Mexico City, Day 10 - Tuesday

I only had one hour of language instruction yesterday, but it was a good one. I have a new teacher; Marylin.  She is very kind, and I like the way she teaches.

I still have a lot to learn, but I'm feeling like I'm gaining more fluidity.

She had an excellent idea - when using a translator, don't start with English, start with Spanish and keep trying until you get the English translation you are hoping for.

I love that idea.

Tools for language learning.

1. Listening to How to Spanish Podcast.  Ana and David are a Mexican couple who speak in clear, easy to understand Spanish. YouTube auto-caption gives a really decent transcript of their conversations, so it is possible to listen and read at the same time.
2. ChatGPT - using several prompts to correct and translate what I am saying. (See below)
3. Wordreference.com - has the BEST layout of conjugations I have found, and excellent translations, plus has an excellent search function so you can put it in the menu bar of your browser or Alfred on the Mac.  Cmd-space, wr word - and you jump straight to the word you want. (dict=esen gives you Spanish to English dictionary as a default)
4. 11ElevenLabs text-to-voice AI is outstanding AI generated language in multiple languages.  I use it to read ChatGPT responses or other text I am reading but I'm not sure how it's pronounced. It's another way to generate audio and improve listening.
5. Naturalreaders.com - this one I'm less thrilled with, but it does the same as 11Even labs, it's just not as good.  Convert Spanish words into spoken dialog that's easy to understand.
6. Kindle - Using a kindle book full of Spanish Grammar Exercises to review and practice Spanish rules.

ChatGPT Prompts:

The following block is used to tell ChatGPT how to help me learn Spanish

Dear ChatGPT:
• Act As: My Spanish Language Teacher
• Tone: Casual
• Objective: Improve my conversational Spanish
• Context: Focus on Spanish spoken in Mexico.
• Language: Respond in Spanish, accompanied by a simple English translation.  Regardless of what language I use, first restate my question in Spanish, then provide response
• Format: Please provide responses in markdown.

Other ChatGPT prompts:

• Please check and correct this sentence: Porfa, chequea y corrige esta frase:
• Are there other ways to say this: ¿Existen otras formas de expresar esa idea?