SlowTalk: a patient language tutor that never leaves my friend's laptop

Описание и применение

SlowTalk – это локальный, приватный помощник для изучения языка, который использует открытые модели через Ollama и Whisper, обеспечивая бесшовную практику речи без передачи данных в интернет.

Задача

A language learner struggles with speaking and fears that online tutors send their voice or text to external servers, compromising privacy and causing anxiety.

Результат

SlowTalk provides a private, patient language tutor that runs entirely offline, keeping all user data on the laptop and allowing the learner to practice speaking without fear of data leakage.

Рабочий процесс

• Install Python 3.11+ and add to PATH
• Install Ollama and pull the gemma3:4b model via ollama pull gemma3:4b
• Edit friend.json with name, language, level, interests, and optional model
• Double‑click run.bat to start the Flask server and open the web interface
• Use the Speak button to record a sentence, which Whisper transcribes locally
• The tutor replies in the target language, short sentences, ending with a question
• Corrections appear as a pink TIP line with a brief English explanation
• Read aloud feature uses the browser’s speech synthesis at 0.85 speed

Доказательства

Everything about [FRIEND] lives in one small file, friend.json: name, language, level, hobbies and goal.

Источник

It runs an open-weight model locally through Ollama, so there is no account, no API key, no cost, and no internet needed after setup.

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The brain: Gemma 3 (4B) through Ollama.

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Voice in: Whisper, running locally.

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The first start downloads the models, so it needs internet once.

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What surprised me: she turned on Read aloud within a minute and kept repeating the tutor's sentences back to herself.

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