I recently wrote a langauge app... my approach has been..
1. start with ear training. (minimal pairs)
2. learn some vocab (anki)
3. then use social media. tik tok specifically.
Duolingo Sucks, Now What?
21–30 of 138 posts
Re: Duolingo Sucks, Now What?
#22And yet again, I'm promoting my app on HN.
SRS flashcards, sentences and audio generated with AI, Wiktionary, YouTube, Webbrowser integration: https://vokabeln.io (landing page is old)
Only works for German right now, but I'll be adding Spanish and English in the coming months.
Re: Duolingo Sucks, Now What?
#23Has Duolingo ever worked for actual language learning? It has always seemed more like pseudo-productivity to me.
It works for Esperanto (which is arguably the easiest language to learn).
I completed the Duolingo course in a month, then I could read Gerda Malaperis in three days and Vere aux fantazie in another month, then I could read suitably advanced stuff.
For other languages I tried, it didn't work at all, but it could be because of my lack of patience.
Re: Duolingo Sucks, Now What?
#24I had an 1000 day streak with Duolingo. The streak is great for being consistent, but I spent almost half of the time on Duolingo at the aim of keeping my streak rather than truly learning the language.
When I stopped using the app, I could read the language I learnt ok, but I wasn’t conversational, and couldn’t understand people speaking at their normal pace. Still a beginner.
Someone suggested the free language learning website called ‘Language Transfer’ here on Hacker News last year.
Within the first day listening to Language Transfer I was fairly conversational. By day 21 I could understand some Spanish shows without sub-titles.
Clozemaster is another excellent tool if you want to become proficient in a language.
Re: Duolingo Sucks, Now What?
#25Anki is suggested for SRS, but are there decks available with audio? That would be a pretty near Duolingo replacement in my books.
but are there decks available with audio?
Yes.
Re: Duolingo Sucks, Now What?
#26Duolingo doesn't actually do much if anything to help you become fluent. Nor does almost all the language learning apps such as Drops, Rosetta Stone, etc. What you need to move towards fluency is a lot of "comprehensible input" like with "Dreaming Spanish". Learning about a language is different from acquiring a language, Krashen et. all has a lot of research on how people actually gain fluency. What most people are…
I'd love to read this - but can't log into UQ. Can you repost or provide more detail please?
Re: Duolingo Sucks, Now What?
#27Anki is suggested for SRS, but are there decks available with audio? That would be a pretty near Duolingo replacement in my books.
There are lots of decks. Some have audio. Quality varies. https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks
You can also make your own decks using audio from e.g. Tatoeba or Mozilla Common Voice.
Re: Duolingo Sucks, Now What?
#28I've been running through the Japanese course daily for the last 2 months. I'm learning to read somewhat , but I doubt that if I was to speak I would be understood. I understand there are limitations to this format. However, what drives me nuts is the fact I can't just enable the Japanese keyboard (which I've installed) to type out answers. Instead I just select the correct predefined answer from a list. This allows…
Even worse, they only give one coherent response to multiple choice questions. No similar words that learers frequently mix up. Usually words that are never mentioned in the unit.
Re: Duolingo Sucks, Now What?
#29One of the main disappointments with Duolingo's recent path for me has been the removal of the forum. It was so useful whenever I was confused by a certain phrase or new concept to just hop directly into the discussion forum page for that exercise and see others asking the same questions and getting well-written intuitive answers to them. Just boosted my understanding so much plus added a sense of community, that we'…
As I think I’ve posted previously, they’re one of those companies that have gone to great lengths to made themselves impossible to contact. Try finding a way to get in touch with them. I’ll wait. Except for billing queries, you won’t. Granted, some of the queries will be language questions you might not have the resources to answer, but that’s a consequence of being a language learning site.
Anyway, to me, it’s a big red flag. (For the record I did use Duolingo for over a year as a paid member with a 365 day streak. At which point I stopped.)
Re: Duolingo Sucks, Now What?
#30Has Duolingo ever worked for actual language learning? It has always seemed more like pseudo-productivity to me.
I think it can be used for actual language learning. But no, it's not going to do it by itself. Say each word or phrase out loud, multiple times, and possibly other "extra" study (whatever works for you), and the daily DL habit will certainly leave you with better vocabulary and hopefully more than what you start with.
If you just do a single lesson braindead as fast as possible so you don't lose your streak, then no, you won't learn a language.
I have to also say that none of the languages I've studied on DL are completely new to me. I have had formal instruction in each at some point in my life. I've noticed certain concepts that would probably not make as much sense to someone who hasn't studied the language or language in general (case, conjugation).
Finally, I have one major complaint about Chinese on DL, which is that after 9 months or so I still see the pinyin full time, which means I never really get a chance to solidify the characters properly. I've already said to myself that I need to practice writing separately. There are other problems, but overall, you're probably getting more out of 10 minutes a day of Duo Lingo than several hours of whatever other mobile timesink you're using.