Using an LLM as a (human) language tutor

I love learning new languages.

I've been learning Japanese for a little while now. When I learn a new language, I tend to have a lot of technical questions.

My wife would get a bit overwhelmed when we were dating because I would ask her a bunch of questions about German. Stuff like, “why is this phrase like this” or “when do you use X vs Y”. As a native speaker, she sometimes had trouble answering because, to her, one thing felt or sounded right but the reason is ingrained. It was passively learned instead of actively.

An LLM is pretty good at answering my language questions, which I think lets me understand the language better and learn it faster.

As an example, I recently asked:

What is the difference between 夕飯 and 晩ご飯?

On the surface, both mean dinner, but it gave me a bit more nuanced translations and usage and even offered a third way to say dinner.