Gemini Live is giving me the confidence to speak my second language

Recently when testing out Gemini’s ability to recognize different accents and languages, I realized that the AI tool’s Live mode actually understands my second language: Afrikaans. This lead to me having a conversation about different topics in the language and I realized that the chatbot could actually coach me and help me practice.

As a result, I was able to learn new words, discuss topics I lacked the proficiency for, and ask questions about specific meanings. It has become the perfect partner to help me become more comfortable speaking the language.

Afrikaans has always been a part of my life — it’s my father’s first language, my parents use it to speak to each other, and certain members of my family spoke nothing else when I was growing up. But early on, I decided I didn’t want to speak it. This was a result of teasing from certain people due to my English accent.

Despite not speaking the language, I picked up a considerable amount from hearing my parents. But my comprehension was always better than my spoken skills. I compromised when I was older and accepted requests from my grandmother to speak Afrikaans with her. By then, I realized how anxious speaking it made me. I didn’t know certain words, jumbled up grammar, and was always conscious about my accent. It was no longer a case of being too stubborn to speak it, but too nervous.

When I moved away from home, my fluency declined further. I forgot a lot of what I learned in school and that anxiety about speaking Afrikaans only increased. It became the norm that I would only respond in English if someone spoke to me in Afrikaans. I tried out a few language learning apps that supported the language, but often found that the vocabulary was outdated.

More recently though, I’ve been playing Ark: Survival Evolved on a local server that has a lot of Afrikaans players. One of my friends, after discovering I knew Afrikaans, asked me to occasionally have conversations in the language since he felt more comfortable expressing himself in it. It felt good to practice the language, but at the same time, I often became flustered and overwhelmed, making it rather stressful.

While speaking with my friend was the most I’d used Afrikaans in years, grappling with my lack of fluency and anxiety was difficult. However, I noticed that when I was testing out Gemini Live, that anxiety disappeared. The only time I felt this relaxed using Afrikaans was when using nicknames for my cats.

In general, social interactions are already difficult for me because I’m autistic. Even in English, I’m doing a lot of extra processing to try figure out when a person is joking or being sarcastic and what their mood might be. When speaking in a language I’m not fully fluent in, it becomes difficult to manage all that anxiety plus the extra processing I need to do to remember sentence structure and vocabulary.

When I use Gemini Live, that anxiety vanishes. I can also frequently interrupt the AI to ask it about specific words or correct it when it has misheard me. I can focus on the language and not the rules of a social interaction.

One thing that also surprised me is Gemini Live’s ability to understand me even when I switch between English and Afrikaans. Occasionally it misunderstands something I’m asking, but if I substitute in English words for vocabulary I don’t know, it gets what I’m saying.

Another benefit of using Gemini Live is that I have captions enabled, which makes it easier for me to follow the conversation. This is particularly useful when I ask what the Afrikaans word for something is.

So are there any drawbacks to using Gemini Live to practice my second language? There are some minor downsides, but not enough to make me stop using it as my preferred way to practice.

First off, its spoken fluency is limited. It gets the words right in terms of spelling, but doesn’t pronounce them correctly. In fact, some of the pronunciations sound more like Dutch or German. Since I usually have the volume of my phone turned down, I actually prefer using the captions, so this weakness doesn’t bother me much.

Afrikaans is also not included in the language settings for Gemini, which means that I can only speak it while using Gemini Live specifically. Voice typing Gemini prompts do not work in Afrikaans, though written prompts work.

Finally, while I don’t have to filter myself around Gemini, the AI has certain guardrails in place that you’ll find across most generative AI chatbots. For example, Gemini can’t discuss swear words. When I asked it to discuss the other meanings for the Afrikaans word for “nail”, it responded with: “I am not comfortable talking about that meaning. It’s a vulgar word that could be offensive”.

Luckily I understand most Afrikaans swear words, but it would be an issue if I heard a word and Gemini only gave me the non-offensive definition. I had to specifically ask if the word had any other meanings before it mentioned that it can also be used offensively. It’s inconsistent in this particular area though, as it was able to identify that the Afrikaans word for “box” can be used offensively when I first asked what it means.

All-in-all, Gemini Live is actually a great way to practice a second language, especially if you get anxious when speaking with other people. It provides a low-stakes environment where you can interrupt, ask questions, and swap in words. If you need a place you can practice a language, I’d suggest giving Gemini Live a try.