How To Prep for a Foreign Language Conversation in 5 Minutes Using ChatGPT
Note: This blog post is based on The Conversation Prepper, a popular AI Language Club activity. Join the club for a video demo and access to 50+ other AI language learning ideas.
¿Qué hiciste el fin de semana?
Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash
You met up with your childhood friend who now lives in a different country.
You had brunch at a café you’d been dying to go to in a fancy part of town – and ordered the Eggs Benedict, which tasted amazing.
You also checked out a crafts fair, saw a band, and had lunch with your mom.
But when your tutor or language partner asks, your mind goes blank.
“¿Fui a la playa con mi amigo?” is all you can come up with.
Because you didn’t prepare.
Preparing is key to having better conversations in a foreign language. It gives you a sense of direction and the vocabulary to get there, boosting your confidence and making speaking practice less awkward.
The good news? You don’t need to spend hours researching the right words and phrases. With ChatGPT, prepping for your next conversation is simple – all you need is five minutes and the prompts below.
Choose a Topic or Scenario.
Decide what you want to talk about. The topic could be something simple, like what you did during the week or weekend, or something more complex, like the cultural differences between your country and your partner’s.
You can also discuss a movie, a book, or a recent event.
Or, you could role-play a particular scenario, like introducing yourself to new coworkers or ordering brunch at a café.
Whatever you choose, make sure it feels relevant and interesting – that will help make your practice easier and more enjoyable.
Ask for Conversation Starters.
Once you've chosen your topic, let ChatGPT know what it is, along with your target language and skill level. Then ask for conversation starters – questions to initiate and expand the conversation – using this prompt:
"I’m learning [LANGUAGE] at a [LEVEL] level and preparing for a conversation with my tutor. I'd love to talk about [TOPIC]. Can you suggest some conversation starters?"
ChatGPT will generate a long list of questions, which may include translations or be grouped into categories, like “basic” and “expanding the conversation.”
You can use them to both “interview” your partner and prepare to answer similar questions yourself.
💡 Tip: Pick just four or five – too many might feel overwhelming for both you and your partner.
Ask for Key Vocabulary.
Next, it’s time to gather words that will be useful for your conversation – whether to pepper throughout your responses or recognize them in your partner’s speech.
To get a list of vocabulary that’s relevant to your topic, try this prompt:
“Give me 10 relevant vocabulary terms in [LANGUAGE] at the [LEVEL] level.” (Note: ChatGPT understands CEFR levels, so you can use A1, A2, and so on.)
For context, you can ask for a collocation – a sample phrase that shows how the word usually appears in conversation:
“Give me 10 relevant vocabulary terms along with a collocation for each.”
💡 Tip: To make the information easier to read, ask ChatGPT to format it as a table – then, copy and paste it into a document or spreadsheet.
Get Sample Responses.
Now, revisit your list of questions and ask ChatGPT to answer the first five. This will help you gain ideas and vocabulary to better express yourself when discussing the topic.
To keep things simple, set a word limit. Try this prompt:
"Repeat the first five questions from the list above and give me a 20-word sample answer."
You’ll get a basic conversation script that you can practice reading out loud – whether to respond more confidently to your partner’s questions or understand their responses better.
Simple Prep for Smoother Conversations
Talking to a native speaker can be intimidating, but just five minutes of preparation using ChatGPT can help you improve your confidence and express yourself better.
At AI Language Club, you’ll find a video tutorial on how to use ChatGPT for conversation prep – and 50+ ways to leverage AI for language learning. Join for just $9/month.
