Using LLMs to improve my Chinese

Source

I've been learning Chinese for almost 10 years now, but still make awkward-sounding sentences when I speak. A few months ago I thought "why not use LLMs to help me speak more naturally", and found that it does not take much prompting to get useful feedback. Here is a conversation with Claude 3.5 from a few months ago:

Prompt:

I am trying to improve my Chinese. I often say things in an unnatural way, even though no individual word is incorrect. I want you to critique my writing below. Please point out any grammar mistakes or phrases that would sound unnatural to a native Mandarin speaker. Please provide a critique sentence by sentence. If there are no issues then say so.

There were some places where I am not sure of my own translation, and put an English phrase in brackets. If my Chinese does not match the English please correct it. Example: 我走路狗(walk the dog). You should point out that I should say 遛狗.

我需要做一个很难的决定(need to make a hard decision)。我写文章，要对每年发表两本的杂志(want to submit to a magazine which publishes twice per year)。我差不多写完了一个文章，但是还没完成了(still not complete)。我可以很快写完，可是质量可能没那么好。我也可以拖延，几个月后提交。质量会好一点，但是我害怕如果给自己太多时间，写文章的时间增加了(~worry that if I give myself more time then writing the article will just take way longer)。我爱人不知道什么是最好的。

Response:

I'll analyze your Chinese writing sentence by sentence:

  1. 我需要做一个很难的决定

  2. This is grammatically correct but would sound more natural as 我需要做一个艰难的决定 or 我面临一个艰难的抉择

  3. 我写文章，要对每年发表两本的杂志

  4. The structure is unnatural. Better: 我想投稿到一本每年出版两期的杂志
  5. 投稿 is the standard term for submitting to a publication

  6. 期 is more appropriate than 本 for magazine issues

  7. 我差不多写完了一个文章，但是还没完成了

  8. Grammar error: Double completion marker (了...了)
  9. "还没完成" already implies negativity, so no 了 needed

  10. Better: 我的文章差不多写完了，但还没有完全完成

  11. 我可以很快写完，可是质量可能没那么好

  12. This is natural and correct

  13. 我也可以拖延，几个月后提交

  14. This is grammatically correct but could be more natural as: 我也可以延后几个月再提交

  15. 质量会好一点，但是我害怕如果给自己太多时间，写文章的时间增加了

  16. The structure is a bit unnatural
  17. Better: 质量可能会好一些，但我担心如果给自己太多时间，写作过程反而会拖得更长
  18. 写作过程 sounds more natural than 写文章的时间

  19. 担心 is more appropriate here than 害怕

  20. 我爱人不知道什么是最好的

  21. While grammatically correct, 我爱人 sounds slightly dated/formal
  22. More natural: 我老公/我丈夫/我妻子 (depending on spouse's gender) 也不知道怎么选择比较好

Overall, your Chinese is quite comprehensible, with only minor grammar issues. The main areas for improvement are word choice and making expressions sound more natural. You have a good grasp of basic sentence structure, but some phrases could be more idiomatic.

Overall this feedback is very good! I assume this will work well for other languages too.