How badly they want to show me ads, it’s impressive. Desperate ain’t sexy guys
I had a streak in the triple digits, just un-installed it. I’ll be damned if I’m going to use that AI slop anymore.
I stopped using duolingo a couple years ago because I noticed I was just doing the bare minimum to maintain my streak instead of actually learning something new.
that actually helped me remember that my target language exists, it was good for me to at least have a brush with some learning on the days that i just didn’t feel like doing much.
what was the final nail on the coffin for me was duolingo neutering the japanese course, they delayed introducing kanji so hard i was seeing the most basic basics like 母, 父, 語, even 何 in hiragana, which made the course deeply counterproductive as reading japanese in hiragana only, when you know the kanji already slows you down considerably. consider: ははははなをもっています vs 母は花を持っています, both mean “my mum has a flower” but one of them has a string of は you need to decipher the meaning of first before you can understand the sentence, the other’s meaning can be understood instantly
That’s a shame. Duolingo was never great for learning kana, so I guess they thought to use it more in lessons, but they should’ve just improved the dedicated kana lessons instead. I had learned kana before using duolingo so it was a smooth transition to take on sentences introducing more and more kanji. It sucks that they’re just making things worse since there were some nice things about the app before.
if a non shit app would add an “import streak” feature (just make me upload a screenshot or type in the number) id switch in a heart beat.
Why is a streak so important?
Dopamine
I’ve come to realize that Dopamine is the reason for EVERYTHING.
Same thing happened to me. Also when trying something new, failing took something like gems or hearts. That made it so I only grinded the very easy lessons to get the gems and never actually using them.
Oh yeah, that’s another thing! They made it tedious to make progress, probably in an attempt to squeeze out more money, but I ended up just losing motivation for actually learning because it became a drag.
6 lessons? ew.
One notification like this and your app immediately gets notification permission revoked on my phone (if not uninstalled).
I have notifications disabled by default, by that I mean the moment an app requests permission I deny it, unless it’s a messaging app, an app store that I want update notifications from or something I trust etc., and if it triggers more than three requests it’s off my phone.
Most users aren’t logical or sane like you, so this notification may actually catch their eye in their notification tray with 8k other notifications from cancer apps.
I understand the logic of doing the streak system, keep you engaged by threatening to lose your streak if you don’t do it every day, but it’s a double edged sword.
If I’d lost my streak though… I should just go “oh well” and call it a day/quit.
I deleted the app when they said they were going to fire translators for AI. But I have adhd and forgot, several days, even with reminders, to do it some days… It never ended up mattering because they let me keep my streak anyway
Anyone have a good Duolingo alternative?
At this point I’m thinking I’ll just take a trip to Tenerife to continue learning Spanish.
Other apps aren’t good at gamification I hear - and that was the only thing that kept me using it till a while ago. I have ADHD. The leveling up, streaks, etc, is what kept me going when the novelty of learning yet another foreign language wore off - I already had to learn two in school and I only ever really use one of them, you can guess which one.
Sounds like a good plan, I’d seriously consider a Canarian accent if I could pick mine!
It’s closer to me than Latin America and gets less hot than mainland Spain. That’s why it sounds so awesome to me
Quit your current life and move to a country where they speak the language you want to learn. Get a menial job in a small town, find new friends, and learn what love is. Then you’ll know what it truly means to speak a language.
Anyone know how to afford moving costs?
Crime
Sound advice!
This is the language equivalent of the “I have a small issue with this software.” - “Have you tried switching your OS to Linux and using a FOSS alternative?” conversation lol
Lol it’s almost even more extreme and has a common trope I love. “Hey I got this spam text…”
“Burn all your devices. Remove yourself from the grid. Scrub your identity. Purchase a single burner phone. Root it and install Graphene. Yes it’s hard. Google it. Wait, don’t google it. Search for it elsewhere. Amass money somehow without using technology. Cut off your family ties. You need to move to another country. You will need a work visa to move to most countries. But to get that you will need an accepted job in advance. And to have that you will probably need to access technology. Instead, buy a fake passport, because very few countries will just let you ‘move somewhere’ with a ‘menial job.’ Once you get there, develop passive income streams and quit your job. After you have been a landlord for two years you will finally know what it’s like to claim that being a landlord is a real job because you need to talk to tenants and file paperwork natively for an hour or two a week.”
Or when Scout explains his date plan to Spy.
Spy: you have a dinner date for 7. What time do you arrive? Scout: 7… AM. Case the restaurant, run background checks on the staff. Can the cook be trusted? If not I’ve gotta kill him. Dispose of the body, replace him with my own guy no later than 4:30.
I lost it at “root it and install Graphene.” GrapheneOS does not work with rooted devices, and rooting is considered a security risk by the Graphene dev team haha.
Lingodeer for more languages
Renshuu for Japanese
Busuu is a lot like Duolingo but you also get to trade corrections with real people learning your native language
Yes I love Busuu! I switched about a years ago and I feel like it’s actually been teaching me Dutch instead of just brute force vocabulary memorization.
My only complaint is that it’s really aggressive about asking for you to subscribe. I just close the popups and I haven’t ran into anything that I cant do.
Mango Languages is available for free through many libraries and has an app.
HelloChinese if you want to learn that
I switched to using CBC’s Mauril from Duolingo, and it’s been good for me. However, it’s only available to Canadian residents (or VPN users) and it’s only for French. So it worked for me but obviously that covers a small subset of Duolingo users.
They’re pathetic but not in a way I like.
Duolingo is not about learning a language. It’s about giving you the illusion of learning a language.
Look fuck the company but Duolingo absolutely can help learn a language
As long as I learn to ask where the bathroom is before I get there I’ll bet ok.
“Streaks” are shitty dark patterns IMO.
Yeah but at least the interests of the user and duolingo are somewhat aligned in this case
I liked it because it was a learning app and I have a tendency to fall off. But paying real money to restore my streak? Hell nah
I wish the whole streak paradigm was time weighted. Like I got over a 1 year streak on my Apple watch over Covid. That’s basically never going to happen again. I wish there was some kind of “this is your longest streak in the past <time period>” or something. It all just feels so all or nothing.
people calling every engagement tactic a dark pattern these days is giving me teenagers using therapy speak in wrong ways vibes
Stfu duolingo
Same, it was sad but I’m not gonna use the all anymore due to that decision.
What is duo doing that’s bad with AI?
Generating excercises. Not only is it a way to cut staffing, but now you don’t know if the thing you just learned is a real word or phrase or if AI hallucinated it up.
The word “hallucinating” for AI spewing falsehoods should be replaced by “bullshitting”. Because, in all seriousness, that’s what it is - as has been convincingly argued in “ChatGPT is bullshit”
Yeah that’s fucking awful. Ugh
I remember a while back, I was too busy for a little while to use Duo and came back to the widget trying to guilt trip me into using it. Because I missed like half a week. It’s so toxic and honestly isn’t even that useful for learning. So I uninstalled that shit immediately.
I can ask for an apple in so many languages.
Wife’s streak is at 1,618 days across multiple categories. Almost 4.5 years. I imagine it’s like smoking at this point.
Having heard very mixed things about Duolingo’s actual usefulness, does your wife speak or write well in any of the languages she’s used the app to learn?
My friend learn japanese and able to speak fluently after using the app. Though she does have japanese customer from time to time that she can test it with some of them.
Not at all
What is the actual point of a streak?
A sense of pride and accomplishment?
Gamification including social aspects if you’re a regular app user.
Abusive ex if you aren’t a regular user.
The only way it could get worse is if they put a slot machine or roulette wheel in to give you prizes.
I fucking hate the gamification they did to Khan Academy. Just give me the knowledge map back.
At one point it was gamification to tie the reward center of your brain into continuing to train using the app. Now it seems that it’s half that or half https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_pattern to get you to pay to keep that reward system going.
Personally, my interest in language learning comes and goes. Doing the minimum to maintain a streak prevents me from forgetting too much before my interest returns.
To make you addicted so you keep coming back
Does she actually speak the language she’s learning?
Not even a little
Donde, está, la biblioteca. Me llamo T-Bone La araña discoteca. Discoteca, muñeca, La biblioteca Está en bigotes grandes, el perro, manteca. Manteca, bigotes, gigante, pequeño, la cabeza es nieve, cerveza es bueno. Buenos dias, me gusta papas frías, los bigotes de la cabra Es Cameron Diaz.
El tren de la Magdela al a una
Why the fuck is it still installed
Why not uninstall it bro
