Huh. I just finished the #Duolingo Irish #Gaeilge course (before the “Daily Refresh” unit), and …nothing! For an app that vibrates when you get a difficult question right and gives you a special milestone screen every fifty days or so, I was expecting that little owl to fly out of my phone and throw me a wild party! But nothing! It doesn’t even acknowledge that you’ve finished something. I guess they’re worried people would quit?
Anyway, I finished.
Whelp. I'm leaving #Duolingo today (666 days). It's been coming for a while (for-profit was never a good fit) but the AI degradations are the final straw. The value proposition is untenable. I'm starting Linguistica in the interim and I'll diversity my lessons (Italian/German) but if y'all have suggestions of good NP language learning apps or collectives, I need the recs. Thanks.
One of the best results of doing Advent of Code is getting more multi-lingual.
I love #Duolingo, and I love trying different languages, observing similarities and differences. Programming languages are no different: trying to communicate with a computer, instead of a person, in different ways.
In the end, I'm learning fundamentals in computer science, through different lenses.
Was amazed by the #Duolingo “league” that I wound up in yesterday. The leader did 4,280 “XP” (experience points) in ONE DAY. 🤯
To understand why this is amazing, each language lesson in Duolingo is typically worth 10-20 XP. With bonuses and rewards some can get to 40, 50, or 80 XP.
To get to 4,280 requires a HUGE number of lessons and investment of MANY HOURS of time!
A mind-blowing amount of work.. clearly someone is extremely focused on learning a new language! 😲
¡Buenos días! Do you Duolingo? I do, every day, for several years. 😲 I've come across some things that make me go, "DAMMIT Dúo!" over the years. Here a a few.
Next week, I'll talk about things I really like about the app and system.
I'm not letting it beat me. It frustrates me beyond words some days but we need to keep our language alive. This may assist me in relieving a little of that daily pain. #TheGàidhlig#Duolingo
I've been on #Duolingo over a year now, trying to improve my lousy german. On the plus side, I have clearly increased my vocabulary. On the negative side, the app misses on the most important point (at least for me) which is to help memorise which article goes with each word. I'm not asking for complicated grammar explanations or exercises, and it would be rather simple to link each noun with its article (der die das). I still have no idea, and will forget the article as fast as I read it.
Has anyone else noticed a drop in quality of Duolingo sentences since shortly after they announced they were firing translates to us AI? They are more awkward and don't make a lot of sense sometimes.
An example, this question/answer my partner got (in French)
"Do you speak Spanish"
"I don't know, I don't understand it"