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Duolingo Raises $45M, Now Valued at $470M

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Re: Duolingo Raises $45M, Now Valued at $470M

#101

Post by steveridout »

shkkmo wrote: post #97
steveridout wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What would speed things up for me is the ability to easily import translations from Google Translate into my flashcard app. You might like to try my webapp for reading and learning a language: http://readlang.com It allows you to read shared texts or upload your own (.txt or .epub) or read any web page with a Chrome extension ( https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/readlang-web-reade... ) You can click or drag…

That looks helpful I'll give it a try, what source do you use for your translations?

The in-line translations come from Google Translate. People often dismiss Google Translate but it's very good between English and the other major European languages. The quality isn't as good for less popular languages, or if one of your languages isn't English.

If you aren't satisfied with the translation, you can refer to another dictionary in the reader sidebar (or a popup window in the Chrome extension). The default for Spanish-English is WordReference, but users can customize this if they have another favorite (http://blog.readlang.com/2013/11/07/custom-dictionaries.html).

On top of that, you can edit all the words you translate, and if in future you click the same word, you'll get your personally edited version instead of Google Translate. So you're effectively building up your own large translation dictionary. One idea for the future is to use all these edits to crowd source better translations, but there's plenty of lower hanging fruit to get through first!

Re: Duolingo Raises $45M, Now Valued at $470M

#102

Post by mcintyre1994 »

probably_wrong wrote: post #84

Since there are so many Duoling fans here, I have to ask: am I the only one who finds the app almost unusable because there's no theory? For German I used to try the exercises on my commute, but suddenly the app expected me to use "dem" instead of "der" without any explanation. I can't be the only one with this problem, right? Or is there a "new concepts" tab that I've never seen?

Yea I tried German for a while, never got into it and I think that's why. At the time the tablet app (android) didn't have a very good UI around accessing tips + hints and comments (I think comments were excluded completely but can't quite remember).

Re: Duolingo Raises $45M, Now Valued at $470M

#103

Post by bqe »

steveridout wrote: post #93
shkkmo wrote: post #25

I am currently in Uruguay learning Spanish and Duolingo is one the the 4 tools I use on my phone for it. The other three are: Ankidroid: A flashcard app for adding vocabulary I need and phrases I want to come more fluidly. Spanish Trainer: A spaced repetition verb conjugation app as Duolingo doesn't give me enough practice with this. Google Translate What would speed things up for me is the ability to easily import t…

> What would speed things up for me is the ability to easily import translations from Google Translate into my flashcard app. You might like to try my webapp for reading and learning a language: http://readlang.com It allows you to read shared texts or upload your own (.txt or .epub) or read any web page with a Chrome extension ( https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/readlang-web-reade... ) You can click or drag…

This is a really cool product. I am surprised at both the quality of translation and the seamless integration into the page. I am definitely going to be using this.

Great job!

Re: Duolingo Raises $45M, Now Valued at $470M

#104

Post by VLM »

tabrischen wrote: post #72

Have been a fan of Duolingo for a long time. I see it as an important enabler of people who're aspiring hypergots or polygots. I can't wait for Esperanto to become available within the app.

Memrise is about the same and has some courses.

http://www.memrise.com/courses/english/esperanto/

Re: Duolingo Raises $45M, Now Valued at $470M

#105

Post by omniaura »

maw wrote: post #92
probably_wrong wrote: post #84

Since there are so many Duoling fans here, I have to ask: am I the only one who finds the app almost unusable because there's no theory? For German I used to try the exercises on my commute, but suddenly the app expected me to use "dem" instead of "der" without any explanation. I can't be the only one with this problem, right? Or is there a "new concepts" tab that I've never seen?

I think the pendulum's swung too far in the other direction: a proper mix of theory and practice is self-evidently the way to go--especially when immersion is not feasible--and the only part worth debating is exactly what mix to use. I never used Duolingo much because you have to type on a phone which is pure pain, but here's another reason I'd avoid it, and ultimately a more important one. (Also, in case you haven't…

> I never used Duolingo much because you have to type on a phone which is pure pain

Duolingo has a full-featured web version: https://www.duolingo.com

I find it vastly easier to use than the mobile version for that reason.

Re: Duolingo Raises $45M, Now Valued at $470M

#106

Post by renaudg »

mhartl wrote: post #91
Symbiote wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That should be easy on mobile devices. At least one of ä, á, à, â, æ, å is necessary for most of the supported languages.

Those characters are still based on the Roman alphabet, though. Non-Roman alphabets such as Cyrillic are trickier. For example, I can copy-and-paste Cyrillic, as in русский, but I don't know offhand how to produce those characters on my keyboard, much less on my iPad or mobile device.

On your iPad or iPhone, you'd just add a Russian keyboard ...

Re: Duolingo Raises $45M, Now Valued at $470M

#107

Post by Trufa »

shkkmo wrote: post #25

I am currently in Uruguay learning Spanish and Duolingo is one the the 4 tools I use on my phone for it. The other three are: Ankidroid: A flashcard app for adding vocabulary I need and phrases I want to come more fluidly. Spanish Trainer: A spaced repetition verb conjugation app as Duolingo doesn't give me enough practice with this. Google Translate What would speed things up for me is the ability to easily import t…

Welcome to our little country! Where do you come from? What's your mother tongue?

Re: Duolingo Raises $45M, Now Valued at $470M

#108

Post by Trufa »

probably_wrong wrote: post #84

Since there are so many Duoling fans here, I have to ask: am I the only one who finds the app almost unusable because there's no theory? For German I used to try the exercises on my commute, but suddenly the app expected me to use "dem" instead of "der" without any explanation. I can't be the only one with this problem, right? Or is there a "new concepts" tab that I've never seen?

While I agree, I find that the comment section was quite helpful for understanding those concepts.

Re: Duolingo Raises $45M, Now Valued at $470M

#110

Post by mrdrozdov »

Balgair wrote: post #56
emergentcypher wrote: post #34

Still waiting for their Russian course!

Any word on getting over the hurdle of using another alphabet on english keyboards?

This is really easy on Mac and iOS.

For iOS, just add the keyboard and it will become available (this is the same way that most people use emojis).

On Mac, you can add the keyboard as well. There is a phonetic keyboard for Russian that I've found to be much easier than the standard layout. I map keyboard switching to ctl+opt+cmd+space, which works pretty well for me. What I really like about Mac is that you can use dictation to read Russian words that you don't need to understand. You will need to download a Russian-specific voice for this, otherwise it will simply read the names of the letters.

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