[321] AI in Everyday Conversations: How to Practice English with Your Phone
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Hey guys, you're listening to the English Made Simple show. This is episode number 321, number 321, numero 321.

Hey, amigos y amigas, you are tuning in to the English Made Simple show. And as always, I'm your host, Milena. Welcome back, amigos y amigas. Welcome back to today's show. In today's episode, we're going to explore a really cool and easy way to practice your English every day. And guess what? It's right in your pocket. We've talked about AI before in the last episode and how it is helping us in various ways to

Today, we're taking a step further and talking about how you can use your phone's AI, virtual assistants.

to practice English. So your phone has an AI virtual assistant and you can use that to practice English. If you've got a phone with a virtual assistant like Google Assistant, Siri, or even Amazon Alexa, you're sitting on a goldmine of opportunities to practice English.

Now, this may sound a bit scary, a bit techy, but don't worry, amigos. It will be easy peasy Japanese, I promise. You know what else is easy peasy? Practicing English every single day using the phone you already carry around with you. Seriously, amigos, it's like having an English tutor in your pocket.

Now, I know many of you are always looking for new ways to practice speaking English, especially if you don't live in an English-speaking country. But did you know you can practice with AI virtual assistants on your phone? Well, these assistants are always ready to chat with you and respond in real time.

One thing I have to mention is I assume you have your AI assistance language settings set in English. That's probably the first step you should do if you want to practice English with a virtual assistant. Just, you know, just a heads up. Cool. Now let's proceed with today's episode. Let me show you how...

AI or artificial intelligence can help you learn everyday English phrases. So number one is talking to your virtual assistant on your smartphone. Let's start with the basics. So whether you're using Siri, Google Assistant or Alexa, I'm sure you're familiar with these names. These AI assistants are designed to respond to voice commands. And this is where the magic happens.

you can talk to them in English. You can have English language commands. These assistants are the most popular. I'm sure they're called the same names in your local language, like Siri and Alexa. They're maybe universal names that are available everywhere in your country as well. So just think about it. How often do you have conversations in English outside of your language class?

So if you're taking language class or English lessons now, attending physical classes, face-to-face classes, in-person classes, well, how often do you have conversations outside of that class in English? Wouldn't it be nice to have a tool that never tires of chatting, doesn't judge your mistakes and is available 24-7? Well, that's what AI assistants do.

Let me share some examples now so you know what I'm talking about here. Here's a simple example for you. You can ask your assistant something like, Hey Siri, what's the weather like today? Or, Hey Google, can you set a timer for 10 minutes? These may sound like small interactions, but they're excellent opportunities to get comfortable using conversational English. The assistant understands your accent and gives you immediate feedback in the form of a response.

And the best part is you won't feel shy about making mistakes because you're just talking to your phone, okay? Let's see, what else can you do with your AI virtual assistant? Practicing questions and answers. Another fun way to practice English is by asking questions to your assistant and listening to the responses. This is especially useful for practicing question formation. If you're not sure how to ask questions, you can practice with your assistant.

So here are some examples for you to try. Hey, Alexa, what time is it in London right now? Hey, Siri, can you tell me a joke? That will be an interesting one because I'm sure AI doesn't really have sense of humor. I tried to get some jokes going with the artificial intelligence, but I just didn't find them that funny. So you can still ask this AI assistant to tell you a joke if you want.

to make it a little bit of, you know, make it a little bit interesting. So each of these questions helps you practice how to form questions in English. You can also ask your assistant, hey, what type of questions do you want me to ask you? I don't know what to ask you, Siri. What should I ask you? Just test it out with the assistant if you're unsure what type of questions to ask.

So you can use these interactions to not only practice speaking, but also improve your listening skills as you hear the responses. So it's important for you to also listen to those responses and see if you understand them. What else can we do with this smartphone and AI assistance? Well, as a point number three,

So you can use AI for daily tasks. Now let's talk about how you can use virtual assistants in your everyday tasks. This will give you constant practice without needing to carve out extra time for English lessons. So reminders, you can say, hey Google, remind me to buy milk at 5 p.m.

timers and alarms. You can use it for those things. And you can say, hey, Siri, set an alarm for 7 a.m. tomorrow. So you can give it an instruction. Searching for information, you can use it for that. You can say, you can ask Alexa, what's the capital of France? Where is France? How long will it take me to get there from where I am?

So in each of these examples, you're practicing real world English, which is the best kind of practice because it's practical and immediate. Okay. Now I haven't tried this with my assistants, but I've seen this was very common like in modern movies nowadays. Almost every movie has something about, hey Siri, hey Alexa, and then a question or an instruction to the AI assistant.

Cool. So if you've tried this before, you know, let me know how did it go. And let's see number four. What have I got here? You can have fun conversations with AI. So another way to practice your English with these assistants is to have fun with it. Ask your virtual assistant random fun questions like, hey Siri, what's your favorite color? Hey Google, what's the meaning of life? Okay, that's a bit serious. It's a bit deep.

You'd be surprised how clever and witty the answers can be. It's a fun way to keep the language lighthearted and interesting and fun. So let's see what we've learned so far, some phrases and expressions. So let's take a moment to go over some useful phrases and expressions that I've mentioned here.

So I've mentioned something about real-time feedback, okay? Real-time feedback, this means you get an immediate response or a correction. For example, when you ask your assistant a question, it answers you right away. So it's real-time feedback. You don't have to wait forever for an answer.

Like sometimes when you talk to a person, they might not reply to you straight away, okay? But AI will. Now, voice commands. So we mentioned something like voice commands. You can have spoken instructions, okay? Voice command is a spoken instruction that you give to your virtual assistant.

Question formation. This is how we put words together to ask questions in English. This is how we formulate questions. For example, what's the time? Can you set a timer? So these are the questions. You can ask questions, you can give voice commands, etc.

And, you know, you can get answers in real time from these AI assistants. So it's almost like having a conversation. So these phrases are great to use when talking about technology and practicing your English at the same time. All right. I've got one more for you.

What you can do with these AI assistants, the assistants that are artificially intelligent, okay? So some AI-powered apps like Google Assistant even allow you to track how often you use voice commands or practice. You can make it a daily habit by saying, hey, Google, how many times did I use voice commands today? Okay, that's a bit, I don't know, it's a bit nerdy, I would say.

If you really, really want to know this, for example, I wouldn't want to know. But anyway, you can find a way to track progress with these AI assistants. But maybe this is a fun way to challenge yourself to interact more with your virtual assistant and practice your English daily. Now, let me give you a little bit of a background, my personal story. You know, it wasn't long ago when AI or artificial intelligence

Wasn't this advanced? Back when I first started podcasting, I used to type out my transcripts word for word. This was a long process. There wasn't any AI to transcribe or assist me automatically like there is now, for example. But here we are today. AI is helping with everything from translating languages to having conversations in our daily lives to

It's just incredible how quickly things have changed. And honestly, I think this is just the beginning. Imagine where we're going to be in a few years. Maybe virtual assistants will be having full-on conversations with us. Okay, maybe they're going to be able to tell us a joke. Let's see about that. I'm not sure if that's possible, but we'll see. As long as that's all they do, of course. I mean, we definitely don't want them to turn into Terminators.

Everybody's seen those movies, okay? Funny enough, every time I say artificial intelligence, I can't help but think of the Terminator movies. Right, let's get that out of our heads. Alrighty, let's leave it on a positive note, amigos. So there you have it, amigos y amigos. Your phone isn't just for scrolling through social media. It's your personal English tutor ready and waiting in your pocket.

Imagine where you could be a month from now, feeling more confident, speaking more fluently, just by practicing a few minutes every day. And remember, every little bit helps from asking Siri about the weather to having fun conversations with Alexa.

The key is consistency like with anything else and you've got everything you need to start today. Just take your phone, keep practicing, stay curious and I'll be right here to guide you on your journey. All making sense so far amigos? I wonder if you have tried using it. Please let me know what did you think of it? What was the experience like?

Now, before we wrap up, amigos, today, before we wrap up, don't forget to download my free guide to spelling your name clearly in English. Go to englishmeetsimple.net, spell my name to get the guide. Well, that's it for today. Hope you learned a few fun and easy ways to practice English every day simply by using your phone. Seriously, guys, AI virtual assistants could be a fantastic way to improve your conversational skills without the pressure, okay?

And if you'd like to support the show or get transcripts to this show, head over to englishmadesimple.net slash transcripts. You can download all the transcripts in one convenient place at englishmadesimple.net slash transcripts. And it really means a lot to me. Your support helps me continue creating more content for you to enjoy and learn from. If you can't contribute right now, no worries.

Please share this episode with your friends and enemies and your virtual assistants. Keep practicing, amigos y amigas. Stay cool and keep in touch. Until next time, hasta la próxima.