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I Tried AI for Japanese Speaking Practice — Here’s What I Learned
People keep telling me AI chatbots are the future of Japanese language learning. So I tried a few. Here’s why they’re wrong.
There’s some chatter lately about how Generative AI will “revolutionize” language learning — particularly when it comes to learning to speak a language like Japanese.
My first reaction to this was to bristle. But then I decided, rather than form an opinion absent experience, I should give a few GenAI Japanese bots a go.
My conclusion? They’re sort of fun. Maybe even a little useful as a prompt engine of sorts. In the end, however, I remained convinced you shouldn’t rely on a chatbot to do a job that living, breathing native Japanese speakers already do a thousand times better.
I tried a Japanese AI teacher and didn’t enjoy it
When I published my piece on why you should avoid Duolingo for Japanese, I noted one of the reasons was that the company was firing translators and resorting to AI. A few people pushed back on that.
“Doesn’t AI have some great applications for language learning?” they asked. Particularly, some insisted that Generative AI — which is semi-adept at faking human languages — can help people who don’t have Japanese teachers near them.
