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It's quite hard to lose a Duolingo streak

leejo.github.io

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Re: It's quite hard to lose a Duolingo streak

#181

Post by adastra22 »

dom111 wrote: post #177
adastra22 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can be demotivating. I use other language learning apps (not Duolingo, which is garbage), and I try to maintain a streak not because I care about it, but because I want the daily habit. Nevertheless, the number goes up… and help but get attached to it. I mean I don’t care about the number per se, but it was a reminder of my good study habit, which as someone with ADHD is an accomplishment itself. Then, like GP, I…

Out of interest, what other language learning apps are you using? I'm going to Portugal nest year and learning Portuguese through Duolingo at the moment. It's ok and some stuff is sticking, but I can't help but feel some of the why is missing and I'm just learning how to interpret their questions, rather than learning the language (I guess that's your problem with it?)

The ones I’m using now are specific to Japanese (WaniKani and Bunpro), but if you want to level up from Duolingo I would recommend Memrise for a similar bit more effective experience. They have a Portuguese course.

If I were in your shoes, I would do Memrise to fill the little moments throughout the day. But the focus of my studies would be (1) a local community college Portuguese course; (2) the FSI Basic Portuguese course (or another drill heavy course from the 60’s, maybe linguaphone?) for self-study drill practice, 30min a day; and (3) a good sentence deck in Anki, minimum 10 new cards per day.

Re: It's quite hard to lose a Duolingo streak

#182

Post by emursebrian »

matthewdgreen wrote: post #61
iratewizard wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've used Duolingo for about a year and they definitely have a lot of stuff like that built into the gamification. Often times, though, playing the game they designed is counterproductive. I've broken 100+ day streaks twice now because I realized I was only putting in the minimum for the sake of the game. I've found it better to take a month off here and there so that I can come back and focus on my actual goals. The…

Does the app work? I don’t mean the gamification: I mean, are you becoming fluent (or even just literate) in the language outside of the app?

Duolingo and other apps are good to learn a little bit about the language, but what you really need to do to become fluent is to have conversations with native speakers, read newspapers and immerse yourself in the culture as much as possible.

Luckily, that is a lot easier these days with the internet!

Re: It's quite hard to lose a Duolingo streak

#183

Post by satisfice »

What is Duolingo?

I do realize I can Google it. But isn’t it interesting that Hacker News brings all of us into contact with alien civilizations every day. Whatever Duolingo is, sounds like it became a significant part of you life. For me it has been Wordchums and FastHabit.

Re: It's quite hard to lose a Duolingo streak

#184

Post by emursebrian »

Tainnor wrote: post #179

Apps like Duolingo IMHO try to sell the illusion of learning. Far more people like the illusion of learning than actual learning, so it makes sense from a business POV, but if you're really dedicated, textbooks + flashcards + immersion will get you farther ahead.

I think that's partly true, but the other aspect of it is that there are a lot more people who want to start learning a language than those have made it past a beginner level.

Apps like Duolingo and others also completely neglect giving the language learner longer passages of text to read or videos to watch. Most learners do this on their own, but it does take a tremendous amount of prep work to find the appropriate materials.

Once you have the materials, you need a way to re-enforce what you've learned. I was doing this with Anki and found it very cumbersome and time-consuming to do.

Re: It's quite hard to lose a Duolingo streak

#185

Post by jamiek88 »

emursebrian wrote: post #182
matthewdgreen wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the app work? I don’t mean the gamification: I mean, are you becoming fluent (or even just literate) in the language outside of the app?

Duolingo and other apps are good to learn a little bit about the language, but what you really need to do to become fluent is to have conversations with native speakers, read newspapers and immerse yourself in the culture as much as possible. Luckily, that is a lot easier these days with the internet!

Yeah two months into my two years in Madrid my Spanish improved more than it did in two years of lessons and online learning as well as three years of school Spanish.

I can still understand a lot of Spanish and when I’m warmed up and have been back a few days my conversational level comes back.

Re: It's quite hard to lose a Duolingo streak

#186

Post by glhaynes »

jeremyjh wrote: post #162
jammu wrote: post #153

I love that Duo streak is hard to lose, unlike other apps where if you miss a day streak is gone. The goal of app is to help you keep learning. In life things are bound to happen because of which you might miss couple of days or more, it make no sense to penalize you for that. I have been trying to maintain streak in other apps but I when I miss a day, I am not motivated enough to go back and start again. Also, strea…

But how does the streak motivate you if you know that it is meaningless - and not even really a streak?

Because it's still a motivating number that has rules around it (even if they're loosely-enforced), which my monkey brain finds appealing to make go up. If I knew it was _completely_ meaningless—say, if I knew it were impossible to ever lose—I think it'd lose its appeal, so it's a fine line they have to walk.

Re: It's quite hard to lose a Duolingo streak

#187

Post by simlevesque »

Leherenn wrote: post #164
SicSemperUranus wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I find/found the lack of colloquialisms one of the biggest problems with it. This is actually a big problem with how people perceive language in general. It's hard to understand if you only speak one language, but the idea of a language as a discrete unit is a myth. Here in Québec there is Québécois French, which in and of itself is a generalization, as many regions have different accents and expressions. In France…

I think you're vastly overstating the differences that exist in French. It's mostly accents with a few distinct words/expressions. The grammar, spelling, syntax and everything else is the same. Sure, someone with a strong uncommon accent can take some effort to understand ("can't even understand" is a clear exaggeration except in the more egregious cases), but the language underneath is the same. French is very stand…

> "international French" is spoken by everyone

You sound clueless. The majority of people don't speak "international French". Do you even speak french ?

Re: It's quite hard to lose a Duolingo streak

#188

Post by emursebrian »

Rerarom wrote: post #2

What are some good alternatives to Duolingo with fewer dark patterns? (And don't suggest traditional methods, I am very much not against them, I am just curious about apps and such.)

There are a lot of alternatives, but I found myself bouncing back and forth between different resources and spent a lot of time curating content.

I started working on some of my own tooling to help with this. For example, one tool took a list of sentences and translations and ran them through Google TTS to get recording to use in Anki. After working on this tooling for a while, I decided to move away from Anki and just build an app.

Right now, we're working on building out a beginner Thai course focused on reading because educational material in that area is severely lacking. We're also working on a series of graded readers.

Soon we'll be launching quick-study feature that allows you to curate lists of words and phrases that you want to learn. You will be able to select from anything you've already learned, draw from our existing library of 129,000 words and phrases or input new content. Once you've created or lists you can use the quick-study that will create a custom lesson for you based on how familiar with the content you are.

Not launched or even in beta yet, but the site is public. The info is listed in my profile and you can contact me from the site if you'd like to get in touch.

Re: It's quite hard to lose a Duolingo streak

#189

Post by dymk »

satisfice wrote: post #183

What is Duolingo? I do realize I can Google it. But isn’t it interesting that Hacker News brings all of us into contact with alien civilizations every day. Whatever Duolingo is, sounds like it became a significant part of you life. For me it has been Wordchums and FastHabit.

Duolingo has 40 million monthly active users. Ball is in your court if you don't know what it is.

Re: It's quite hard to lose a Duolingo streak

#190

Post by dymk »

Nobody ever became conversational in a language by using Duolingo. It's IMO a determent to language learners, because it makes you _feel_ like you're learning something without actually putting together the skills needed to understand even basic native content. Rather than spending time with comprehensible input, people get stuck in the Duo well where they're content to collect rubies and points.

Drop Duolingo, use a proven method like Pimsleur, grab the Anki Core Vocab deck for your language, and start consuming native content ASAP.

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