PollyTalks lets you practice speaking a foreign language with an AI. The premise is simple; the fastest way to learn to speak a language is to speak it! By speaking, your vocabulary and understanding of grammar will increase with time.
Before AI, it was difficult to organise practice with native speakers, but now you have a resource which is endlessly patient and helpful.
For each saved conversation, the app generates some personalised feedback to help you improve in the future.
The app also generates a fluency score for each conversation which you can use to track your progress over time. One of the keys to mastering a language is consistency, so you can also create daily reminders and track your usage with the calendar on your profile.
How do I start using PollyTalks to learn a language quickly?
2. Select “Sign Up”. You will need to enter an email address and password, and no payment information is required.
3. You will receive an email to confirm the email address (sorry, but we have to make sure that all emails are real). Select the link to return to the PollyTalks app.
4. Select the language in which you wish to converse from the dropdown.
5. Then select “Start conversation”. Polly will start speaking with a short question (e.g. "Hi, how are you?").
6. Make sure your microphone is enabled on your device by selecting “Click/Tap to Enable Microphone”.
7. Select “Press and HOLD to Speak”. When you have finished speaking, release the button. Polly will then reply. Repeat this step to continue the conversation.
8. When you have finished a conversation, select “Save Conversation & View Fluency Score”. See FAQs below for an explanation of Fluency Score and profile.
9. We highly recommend that you use a spaced repetition flashcard tool like Anki (see FAQ on Anki below) to help you retain vocabulary. This will complement and accelerate your learning with PollyTalks.
10. To have more than 7 free conversations, you will have to become a premium member for $9.50 per month. This gives you unlimited conversations!
Why is it important to start speaking from Day 1?
There is now a wealth of literature and anecdotal evidence which shows that the fastest way to learn a language is through oral participation [1][2]. There are two reasons that this has been difficult in the past.
The first and most obvious is that if, for example, you live in the US and are learning French, it’s unlikely that you have a French-speaking person who will be willing to practice with you whenever you want.
The second problem is the reticence to speak even when you do. Speaking a new language with a local is uncomfortable for most of us, partly due to our deep-rooted desire not to look foolish in front of others.
Being able to speak with an AI in the desired language allows us to fail regularly without embarrassing ourselves, and it’s a resource that is ever present and endlessly patient while we learn.
References:
[1] Wicaksana, B., & Fitirani, E. (2020). The effectiveness of role-play towards vocational school students' speaking skill. Journal of Journey, 3, 74-80.
[2] Neupane, B. (2019). Effectiveness of role play in improving speaking skill. Journal of NELTA Gandaki.
Do I need to learn vocabulary?
Yes, but the good news is that you probably need to learn less than you think. If you take the English language as an example, there are over 170,000 words in the Oxford dictionary (and 47,000 that are classed as ‘obsolete’). However, you can understand and speak 90% of everyday conversational English with only 3,000 words.
One mistake that we commonly make when learning vocabulary is to learn word-by-word (e.g. ‘aller’ is ‘to go’ in French). A more efficient way to learn and retain vocabulary is to learn using phrases [3]. We’re better at memorizing words in context, than on their own. As such, we need to learn phrases that we expect people to say to us, and we need to learn phrases that we can use in conversation. Over time, you’ll find that you understand individual words as a byproduct, and, more importantly, that you are able to use them in the correct sentence structure in the desired language.
The best way to memorize anything is with spaced repetition [4]. Academic literature has shown that, once learnt, we tend to forget things fairly quickly unless it is reinforced. Spaced repetition tests you on the vocabulary just before you forget it fully, which then allows you to remember it for longer. The best open-source spaced repetition software is Anki, which is available for download on Mobile devices or for use in the browser (Anki Web).
References:
[3] Nation, I. S. P. (2013). Learning Vocabulary in Another Language. Cambridge University Press.
[4] Pimsleur, P. (1967). A memory schedule. Modern Language Journal, 51(2), 73-75.
Do I need to learn grammar?
This will come as good news to most. You do not need to study grammar to learn to speak a foreign language [5][6]. When a child is learning to speak their native language, we don’t teach them about past participles and auxiliary verbs. They understand these concepts intuitively from listening and speaking. The same is true for acquiring a second language. If you learn vocabulary and practice speaking the language, over time, you will gain an understanding of correct grammar.
References:
Krashen, S. D. (1981). Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Pergamon Press.
Lightbown, P. M., & Spada, N. (2013). How Languages are Learned. Oxford University Press.
How do I use Anki?
1. Download the Anki mobile app from your respective app store or visit AnkiWeb.net to use the browser version.
2. Create an account by providing the requested information. This will allow your decks to be saved and accessed across different devices.
3. Once you're logged in, you can create a new deck. A deck is like a set of flashcards for a specific topic. Click "Create Deck" and give it a relevant name (e.g., "French Vocabulary").
4. In your new deck, click "Add" to start creating flashcards. You will see two fields: "Front" and "Back". In the "Front" field, write the phrase (you will be shown this and will need to remember the translation of this). In the "Back" field, write the translation. Click "Add" when you're finished with a card.
5. Now that you've created your cards, it's time to study. Go to your deck and click "Study Now". The front of a card will be shown first. Try to recall the translation before clicking "Show Answer". Based on how well you recalled the answer, select "Again", "Good", or "Easy". This will determine when the card is shown to you again. Repeat this process to keep your language vocabulary up-to-date.
Is this still helpful for beginners?
Yes! We’ve built in features to help you get started, even as a complete beginner in the target language. You can now click on any word in a conversation to see a translation in your native language. You can also use the “Stuck, get a hint” button which will give you an AI-generated suggestion of what to say next.
When you save a conversation, Polly will give you some qualitative feedback and a fluency score. You can view the fluency score for each conversation on your profile page and can see your improvement over time.
Which languages can I learn with PollyTalks?
PollyTalks currently lets you practice speaking in 37 different languages:
Arabic
Bulgarian
Catalan
Chinese (Mandarin)
Chinese (HongKong)
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English
Finnish
French
German
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Hungarian
Indonesian
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Latvian
Lithuanian
Malay (Bahasa Malaysia)
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese (Brazilian)
Portuguese (European)
Romanian
Russian
Serbian
Slovak
Spanish
Swedish
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian
Vietnamese
How can I contact you?
Feel free to email Chris at chris@pollytalks.com with any questions, feedback or suggestions.
In preparing illustrations for this volume the publishers have kindly allowed me to make use of some engravings that have already appeared in[Pg 10] their publications relative to China and Japan. I have made selections from the volumes of Sir Rutherford Alcock and the Rev. Justus Doolittle, and also from the excellent work of Professor Griffis, "The Mikado's Empire." In the episode of a whaling voyage I have been under obligations to the graphic narrative of Mr. Davis entitled "Nimrod of the Sea," not only for illustrations, but for incidents of the chase of the monsters of the deep. The Dutch were great traders in the East Indies, and they managed to obtain a footing in Japan during the time of the Portuguese success. They received a concession of the island of Deshima, about six hundred feet square, in the harbor of Nagasaki, and here they lived until our day. When the troubles arose that led to the expulsion of foreigners and the extinction of Christianity, the Dutch were excepted from the operations of the edict, as it could not be shown that they had had any part in the conspiracy. They had been too busy with their commerce to meddle in religious matters; and, if history is true, it is probable that they hadn't religion enough in their small colony at Deshima to go around and give a perceptible quantity to each man. "It will be several days, at any rate," said he, "before we can leave Hong-kong, whether we go east or west. Now, I advise you to take an[Pg 409] hour each day for writing up your story of Canton, and you will then have plenty of time for sight-seeing. You will have ended your writing before we leave, and then can devote your time at sea to other things which the voyage will suggest." The child lay between waking and sleeping. Her cry was for water. The third great idea of Stoicism was its doctrine of humanity. Men are all children of one Father, and citizens37 of one State; the highest moral law is, Follow Nature, and Nature has made them to be social and to love one another; the private interest of each is, or should be, identified with the universal interest; we should live for others that we may live for ourselves; even to our enemies we should show love and not anger; the unnaturalness of passion is proved by nothing more clearly than by its anti-social and destructive tendencies. Here, also, the three great Stoics of the Roman empire—Seneca, Epictêtus, and Marcus Aurelius—rather than the founders of the school, must be our authorities;82 whether it be because their lessons correspond to a more developed state of thought, or simply because they have been more perfectly preserved. The former explanation is, perhaps, the more generally accepted. There seems, however, good reason for believing that the idea of universal love—the highest of all philosophical ideas next to that of the universe itself—dates further back than is commonly supposed. It can hardly be due to Seneca, who had evidently far more capacity for popularising and applying the thoughts of others than for original speculation, and who on this subject expresses himself with a rhetorical fluency not usually characterising the exposition of new discoveries. The same remark applies to his illustrious successors, who, while agreeing with him in tone, do not seem to have drawn on his writings for their philosophy. It is also clear that the idea in question springs from two essentially Stoic conceptions: the objective conception of a unified world, a cosmos to which all men belong;38 and the subjective conception of a rational nature common to them all. These, again, are rooted in early Greek thought, and were already emerging into distinctness at the time of Socrates. Accordingly we find that Plato, having to compose a characteristic speech for the Sophist Hippias, makes him say that like-minded men are by nature kinsmen and friends to one another.83 Nature, however, soon came to be viewed under a different aspect, and it was maintained, just as by some living philosophers, that her true law is the universal oppression of the weak by the strong. Then the idea of mind came in as a salutary corrective. It had supplied a basis for the ethics of Protagoras, and still more for the ethics of Socrates; it was now combined with its old rival by the Stoics, and from their union arose the conception of human nature as something allied with and illustrated by all other forms of animal life, yet capable, if fully developed, of rising infinitely above them. Nevertheless, the individual and the universal element were never quite reconciled in the Stoic ethics. The altruistic quality of justice was clearly perceived; but no attempt was made to show that all virtue is essentially social, and has come to be recognised as obligatory on the individual mainly because it conduces to the safety of the whole community. The learner was told to conquer his passions for his own sake rather than for the sake of others; and indulgence in violent anger, though more energetically denounced, was, in theory, placed on a par with immoderate delight or uncontrollable distress. So also, vices of impurity were classed with comparatively harmless forms of sensuality, and considered in reference, not to the social degradation of their victims, but to the spiritual defilement of their perpetrators. came this morning. I am so sorry that you have been ill; I wouldn't I was feeling hurt because he had just disappeared into blankness “What about Tommy Larsen?” His teeth set. The little man gasped audibly. "Good God!" he said, "I—" he stopped. Shorty winked and nodded affirmatively. "Captain, they are moving out a brigade on either flank to take us in the rear," said Col. McBiddle calmly to Capt. McGillicuddy. "We'll have to fall back to the brigade. Pass the word along to retire slowly, firing as we go. The brigade must be near. You had better move your company over toward the right, to meet any attack that may come from that direction. I'll send Co. A toward the other flank." Cadnan knew from gossip about the field: that was the place where the metal lay. Alberts worked there, digging it up and bringing it to the buildings where Cadnan and many like him took over the job. He nodded slowly, bending his body from the waist instead of from the neck like the masters, or Marvor. "If you are in the field," he said, "why do you come here? This is not a place for diggers." Somehow out there was a wider life, a life which took no reck of sickness or horror or self-reproach. The wind which stung his face and roughed his hair, the sun which tanned his nape as he bent to his work, the smell of the earth after rain, the mists that brewed in the hollows at dusk, and at dawn slunk like spirits up to the clouds ... they were all part of something too great to take count of human pain—so much greater than he that in it he could forget his trouble, and find ease and hope and purpose—even though he was fighting it. He had been tracked by the number on the note—it was the first time he realised that notes had numbers. This particular note had been given by Sir Miles Bardon to his son as a part of his quarterly allowance, and though Ralph was far too unpractical to notice the number himself, his father had a habit of marking such things, and had written it down. He stared at her with his mouth open. "No; his master." The stranger's eyes that now gazed upon her, beheld her as a lovely, interesting creature; but Calverley, who had not seen her since the day that Edith was arrested, saw that the rich glow which used to mantle on her cheek, had given place to a sickly paleness. It is true, that as she entered the court, there was a faint tinge upon that cheek, but it fled with the momentary embarrassment which had caused it. That full dimpled cheek itself was now sunken, the lips were colourless, and the eyes dim. HoME欧美一级美国三级aa
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