Reflections on Learning Spanish with Cien Años de Soledad + AI

Journal Entry – February 15, 2025

AudioPen Revolutionizing Language Learning with AI 2 15 25

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Today, I tried something different in my Spanish learning process, and I think I may have stumbled upon something powerful—not just for myself, but potentially for education as a whole.

I’ve been reading Cien Años de Soledad in Spanish, but instead of passively absorbing the text, I built a system that forces me to engage with every sentence at multiple levels. The process looks something like this:

1. Read the sentence aloud – This forces me to actually sound out the words, making sure my pronunciation is correct while reinforcing auditory memory.
2. Type the sentence into an AI model – I use AI (Claude 3.5 today) to generate a full translation and grammatical breakdown. The AI doesn’t just spit out the meaning; it explains the syntax, the historical and cultural context, and even the literary significance.
3. Write the AI’s explanation by hand – This is where I realized something crucial. Writing out the explanation forces another level of encoding. It’s not about immediate understanding—it’s about storing the knowledge through repetition.
4. Re-read the original sentence – Now, I understand every layer of it, from its literal translation to its deeper meaning.

By the time I’ve completed these steps, I’ve seen the sentence four times in different forms. This method doesn’t just help me with Spanish; it’s turning into an unexpected writing lesson.

What stood out to me today was how Gabriel García Márquez constructs his sentences—his use of preterite vs. imperfect tenses, his poetic phrasing, and his ability to blend the mundane with the extraordinary. His writing doesn’t just convey a story; it creates an atmosphere.

This made me think about AI’s role in education. Traditionally, learning relied on regurgitation—how much could you memorize and recall? But in an age where AI can instantly provide any answer, regurgitation becomes obsolete. What matters now is synthesis—how do we take raw information and turn it into knowledge that sticks?

I imagine a world where students create their own learning books—customized guides they build as they interact with material. Instead of textbooks being static, they’d be dynamic, evolving with each student’s interests, strengths, and learning styles.

What if every week, instead of standardized testing, students submitted a chapter of their personal learning journey? They wouldn’t just be proving what they memorized—they’d be showing how they processed and applied knowledge.

I wonder if I could take this experiment further—maybe turn it into a story or an interactive journal, blending fiction with learning. If I could find a way to make this engaging for other people, it might just be something worth sharing.

For now, I’ll keep refining the process. Every sentence I read, every note I take, brings me one step closer to truly owning the language.

And maybe it’s also shaping the way I think about storytelling.

Read the story