Viewing profile — jamager

Duolingo doesn't work because that's the point. Same problem as dating apps: if you could actually learn a language with Duolingo, then you would stop using Duolingo. No good for b…

Yes. Also, they don't need much vocabulary, no grammar concerns, no reading/writing. We much overestimate how well kids learn, and how "easy" is for them. Many kids have language d…

FSI estimates are taken from diplomatics who study full time in preparation for their job. Not a good approximation for most people. This is a far better one: https://www.cambridge…

I am working in this space as well. Habit formation / self-learning is a big easy because overwhelming majority of people prefers more structured / guided content. This makes SRS v…

Yes, thou the main problem stated in the article ("memorizing the rectangles") is very real. Now, I don't think you need much magic / LLM stuff to overcome that problem: 1. Instead…

> What is "good for one's brain" (apart from proper nutrition and absence of concussions) is a strong education and healthy lifelong social interactions Sure, but I think this is m…

Yes. AI transcription is great, AI translation is OK (depending on language pair), but TTS is still pretty awful for most languages.

> nor is there ever going to be a 100% freedom-from-error That is not a problem. Language is messy, you don't need 100% accuracy to learn. The problem is that LLM errors are fundam…

> Natural language acquisition is almost entirely listening and talking Listening and reading. Talking goes last. See Steve Kaufmann, for example

Spaced repetition = information retrieval. You need the other part, encoding information. Best "trick" to encode information effectively is to "make it yours" in the best way you c…

For very popular languages: there are tons of human-made content specific for language learning, which is always far better than what any LLM can offer. For low resource / endanger…

Exactly. For projects taking multiple years, eventually motivation will run dry. Good habits is what compels you to do the thing when you don't feel like doing the thing.

I apologize for the ad hominems. 1. You don't need to learn hundreds of random languages in order to claim you like languages. Most people feel attracted by some languages and not …

> In general, I'm sorry to say, I think language learning is a tremendous waste of time and effort for almost everybody I take from that that you dont like Finnish, you learn it be…

You are right, I will get around that. For what is worth, I do not keep the email address.

Rating yourself is an important trait of SRS, it forces you to think how you are doing, what is good enough and what not, what is more or less important, etc.

For language learning only, but perhaps my own https://thehardway.app model suits you better (flashcards inside markdown-ish notes)

This made my day, thanks!

I wrote https://thehardway.guide just about that, in case it helps.

Italki, LingQ, Languagetransfer, StoryLearning...

There is nothing wrong with learning via translation. What Duolingo does wrong is many other things: emotional manipulation, lack of context, low content density, countless distrac…

Daily practice is very important, yes, but languages are genuinely difficult beasts on their own. Thousands of words and grammar rules that you need to grasp real time. Just mindle…

No, it is because Duolingo is an addictive trap optimized for "engagement" (not learning) that requires you an absurd amount of time to progress very little, because it is explicit…

The benefit of real human-made music is that you can make it for yourself. The goal shouldn't be to get other people to listen to it. It's very personal and that should be the end …