SpeakBuddyHF26: Your AI English Speaking Partner

Navya Pachigolla — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 17:33:37 +0000

This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Weekend Challenge: Build for a Friend

What I Built

I built SpeakBuddyHF26, an AI English Speaking Partner for a friend who wants to improve their English speaking confidence without the fear of being judged for making mistakes.

SpeakBuddy creates a friendly and patient environment where users can practice realistic English conversations using their microphone.

Users can:

Choose Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced speaking levels
Practice Daily Conversations
Practice Job Interviews
Practice College Conversations
Practice Travel situations
Practice a 60-second personal introduction
Speak naturally using their microphone
Continue an interactive conversation with the AI
Track their speaking practice and progress

The goal is to make English practice feel like talking to a supportive friend rather than attending a classroom lesson.

Demo

🎥 2-minute demo:

https://youtu.be/hR1RFzRCrZk?si=szuy9MlMgs0s4TiC

The demo shows the complete experience, including selecting a scenario, speaking with SpeakBuddy, receiving AI responses, and viewing the application.

Code

💻 GitHub Repository:

https://github.com/NavyaPachigolla/SpeakBuddy

How I Built It

SpeakBuddy is built around Llama 3 8B running locally through Ollama.

The basic flow is:

User speaks → Speech is transcribed → Llama 3 processes the conversation → AI responds → User continues the conversation

The project includes:

Llama 3 8B
Ollama
Local AI inference
Voice/microphone interaction
Real-world conversation scenarios
Multiple speaking levels
Progress tracking
Full-stack frontend and backend

Why Does Open Innovation Matter?

Open innovation is important for SpeakBuddy because the application is designed to provide a private and comfortable environment for English speaking practice.

I use Llama 3 8B through Ollama, allowing the core AI conversation experience to run locally instead of depending on a closed proprietary AI API.

This gives the project more flexibility and helps keep the user's practice experience private.

For someone practicing English, they may talk about their education, career goals, personal experiences, and everyday life. Local AI provides a useful way to practice without requiring those conversations to be sent to a third-party AI service.

My Agent Session

I used an AI-assisted development workflow to build and improve SpeakBuddyHF26.

What I Learned

Building SpeakBuddy taught me that an AI application does not need to be complicated to be useful. The most important part was designing the experience around a real person's problem.

I focused on making the conversations simple, encouraging, and practical so that the user can keep practicing without feeling judged.

Final Thoughts

SpeakBuddyHF26 was built to make English speaking practice more comfortable, private, and accessible.

Instead of worrying about making mistakes, the user can simply speak, practice, learn, and try again.

Thank you for checking out my Hacktoberfest 2026 project!

DEV Community: Navya Pachigolla