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LibreLingo – FOSS Alternative to Duolingo

librelingo.app

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Re: LibreLingo – FOSS Alternative to Duolingo

#151

Post by vaylian »

GardenLetter27 wrote: post #100

It sucks how Duolingo has gotten so much worse over the years. It used to be great when it had the grammar notes and discussion forums and comments, and you could actually finish the course and have some recognition. Now it's just all too game-like and all based around maintaining streaks rather than learning. Unfortunately some other apps have started to copy this model too like HelloChinese.

Agree. Duolingo lost most of its appeal when the discussion forums were taken offline.

It was really nice to discuss the sentences with other learners and the creator of the course.

And it was always fun to open the thread for the sentence "I love you" in the language that you were learning.

Re: LibreLingo – FOSS Alternative to Duolingo

#152

Post by InsideOutSanta »

stevekemp wrote: post #64
frabcus wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to consciously and rationally understand the grammar - you didn't when first learning to speak your first language! Stephen Krashen is a pretty good researcher on this - the summary is that exposure to the language for time (e.g. 500 hours of content you just about understand) is the critical factor. This is training non-conscious parts of your brain's neural network. Some people like understanding the…

Good luck learning Finnish without understanding the grammar.

I feel like it's the opposite. Most people who speak languages with complex grammar natively can not clearly explain the grammar to you, because they use the correct grammar intuitively, and they have learned to do so by having a ton of input in that language.

Re: LibreLingo – FOSS Alternative to Duolingo

#153

Post by bluGill »

devrandoom wrote: post #5
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…

What are the modern methods and what's to back up they're better?

I'll answer the opposite question: the worst way to learn a language is to spend all you effort learning all the different ways to learn trying to find what is best.

unfortunately the above is not a joke. It is what many people are really doing. The question itself is fine but don't let it consume you. Or if it does at least do as I do: confine your research to the language you are trying to learn.

Re: LibreLingo – FOSS Alternative to Duolingo

#154

Post by fleischhauf »

darkstar_16 wrote: post #8
daniel_iversen wrote: post #2

For the curious, here's an article from the developer on why they built LibreLingo https://dev.to/kantord/why-i-built-librelingo-280o

who are these people who have 30 minutes in the morning to make a smoothie and learn a foreign language ... :D

who are these people who have 30 minutes in the morning to make a smoothie and develop software to learn a foreign language

Re: LibreLingo – FOSS Alternative to Duolingo

#155

Post by InsideOutSanta »

codetrotter wrote: post #56
huimang wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only method worse than Duolingo for language learning is possibly the traditional classroom, in my humble opinion. My background is that I've studied Korean for ~8 years now, as a native English speaker. Like most US citizens I took Spanish classes in middle & high school. I did the traditional classroom method with 3 semesters of German in college. And I forgot most of Spanish and German aside from some words an…

> neither should really be looked towards for substantial language learning methods What should one do instead?

I can only tell you what worked for me: it's input. Read. Start using any brute-force method to learn the basics, like the 100 most common words. Then start reading stories aimed at toddlers (or especially written for language learners, there are apps), and keep going to more complex input as you progress.

Do not worry about grammar; you will learn it intuitively as you move from simple sentences to more complex blocks of text. Do not worry about learning word lists after you have the basics; learn words in the context of the text you're reading.

(I have no qualifications besides being a self-taught English and Chinese speaker, so take my input for what it's worth.)

Re: LibreLingo – FOSS Alternative to Duolingo

#157

Post by spudlyo »

huimang wrote: post #90
codetrotter wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> neither should really be looked towards for substantial language learning methods What should one do instead?

There is no one magic solution. Every person I know who has learned a language to an advanced degree has used a variety of methods, diligently, over a long period of time, depending on their current needs. I can give a brief overview of some tools that I find to be efficient in terms of time and payoff, in no particular order. 1. SRS - Spaced Repetition Software, for flashcards. Anki is the gold standard. It's open s…

These are some great tips. Having consistent daily exposure to your target language I think is important. Compelling graded readers can make spending that time every day enjoyable and not feel like a chore. A stress-free positive learning environment helps quite a bit with the subconscious process of language acquisition; it's what Krashen calls the "Affective Filter Hypothesis".

Re: LibreLingo – FOSS Alternative to Duolingo

#158

Post by ghaff »

skydhash wrote: post #134
ljm wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've used Pimsleur on and off for a while and it's great, because even with sporadic usage I can still more or less remember what I learned and most of the time I just need a bit of a refresher in terms of using the right case or conjugation so I don't get I/you/they/it mixed up. Hours into Duolingo I'm repeating total nonsense like "the man is a boy" and "the turtle has green pants," but with Pimsleur, after the sam…

You need very little grammar in the first place. And if you learned your native one, it becomes easier to just store the difference (leaks may still happen). Coherent input where previous words are repeated while you learned new one are best (watch subtitled movies, and you can pick a lot if you’re focused on that).

Probably especially with a related language. I remember high school French (vaguely) abd it was probably a pretty good 4 years of high school French. But I also remember memorizing a ton of complex tenses and the like, many of which I probably rarely use in English, couldn't name, and would probably be hard for a lot of people to parse if I did, especially conversationally and mixed with negation.

Re: LibreLingo – FOSS Alternative to Duolingo

#159

Post by ryandrake »

bluGill wrote: post #142
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Comprehesible input. find something basic you can understand and immerse your self in it. Often this is childrens books/shows or similar level designed for adults. at the start you use a translation dictionary to look up ever word which is boring - which is why approaches like duolingo where they give you around 2000 common words to memorize quickly are useful. However the goal is to learn just enough of that list th…

Maybe “immersion” works if you already know the language and are going for fluency, but I don’t see how it can get you from zero to one. I’ve tried as an adult and failed to learn my wife’s native language and no amount of “input” at any speed or level helps. It just washes over me and I don’t understand anything.

Re: LibreLingo – FOSS Alternative to Duolingo

#160

Post by glitchc »

aquariusDue wrote: post #78
apwell23 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

In bed?! You gotta multitask if you want to get things done, try on the toilet next time.

I read Hacker News on the toilet.
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