I’m 80 years old and split my time between the U.S. and Italy. For a long time, I’ve had trouble progressing beyond restaurant Italian. I couldn’t find any app that helped me learn exactly what I wanted to learn in the way I wanted to learn it. So I decided to kill two birds with one stone by learning how to make an AI-based app (even though I know virtually nothing about programming) to help me with Italian. One thing led to another and eventually, using Streamlit via Replit, spent the last year developing a web-based Italian language learning app to help English speakers build fluency through interactive translation practice.
With more than 10,000 curated sentence pairs organized by difficulty level, users practice constructing Italian sentences and receive instant AI-powered feedback on their translations. The app emphasizes practical communication skills over perfect grammar, helping learners understand what works and why.
Key features include real-time pronunciation assessment using voice recognition, intelligent spaced repetition that brings back sentences for review at optimal intervals, quick quizzes to reinforce learning, vocabulary flashcards with context and detailed progress tracking with visual analytics. The app works seamlessly on mobile devices (iPad/iPhone) and desktop, making it easy to practice anytime. All progress is saved automatically, so users can pick up right where they left off.
I’m happy with how it turned out, and I’ve had lots of positive comments about Italian from friends in the Italian village where we live part of the year. I’m excited to know I was able to create this from scratch at my stage in life thanks to Streamlit and Replit. I learned a lot beyond Italian and kept the wolf at bay for another year.
Here’s the link, I’d love to hear what you think about it: https://italian-translator-d6pdztst8s.replit.app/