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204 points lil_csom | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.413s | source

I'm in my 4th year living in Denmark as an expat, and I finally decided it’s time to properly learn Danish. I do have a Danish girlfriend, after all. One way I’ve been practicing is by trying to text only in Danish, but I often find myself stuck. I start my message in Danish, then hit a wall because I don’t know a word or how to fit something naturally into the sentence.

Especially in those cases, I used to give up and translate the entire message from English, which kind of defeats the purpose and interrupts the learning process.

So I started prompting GPT. I’d write my message with wildcards or notes for the parts I didn’t know, and it would return a corrected version. That worked well, but reusing the prompt each time became tedious.

So I built a wrapper around it.

Now I can type in the target language, mark unclear parts with curly braces {like this}, and get an instant corrected version with explanations. I also added a history feature so I can review what I got wrong, and I plan to build more on that soon (eg. summary of areas or words to review).

This app is for language learners who want to practice writing without feeling insecure about mistakes or breaking their flow by switching to a translator.

I hope you find it useful!

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ljlolel ◴[] No.44572711[source]
First, I applaud you building something and encourage it.

Next, I want to say I don’t understand these llm “apps”. I tried this in ChatGPT with the minimal prompt (that you can keyboard shortcut) “fill in curly” and it gave me exactly the correct full sentence plus even better alternatives.

Why would I use a separate app?

In general why would I use any of these separate apps vs my included ChatGPT that I’ll have a button away with included unlimited subscription

replies(2): >>44572900 #>>44575231 #
1. bluerooibos ◴[] No.44575231[source]
I imagine once this app becomes more mature, it'll have more options and functionality around its specific use-case, and tailored UX.

ChatGPT just has a text input and output. They can't build ChatGPT to have the perfect UX for every single eventuality. TLDR - UX, convenience, and ease of use.

replies(1): >>44581821 #
2. ljlolel ◴[] No.44581821[source]
ChatGPT can literally build its UX on the fly