Learn English with AI
AI promises to help you learn English quickly and easily. But does the hype match the reality?
The dream of any language learner is to have a teacher available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, who works for free, and can not only answer technical questions about language, but also hold conversations about any subject.
Well, that dream is now a reality.
With powerful language models like ChatGPT, you have a language expert and conversation partner in your pocket. For anyone learning a language, now there really are no excuses.
If you can’t afford a teacher: problem solved.
If you don’t have anyone to speak to in English: problem solved.
If you need to know what a word or phrase means, and you want 10 example sentences with pronunciation: problem solved.
If you want to roleplay a job interview, or a telephone conversation: problem solved.
Surely, this is the most exciting moment in the history of language learning. A real revolution. The only logical conclusion is that in the future we will see an explosion in the number of people speaking a foreign language fluently.
Except, the opposite is happening. The number of people learning foreign languages around the world is decreasing. For example, in the United States, the decline is shocking, with a 17% drop in the last 5 years.
This chart tracks student enrollments in languages other than English at U.S. colleges and universities.
Source: Modern Language Association (MLA) Census.
But, wait, that’s just native English speakers being lazy, right? I mean, the reality is that in today’s world, English is the only language you need.
And you’re learning English, so let’s talk about you.
Now, if this is the first time you have read about the capabilities of ChatGPT then I’m sure that right now you are downloading the app and you plan to use it immediately.
But ChatGPT has been a hot topic for months, so it’s highly likely that you already knew about it, so I’m sure you already use it every day as a teacher, and conversation partner. I’m sure that it has started to transform your English, and you already feel more fluent. Right? Right?
Although I make YouTube videos, I am not a YouTuber, I am a teacher, so I am in the classroom almost every day with real students, and I have never seen so many people so unexcited and uninterested in a revolution.
But why? How is it possible that you can have everything you ever wanted in your pocket, for free, but you simply don’t care?
Any experienced language teacher or language learner knows exactly why. It’s because language learning is not a resource problem, it’s a people problem.
As we say in English: “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.”
AI can’t solve the learning problem
The hype around AI is the same hype that exists every time a new ‘method’ to learn English is created.
We saw it before when audio cassettes made recording cheap and easy: “Now I can listen to real conversations whenever I want! This will make learning English quick and easy!”
We saw it when the internet was created: “Now I can find unlimited content and speaking partners! This will make learning English quick and easy!”
We saw it when apps were released: “I can learn grammar and vocabulary in just 5 minutes when I’m on the train to work! This will make learning English quick and easy!”
And here it is again: “AI will make learning English quick and easy!”
This might not seem like an important problem. People will try it, realise it isn’t a magic solution, and then move on to the next thing. No problems.
But this isn’t about other people, it’s about you. So let me make something very clear: no technology, or system, or method will ever exist that will make learning English fast or easy. Learning a language is probably the hardest thing that you will ever do as an adult.
With any method, when you subtract the technology, and the content, and the teachers, one thing always remains: learning. That’s not something a person or a machine can do for you, and you can’t buy it. You have to do it. You have to earn it.
And that’s the most dangerous part of any new method: it gives you false expectations. When you clicked on this article there was a part of you that was hoping to discover some secret. Some way to reduce the hard work of learning.
But you’re not going to find it here, or anywhere, because it doesn’t exist, although you will find many people and companies trying to sell it to you.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, the key to successful language learning isn’t the technical stuff, it’s mindset. Mindset is the difference between success, and failure.
To demonstrate, I want to talk about war.
Learning English in a POW camp
The Iran-Iraq war started in 1980 and lasted for 8 years. Like in most wars, thousands of people were captured and held as prisoners. Prisoner of war camps are hostile, aggressive places, designed for punishment.
There probably couldn’t be a worse environment for anyone to learn a language. But that’s exactly what some prisoners did.
Their motivations for learning English were varied: for some prisoners it was to help pass the time and fight the extreme boredom and depression. For others it was the sense that ‘time is gold’ and that they didn’t want to waste a single moment of it. For many it was the hope that in the future they could use their English skills to make a better life.
These learners had little or no resources. Books, pencils, and paper were strictly prohibited. There were no teachers, so other prisoners who had learned English before the war taught the others what they knew. Classes were held in secret because the guards didn’t allow education.
“…for around three years, in our English classes we had no boards to write on. All we had to do was to go outdoors, take a stick and write words or sentences on garden soil.”
– Kalaan-tari (1382/2003)
But despite the terrible conditions, and the lack of resources, there were amazing results:
“Some of our fellow-POWs were illiterate when taken captive but turned out to be so fluent in English later that they appeared on the stage performing English plays.”
– Rajaaei (1385/2005)
I’m not telling you this story because I want you to be inspired, I’m telling you this story so I can repeat that learning is not a resource problem, it’s a people problem. Learning happens when people want to learn. When people want to learn, nothing can stop them.
I built my Academy on this principle: we don’t teach English, we teach people. We focus on what people say, not how they say it. Communication first, always. And that’s what I want for you.
Please don’t waste any more time looking for magic solutions, and please don’t waste any more time before you start using your English to communicate. Because as those prisoners discovered, time is our most precious resource.