying and I am a native English speaker(with a very slight Irish accent!)
It is easy to start chatting with the AI and I recommend you start with a role-play. You can do this by selecting the “communicate tab”.
Chatting is easy and the voices of the AI are really realistic. Apart from some small pauses, they sound very convincing. The rhythm of the language isn’t quite there yet but the pronunciation is spot on.
They do sometimes take some time to respond which can be annoying but the answers are very good.
As you can see below the answer is very detailed
I really feel AI is so good for learning languages as it is easy to get the specific information and practice you need. This is great for people who are motivated and know how to ask for the correct information.
Langua also uses AI to provide other features so let’s dig into them.
Podcasts
The podcasts section gives you a curated list of podcasts that can help you practice your listening and reading. The AI gives you the script of the podcast so you can read along.
You can then click on the words you don’t understand and save them to your workbook. You can also change the speed to help you if a particular section is complicated.
Videos
The video section is similar to podcasts except the videos are curated from YouTube. You can select your interests and watch vlog content or learning English videos.
The benefit is that you use AI to generate the script so you can practice new vocabulary while enjoying video content.
Flash Cards/Vocabulary Practice
The flashcards allow you to practice exercises with the vocabulary you didn’t know from the other sections.
You can practice recall, listen to the words or translate them from your own language. You can also use AI to create stories using this vocabulary so you can learn in context.
Langua Pricing
There is a free version and a paid version of Langua which is called Langua Pro. The price of Langua Pro will be different depending on where you live. For me, it costs 15.99 euro per month if I pay monthly or 11.99 per month if I pay for a whole year(That works out at 143.88 to use Langua Pro for one year.
The Pro Plan:
- Gives you access to the AI conversation practice
- Allows you to save words/sentences and master them via flashcard exercises
- Allows you to generate unlimited interactive transcripts and AI stories
Pros and Cons of Langua
Here are some of the pros and cons of Langua
Pros
- Cheaper than booking classes with a teacher
- The user interface is really easy to use
- The pronunciation of the AI avatars is very clear.
- The tool could understand my speech perfectly
Cons
- It can be slow to get an answer
- The answers aren’t formatted very well
- Sometimes doesn’t understand poor pronunciation.
So is Langua worth it?
Yes, Langua is worth your money. I love the way it is also a media hub for learning a language. Talking with an AI avatar can definitely help people who are shy to get some confidence in speaking a new language.
The technology still has some flaws but it is only going to improve. AI tutors are here to stay. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a role for human teachers. You can also book a class with qualified teachers on the LanguaTalk platform.
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