If you’re learning Spanish (or any other language), you’ll gain fluency faster if you take advantage of every single opportunity to practice. While we believe that language classes are essential for anyone who’s learning Spanish for business, we also encourage our students to supplement their lessons by using language apps, listening to music or podcasts in Spanish, and watching Spanish-language TV shows.
Now there’s an exciting new tool to add to that list: ChatGPT.
The buzz about ChatGPT, and generative AI in general, is huge, so we’re betting you’ve at least heard of it. But you may not have thought about ChatGPT’s potential in language learning. To get some ideas about using this AI tool to practice Spanish, we “interviewed” ChatGPT. Here are some ideas it generated, along with our commentary.
Ask ChatGPT Questions About Spanish
Let’s say you’re taking our advice and watching your favorite Spanish-language show on Netflix. One of the characters uses a phrase you’re not familiar with. You can ask your instructor during your next Spanish class. But that’s a week away – and you need answers now!
ChatGPT has your back. Just ask it what the phrase means and you’ll get your curiosity satisfied. But ChatGPT can also do more than simple translation. If you’re writing an email in Spanish and you’re unsure about a grammar rule, ChatGPT is there with advice. It can provide synonyms, conjugations, and sentence structures.
Our Take:
We love how ChatGPT can answer questions about Spanish 24-7. But we still recommend talking with your Spanish instructor about questions that come up between lessons. Chances are, they can expand on ChatGPT’s answer and enhance your learning even more.
Practice Spanish Conversation with ChatGPT
Conversational practice is the most important factor in how quickly you’ll become fluent in Spanish. And ChatGPT is ready to become your new conversation buddy. Just let it know that you’d like to practice Spanish conversation. ChatGPT can ask you questions and also respond to your questions.
Our Take:
Talking with ChatGPT is pretty cool, and, like we said earlier, every little bit of Spanish practice helps. But it’s important to note that your conversations with ChatGPT are written, not spoken. Conversations with actual humans move a lot faster.
So, in addition to using ChatGPT, we also recommend taking Spanish classes that center on conversational practice and looking for more opportunities to have real-life conversations, such as meet-up groups.
Edit Your Writing with ChatGPT
If you work with Spanish-speaking colleagues, you may need to write things like emails, reports and presentations in Spanish. With ChatGPT, you now have an editor fluent in Spanish. Ask ChatGPT to review your writing to identify errors and suggest improvements.
Our Take:
Besides tapping into ChatGPT’s potential as a proofreader, we also recommend that you ask your Spanish-speaking colleagues for feedback about your writing. Showing them that you care about using the language correctly is a powerful sign of respect. And it’s a way to have another conversation in Spanish.
Learning About Culture with ChatGPT
We always say that communicating in another language isn’t just about mastering vocabulary. It’s also about understanding the culture of the native speakers you’re interacting with.
Like us, ChatCPT has the knowledge to offer you both cultural insights and language help. For example, let’s say you are fairly fluent in Spanish and you’ve even worked in Spain before. But now your company is relocating you to Mexico.
While you’re probably in good shape for the move language wise, you need to learn about how Mexico’s culture differs from what you experienced in Spain. ChatGPT can help you start learning about these differences.
Our Take:
When we asked ChatGPT some questions about culture in different Spanish-speaking countries, we were impressed that its observations closely tracked with our own experiences. But if you’re going to be moving to a different country, or interacting regularly with colleagues from that country, take your cultural learning deeper than simply typing a few questions to ChatGPT.
For example, ask someone from that country what they think about ChatGPT’s answers about their culture. And, as ChatGPT will tell you itself, remember that there are cultural differences between various regions in any country. Furthermore, something that’s generally true about people from a particular culture may not be true for the specific individuals you meet.
Spanish Classes from Fluency Corp
The bottom line? We’re excited about ChatGPT as a tool to help learn Spanish. But we want to emphasize that it should be just one of the tools in your toolkit. Like we said earlier, Spanish language classes are still the best way to build fluency quickly.
If you’d like to hear more about how we approach Spanish language training at Fluency Corp, just contact us getfluent@fluencycorp.com or (800) 401-3159.
