Episode 15 - How to learn English with ChatGPT
2024-05-19 25 min
Description & Show Notes
In this episode, we talk about:
- 3 Top Uses of ChatGPT.
- Our practical experiences with ChatGPT in different languages so far.
- How ChatGPT helps correct mistakes and explains errors in your English.
- ChatGPT's limitations and potential as we see it.
- How ChatGPT compares with Deepl and Google Translate as a translating tool.
- Spotting a ChatGPT-generated text and its drawbacks, especially in recruiting & marketing.
- How to use ChatGPT for idea generation, vocabulary lists and document & book summaries
- The power of your prompts and how to get the best out of ChatGPT
Are you interested in finding out more practical examples and watching a few YouTube videos? Check out my Padlet for free: How to Master AI to boost your English (padlet.com)
In dieser Episode sprechen wir über:
In dieser Episode sprechen wir über:
- 3 wichtigsten Anwendungen von ChatGPT.
- Unsere praktischen Erfahrungen mit ChatGPT in verschiedenen Sprachen bisher.
- Wie ChatGPT hilft, Fehler zu korrigieren und Fehler in Ihrem Englisch zu erklären.
- Die Grenzen und das Potenzial von ChatGPT aus unserer Sicht.
- Wie sich ChatGPT im Vergleich zu Deepl und Google Translate als Übersetzungstool verhält.
- Das Erkennen von von ChatGPT generierten Texten und deren Nachteile, insbesondere im Recruiting und Marketing.
- Wie man ChatGPT zur Ideenfindung, zur Erstellung von Vokabellisten und zur Zusammenfassung von Dokumenten und Büchern nutzen kann.
- Die Kraft Ihrer Anfragen und wie Sie das Beste aus ChatGPT herausholen können.
Interessieren Sie sich für weitere praktische Beispiele und einiger YouTube-Videos zum diesem Thema anzuschauen? Schauen Sie sich mein Padlet kostenlos an: How to Master AI to boost your English (padlet.com)
Transcript
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, and welcome to the 3 English Experts.
I'm Birgit.
I'm Dave.
And I'm Rebecca.
And welcome to this episode.
3 English Experts is your English podcast to
help you speak better English and create a
positive and happy mindset for your English learning
journey.
So, hello and welcome to this episode where
we are going to talk about CHAT-GPT.
And we're going to discuss about it.
Everybody needs to look at it, look into
it, is it useful?
And of course, we're asking the same question.
We are exploring, we're discussing.
And Dave, I think, will start and has
asked CHAT-GPT an interesting question.
Absolutely.
Thanks a lot, Birgit.
Hello, everyone.
So yeah, I asked CHAT-GPT the question,
I would like to offer students a top
three ways CHAT-GPT can help me improve
my English.
And what would the answer be?
Okay.
So of course, CHAT-GPT starts off with
the certainly, and it gives us three possibilities.
So here we go.
The first one, I will just read out
the three and then we can talk about
each one individually, probably.
So the first one was conversational practice.
The second one was writing assistance.
And the third one was language learning resources.
Okay.
So maybe we can go back to the
conversational practice.
I then asked CHAT-GPT just to give
me an example.
And it gave me a fantastic example of,
for example, the user saying to CHAT-GPT,
how are you today?
CHAT-GPT said, yes, hello, I'm fine.
Thank you for asking.
How about you?
And then it gave a little conversation, talking
about things, about hobbies, this kind of thing.
Yeah.
So it does it.
Yeah.
I just, I actually tried this for the
first time today, and I did it in
Spanish and also in a bit of Japanese.
What I didn't know actually, though, when I
started was it only works on a phone,
right?
It only works on a mobile app, the
actual when you're speaking, not typing.
So I tried to do it online.
I don't know, correct me if I'm wrong,
Dave, but I tried to do it on
my PC.
And I was just, I was like, how
do I have a conversation with you?
And it just said, this version I can
only type, you can only type.
So it was only then that I realized
I had to download the app to my
phone.
So anybody who doesn't know that, that's what
you need to do.
But once I did that, it was super
easy to use.
You just press on the little headphones and
it just says start speaking.
And I said, could you please have a
conversation with me in Spanish?
Can we have a chat?
Of course, because it always says, of course,
and then, yeah, and then I had just
a sort of typical small talk, you know,
conversation with it and it corrected my pronunciation.
There was a couple of times I'd lost
the word.
So I said, you know, how do I
say this in Spanish?
And it gave me the word and it
was pretty good.
I enjoyed it.
Birgit, have you done that too?
Yes, today.
Also today, I tried it.
And the same experience on the mobile phone.
And I was surprised because I started a
conversation and made it ask me questions.
And it did.
Yeah.
And that was fantastic, I thought.
Very good.
The question I'm asking myself now, because I
didn't look into that, would that work on
different levels, no matter how good I speak,
no matter if I'm a real beginner?
Would it answer differently, Rebecca?
I'm not sure.
You see, when it started talking in Spanish,
it was speaking very, very quickly.
And I said to it a few times,
I'm still not a very good level.
Could you please slow down?
And it really didn't.
It said, OK, and then it carried on
at the same speed.
So I don't know.
And the questions it was asking me, I
mean, my Spanish is quite good.
And the questions it was asking me, I
was able to understand them.
I was thinking there's no way someone of
like A2 level would understand these questions.
So yeah, Birgit, I don't know.
So can you ask it and say, please
ask me questions A2 level?
Can you do that?
Of a lower level?
Yeah, you can.
Yeah, it is.
It is possible.
And I think that's part of the idea
with the prompts, that you try to do
that at the very beginning.
So you say, I'm at level A2, or
whatever level you're at, or less, or intermediate,
or beginner, or advanced, to keep it more
simple.
It's not perfect.
It's still relatively new.
So I'm sure with time, it will get
better.
But at the moment, it is possible.
But also, just to come back to the
point on the app, of course, you can
do it with the mobile.
But there is a way, if you want
to work on the computer and do it
on the computer, or your laptop, or whatever,
you can get a download for the computer.
So through the browser, that means that you
can actually hear ChatGPT speak to you, and
you can speak back to ChatGPT.
So it is possible.
It takes a bit of finding out, but
you can get one for the browser and
then install it within ChatGPT.
Okay, maybe that's the mistake I made.
I didn't say at the beginning what my
level was.
So maybe next time I will say, my
level is approximately this, can we have a
conversation?
And then it would be interesting to see,
does it adapt the questions to my level?
But yeah, it was fun.
Not bad.
Not bad.
Well, the second one was then the, oh,
what I could say about it actually is
also that it does correct you.
I think you also said that, didn't you,
Rebecca?
It does correct you.
It corrected my pronunciation.
And there was a couple of times I
used the wrong word, and it said, no,
it should be this.
Yes.
And I assume you could even put that
in the prompt as well, asking it to
pay attention, particularly on pronunciation and speed and
fluency.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Wow.
Because I said to it in my example,
when it went through the conversation, of course
I didn't hear it.
It was just written in the chat.
And that's another thing, isn't it, Rebecca?
You mentioned earlier that it saves the chat,
so you can always come back and read
over it again.
Yeah.
That was useful.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But it said if there are any corrections,
then it would normally tell you.
So for example, in the example, I said,
okay, make a mistake.
And it said, I enjoy play sport like
basketball.
And then ChatGPT corrected it.
So I enjoy playing sports with an S,
like basketball.
So it does correct you as well.
I did that too.
I made some mistakes on purpose to see
would it correct them.
And it did.
And it told me why it was wrong
and which tense it was that I'd used
by mistake.
Yeah.
And when I got it right, it was
really like, ooh, perfecto.
It was really nice.
It was actually being nice.
Ooh, perfecto.
So yeah, no, it definitely, the feedback thing
is really, is really helpful.
I think also you could, I think it's
the same on the app as well.
You can have different English or types of
English.
Certainly on the computer version, you can have
different kinds of, you can have American English,
you can have British English, you can have
Canadian, Australian.
On the app though, I could only see
that all the voices were American.
Oh really?
It gave you a choice of these voices.
They all had names like Sky and da,
da, da, da.
But they all sounded American.
So I don't know, maybe I didn't look
at the right place.
I don't know.
Well, as I said, on the one on
the computer, if you get this plugin through
the browser, then that's possible.
And also, for example, if you, another trick,
if you want to listen to different accents,
you can also go to a, I'll leave
it in the chat as well.
Oh, not in the chat, in the notes
later on.
It's, I think it's called naturalreader.com.
And there you can take, you know, copy
and paste any text and have it being
read out by a native speaker or of
any accent or whatever.
And so it reads it out so you
can start recognizing accents.
If you want, for example, let's say a
Liverpool accent, a Scouse accent or whatever, it
can do things like that on naturalreader.com.
I think it's called naturalreader, something like that.
But I'll leave the correct one.
Very amazing.
Wow.
Yeah.
Okay.
So the second point was, we had conversation
was first point.
The second point was?
Yeah, it was writing assistance, you know, so
proofreading.
So checking what you've written, whether it's essays,
emails, anything, basically.
And it will obviously tell you about your
grammar mistakes, suggesting alternative phrasing, vocabulary, et cetera,
et cetera.
So I've done that in many different situations
and it works brilliantly.
The only thing I've been doing recently is
trying to get emails at different sort of
levels of formality from, you know, sort of
very formal, sort of in the middle, sort
of easier English, and then also very informal
emails.
And that's sometimes a little bit tricky.
It's not quite got that.
But it still gives you an idea of
the differences between the three, but it's not
perfect at that for sure.
But not bad.
Birgit?
And have you tried to compare?
I mean, we can use Lingui or Deeple
or Google to compare the result of a
translation.
I mean, I need to do that, but
I haven't done.
To compare a text, put something in and
then compare how it comes out of Google,
Deeple, ChatGPT, I have no idea.
I mean, I haven't done that specifically.
I think from as far as translating goes,
Deeple is probably the better one still.
I would say so, yeah.
Google, I wouldn't bother too much with.
No.
But ChatGPT can do it as well.
The other thing, the good thing is about
ChatGPT, and I've done this the other way
around in German.
So I've written emails in German and then
just asked ChatGPT to make it sound more
natural German.
Natural German.
That's quite important.
And that works.
And it works.
That's a good idea.
I look at it and I think, OK,
yeah, that sounds more natural than my German.
Yeah.
So it works with things like that for
sure.
Yeah.
I think that's helpful.
I think my only critical point of the
writing thing is, you know, people ask it
to create a text.
So they give it some basic data.
I want this text to include this, this
and this.
So I had a client recently, they were
writing reports and they'd asked ChatGPT to write
these reports for them in English.
And I have to say, I don't like
that.
I don't like the results that come out.
I have to say, I've seen a lot
of them now.
And I know immediately within this second or
third sentence, this is ChatGPT.
It's not, you didn't write this.
And that's not because I know that their
level of English is not as good as
ChatGPT.
It's the way it writes.
For example, I find it repeats itself.
So it says the same thing in a
slightly different way in two or three sentences,
one after the other, which is like, why
have you done that?
Why have you told me the same thing
in three different sentences, just using slightly different
words?
And I find that very noticeable.
And I'm sure I'm not the only person
who's noticed that.
So I would just say to people, be
really careful when you use it for creative
writing and you're trying to sell it as
your own.
Maybe it's a job application, maybe it's a
report.
Be very careful because people are learning very
quickly what it sounds like.
And it has to me in a lot
of cases.
And maybe if you're really good at using
it and you know how to prompt it
better, you can avoid that.
But I found that I've read a few
texts recently and I thought, this is not
real.
This is ChatGPT.
Yes.
And I think this is a discussion that
started on LinkedIn, I think, in these forums
that we now have comments or even posts
that people write with the help of ChatGPT.
I don't know what the percentage is, but
it's rising.
And I think you have two parties now.
People like it or they don't.
And some people use it and others wouldn't.
And this is a development.
Interesting.
And that's exactly what you say.
People can notice, I guess.
I wouldn't do that.
Honestly, I wouldn't post something written by ChatGPT
on LinkedIn because I want to bring in
my own content.
But I believe there's a big crowd out
there who does more and more.
It saves time.
You know, of course, if you're posting masses
of content and you need to post a
lot, it does.
You know, AI can be really helpful in
creating things.
But I think my caution would be, especially
I do a lot.
That's one of what I do a lot
with my clients is job interview training and
CV writing and things like that.
And so many times someone said, oh, I
asked ChatGPT to write my application letter.
I look at it.
It's amazing.
And then I read it and think, no,
it's not.
Because it's got 10 sentences saying exactly the
same thing.
And it's all very generic and no authenticity
whatsoever.
You could be the same as the person
next to you.
And when you're applying for a job, that's
not what you want.
Of course, you could write your own and
ask it to correct it potentially.
I think that's much better.
You know, when I meet my clients and
they say, oh, I need to I need
to write an application.
I would never say, oh, I can write
it for you.
Because, of course, I could.
No, we write it together.
We sit down together.
And so it's still their words and it's
their application.
And I just help them improve it and
make it sound better.
And to me, that's how you should use
ChatGPT.
Not just like, write me this, write me
that.
It's just lazy.
Ultimately, it's kind of lazy, I think.
Yeah.
I mean, I totally agree with that.
I think it's and I would always suggest
to people, use ChatGPT really as a tool
to give you ideas, maybe to brainstorm different
topics or, you know, or even, for example,
write something creative, but then not obviously use
it word for word, you know, take things
out, change things, try and be a little
bit creative with that.
But another thing that's quite good, I think,
with the also with the levels, we talked
about it before coming on, is this idea
that you can ask ChatGPT to write text
at different levels of English.
And I think that is really cool.
For example, you know, if you want to
improve your level of English to, let's say
you write something and it's a level A,
A1 or 2, A2, and you want it
to be a little bit more, yeah, higher,
upgrade your English and go on to maybe
intermediate English.
And then you would say, please rewrite this
as a B2 level text.
And I think then you can always see
the differences in the English.
You can see the difference in the vocabulary.
You can see the differences in the grammar
structures and how they're getting more and more
complicated.
So I think that is a really cool
tool just to, you know, get some idea
of the different levels as well and how
the words change, synonyms, all these things.
So you can learn a lot just from
that, actually, I think it's quite cool.
And I think that's absolutely, yeah, that's absolutely
the point.
You can learn from that.
Exactly.
And that's the point.
It's using it to learn, learning by doing,
you know, see, use it as a tool
to learn, not as in, I feel lazy
and I can't be bothered to write this,
so write it for me.
Because that, to me, is going down the
wrong, sorry, it's a bit like e-scooters.
It's like, why do we need e-scooters?
Quite honestly.
They're a nice idea.
It's fun.
It's fun.
It is fun.
ChatGPT is kind of fun.
It's a nice idea.
But it's, you know, I see people, they
get off the train and instead of walking
10 minutes, they get on an e-scooter
home.
And I think, do we really need that?
You know, I think we're already not moving
enough.
I don't think we need a tool that
makes us, and we're already not maybe thinking
enough.
So do we really need a tool that's
going to take over all these bodily functions?
I don't know if it's a good idea.
So stay critical.
I think that's a good idea anyway.
I don't think the world, I personally don't
think the world needs e-scooters.
Well, it's a totally different topic.
But I think this is the point.
Don't, don't, these tools should be fun.
Yeah.
Okay.
But they shouldn't make you lazy.
Don't.
Yeah.
Does that make sense?
Yeah.
But I think when you say fun, I
think, I mean, I haven't really played with
ChatGPT to the potential that you could.
Oh, you can do really fun things.
You can do some amazing things.
Yeah, you really can.
And like I said, I really enjoyed having
my little Spanish conversation today.
It was, it was fun.
It was only like 15 minutes, but it
was kind of entertaining.
Yeah.
And we're only learning now, learning to play
with it.
And I don't know where we will be
in half a year.
We might bring that subject up again and
see how far it will have come by
then.
Absolutely.
And maybe, yeah, we might have used it
more then.
So I think I asked this question before.
Has anybody had a learner who used it
already as a tool?
Well, because I haven't.
I haven't recommended it.
And I don't know specifically of anyone who
has.
Apart from, like I said, people writing reports
with it and things.
But I don't know anyone who's using it
really as a learning tool, Dave.
Yeah.
I mean, I try and explain the benefits
to my students for sure.
And I've shown them things like what I've
shown or talked about today.
And some people actually use it, especially for
the writing emails in English.
But again, it's this sort of laziness.
And so they've maybe just, you know, I
put it into German, asked it to translate
it into English and then sent it.
And then send it without.
Yeah.
And I say, well, you know, be careful
with that.
Because if you don't know what you're sending,
you know, it could backfire.
Yeah.
And also, I think culturally, it's also maybe
not always correct.
And I think there's a lot to be
said by, you know, I mean, it's very
good.
Don't get me wrong.
I think ChatGPT does a very good job.
Which, for example, it's better maybe than DeepL,
because DeepL literally translates, not word for word,
but it translates it in a more global
way.
Whereas I think ChatGPT would also consider cultural
things like how to write a certain phrase,
for example, at a certain level.
So I think maybe that's where ChatGPT is
slightly better than a translation like DeepL.
But still be careful.
Definitely.
I think culturally, the interesting point, I don't
know if many people know this.
One of my clients told me this.
I think Birgit noticed a while ago that
me and Dave always say, please, when we
talk to ChatGPT, we always say, could you
please?
Which is a bit of a British thing.
We're still being British, even though it's a
robot.
We go, could you please give me some
sentences?
We're polite.
We're nice to ChatGPT.
And one of my clients, he sent me
an article.
I could put the link in the show
notes.
He sent me this article that actually there
was a study from Stanford University, and they
studied what responses you got depending on how
polite you are to ChatGPT.
Really?
Yep.
And the more polite you are, the better
and the more accurate the results were.
Isn't that?
Wow.
Really?
Isn't that funny?
That's good news for everybody.
Yeah, it is.
And so I just thought that was hilarious.
And so I don't know why there was
some algorithm or whatever it's using, but the
more polite you are, it likes that.
It's nicer to you and it gives you
better results.
Like in real life, doesn't it?
Exactly.
Well, that's quite, I mean, that's amazing because
sometimes I catch myself writing, and then I
put in the word, please, and I think,
why am I writing please to a machine?
But it probably loves you, Dave, because you're
so polite.
It's like, oh, what a nice man.
Now I've heard that, I will be really
polite.
Could you possibly?
Such a nice guy.
I'm going to give him all my best
results because he's so nice.
Yes.
But I think if you were to upgrade
it, it would probably treat you even better.
If you paid, yes, I'm sure it would.
Absolutely.
No, but we talked about that before coming
on.
I think it would be interesting what the
difference is if you upgraded between the free
version.
We have the free version, right?
And if you upgraded, what the differences would
be in various aspects.
So that's something for another, a future episode.
Absolutely.
And our final point was, the point three
was?
Yeah, language learning resources.
I mean, you can ask ChatGPT what to
look at, where to look.
And maybe we can link this with our
next topic because in our next topic, I
can say that, can't I?
Yes.
We're going to talk a bit about football.
Yes.
And I have to talk about football in
English, so a little bit of fun.
We have three football fans here.
Did you know in ChatGPT, you could probably
get yourself a good list of vocab for
football?
Exactly.
That's really helpful.
Yeah, you can ask it for key vocabulary,
how to talk about football.
But now knowing this, you need to put
your resources into ChatGPT, don't you?
How can I get my book into there?
Exactly.
If your book's online, I think, I don't
know, because it does know books and it
can tell you.
That's a line from this book on page.
So I don't know how it does that.
But how do you put it online?
I mean, that's not a Kindle version, not
an e-reading book.
It's online.
You need to Google that, Birgit, get your
book.
Yes, I will.
Why Google it?
You've got ChatGPT.
Exactly.
Ask ChatGPT.
How do you find out about books?
I told you earlier, I had this book
and I asked it to give me a
book summary and it did.
You know, you just have to give in
the title of the book and if it
knows it, it gives you the summary.
Wow.
Absolutely incredible.
You need to tell ChatGPT about your book
if it doesn't know.
I will.
That's a good idea now.
Send it the text and then it will
know.
Yeah.
Can I ask another question?
Because that has come up this week in
my teaching classes or teaching with learners.
You know, of course, in German it's KI.
Yeah.
So when somebody who's sort of not too
advanced and not too trained in using this
as an English vocabulary, they might, and I've
heard that several times, they might translate it
to KI.
KI.
Yeah.
So you have heard that before.
I have.
And I find that very interesting that the
switch doesn't take place because everybody has heard
of AI too.
And somehow, why has the term stayed separate?
That's funny because when you say AI, they
know exactly what you're talking about.
It's not that they don't know that, but
I've heard that too.
They say KI.
Yeah.
Or KI.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think that's interesting maybe for some.
That's the same thing.
Definitely.
Yeah.
Okay.
So next time, as Dave mentioned, we are
going to talk about football, how to talk
about football, how to, different vocabulary.
I presume we're going to tell you about
the different teams that we support and why.
Yes.
Not today.
Complication.
Dave, do you have a German team?
I have.
I follow a specific German team and Birgit
does too.
Do you have a favorite German team?
Of course.
Of course.
Please don't say Bayern.
Then you're not invited to the round.
Then you're not invited.
So you do have a team.
Who likes Bayern?
I know.
I don't.
I'm just checking.
You like Liverpool.
So I don't know.
Who knows?
You know.
Everything is going to be fun.
You've just given away which is my team
for next week.
Next time.
Sorry.
No, I meant your German team though.
No, no.
Okay.
That's top secret.
Oh, that's top secret.
Okay.
I think I could guess maybe.
So hope you'll listen to us again next
time.
Take care and see you then.
See you then.
Bye.
Thanks for listening.
Thank you so much for pressing play today.
If you have any comments, questions, or perhaps
suggestions for future episodes, feel free to contact
us at our website 3englishexperts.com.
Have a great day and see you next
time.