a language by passively turning pages in a textbook.
You actually progress when the language talks again to you.
While you see pictures, hear actual sentences, attempt to converse, and get suggestions, all the things lastly clicks in your head.
Previously, you wanted a trainer by your aspect always to get that type of suggestions.
As we speak, generative AI can play that position in your telephone or pc, like an AI language tutor you should utilize any time.
After I began studying Mandarin ten years in the past, I noticed many foreigners struggling to be understood by locals in on a regular basis conversations due to poor pronunciation.
It satisfied me that with out good pronunciation, a wealthy vocabulary is ineffective.
I nonetheless keep in mind sitting in my condo in Shanghai, repeating the identical sentence many times, with out anybody to right me.
Years later, after I found generative AI, I remembered the engineer in China who was battling grammar books and tones.
I wished to construct instruments that might have helped me previously.
As a startup founder, I wouldn’t have a lot free time, so I wanted a strategy to construct and check new instruments shortly.
That’s the reason I turned to n8n to construct assistants that might have made my Chinese language observe a lot simpler.
On this article, I’ll present how I take advantage of n8n and multimodal AI to construct a “research companions” for language studying that:
- Right my pronunciation utilizing Textual content-to-speech capabilities
- Create workout routines to check vocabulary lists
- Generate pictures as an instance phrases or contexts for flash-card type observe
Collectively, they present how AI and low-code platforms like n8n can help anybody studying a posh language.
Even with day by day utilization, all of those collectively price lower than 1 euro monthly.
AI For Pronunciation And Oral Comprehension
My title is Samir, a provide chain skilled who struggled with Mandarin throughout his six-year keep in China.
Let me introduce you to Yin, the AI-powered Language coach I developed final week.
This can be a internet software I designed to help my Chinese language studying journey after greater than 5 years with out practising.
It consists of three options:
- Pronunciation Workout routines
- A number of Alternative Questions (MCQ)
- Flash Playing cards
I’ll use every function to reveal how I take advantage of multimodal AI to enhance my studying comprehension, listening, and pronunciation in Mandarin.
Why is pronunciation in Mandarin so Essential?
Let me share an actual story from China to focus on the significance of utilizing the right tone in Mandarin.
At some point, I used to be invited to a job interview on the largest Chinese language specific firm, valued at billions.
The complete dialog was in Chinese language.
I had fastidiously ready my sentences, highlighting how I used knowledge science to enhance warehouse operations.
At one level, I wished to say: “I take advantage of knowledge science to enhance choosing productiveness within the warehouse.”
The verb “choosing” means taking items from cabinets or racks in a warehouse.
In Chinese language, my colleagues used the verb 拣货 (jiǎn huò) to explain this course of.
However as a substitute of claiming jiǎn huò, I mentioned jiàn huò.
Which is a very totally different phrase that you just undoubtedly don’t wish to use in a job interview.
To maintain it well mannered right here, let’s say jiàn huò is a impolite phrase.
The supervisor burst out laughing.
I didn’t perceive why till I debriefed with the headhunter later and repeated the sentence for her.
That second taught me that pronunciation in Chinese language isn’t nearly sounding pure.
You’ll be able to know 1000’s of phrases, but when your tone is incorrect, individuals received’t perceive you.
This is the reason the primary function of my app is an AI pronunciation coach.
Utilizing Speech-to-Textual content Recognition to Practise
Utilizing speech-to-text and reasoning, the app listens to what I say, compares it with the goal sentence, and provides suggestions on which tones or syllables have been off.
The main focus right here is on bettering my pronunciation of logistics and provide chain phrases (my discipline of experience).
For every phrase, now we have:
- The phrase in Simplified Mandarin Characters: 合同
- The sentence used to practise my pronunciation: 我们需要在发货前签署这份运输合同。
- The English translation: We have to signal this transport contract earlier than transport the products.
For newcomers, we will even add phonetics (Mandarin pinyin) utilizing the toggle.
The best way to observe pronunciation?
I simply need to press the mic button on the backside to document my sentence.
The recording is routinely despatched to the backend for evaluation that compares my pronunciation with the right one.
A number of seconds later, I obtained my suggestions.
The suggestions is kind of detailed; it focuses on the phrases that you just mispronounced.
It’s almost like having a private trainer correcting me in actual time, besides this one by no means will get drained.
After all, this received’t change a fantastic trainer in a one-on-one lesson, however it could allow you to to practise after courses.
After I began studying Mandarin, I used to spend evenings (after work) alone, repeating easy sentences to familiarise myself with the nuances of tones.
I didn’t have a suggestions loop on the time; this software would have been very useful.
How does it work?
Textual content-to-speech and reasoning capabilities of GenAI
The backend is an easy n8n workflow related to the frontend by way of a webhook.
The text-to-speech capabilities are used to transcribe the audio file despatched by the entrance finish into phonetics (pinyin).
The output of this Gemini audio transcription node consists of the phonetics:
[
{
"content": {
"parts": [
{
"text": "zuò pǐn huò zǒnggòng fàng zài èrshí ge tuōpán shàng.n"
}
],
"position": "mannequin"
},
"finishReason": "STOP",
"avgLogprobs": -0.16858814502584524
}
]This pinyin is then despatched to the AI node Pronounciation Evaluation together with the goal pronunciation.
On this instance, I mispronounced the penultimate phrase.
That is exactly what the agent talked about in his suggestions.
This reveals how we will use text-to-speech capabilities, mixed with the reasoning of generative AI fashions, to enhance our pronunciation.
This may be tailored to any language.
What about picture technology and speetch-to-text?
Generative AI for Content material Era
In case you observe the consumer interface of the appliance, you discover that every phrase has:
- An illustrative Picture
- A sentence for the context
- Audio transcription out there by way of the microphone icons
This content material is generated utilizing AI fashions to supply quite a lot of educating supplies for the second function: flashcards.
Textual content-to-Speech Options
A good way to practise pronunciation is to hear and repeat.
Due to this fact, earlier than recording my sentence, I can learn to pronounce the phrase utilizing this primary speech-to-text function.
For this, I take advantage of Google’s Textual content-to-Speech API as it’s fairly handy and free.
from gtts import gTTS
def generate_speech(textual content: str, lang: str):
filename = f"{uuid4().hex}.mp3"
filepath = f"./knowledge/gtts/{filename}"
tts = gTTS(textual content=textual content, lang=lang)
tts.save(filepath)With a few strains of code, you may generate the text-to-speech of any phrase utilizing the right language code.
That is precisely what I used within the software to generate flashcards that I introduced on In the direction of Information Science three years in the past.
The concept on the time was to enhance my listening comprehension by including audio to the flashcard solutions.
What about lengthy sentences?
The issue with Google Textual content-to-speech is the robotic voice.
Thankfully, now we have eleven labs.
The workflow above is related to the app by way of webhook.
The Eleven labs node that takes the output of the AI Agent Generate Instance to generate the audio model of the sentence.
The consumer can now hearken to the sentence pronounced “like” a local speaker.
What’s remaining? Questions and illustrations …
Instructing materials technology
As defined within the earlier part, the sentences are additionally generated utilizing AI.
The AI Agent node, powered by Gemini, takes the phrase to check as enter and makes use of the system immediate under to generate a sentence.
You're a Chinese language language tutor for professionals.
Given a Chinese language phrase, you MUST return a JSON object with EXACTLY these keys:
- "sentence": a brief Chinese language sentence utilizing the phrase in a enterprise or
daily-life context
- "pinyin": the pinyin of the total sentence
- "english": the English translation of the sentence
Return ONLY legitimate JSON. No explanations, no backticks, no additional textual content.
Instance:
{
"sentence": "我去仓库检查货物。",
"pinyin": "Wǒ qù cāngkù jiǎnchá huòwù.",
"english": "I am going to the warehouse to examine the products."
}That ensures a virtually infinite number of workout routines.
And the cherry on the cake is the picture generated with Gemini’s Nano Banana to assist us join a phrase to its context.
After studying 1000’s of Chinese language characters, I seen that pictures assist with memorising new phrases.
That is exactly what I take advantage of within the flashcards function.
The n8n backend offers to the front-end:
- The phrase in Chinese language that you just wish to study with pinyin and English translation
- An instance sentence and its translation generated by GPT
- An illustrative picture generated by Gemini
The entrance finish then manages the card-flipping mechanism.
If you wish to recreate this resolution tailor-made to your wants, I’ve shared a similar workflow on my GitHub.
Do you want multiple-choices questions? Gen AI can assist!
Generate Workout routines from a vocabulary record
For the final function, we generate multiple-choice inquiries to study the identical vocabulary record.
We ask Gemini to generate questions from the vocabulary record, utilizing multiple-choice choices with just one right reply.
[
{
"output": {
"question": "Which of the following is the correct Chinese translation for 'Variable Pricing'? Please answer with A, B, C, or D.",
"options": {
"A": "仓库",
"B": "可变定价",
"C": "卡车司机",
"D": "投标"
},
"correct": "B",
"right_feedback": "Great job! 可变定价 (kě biàn dìng jià) means Variable Pricing.",
"wrong_feedback": "Oops! The correct answer is B: 可变定价 (kě biàn dìng jià), which means Variable Pricing."
}
}
]The front-end makes use of this output to supply the questions with tailored suggestions.
The backend of this function is predicated on an n8n workflow that I additionally shared on my GitHub: AI-Powered Language Teacher using GPT.
Conclusion
I developed this app to experiment with how AI may improve my studying capabilities.
After almost 5 years with out talking Chinese language, this multimodal AI assistant has confirmed to be a fantastic assist.
The complete backend is constructed on n8n for fast prototyping and seamless integration.
You aren’t accustomed to n8n and wish to study?
I’ve an entire tutorial, designed for newcomers, on my YouTube channel that can information you from occasion creation to credential setup.
After this tutorial, it is possible for you to to make use of any of the workflows shared in my repository.
As I wouldn’t have time to decide to in-person Chinese language courses, I can have an assistant who will adapt to my schedule.
Can we do higher?
On the “roadmap” of this small aspect mission, I’ve:
- Including complicated grammar workout routines that might be completed orally (combining studying comprehension, grammar and pronunciation)
- Implementing a writing module that might right my calligraphy utilizing picture processing
Relying on my availability, I’ll intention to ship it by Q1 2026.
About Me
Let’s join on LinkedIn and Twitter; I’m a Provide Chain Engineer utilizing knowledge analytics to enhance logistics operations and cut back prices.
For consulting or recommendation on analytics and sustainable provide chain transformation, please contact me by way of Logigreen Consulting.
