Langlearn

There is a particular failure mode that has bedeviled my project life for decades. I call it the “extra mile” problem. I build things because they solve a problem for me. Once I get a solution that works for my particular case, that itch has been scratched, and the remaining work — onboarding, explainers, error messages, edge cases, polish — is an extra mile of annoying minutiae that never seems as appealing to me as the next problem waiting to be solved. So I tend to move on without ever sharing the results with anyone else.

It’s a shameful, totally selfish habit, but fighting your own subconscious is a constant battle that you’re doomed to lose in the end anyway. So instead of fighting my own nature, I look for ways to trick it. And with FrankenTongues, I think I’ve finally done that.

But the epiphany required was so profound that it had to arrive in three parts.

I’ve come up with a fun way to practice written conversations in norsk—by taunting my AI practice partner.

If that sounds like fun, just step behind this curtain and I’ll show you the game.

Every language course I’ve ever taken began with how to have a simple conversation, but I don’t think I’ve ever been taught what to do when those conversations break down. And they do break down. All the time. Especially for beginners.

This post recaps a conversation I had with ChatGPT about what I think is a crucial - yet often missing - first lesson in language learning: How to keep conversations moving when the bottom falls out.

I call it The Rip-Cord Protocol.