From time to time, I get motivated to reclaim the pseudo-conversational French status I had in college. I’ve tried just about every app and service, so I was intrigued when Google announced Little Language Lessons last year.
The trio of tools helps non-beginners become more conversational in over 20 languages, including French, Hindi, Arabic, and Portuguese.
They offer vocabulary and phrases for specific situations, like going wine tasting, letting you listen in on slang-filled conversations, and telling you the names of objects based on what your camera sees.
They’re still in the developmental stages but offer a glimpse of what a more personalized way to learn languages might look (and sound) like.
Tiny Lessons are targeted ways to learn what to say in different situations
Scuba divers, this one’s for you
Years ago on a work trip to Berlin, I Googled the word for “receipt” in German. Whatever answer I got back was not right, because the cashier gave me the most confused look.
Tiny Lessons are made for scenarios like this. What I should have said, according to the tool, was “Kann ich eine Quittung haben?” I think I asked for something closer to the exit.
Some of the situations where Tiny Lessons offer help include going to a concert, taking a taxi, going on a first date, and finding a lost passport.
The tool provides a list of words, phrases, and tips for each. For example, you’ll learn how to ask if a driver takes credit cards or the words for air tank. (It’s fun to say: “la bouteille de plongée.”)
You can tap the speaker button to hear pronunciation.
I tried a few other inputs, including buying a book and attending a wine tasting. The first came up empty for vocabulary and phrases but offered some basic tips about being polite.
For wine tasting, I learned many new ways to sound fancy in French: Ce vin est sec et fruité. (This wine is dry and fruity.)
The tip section explained why it was important to use “du” and “des” when talking about food and drink to indicate an unspecified amount. You want some cheese, not exactly three wedges, for example. It ties the advice to a few sentences related to wine tasting for context.
What would make this a truly powerful tool would be the ability to make it more personalized. For example, if it could provide words and phrases if you were looking for a book with themes or a style of writing similar to your favorite author. Or if you want to taste only dry white wines.
Slang Hang is far less formal than textbook French
Did you catch that note of snark?
“Bless your heart,” “smooth move, Ferguson,” and “he threw me under the bus” have cultural meanings that might all get lost in translation with new English speakers. The same is true when learning other languages.
Slang Hang presents different conversations loaded with phrases that require context clues.
When I tried the tool, it provided dialogue between two colleagues complaining about a performative corporate wellness initiative. The gist was that they would have preferred the company hire more employees instead of teaching them to mediate during their lunch break.
It was easy to see how a non-native French speaker would miss the difference between the coworkers’ use of “wellness,” “bien-paraitre” (to appear well), and “bien-être” (well-being). The first two are more shallow and concerned with outside perception than the last, according to Slang Hang.
You can listen to the conversation, read it, and have it translated. Tapping the underlined phrases gives both the literal and figurative meanings of idioms.
Be warned that the French speakers talk quickly.
Word Cam translates pictures into words
It tags everything in your photo
Little Language Lessons’ most fun tool is Word Cam. I like snapping photos around the house or at the grocery store to get an in-depth explanation, in French, of everyday items.
I knew how to say sunglasses in French, but Word Cam supplied the translations for frame and lenses, along with some descriptions of what I might ask for in a store, like stylish or modern.
Many of my attempts were pretty successful. I took a picture of my cup full of pens, and it identified and described the cup (la tasse), the pens (les stylos), and a unicorn topper (la licorne).
Sometimes the tool struggled when there were a lot of objects, like in a French poster I have depicting a lot of gems and minerals. Other times, I had to refresh a few times before the tool gave me the descriptions.
In the case of my sunglasses, I had to take a picture several times before it gave me the most basic description: lunettes de soleil. In other words, if I hadn’t known the words for sunglasses, I would have been very frustrated on my first few tries.
Still, it’s useful when there are a cluster of related objects, and I don’t want to look up each one individually.
The tool needs permission to use your camera, but Google says it doesn’t save user data.
Google’s Little Language Lessons are fun supplements when learning a lesson
Don’t ditch your Duolingo or Babel yet
Most of these tools are aimed at more advanced learners. They don’t break down the fundamentals of grammar the way other language apps do for beginners, and the pronunciations are very fast.
They’re also what Google calls early-stage experiments. Each time you open the site, you have to click a box to acknowledge that it uses generative AI and may not always be correct. So, use it with caution and double-check before you ask for a receipt.
