Google coming for Duolingo as it launches language learning feature

Learning a new language is one of those goals that many people share, but is hard to achieve in practice. Tools like Duolingo have gained popularity by gamifing the language learning experience, but now Google has taken its own approach, rolling out an experimental set of playful language learning tools powered by its Gemini AI.

Google describes the new feature, called Little Language Lessons, as “a collection of three bite-sized learning experiments, all powered by Google’s Gemini models.” The idea is to tweak language tips to the particular context you’re currently in — such as visiting a restaurant, taking a flight, or dealing with a travel problem like a lost passport.

The Tiny Lesson experiment lets you input the language you’re trying to learn and the context you’re in, then gives you vocabulary words, phrases, and some helpful tips which give you more information about topics like politeness or how to phrase a request. At the bottom of each section, you can hit the See More button to bring up even more entries, giving you a quick overview of key words and phrases for your current activity.

The Slang Hang experiment will be appealing to those looking to practice their language skills in a more natural, casual way. It generates simulated conversations between two native speakers, including the kinds of slang and casual phrases that people use in real life but that don’t always appear in textbooks. The option to translate each section of text helps explain any phrases you don’t recognize or understand.

Finally, the Word Cam experiment might be the most dramatic feature, as you can use it to take a photo with your phone camera and then have it identify objects in your surroundings. It’ll show you the words for those objects in your chosen language, making it quick way to pull up a bunch of relevant vocabulary based on what you’re seeing.

The current number of supported languages is limited depending on which of the three experiments you try out, but includes Chinese, French, Spanish, German, English, Portuguese, and Russian. You can also select particular dialects for some languages, such as Austrian for German or Argentinian for Spanish, which is helpful for further localization.

You can try out the Little Language Lessons on Google Labs, though Google warns users that this is an early-stage experiment and, as content generated by AI, they should check any information with reliable sources.

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