Duolingo reaches $6.5B valuation on day of IPO • Hacker News Board

Re: Duolingo reaches $6.5B valuation on day of IPO

#341

Post by thenoblesunfish » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 8:01 AM UTC

JCharante wrote: post #231

thenoblesunfish wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got huge value out of Duolingo as a first step. I live in a German speaking country where it’s entirely possible to speak no German. Duolingo and textbooks got me far enough to enroll in a B1 course and find some speaking partners. The alternative would probably have been paying for a year of A-Level courses, and to be honest I may not have found the time. For absolute beginners, Duolingo has a lot of value.

The alternative could be a $40 textbook and an open source flashcard / srs program.

I also used those things! I used Anki and Quizlet (which isn't open source but you can import your own word lists so it doesn't feel too "sticky"). Duolingo was still key, though - it felt less like work, because it was nicely gamified. (I give all this praise with a twinge of dread now, because I'm sure that with the IPO, Duolingo will be twisted in the way that all publicly-traded companies are).

Re: Duolingo reaches $6.5B valuation on day of IPO

#342

Post by DiogenesKynikos » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 8:22 AM UTC

zild3d wrote: post #262

rainydaybook wrote: post #260

I've always found Duolingo too boring and it didn't help me at all. I was able to learn 7 languages using different routes. I already knew Russian, I've learned English the usual school + moving to the country route, and I've learned Spanish, French, German, Italian and Latin by mostly reading books and watching online videos and movies. Having bookstores nearby (especially the Strand) with a lot of interesting books…

At what point do you start reading a book in a new language? Do you already know say 500 words? Otherwise I'd imagine you have to look up almost every word on the page

For some languages, there are books written with restricted vocabularies (500 words, 1000 words, 1500 words, etc), called "graded readers."[1]

There are some really nice graded readers out there, with the entire vocabulary defined at the back of the book, and any word outside the restricted vocabulary defined in a footnote on the page. I've even seen editions that come with a matching audio book, so you that you can practice listening as well.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graded_reader

Re: Duolingo reaches $6.5B valuation on day of IPO

#343

Post by vr46 » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 10:43 AM UTC

Semaphor wrote: post #95

vr46 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I am using Duolingo as I will have to take the sane exam at some point over the next year or two. I think it works ok for being able to consume simple German but less well for understanding spoken German, or constructing one’s own ideas. In other words, it doesn’t make the hard things easy or easier. It is a great alternative to wasting time on social media or news sites, however.

The A1 exam is a pretty simple test ;)

Is that right? So how come they’re charging a fortune for the course in London??!!

Re: Duolingo reaches $6.5B valuation on day of IPO

#344

Post by whatever_dude » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 12:03 PM UTC

vncecartersknee wrote: post #4

Honestly from using duolingo pretty heavily for a couple of years, attending language classes and doing my own individual study I've found duolingo pretty useless. It's "fun" and gives one the sense of progress without really accomplishing much.

For non-ubiquitous languages (everything other than English), part of the difficulty of learning is not just the basic learning, it's retaining what you've learned; it might be difficult to practice it unless you're on the country that speaks it. Of I'm in the middle of Tennessee, probably don't have a lot of opportunity to prescribe my Japanese. That's where Duolingo shines, in my opinion: as a learning companion.

Re: Duolingo reaches $6.5B valuation on day of IPO

#345

Post by rainydaybook » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 12:22 PM UTC

cerved wrote: post #337

rainydaybook wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which languages and how well did it work for you to transition into reading books?

the Scandinavian languages + English, German, French, Spanish, Italian I don't really read books much but in general it's easy to read once you've learned to speak and listen

That's cool, the same languages as me, aside from Scandinavian!

Re: Duolingo reaches $6.5B valuation on day of IPO

#346

Post by LAC-Tech » Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 8:33 PM UTC

least wrote: post #189

LAC-Tech wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Speaking and listening are related skills yet speaking is much harder than listening Listening is much harder for me. I find it easy to mimic/parrot sounds, but not distinguish them when listening.

Speaking in this case isn't simply speaking words out loud intelligibly, but the entire process of thinking and communicating ideas in a foreign language. There is almost always a gap in your knowledge with regards to what you can understand being said and what you can actually say which is why I say it is harder, even if you can say everything that you can say fluently.

This doesn't ring true to me. I can memorise a phrase, mimic it, and associate the whole phrase with a meaning. But that comes before I even know what each individual word means.

Re: Duolingo reaches $6.5B valuation on day of IPO

#347

Post by LittleFishyChan » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 12:38 AM UTC

asoneth wrote: post #288

JCharante wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but you see people still using Duolingo after 6 months or 1 year. If you saw someone still using training wheels after 1 year, you would tell them to stop because it's handicapping them. Duolingo is the same, it's a terrible investment of time after 1 month.

As someone who has used Duolingo and spaced repetition apps for ~10m/day for the last four or five years, is there something specific you recommend transitioning to? I've started with some Netflix and podcasts, but they're a little more awkward in 10m chunks.

I’ve been using a spaced repetition flashcard program called SuperMemo every day for more than 15 years. It has worked really well for long term retention on stuff I’ve made flashcards about, which includes languages and other stuff I find interesting.

Re: Duolingo reaches $6.5B valuation on day of IPO

#348

Post by inside_out_life » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 4:56 AM UTC

FalconSensei wrote: post #287

dorchadas wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This has existed for at least two years: https://www.duolingo.com/stories I'm aware of stories, but given that it's only available in a small minority of languages, I'd say it's fair to say DL doesn't offer it when the majority of their languages don't (and likely won't ever) have stories.

they used to have you read wiki articles like, 6 years ago? I feel that over the years, Duolingo started focusing way more on the game aspect than learning. The spaced repetition is also mostly gone, only somewhat available on desktop.

This is not true, they've made changes recently to their premium features that forces you to do training (spaced tasks).

Re: Duolingo reaches $6.5B valuation on day of IPO

#349

Post by tapland » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 10:19 AM UTC

least wrote: post #325

consilla wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surpised this is getting downvoted. The OPs assertion that listening is easier than speaking makes sense in the context he describes, a closed testing environment. In a more practical setting, as someone who is living in another country and learning the language, it is far easier for me to convey my meaning with limited vocabulary, than to listen and interpret another speaker, and especially a group conversation.…

When we're speaking of proficiency and comparing them between reading, listening, and speaking, you look at them through a similar lens. How well can you understand or communicate ideas in the language? Can you convey complicated and nuanced thoughts in your target language? Can you understand those? How would your speaking ability compare to a well educated native speaker? How does it compare against a less educated…

Well apparently reading isn't so easy either since so many missed what the points being defended were.

Re: Duolingo reaches $6.5B valuation on day of IPO

#350

Post by tapland » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 10:20 AM UTC

least wrote: post #160

tapland wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the test specifications. You will not speak what you don't know. There is no such limit when others just say things in accents, speeds or using words you have no knowledge of. Starting to speak and be correctly understood felt much easier than accurately understanding others in my two secondary languages, and the same for my fiancée who is a native English speaker with one secondary language.

> According to the test specifications. ...Which define proficiency nearly identically between the different skill sets. Your relative proficiency for speaking is expected to be worse until you reach native proficiency, where you are still worse at speaking than reading or listening, but it doesn't very much matter in most situations. > You will not speak what you don't know. Yes, and what you don't know with speakin…

Re-read the thread.

Test results and fet experience are not connected.