Test: How Fast Can You Learn a Language With AI? — A 30-Day Experiment

Me, Latin, and ChatGPT

I decided: enough being a monolingual vegetable.
I want to speak Spanish. Or at least not panic at the word “gracias.”
And I chose the path of the lazy warrior: learning a language using neural networks.

No courses, no tutors, no boring textbooks. Just AI, enthusiasm, and passive aggression towards grammar.

Experiment Tools:

• ChatGPT + voice input (chatting like with a friend who has an accent)

• YouTube + auto-translate (who said “Spanish stand-up”?)

• Replika/Character AI — a virtual friend who never interrupts

• Anki + GPT — flashcards with memes and idioms like “I’m about to burst from anger and burritos”

Days 1–7: Motivation Like a New Fitness Routine

I asked ChatGPT:
— Como estas?
It replied:
— Estoy bien, ¿y tú?

And it was… beautiful.
Like the first days at the gym: you understand nothing, but you feel like a god of progress.
I was already imagining flirting with a barista in Madrid. Reality: googling the word “mug.”

Days 8–15: Paranoia, Verbs, and Collapse

The AI corrected me politely. Too politely.
— You meant to say “tener,” not “tomar.”

Thank you, Robot-Servant.
I learned 80 words, 10 expressions, and 0 ways to not sound like Google Translate with a hangover.

My brain started to resist.
I said “quiero dormir” — it heard “quiero morir.”
Can’t argue with that.

Days 16–23: I Kind of Understand, But Don’t Know How

The magic began.
I started to get the jokes. Not laugh — get them.
I read Spanish tweets and got annoyed at their spelling. That’s progress.
The AI wasn’t just translating anymore — it was teasing. I knew that “caliente” isn’t always “hot.” Sometimes it means “this is about to get awkward.”

Days 24–30: Euphoria and Awakening

I managed to speak with ChatGPT in Spanish for 15 minutes straight.
It didn’t even cry. Neither did I.
I still couldn’t hold a philosophical conversation, but I could order food, complain about life, and explain why I’m lonely.

And most importantly — I didn’t feel the effort.
AI turned studying into a conversation. And it worked.

What Actually Worked:

• Constant communication with a neural network — better than a weekly lesson with a teacher

• “Fail fast” principle — GPT doesn’t get offended, it teaches

• Micro-dialogues every day teach you more than “20 minutes of theory”

What Didn’t Work:

• AI won’t teach you to understand real people who talk fast and with an accent, as if their kitchen is on fire

• Without real-life speech, progress is virtual. Confidence ≠ fluency

• Sometimes GPT overestimates my level. The word “circunstancialmente” on day 12 — that’s a crime

Result:
🧠 +300 words
🗣 first conversation with a Spaniard without panicking
🤣 10 Spanish memes I actually understood
💀 0 desire to go back to the textbook
💌 1 virtual friend I now chat with in Spanglish

AI doesn’t teach you the language. It teaches you not to be afraid of the language. And that’s already half the battle.