🤖 AI prompts for intermediate language learners

Answering to Bri's video of ChatGPT prompts for beginners

Dear Bri,

I really enjoyed your video. As a seasoned language learner, it inspired me to adapt your prompts for more advanced speakers. I hope this can also help my readers understand how to customise prompts and use AI to learn more easily. I’m using the free version of ChatGPT 3.5, without any plugins.

In case you’d like to watch the video before reading, help yourself! I made a recap of each prompt to go through them together.

Prompt 1: Structured plan

Bri’s prompt: I am a complete beginner in Spanish. I would like to learn the language in 6 months. I can study for an hour every day. Could you please create a structured learning plan that utilizes the Pareto Principle to help me learn Spanish?

This entry didn’t turn out the best for me. I found it unspecific and unhelpful. I think it can work really well for beginners, but it gets confusing if you already started learning. In my case, adding the Pareto Principle didn’t help with the final plan.

It took my a while to tweak the prompt until I was happy with the answer. Here’s what my final version. Since this one is the longest, I added words in parentheses to clarify each paragraph.

(Context) I've been studying Korean for 3 years. I still find it hard to understand vocabulary I don't know, and speaking is super daunting because I live in France and never practise speaking with anyone. 
(Goal) I'd like to feel fluent enough to understand shows with only Korean subtitles and be conversational by the end of the year in 6 months. 
(Resources) What I currently do is I watch Korean shows a few times a week and note down vocabulary in my anki deck. I note sentences to improve spontaneity. I also sometimes study with an online lesson from talk to me in Korean level 8. I'm at lesson 6 of talk to me in Korean level 8. I went through the workbook exercises as well. I'm already used to the talk to me in Korean books so I'd like to keep working with them when possible. I'd also like to immerse as much as I can. Any other science based learning method is welcome.
(Prompt) Please create a structured learning plan with actionable steps and resources to help me learn Korean, week by week from July to December 2023. Keep it short and concise with one resource per item.

I know, that’s a lot. But the more details you add in, the better results you get. I recommend adding information bit by bit until you get a satisfying answer. Start with a shorter prompt, like Bri did, and add more details until you’re happy with the answer.

It could use more details, but I like that it recommended resources I already like

I’m not sure whether I’ll actually use it since I already have plans, but I definitely will if I have to start from scratch.

Prompt 2: Resources

Bri’s prompt: I am a beginner interested in learning Spanish and completely immersing myself in the language.

Could you please recommend resources such as music, movies, TV shows, YouTube channels, articles, etc, that I can read or listen to to increase my proficiency in the language?

This one wasn’t easy for me. I’m mostly looking for books, and I’m picky when it comes to language learning. Again, I added as much detail as I could for it to capture my taste and personal preferences.

I love learning languages and enjoy media content that is both entertaining and educational. I'm particularly fond of wholesome TV shows with lovable characters, as well as fantasy books like the Harry Potter series. In non-fiction, I'm interested in topics related to health, science, nature, wellbeing, and education. I rely on public reviews to guide my reading choices, and I also enjoy listening to audiobooks. I'm not looking for translated books. Ideally, I'd like books from native authors and not americans.

Could you please recommend books for me in the following languages and difficulty levels:

- Italian (easy to moderate difficulty) from Italian author
- Korean (easy difficulty) from Korean author
- Dutch (easy to moderate difficulty) from Dutch author
- German (easy to moderate difficulty) from German author

I prefer books that are entertaining or provide useful and natural vocabulary. Feel free to include both fiction and non-fiction recommendations. Additionally, it would be great if you could mention the Goodreads rating, difficulty rating, general theme, and number of pages for each book. Thank you!

I struggled to find the right words (especially to avoid translated books), but the results were amazing. It was definitely worth it. Here’s a snapshot of the recommendations I got:

Knowing how long it is and the general theme and difficulty has been super helpful

I strongly recommend asking for a comparison table format, it’s so helpful to see everything at a glance.

Prompt 3: 1000 Most common words (& Anki)

Bri’s prompt: I want to memorize the 1000 most common Spanish words by learning 10 new words every day. Can you give me the first 100 words I should start with in a table format?

This one stood out to me. It sparked so many ideas, but there are a few things that bugged me. I’m not a big fan of the “1000 most common words”, because I might end up misunderstanding short words and not remembering how to use them in sentences. I love the idea for nouns and verbs, though!

But apart from that, it hurt me to see Bri create all those Anki cards by hand. She probably did is as an example for the video, but why would you bother when you have access to an AI personal assistant?

I have written too many cards by hand, I will not stand for this

Here are a couple of prompts that worked for me.

(Basic) Can you generate a basic sentence card deck for Korean in a format I can directly import to anki?
(If you described your profile) Based on my profile, could you write 10 relevant Korean sentences that would be useful for me in a conversation? Write in a CSV file I could import directly to Anki.

See, I can write shorter ones when I put my mind to it. But the result was so exciting I had to write a second one. It generated this beautifully simple table I could import directly to my Anki deck (from any device).

Here’s the more basic example: super helpful to get started.

Here’s the more customised version. I’m going to use this so often! Thanks Bri!

Additional tip: you can customise the fields (front side, back side…) depending on your needs! I use very basic cards, so I didn’t have to bother asking.

Prompt 4: Conversation practise

Bri’s prompt: Help me practice my Spanish speaking skills by having a conversation about the weather.

You will start off the conversation and then wait for me to respond before you reply. Please fix any mistakes that I make.

I was unsure about this one. I felt like it would be hard to actually learn natural language through AI. I’ve noticed ChatGPT’s French is a bit off. Also, it’s kind of a struggle for me to type in Korean with my laptop keyboard. But it did give me an idea: I could use crosstalk to better my reading and understanding skills. Let me explain.

Let's use crosstalk to help me practise my Korean: it means I'll type in English, you answer in Korean. Start by telling me an interesting fact in Korean that might interest me based on my profile. Highlight any useful vocabulary or grammar points in a little learning note. At the end, add the translation so I can compare. 

Here’s an example of topic the AI shared based on my profile:

I would then answer in English and ask it to answer in Korean again (otherwise it would forget). It was a fun reading practise.

Prompt 5: Grammar

Bri’s prompt: I am a complete beginner in Spanish and want to start learning grammar. Can you provide a roadmap for me to learn it?
Can you provide me with some grammar exercises on past tense verbs?

I personally like to follow courses better. However, I really liked the exercise generation part. I have some workbooks I really like, so generating more questions similar to the ones I liked was really fun. I asked for a quiz on a subject I learnt last month:

Generate a Korean quiz on the Advanced Idiomatic Expressions using 눈 (eye), asking "what does (the 눈 idiomatic expression) mean in this sample sentence?

It took some tweaking, but eventually worked wonders.

A targeted quiz

You can also ask it to add the answers at the end so you can check easily.

Prompt 6: Fun

Bri’s prompt: Can you write a memorable short story in Spanish?

This was a great idea. Just like in my conversation practise, I also ask for interesting vocabulary and grammar points in a little note, as well the translation.

Write a short paragraph about an interesting fact in Korean that might interest me based on my profile. Highlight any useful vocabulary or grammar points in a little learning note. At the end, add the translation so I can compare. 

I love how I can regenerate this prompt as many times as I would like!

Prompt 7:

Bri’s prompt: Can you create a Spanish test for a beginner?

I liked that idea. It wasn’t too specific, but again, I love testing myself. To make it different from the grammar prompt, I asked for 3 different types of exercises, and loved them!

Create a vocabulary test of 3 different types of exercices on the Advanced Idiomatic Expressions using 눈 (eye).

Dear AI even gave me hints.

I would recommend picking yourself the test format, so you can make sure it’s fun for you. Among the tests I like: reading comprehension, translating, grammar, vocabulary. I wish I could add audio components!

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This was such a fun experiment to find new language learning methods. I hope you find something that works for you.

Cheers,

Lou

✍️ Test yourself

This sparked a new idea! Since you love learning languages, I’ll send you a few to test yourself. Try translating them in the language of your choice, depending on your level.

🌱 Beginner: "I enjoy going for walks in the park to relax."

🌿 Intermediate: "Engaging in regular sport sessions helps me improve both my physical strength and mental focus."

🌳 Advanced: "Exploring new hiking trails not only provides a great physical challenge but also deepens my connection with nature."