LibreLingo – FOSS Alternative to Duolingo

Post by criddell » Tue, Apr 29, 2025, 11:02 AM UTC

gary17the wrote: post #22

Tor3 wrote: post #4

There wasn't much to read there, but why aspire to be an alternative to Duolingo of all things? Duolingo focuses on learning by translation, basically. It's even in the name: "Duolingo". It's an utterly broken approach to learning languages, except for the very initial phase where you're getting just enough to move on to modern methods (i.e. avoid translation like the plague, to start with). Which is exactly why a co…

> [learning by translation] [is] an utterly broken approach to learning languages I speak one foreign language fluently, which I learned in a traditional classroom environment with a teacher, and recently started to learn another language with Duolingo. I actually find their "learning by translation" method possibly easier (and definitely less boring) than the traditional "keep learning all the different grammar comb…

Post by arghwhat » Tue, Apr 29, 2025, 11:03 AM UTC

isaacremuant wrote: post #97

arghwhat wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a bit of a different perspective. Sure, Duolingo is suboptimal and won't teach you a language on its own, but I'd say that language classes themselves is no better. Specifically, I consider the fundamental missing piece to allow achieving language intermediacy or fluency to be confidence and sporadic language use, and you have to be lucky for a language class to give you this. Hearing about grammar and having…

Next time pay enough for a class or have a good private tutor and all you've said becomes true. But hey, the alternative is pretending classes are not better than Duolingo so go do that and you'll have the same results.

Post by bookofjoe » Tue, Apr 29, 2025, 11:17 AM UTC

apwell23 wrote: post #47

cyborgx7 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people who prioritize learning a foreign language over some of the things that you prioritize.

> some of the things that you prioritize watching reels first thing in the morning in bed

Post by vindarel » Tue, Apr 29, 2025, 11:32 AM UTC

internet_points wrote: post #35

gary17the wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [learning by translation] [is] an utterly broken approach to learning languages I speak one foreign language fluently, which I learned in a traditional classroom environment with a teacher, and recently started to learn another language with Duolingo. I actually find their "learning by translation" method possibly easier (and definitely less boring) than the traditional "keep learning all the different grammar comb…

> traditional "keep learning all the different grammar combinations first" approach That's not better than Duolingo, no. Duolingo is OK initially (especially if you need to learn a new alphabet), but then quickly move on to * https://www.languagetransfer.org/ (will give you a good understanding of the principles of the language but without feeling like a grammar book) * https://www.pimsleur.com/ or similar audio cour…

Post by skydhash » Tue, Apr 29, 2025, 11:33 AM UTC

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #126

Tor3 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do agree with a lot of what you write. I maintain that Duolingo is the wrong approach to actually learn a language (even though there are differences between the various languages covered by Duolingo). However, I did somewhat successfully use Duolingo to refresh some intermediate-level Italian grammar (not grammar training, but I could observe various grammatically different sentences), after having been away from…

You've twice written about what is the wrong way to learn a new language -- what's your right way? Why did you use Duo' instead of 'the right way'? Perhaps that explains why one might create a OSS version of Duo.