Thread

1. jeanbza · 1789506854 · focus · HN ↗

   My first language is Afrikaans, which is a somewhat niche language and hard to find teachers/conversation buddies outside South Africa. (I live in USA now)

   I've been using Gemini to live chat in Afrikaans and do impromptu Afrikaans grammar lessons during my solo drives around town. It is phenomenal at speaking the language - like, it really shocks my family members when they hear it.

   This is probably the most joy I get from any of my usages of LLMs/AIs. It's been really, really nice getting to speak my language regularly again. =)

   So, I'm excited about this release and live chat getting better. I also hope the other frontier labs pick up niche languages like this as well so that I have more options.

   1. 3stacks · 1789513067 · focus · HN ↗

      My father-in-law was saying the same thing about Gemini 12 months ago regarding the Afrikaans speech. I've tried a few of them in my studies but none of them could seem to switch between English/Afrikaans except Gemini. It's an interesting time to be a language learner

      As jy wil, ons kan saam praat op Discord :) maar my Afrikaans is sleg

      1. FranzFerdiNaN · 1789544732 · focus · HN ↗

         As a Dutch person i find Afrikaans always interesting whenever i happen to encounter it in the wild. As if a common ancestor took a very different evolutionary path.

         1. 3stacks · 1789602575 · focus · HN ↗

            It's fascinating to look up the etymology of words and see how it looks in Dutch. I find Afrikaans to be much closer to English than Dutch or German (which I previously learned). Do you find Afrikaans comprehensible?

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