This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by cursedknowledge
Hey everyone,
For years, I could read and write English perfectly fine. But when it came to speaking? Total disaster. Especially in work meetings. My face would get red, I’d stumble over simple words like “three” and “think,” and I could see the confusion in my colleagues’ eyes. I felt like a fraud.
I tried all the popular apps, but they were great for vocabulary, not for my actual accent. I didn’t need more flashcards; I needed a coach who would listen to me, pinpoint my mistakes, and tell me exactly how to fix them. Like, “dude, your tongue is in the wrong place for the ‘th’ sound.”
Since I couldn’t find one that was simple, instant, and lived in my pocket, I decided to build it myself.
I spent the last few months hacking away with Python and leveraging the latest speech recognition models to create Thought — a personal AI pronunciation coach that lives inside Telegram.
Here’s how it makes you sound better in 2 minutes:
https://imgur.com/gallery/thought-practice-english-pronunciation-telegram-VaalNbJ#Pvk8nbZ
It’s not just a “right/wrong” checker. It’s designed to be a real coach:
It analyzes your specific errors: It tells you why you mispronounced a sound and how to physically correct it.
It gives you audio examples: So you can hear the correct sound, not just read about it.
It has real conversations: You can just talk to it about your day or your favorite movie, and it will gently correct your pronunciation and grammar in context, keeping the conversation flowing.
It’s brutally honest but always encouraging. No judgment, just progress.
I built this bot to solve my own crippling fear of speaking. It’s helped me immensely. Now, I’m making it public and free because I have a feeling I’m not the only one who has struggled with this.
I would be incredibly grateful if you could try it out and give me your honest feedback. Tell me what’s broken, what’s confusing, and what features you wish it had.
You can start talking to Thought right here: https://t.me/thought_eng_bot
Thanks for reading my story. Let me know what you think!
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by cursedknowledge