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ChatGPT: AI and chatbots in plain English

Chat GPT has become the world’s fastest growing consumer app acquiring more than 100 million users in just 2 months since its launch. And, according to Perfectly Spoken’s global media partner Reuters, this is faster than even TikTok which took 9 months to reach that number or Instagram which took two and a half years.

 

But what is it?

In its description of itself, ChatGPT is ‘an AI-powered chatbot based on the GPT (Generative Pretrained Transformer) language model. It uses deep learning techniques to generate human-like responses to text inputs in a conversational manner.’
So, it’s a natural language processing tool that can create content, images and even code on demand via conversations with a chatbot.
And it’s a very powerful tool. It can take written inputs from users and then produce human-like responses in numerous different forms from jokes to advice, even to complete essays

 

Is it really so special?

Yes. Because it has the ability to produce human-like responses which come from the enormous amounts of data it has been trained to use.
And, experts believe that with use, the responses will become more and more human-like, something that computers haven’t been able to do until now.
Furthermore, it can take content that users have put in earlier messages in a conversation and use them to form responses later in the conversation!

 

And what is the competition doing?

ChatGPT has been developed by AI start up OpenAI which is backed by Microsoft. Microsoft has launched a version of its Teams messaging service with ChatGPT integration.

Other firms, like China’s Baidu, are quickly developing their own chatbots.
However, the biggest threat is to Google. Instead of using our favourite search engine to find answers, we could just ask ChatGPT. This is possibly why Google has launched its own competitor to ChatGPT, called Bard.

But experts still argue that ChatGPT not only has a first mover advantage in the market but will also benefit from the massive numbers of users it is gaining on a daily basis who will help to train the AI system.

 

Are there any concerns?

Concerns have been raised over potential abuses.

While hackers have begun testing it to write malicious code, in classrooms, students have used ChatGPT to generate entire essays. AI plagiarism is a new challenge and teachers are concerned that the tool could be sued by students to do their homework and undermine learning especially critical thinking and creativity which marks us out as humans. This has now led to a ban across all New York City public schools and many other schools across the US.

In response, a spokesperson for the company has said it is “already developing mitigations to help anyone identify text generated by that system”

 

Are there any drawbacks to ChatGPT?

Researchers say chatbots like ChatGPT have their limitations. They can provide responses that are simply factually inaccurate, fail to solve a maths problem and even invent names and book titles.
So while it can seem to provide realistic engaging content on nearly any topic, there’s no guarantee that that content is factually accurate.
This means AI is still yet to be able to understand or learn any intellectual task that a human being can.

 

A person using ChatGPT

What’s the future?

Unsurprisingly also has many fans of people who work in both the fields of education and artificial intelligence and believe that institutions will need to find ways to integrate chatbots like ChatGPT into their learning programmes rather than ban them – making them acceptable for some uses in the classroom just as we have accepted mobile phones and calculators

As an associate professor of Emory University is quoted as saying

“There’s always been this concern that technologies will do away with what people do best, and the reality is that people have had to learn how to use these technologies to enhance what they do best”

Clearly AI will have a role in shaping the future of education schools and everywhere

For now, perhaps the best advice comes from a university student who uses it to create a rough draft for many tasks and then adds the finishing touches himself.

Can I use ChatGPT to improve my English?

The short answer. Yes, most definitely. In the blogpost Learning English with ChatGPT we explore some of the ways students can use a chatbot on their own to help them improve their English and ta the same time look at some of the uses Perfectly Spoken can and will be incorporating chatbots to help offer an even better English language learning service to students!

ChatGPT access screen

In the meantime, to make progress with your English create a Free account and try our courses and live classes with our real expert teachers!

 

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The best Valentine’s Day phrases in English

Valentine’s Day, also called Saint Valentine’s Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine is celebrated on 14th February each year.

On this day people celebrate by sending messages of love and affection to their partners (husbands and wives) and to family and friends.
The true origin of the day is unclear – one possibility is that it was it was established as a day to honour one or two Christian martyrs called Valentine

What is clear is that Valentine’s Day customs such as sending greetings cards known as “valentines”, gifting confectionery like sweets and chocolates and giving flowers developed in England in the 18th century and spread through the English-speaking world in the 19th century and then eventually to almost every country in the world.

 

Before we tell you the best Valentine’s Day phrases in English, let’s check your knowledge about love and Valentine…

 

  • Which is the language of love?

English possibly? Well, French is considered to be the most romantic language followed by Spanish and Italian -the so-called ‘Romance’ languages
But as more non-native speakers use English to communicate with each other than any other language and that will include messages of love, you could say that English is the language of love!

  • Which city is best to celebrate Valentine’s day?

Paris of course. Known as “the city of love’ the city becomes the world capital of Valentine’s Day as lovers travel from all over the globe to spend the special day there.

  • How much do people spend on Valentine’s Day?

A lot. According to our global media partner Reuters, Americans will spend $26 billion on Valentine’s Day gifts in 2023 – with young adults spending an average of $336 each!

  • What are the most popular gifts?

That hasn’t changed over the years. In America for example, most people (57%) buy candy (sweets and chocolates) followed by greeting cards (40%) and flowers (37%) but also popular are dates (32%) -a nice romantic dinner for two for example- and jewellery (21%): a nice diamond ring if you’re extremely lucky!

  • So is Valentine’s Day most popular in the UK & US?

You would think so, wouldn’t you? But actually, according to Google Trends data, Valentine’s Day is most popular not in America or the Western world but in the Arab countries, Asia and Latin America. And in fact, Chinese and South Koreans spend the most money on Valentine’s gifts.

If you are romantic and would like to send a Valentine’s Day message in English or express your love in English, here are a few popular examples

What to write in English

You’ve bought your greetings card and now you want to express your love in writing to that special person

Here are some popular expressions you could use (Perhaps not all of them in one go!)

  • Happy Valentine’s Day to the most special person in my life.
  • You’re my everything. Happy Valentine’s Day!
  • Happy Valentine’s Day, handsome / beautiful.
  • I love you to the moon and back
  • You take my breath away, every single day.
  • It’s just one day in the year, but you should know that I love you every day and every moment
  • The more time we spend together, the more we fall in love with each other. Happy Valentine’s Day!
  • I love you more than pizza. (Not sure if this is this one is too serious😊?)

And what to say in English!

Maybe you don’t like writing and you want to speak In English directly and to the point:

Our top 3 recommendations

  1. Simply say “I love you” Or if your partner says it first, then your reply could be “And I love you (so much) too”
  2. “I’m (so) in love with you”. And you could say “You make me so happy” before you say that. This is extremely romantic and is often used before someone asks their partner to marry them. So be a little careful!!
  3. “I love you with all my heart”. “I’m crazy about you” and “You take my breath away”

Try any combination or even all three together. You will certainly get your  ❤️ message across

If you want to make sure your English is perfect for Valentine’s Day and every other day, create your Free account and try our courses and live classes – you’ll love ❤️ learning English with us.

 

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2022’s most ‘iconic’,’ innovative’, ‘successful’, ‘inspiring’, ‘influential’ CEO you’ve never heard of?

Can anyone beat this?

During the course of this year -and we aren’t finished yet, though maybe I am now, I have been short-listed to feature in, or more often appear as the cover story, in no fewer than 12 purportedly industry sector leading publications.

Despite no prior contact with me, my team or any relevant stakeholder, and as a proud CEO/MD of a SME slowly and gradually carving out a niche in the EdTech sector with honesty and humility, unbeknown to me, my achievements appear nevertheless to be already legendary. So much so that I deserve to be invited to join the ranks of the elite and included in reports with titles where superlatives are almost universally obligatory:

 

Is it thus that I was identified as one of “The Most Iconic CEOs to follow in 2022“, one of The Most Innovative Business leaders in, 2022 Insights Success magazine and of course “The Most Influentional Business Leaders shaping the Modern Industry”.

Being invited to appear in “Innovative Business Leaders Making a Difference 2022  sounded almost mundane by comparison.

Sometimes the short-listed category can be quite competitive: just one of the best of 30 as in “30 Best Leaders to watch” (really!) or one of 20 as in The 20 Most Inspiring Business Leaders Making a Difference, 2022 (but at least the cover story was an option here).

David de Jager Perfectly Spoken MD at BETT2020

However, it was reassuring that as a natural result of intensive, exhaustive research, most had concluded that I was at least top 10 material as in: “The 10 Most Inspiring Business Leaders Making a Difference 2022” (Jan-2022) “10 Admired CEOs to Watch, 2022” and “10 Most Influential CEOs in 2022“.

 

But my two favourite accolades have to be:

Cynically you might conclude that all this would have come at a cost. And you are right. But reassuringly just ‘nominal” or ‘minimal’ fees of between $700 to $5000.

And despite having been identified as such a star attraction that publications seemed desperate to feature me, I suspect you’re not that surprised to find that when I responded to approaches explaining that we were not interested in paying fees, interest in me seemed to drop off a cliff.

Which is why I’m still possibly 2022’s most ‘iconic’,’ innovative’, ‘successful’, ‘inspiring’, ‘influential’ CEO you’ve never heard of.

 

Maybe 2023 will change that. Or not

Should I learn English online or offline?

3 ways Covid has created more choice for English language learners

During lockdown many, many students had to adapt to a ‘new normal’ for learning English. Like all subjects, suddenly self-study lessons and distance learning from home in front of a computer screen took over from classroom teaching at University or High School.

So, now, what does a post Covid future hold?

At Perfectly Spoken we believe the future is a very positive one for students who already have and will have more and better choices to learn English that will suit them and their pockets.

Here’s why.

Practise your English conversation with expert teachers

1. Traditional Language schools have learnt from online providers

  • For years online providers have been offering quality English language training online in the form of self-study and live and interactive practice with qualified English teachers.

Covid served to accelerate the uptake of this way of learning and many millions of students across the globe- many of whom previously actively resisted studying online- are now familiar with, and enjoy this way of learning English as they do with other subjects. They have discovered that the approach is flexible, convenient and effective.

  • Traditional language schools have also learnt that while some students are happy to return to the classroom, they also know they need to try to provide the flexibility and convenience that students have been accustomed to with studying online.

That’s why the post Covid language school offers the student the opportunity to study online as well as in the classroom. Any many do this through collaborating with online providers like Perfectly Spoken. The result is a win-win for students: they can choose to study exclusively online or in the classroom, or if they can afford it, a combination of the two.. the best of both worlds.

2. More courses. More variety. More choice

For students in the online world, old and new, the pandemic has brought benefits in terms of increased competition for them and their money. The number of online providers has grown exponentially and in order to attract students, providers have also had to really understand the needs of their students and provide appropriate learning content. At Perfectly Spoken for example that means we focus a lot of energy on Intermediate English courses and supporting learning materials which are the most popular courses generally while we know that students thinking of applying to university our B2 English and C1 Advanced courses are a must.

In contrast, Corporate English training in the past used to be exclusively for big companies with big budgets who could send individual managers to English speaking countries for intensive Business English courses. But that’s all changed as travel and budgets have become restricted and, as we have learnt, Learning and Development Managers appreciate quality online Business English courses that they can afford to make available to a much greater section of the workforce

 

Corporate English training in the past used to be exclusively for big companies

with big budgets who could send individual managers

to English speaking countries for intensive Business English courses.

 

The wider point then is that one of the really big advantages online providers have is the ability to offer a student is a huge variety of courses while at the same time giving the learner the autonomy to deciding what and when to learn…This means a student may choose to study any number of General English, Business English, Exam Preparation or Grammar courses -and at the same time if they wish- but also the opportunity to focus in on a particular language area or topic that may suddenly become a priority for that student.

3. Technology has delivered accessibility, affordability and a rewarding experience

technology to learn English online

As part of the new norm many students will literally ‘go back to school’ where they can study with their friends, and no-one can deny the importance of social interactivity to help learning and for our general well-being.

However, not only is this not possible for the vast majority of English language students because there are no good language schools in the vicinity or more likely, the courses are simply too expensive, but also those students are losing out on a unique experience.

 

 The truly global online classroom has arrived to stay.

 

Today, even with limited bandwidth, students across the globe can get access to quality English language training on any internet connected device at a relatively low cost and even be taught by the same expert teachers that previously were only available to those students who could afford to go to a language school. This change is so important because it gives the opportunity for all students to access high quality training- and that’s very powerful for the future. Furthermore, the online classroom can be a place for both learning and social interactivity. All Perfectly Spoken teachers agree that any student who has not experienced an online class with fellow students from different countries across the world is missing out on an incredibly rewarding experience. The truly global online classroom has arrived to stay.

So back to the original question..

Should a student study English online or offline?

We believe the ‘new normal’ is already here and the future for most English language students will be online, and as a consequence,  that online learning experience will just get better and better.

 

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