tedgravy

Personally, Kagi is worth it for me because I’ve grown to rely on its features (lenses, domain ranking, Wolfram Alpha integration, fast response times), and I’ve not been able to get the same quality of results from free alternatives (SearXNG included).

That said, if you’re not a heavy search user, or you’re happy with the results from free search providers, then it probably won’t be much use to you over something like DuckDuckGo.

Regarding the AI integrations, I’ve not found them intrusive personally. Admittedly, I like their (optional) translation tool and (also optional) quick answers even though they’re both LLM-based.

Some people seem to be blessed with the ability to naturally speak a language based on input practice alone, but I think that most people need to practice input (listening, reading) and output (speaking, writing) separately. The thing that helped me the most (at least for French) was starting a journal in my target language and adding to it every day, but anything probably works as long as it gets you writing or speaking.

I carry around a messenger bag with lip balm, wet wipes, earplugs, earbuds, bandages, sunscreen, sunglasses, a respirator, a hairbrush, a phone charger, a flashlight, and a reusable shopping bag.