Pretty Polly
Learning and science
language learning
SHOW HN2023
325points
253comments
#127of 3,109 in 2023
Top 5%of 2023 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
34 positive, 43 neutral or asking, 20 mixed, 27 critical, out of 124 comments about the project. Thread score +0.08.
Idea: 16 for, 3 againstExecution: 3 for, 12 againstPerformance: 5 for, 7 againstDesign: 7 for, 1 againstPricing: 2 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Speaking practice feels natural and useful
From 3 comments
I've been meaning to brush up on Spanish and the app worked great to just hop in! The best part about using GPT is being able to talk about whatever is on your mind. I noticed…
kalid on HNWow, this is so cool! xD I think this is the strongest usecase for AI I've seen so far. I'd love some more details on how you made it - how are you handling the speech to text?…
Serenacula on HNThis is really slick! I really appreciate you having Japanese as a language choice. I've been dying to hone my japanese skills with AI in lieu of reading grammar/vocab books etc.…
GenericDev on HN
Good language choice including Japanese
From 1 comment
This is really slick! I really appreciate you having Japanese as a language choice. I've been dying to hone my japanese skills with AI in lieu of reading grammar/vocab books etc.…
GenericDev on HN
Objections
Relies on ChatGPT which makes grammar mistakes in less common languages
From 2 comments
I like the Anki shoutout. I personally would be cautious learning an extra language through a tool like this though, especially for a huge list of supposedly supported languages…
mahathu on HNGenerally if you are beginner and want to actually learn the language, you should focus on the input not the output. Few problems I find with these kind of apps: How is that…
applesan on HN
Speech recognition hallucinates on blank audio and fails for some languages like German
From 2 comments
Just tried a few languages and there seems to be a problem with German speech to text. When I say "Hallo" it just thinks I said "Untertitel der Amara.org-Community" :-) English…
shazar on HNThanks for the feedback. Yeah - it does seem to have hallucinated a little tonight. It normally happens when I time the microphone wrong and send some blank audio, then it seems…
cwbuilds on HN
Server slow and overloaded under traffic
From 1 comment
I think the app currently is under heavy load, so it is unstable and give 5xx. When it has worked, it was amazing. I am ready to pay for it.
hackernews_me on HN
Requests
Difficulty levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced)
From 3 comments
Thanks for the kind words. Difficulty levels have come up a few times so I'll see what I can do.
cwbuilds on HNThanks for the feedback. Yes, the beginner, intermediate, advanced point has come up so I'll look at adding something like that. Just to check that I understand, do you mean…
cwbuilds on HNThanks for the feedback. Am thinking about ways to make it work for different levels (beginner/intermediate/advanced). If you want to receive a notification when this is…
cwbuilds on HN
Show raw and corrected transcript
From 1 comment
I've been meaning to brush up on Spanish and the app worked great to just hop in! The best part about using GPT is being able to talk about whatever is on your mind. I noticed…
kalid on HN
More languages
From 2 comments
Thanks - yeah lots of UI/UX work to do. I've added Hungarian and Bulgarian to the list of languages. If you sign up, you'll get an email when they're added. Thanks again.
cwbuilds on HNYes, I'll add these to the list of other languages. Thanks for the feedback
cwbuilds on HN
Native mobile app
From 2 comments
Thanks! Yes, definitely planning on building native apps. The first will probably be on iOS, since most issues seem to be coming from those.
cwbuilds on HNAfraid it's only a web app at the moment, so you can use it in your browser on mobile. There will be a native app soon, however
cwbuilds on HN
Questions
How is it different from just using ChatGPT?
From 2 comments
Generally if you are beginner and want to actually learn the language, you should focus on the input not the output. Few problems I find with these kind of apps: How is that…
applesan on HNHey thanks for the feedback. I'll be honest with you, if reading and writing is what your goal is, then you'll get better results speaking to ChatGPT in the OpenAI chat…
cwbuilds on HN
How is the fluency score calculated?
From 2 comments
Good question. I looked through literature to see whether anyone had come up with any good ways of measuring fluency, and there are a couple out there. The key indicators that…
cwbuilds on HNThanks for the comment! The main difference is the use of speech instead of text. At school, I could read/write in French, but then was absolutely lost speaking to French people.…
cwbuilds on HN
Alternatives named
ChatGPT in the OpenAI chat interface
From 2 comments
Generally if you are beginner and want to actually learn the language, you should focus on the input not the output. Few problems I find with these kind of apps: How is that…
applesan on HNHey thanks for the feedback. I'll be honest with you, if reading and writing is what your goal is, then you'll get better results speaking to ChatGPT in the OpenAI chat…
cwbuilds on HN
Anki for spaced repetition
From 1 comment
I like the Anki shoutout. I personally would be cautious learning an extra language through a tool like this though, especially for a huge list of supposedly supported languages…
mahathu on HN