The fastest way to learn a language is to speak it from Day 1. With PrettyPolly, you can speak any of 36 languages whenever you want. You can create custom topics and track your progress using the fluency score, as well as practice your prounciation with the pronunciation scorer.
Nice way to learn and practice pronunciation, simple and not overloaded interface.
Glad there are free conversations to try out! Always wanted to brush up on my Spanish
What a fantastic platform for language learning! It’s easy to use and offers a more practical approach to learning a language in a way that actually increases your confidence in speaking the language at the same time.
I've been using PrettyPolly for the past few weeks for both Chinese and Japanese. It's a fantastic app! There's no better alternative to learning a language than by listening and speaking, and this app lets you do exactly that. The scenario feature is awesome, and keeps conversations interesting!
Hi guys,
Hope you're well. I made PrettyPolly after many years of trying to learn languages. I studied French for 5 years at school yet - when I went to France - I couldn't speak to anyone. I assumed that I was just bad at languages.
Later in life I travelled with some French friends. I spoke to them in broken French at first but, by the end, I was able to chat to them fairly comfortably (and was even able to joke around). I realized then that there's no substitute for speaking to natives regularly.
The problem is that we can't go off travelling whenever we want to learn a language. It can also be expensive and time-consuming to organize calls with native speakers, or to get a private tutor.
PrettyPolly lets you practice speaking with a human-like AI in any of 36 languages. You can create topics and scenarios to imitate any real-world scenarios you want to practice for. Some commonly used examples are:
1. Pretend you're interviewing me for a role as a software engineer
2. Pretend you're giving me an IELTS oral exam
3. Pretend you're giving me a tour of Rome
4. Play 20 questions with me!
If you're a beginner at a language, speaking from Day 1 can be intimidating, so we've built in features to get you over the initial hump. You can click on any word to translate it, and if you're ever stuck for what to say, you can click the "Stuck, get a hint" button. This gives you an AI-generated hint for what to say next. You can practice your pronunciation for that phrase, and the app gives you a pronunciation score so you can keep repeating the phrase until you sound like a native.
Finally, the app has something called the fluency score (out of 200). It is calculated using your pronunciation, the rate at which you speak and the number of unique words you use. This is great to help you track your progress over time.
I would really appreciate any suggestions, questions or other feedback. Also, feel free to share any language-learning stories of yours :).
Thanks,
Chris
@ic4ru5 Ah awesome - glad to hear it. There's a lot more we could do with the characters/scenarios, so if there's anything you don't like about it, let me know and we'll be working on it over the next couple of weeks. Thanks again!
@sentry_co Thanks man! It actually already does that. If you click the "Stuck, get a hint" button, you can do a pronunciation assessment and it will give you a score out of 100, so you can practice until you nail it. Then you can try saying that phrase in the main conversation.
Also, your pronunciation is taken into account in the fluency score, which you can see if you scroll down on your profile.
Do you think it could be useful if you get some pronunciation corrections in the main conversation?
@cwbuilds1 I think more like. Practicing to gain a sort of tone. Accent. Like how a native English speak from UK or the US would speak. It's really hard for a lot of people to ditch their origin accent. Speaking with a British or US accent just adds that extra seriousness. People take you seriously etc. And how would one improve that? I think for me, I have a sort of hybrid us/uk accent. I think I gained it by a lot of exposure to audio books, and English tv from a young age. Also I worked abroad and travelled a lot. I think it could be trained as well. Like you get a sentence and you have to say it until you nail it and sound like a native speaker. and then you get another one and another one. and in the start you hear the teachers accent. and then your on your own later once you start nailing it. something like that.
@sentry_co Ah sorry, I see what you mean. There's actually a brilliant app for this called BoldVoice (@anada_lakra1). My understanding is that it's excellent if you're already proficient in the language and trying to perfect your accent.
I've added your problem to our list though so I'll have a think about what we can do in the future to help. Thanks again for trying it out!
@anada_lakra1@cwbuilds1 Yeah. The right solution built too early. If you build bold-voice with todays technology. it will be 10x. Thanks for the tip! Its always great to speak to founders, because they know the market from their own market research!
Congratulations on your launch. Very nice product!
I would like to see more functions aimed towards newer language learners. The app seams to be targeting almost fluent speakers as of now.
Also, I’m curious, what is the fluency score based on and how do you calculate it?
@thisisroman Thanks for the comment Roman! That makes sense. Did you get a chance to try the hint button (with pronunciation help) and did you try translating by clicking any word? The aim of those is to make it easier for beginners to get started. If so, we'll think about new ways to make it easier for beginners.
The fluency score is based on your pronunciation, the rate at which you speak and the number of unique words you use. We haven't published the full equation because we don't want people trying to game it.
Thanks again for the comment, Chris
@cwbuilds1 I did find those functions yes, very nicely implemented. My comment was more directed at the fact that it feels like you’re really being thrown into the deep. I’d love to see some personalisation based on experience and preferences.
The fluency score is my favourite idea but I think the current implementation could use some work. The number is a very abstract stat and I would love to see something more fitting to the context of language learning.
Keep up the good work!
@thisisroman Ah that makes sense. There is something we can do here. On your profile there's a button that says 'Custom Topic'. What you can do is change the prompt to make the conversation incredibly basic. I can create one for you and put it in the 'Top Topics' section on the profile page if you'd like?
That's a great point on the fluency score. I'll think about how we can tie it more closely to your ability in that language. Really appreciate the feedback
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