How can Google Gemini be used to learn Chinese and does it outperform ChatGPT in any respect?
I’ve been using ChatGPT to study Chinese since the start of 2023 and had a great time exploring what it can do. So far I had no dealings with the competitor Google Gemini. I wondered: can it perform the same tasks even better or is Gemini more limited? What is the quality of interaction, the amusement level and can I speak back and forth with Gemini like I can with ChatGPT?
Learning Chinese with ChatGPT
You might be curious how an AI-chatbot can support Chinese learning, because it wasn’t originally designed to be an AI-language tutor, let alone teach Chinese. I’ve been using ChatGPT in a number of ways and these are the most important:
Chatting: I use ChatGPT as a conversation partner to chat about topics that interest me. In written or spoken form, complementary to reviewing flashcards or reading texts for example. This gets even better when I ask ChatGPT to play certain roles like behaving we’re at a Chinese police station to report a theft or whatever.
Text correction: I have ChatGPT correct my Chinese writings to write better texts.
Explain new vocabulary and generate examples: ChatGPT beats classic online dictionaries, because it can give endless examples and give targeted answers to your questions.
Generate short texts for reading practice: You cannot only dictate the plot, but also tell ChatGPT which vocabulary to use and create exercises or key vocabulary lists.
Language games: Just like ChatGPT can quiz you on film history it can test you on synonyms and antonyms for example.
Asking questions your teachers can’t answer: How long has this Chinese idiom been in use? Why is word X translated as …?
Translating and pinyin: feed it with Chinese text and it will produce translations that beat Google Translate and pinyin in the needed format.
In short, I use ChatGPT for various tasks, but mostly as a complementary tool to the more basic learning activities. Not because it’s the best thing to do, but because it’s instantly available, fast and fun to use. More recently, I’ve been also using the audio chat on the mobile app to practice speaking Chinese.
ChatGPT vs Gemini
At first sight, both LLMs don’t seem that different. The dark minimalist interface with the side menu and the chat area to enter your text. You can access Gemini using your Google account. Both ChatGPT and Gemini support the Chinese language.
My preliminary impression is that ChatGPT (still) gives the most comprehensive and satisfying answers, which best fit my actual intention. On the other hand, Gemini can add images from the internet to his answers, which makes processing information a little easier for us humans. Gemini can also refer to sources that actually exist. This makes checking information a lot easier. ChatGPT is known to – when in doubt – have a tendency to invent sources.
Learning Chinese with Gemini – here we go
1. Chatting & role playing
Chatting with Gemini in Chinese can be frustrating. In an ideal world, the chatbot would act like a good friend you can have some chitchat with. But far from it! Gemini tends to spout off paragraphs of text and then ask “do you want me to help you with this” or “do you want me to do this?” – which is friendly but also annoying. In other words, Gemini is being far too ‘helpful’ to have a spontaneous conversation with. And to be honest, I can’t read Chinese super fast, so it simply doesn’t work. In similar situations, ChatGPT – although far from perfect – seems to be better able to adapt to the user’s needs: react, rephrase your input and keep the conversation going.
When it comes to role playing, it’s pretty much the same story. Yes, the quality of the prompt is everything and maybe my intention wasn’t clear for Gemini, since it failed playing the role I suggested, even leaving blank spaces for me to fill in:
Although it’s not a complete failure, Gemini’s response lacked real-life authenticity. It didn’t get much better after some fine-tuning either, so both chatting & role playing in Chinese didn’t work out as planned.
2. Text correction
As for correcting texts: I got much better results. My little text was corrected and Gemini provided detailed explanations for the things that were changed, pretty much like ChatGPT does as well:
3. Explaining vocabulary + examples
Gemini also does a decent job at creating vocabulary lists and generating example sentences to illustrate how these words can be used. Providing definitions and context seems no big deal. In this case, I made the AI-tool write a short story first:
4. Writing short texts for reading practice
Gemini can generate short stories in Chinese for reading or listening practice. What’s interesting: I tested the same prompt in ChatGPT and it came up with a better, let’s say more creative and entertaining story than Gemini did. The short story you can read in the screenshot is rather shallow, lacks details and creativity:
5. Language games
Gemini also agrees to play simple language games like the one documented in the screenshot below. Again not super creative, but it works, sort of:
6. Asking questions your teachers can’t answer
One of the things I absolutely love about generative AI is the fact that no matter how complicated a question you get a well-structured and highly informative answer within seconds. These can be language, culture or history related questions as well of course. Like how does classical Chinese differ from modern Chinese in terms of grammar and syntax? In the example below I asked about Chinese expressions frequently used by Deng Xiaopeng. What I got were a number of words or quotes from Deng for which people still remember him today, but the list that ChatGPT provided was more extensive and covered different periods of his life.
7. Translating and pinyin
For generative AI providing decent translations and pinyin is no big deal. Gemini is no exception. This is way better than Google translate. Unlike ChatGPT, when translating longer texts, Gemini may ask for more context and details about the preferred writing style. I noticed on other occasions as well that Gemini has a tendency to be overly helpful.
Conclusion
So when it comes to learning Chinese use cases – can Gemini beat ChatGPT? In my experience, Gemini carries out most tasks in a satisfactory manner, however ChatGPT tends to do more often what I want it to do – without much hassle or questions asked. I’m not sure if others have had the same experience. Gemini lacks creativity, wants to be super helpful, but also seems to be careful, preferring to better understanding the user’s intention instead of producing a complete answer right away. And in other cases you get more output than you asked for. Gemini doesn’t seem very suitable for casual chatting and role playing with Chinese language learners.
Another serious difference is the audio. Gemini’s Chinese audio sounds awfully mechanic, unnatural and unpleasant compared to ChatGPT (which sound more human somehow). This is definitely another important reason for me to prefer ChatGPT as an AI language tutor for Chinese at the moment.
What are your experiences with AI-tools for language learning? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments down below!
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