Write Songs, Poems, and Stories in Your Target Language – With a Little Help from AI
Most language practice asks you to absorb someone else’s material: a textbook dialogue, a graded reader, a worksheet. Our members at the AI Language Club are doing something different. They’re using AI to write the material themselves – songs, poems, stories – and learning the language in the process of making something.
Here’s how creativity is showing up in their practice:
They Are Turning Favorite Poems Into Study Material
What this does: Takes a poem or song lyrics you already love and uses it to build vocabulary lists, translations, or cultural context around it, so the studying grows out of something you picked for yourself.
Turn a favorite poem into engaging, personalized language study material.
What members say: One member said they had fun using AI to explore Norwegian – including using ChatGPT to build vocabulary lists from Norwegian poems written in the 1800s.
They Are Writing Original Songs in Their Target Language
What this does: Has AI co-write actual song lyrics with you in your target language, then turns them into real music with Suno, an AI songwriting tool. We call this The Songwriter, with a step-by-step tutorial in 2 parts that show you how to use Suno.
Co-write lyrics in your target language and turn them into a real song with Suno.
What members say: We hear it constantly – people don’t want another app drilling them through the same flashcards. One member’s stated goal was simply to learn a language in an untraditional way. Writing a song you can actually listen to back is about as untraditional as language practice gets. Besides, it’s no news that music is an inspiration for language learning: AILC co-founder Kerstin Cable has talked about learning English herself by translating the lyrics of the British band Pulp.
They Are Co-Writing Stories With AI
What this does: You give AI a starting point in your target language, then build it out together, line by line, at your level. We call this The Co-Author.
Build a story with AI, one line at a time, at your language level.
What members say: Co-writing is exciting. One member mentioned she’d already been using ChatGPT on her own, before joining the club, to compose and rephrase simple stories in her target language. Another, after working through a grammar exercise on Japanese conditionals, commented that she was looking forward to asking ChatGPT for “a story” next – using the same chatbot conversation as a launchpad into something more creative.
They Are Creating Original Videos in Their Target Language
What this does: Uses Invideo, an AI video tool, to generate a short video about any topic you choose, in your target language, at your level — complete with subtitles. You can go further and turn a script (written by you or by ChatGPT) into a full dialogue video, specifying genders, accents, and length. We call this The Video Artist.
Create level-appropriate AI videos in your target language, complete with subtitles.
What members say: We haven't gathered feedback on this one yet, but Josh Goldsmith, one of AILC’s co-founders — calls it his new favorite tool for creating videos in a foreign language at your level. He made two sample videos to show what's possible: an A1 German dialogue at a market, and a C1 French explainer on the history of the Eiffel Tower.
Open Up Creative Fun In Any Language
None of this starts from a blank page in the way creative writing usually does. AI handles the parts that intimidate people most – actually getting words on the page – but the final work is still yours.
It’s also a different kind of practice than drilling vocabulary or running through verb tables. You’re producing something in the language, not just consuming it, and that tends to make the words stick in a way passive review doesn’t.
Try These Creative AI Prompts for Language Learners
Open up your AI chatbot of choice and try one of these:
In ChatGPT or Gemini, paste in a poem in your target language and try: “Build me a vocabulary list from this poem, with translations and a short note on any cultural references I might be missing.”
In ChatGPT, try: “Write four lines of a song with me in [language] about something happening in my life right now. Keep the vocabulary at a [your level] level.” Once you like the lines, paste them into Suno to hear them as an actual track.
Start a story with one sentence in your target language, then ask ChatGPT to add the next line. Keep going back and forth for ten exchanges and see where it ends up.
Head over to Invideo, create a free account, and try: “Create a 2-minute video about [topic] in [language]. Use [level]-level expressions.” Add subtitles once it generates, then watch it back.
Try creative AI prompts to practise vocabulary, songwriting, storytelling, and video creation.
Need More Inspiration?
For more ideas on injecting creativity and play into your language learning with AI, join AI Language Club. Membership gets you a tutorial library full of techniques like these – including full walkthroughs of The Songwriter, The Songwriter (Part 2), The Poem Reader, The Literary Artist, The Co-Author, and The Video Artist – plus a community of language learners sharing what they’re making.