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Construction-focused Spanish learning app

Gringo on the Job - Behind the Scenes

🧠 How I Built a Jobsite Spanish Phrasebook With ChatGPT & Python (And Learned a Ton Doing It)

I’ve always had ideas, but this one stuck. I wanted to learn Spanish, but not classroom Spanish—real jobsite stuff. The kind of phrases that help you work side-by-side with someone without flipping through Google Translate. I also wanted to build it myself, from scratch, with a little help from AI. And that’s how Gringo on the Job was born.

The goal was simple: tap a phrase on your phone, hear how it's pronounced. No fluff, no grammar tests—just phrases that help get the job done. I asked ChatGPT to help me build a phrasebook in HTML, generate phonetics, and even create Python code that uses gTTS (Google Text-to-Speech) to make .mp3 files for both English and Spanish.

We organized it into categories like Tools, Safety, Cabinet Installation, and even Slang & Small Talk. ChatGPT wrote the HTML tables, generated the phrases, and gave me phonetic breakdowns. It even helped me create a matching .mp3 file for every phrase in both languages.

💻 Python Example

Code
# make_audio_tools.py
from gtts import gTTS
import os

phrases = [
    ("Hammer", "Martillo"),
    ("Screwdriver", "Destornillador"),
    ("Drill", "Taladro"),
    # ... add more tools here
]

output_folder = "audioentools"
os.makedirs(output_folder, exist_ok=True)

for eng, esp in phrases:
    eng_filename = f"{output_folder}/en_{eng.lower().replace(' ', '')}.mp3"
    esp_filename = f"{output_folder}/{esp.lower().replace(' ', '')}.mp3"
    gTTS(text=eng, lang="en").save(eng_filename)
    gTTS(text=esp, lang="es").save(esp_filename)

🖥️ Terminal Commands (macOS)

Code
cd ~/Desktop
python3 make_audio_tools.py
zip -r audioentools.zip audioentools

🎧 HTML Playback Snippet

Code
<tr>
  <td class="gringo-phrase">
    Hammer<br />
    <button class="audio-btn" onclick="playAudio('en_hammer')">▶ EN</button>
  </td>
  <td>Martillo</td>
  <td>mar-TEE-yo</td>
  <td><button class="audio-btn" onclick="playAudio('martillo')">🔊 Play</button></td>
</tr>

Yes, I know Google Translate and Apple Translate already exist—but this wasn’t just about translating. This project was a hands-on way to understand how AI tools, code, and web development come together. It was about creating something useful, but also learning by doing. And trust me, there’s no better way to learn AI than by making weird, practical projects that might not make sense to anyone but you (yet).

🧠 Want to Build Your Own?

Here’s a phrase you can drop into ChatGPT to kick things off:

“Help me create an interactive phrasebook for construction Spanish using HTML, Python with gTTS for audio files, and phonetic pronunciation. I want to organize it by category (Tools, Safety, etc.) and make it playable on a WordPress site. Give me all the code I need to start.”

🛠️ Tools I Used

  • ChatGPT – for translations, code, and brainstorming
  • Python 3 – installed via Homebrew or python.org
  • gTTS – Google Text-to-Speech module: pip install gTTS
  • macOS Terminal – for running scripts and zipping folders
  • VS Code – or any text editor
  • WordPress Website – mine is right here
  • FTP or Upload Plugin – to add your audio files

This whole thing started as a simple idea, and now I’ve got something live that people can actually use. I learned more in a couple days with AI than I probably would have in a few weeks on my own—and I had fun doing it.

If you’re ever stuck or wondering where to begin, just start weird and see what happens.