Kays Laouar
Founder
Why I built Konakai
I wanted to learn Chinese from zero, and I wanted AI to teach me.
ChatGPT came out the winter before my last semester of college, and it gave me the most personalized learning I’d ever had: I could ask anything, follow my curiosity, and keep going for as long as I wanted. I expected learning a language with AI to feel the same.
It didn’t. I found three kinds of tools, and none felt like a tutor:
- Drill apps: see a line, say it, swipe, repeat, on the same fixed path as everyone else. Have a question? Nothing can answer it.
- Immersion apps: a menu of hundreds of 5-minute scenarios. I spent more time browsing than learning, and once a conversation got interesting, it ended.
- ChatGPT and Claude: I spent more time prompting and designing lessons than learning, and they didn’t systematically track what I’d learned.
I wanted to start a call and trust a tutor to lead me, answer my questions, adapt to me, and remember what I’d learned. That became Konakai.
- It leads you through a loop of a dozen activities, from lessons and stories to reviews and challenges.
- Want to learn or practice something specific, choose an activity, or have a question or preference? Just tell Konakai, in your native language or the language you’re learning.
- It remembers your vocabulary, lines and mistakes and brings them back at the right time, so each call builds on the last.
My favorite part: you don’t even need a screen. Go for a walk and talk to Konakai with your phone in your pocket.
I’m learning Chinese from zero with Konakai and sharing it on YouTube.