Playing the game
How AI transformed my Spanish learning
When I was at school final exams determined pretty much all of my grades; a few short hours that would shape the course of our lives. Or, at least, that’s what our teachers liked to tell us. But there was the occasional subject which included coursework. English was one. So I wrote about Shakespeare. In those days we still wrote most things by hand, but my dad had just got a PC with a copy of DOS WordPerfect, so, after writing the first draft by hand, I typed it up.
Bizarrely we weren’t allowed to use the spell checker on the copy we submitted to the exam board. But we were allowed to spell check a different copy, write out a list of corrections and then manually apply them to the original copy. Yup. It made no sense. I guess the exam board didn’t understand technology. Anyway, I dutifully followed the rules, leaving a couple of minor mistakes in to add a touch of human authenticity.
I hadn’t wanted to write about Shakespeare. I’d originally written about the “Midwich Cuckoos”. But my teachers told me that Shakespeare, being better known, would get better marks. So I got to do the assignment twice.
On the positive side, the process taught me a useful lesson. Education is only partly about learning. Another critical part is playing the game. Knowing the hoops you have to jump through in order to achieve a particular end.
Exploring the world
In a few years’ time I plan to travel around South America. Conveniently, much of South America speaks Spanish (albeit slightly different variants). So I’m learning Spanish. And, unlike my school days when I was forced to learn French, this time I’m learning because I want to.
AI has transformed the learning experience. I’ve not had to wrestle with a dictionary once. I can build little web apps to teach me specific subjects (e.g. this Spanish verb tester). I’ve created multiple Spanish/ English stories. A Spanish podcast. Spanish dance songs (I’m currently listening to “Estaciones del Amor” - with lyrics created by Claude to help me learn about seasons in Spanish). I chat to ChatGPT every morning to practice my Spanish. I can ask endless questions about things I don’t understand. I can take pictures of books I’m reading and get Claude to confirm my translation. If you want to learn, AI will supercharge you.
In comparison, looking back I’m amazed I learnt as much French as I did. I never talked to anyone who was actually French. The only authentic French I heard was from an occasional cassette played in the classroom. I never went to France (every summer we went to Denmark - but you’d have to ask my parents why). This modern world is completely different. Learning is much easier.
Temptation
But what AI gives with one hand it takes away with the other. Learning is easier. But so is the temptation to cheat. I go to a weekly evening class. Each week we’re set homework. Quite a lot of homework. Which I invariably leave until the day before and complete in a mad panic. You think I’d know better - I’ve spent years preaching to my children the virtues of doing homework as soon as you get it. But, apparently I can’t follow my own advice.
Using Claude to review my homework is a no-brainer. It can check my answers and help me learn from my mistakes. But I feel the temptation. Claude could do all my homework in the blink of an eye. And well enough that I’d be able to bluff my way through the evening class. I’d have saved a couple of hours.
And there’s the rub. If you’re only doing the work because you’re being forced to jump through a hoop - and you have no interest in the subject, or remembering about it in the long run - then why not get AI to help?
In fact, if you’re being graded against other people, people who are all likely to be using AI then why wouldn’t you use it? An AI is likely to do better than the average human - so not using it puts you at a disadvantage. The playing field is distinctly tilted.
For me, getting AI to do my homework is only cheating myself. It’s not going to help me learn Spanish. But if I had just been told to scrap my essay on the Midwich Cuckoos and write one about Shakespeare, would I be tempted to use AI? Of course I would. To be honest, I’d have got AI to help me with the Midwich Cuckoos as well.
The problem
Forty years ago, students snuck around surreptitiously using spell checkers. Today they sneak around using AI, hoping not to be caught by one of the many tools which claim to be able to detect AI generated content.
They are in an impossible situation. They face the same temptations I do with my Spanish homework, but with much higher stakes. And instead of acknowledging this reality, the education establishment is pretending nothing has changed.
The old spell checker rules seem absurd to our modern minds. And, in time, so will our current approach to AI. Think of the effort being spent trying to detect cheating to preserve a system that is as much about hoop-jumping as about learning. So much effort focused on the wrong problem. Instead of trying to keep AI out of education, we need to embrace it. Work out how to redesign education around AI.
There are many things we could do. Personal AI tutors. Customized AI learning paths. The ability to learn the things we want to. The things we’re good at. The things that will be useful in later life. I’ve built some of these already for myself. But there’s plenty more I could build. More that a future AI tutor could build for me.
We also need to consider what skills we’re teaching humans. The calculator reduced the emphasis on teaching mental maths skills. The spell checker reduced the emphasis on spelling. AI reduces the need to remember facts. Or write essays. But it also requires new skills - how to glue pipelines together. How to brief and manage the tools.
And what of the human teacher? Do we still need them? I'd like to think so. The hard-won praise from a human is much more valuable than the voluminous praise current AI models drench me in. Because ultimately, I'm learning these skills so that I can interact with humans.