4 ms·

Can a chatbot teach you a foreign language? Duolingo thinks so

24 points by m0nty 10y ago

aphextron 10y ago
Just wanted to say Duolingo is fantastic software. I've been using it to learn spanish and I'm blown away at the level of quality.
- switch007 10y ago
  Hm, the frequency of odd phrases such as "I need a horse", "she is a double agent" and "you only need two witnesses" put me off. I found the sentences distracting and too simplistic. On topics such as the future perfect, it constructs weird sentences such as 'Nosotros habremos llamado a la policía' (we will have called the police (strange in the first person plural)) and 'la pareja habrá muerto' (the couple will have died). I suspect little human effort goes in to the examples. There are tumblr blogs dedicated to Duolingos funny sentences!
buckhx 10y ago
I really wish I could use Duolingo on the subway...
- boulos 10y ago
  You can... When it asks you to speak, you can hit "Not now" and it disables the microphone for an hour. It's not great about caching lessons offline, but it definitely prefetches a handful.
  - buckhx 10y ago
    Everytime I've tried that I can usually finish the section I'm on, but can't move onto the next one. I've read they used to have an implicit caching behavior, but that hasn't been my experience.
    - CaptSpify 10y ago
      You can set it to never speak/listen and only do text. That's how I use it. Obviously I'm missing out on the hearing/speaking portion of learning the language, but it's still been pretty useful
boneheadmed 10y ago
This sounds incredible. Can't believe I haven't heard of it. My kids are trying to learn French and I'm going to have the whole family try to use it. This is one of those things where I say "Why didn't I think of that?" The chatbot lives and has utility, who knew?
- m0nty 10y ago
  Have you used the current Duolingo app? It really is good. I'm also using it for French, I've been stuck on "basic French" for too long now so I'm making a concerted effort to raise my game. They also just release spaced repetition software called Tinycards, although Anki might be better at the moment, according to the reviews. Either way, I wish I'd had this stuff at school.
Goosey 10y ago
Still patiently waiting for duolingo to have Korean for English Speakers as an option. :/ it's been years
- BirdieNZ 10y ago
  I believe recently they moved some stage ahead with English for Korean speakers, but it seems to be taking forever :(

24 points by m0nty 10y ago

Just wanted to say Duolingo is fantastic software. I've been using it to learn spanish and I'm blown away at the level of quality.

switch007 10y ago
Hm, the frequency of odd phrases such as "I need a horse", "she is a double agent" and "you only need two witnesses" put me off. I found the sentences distracting and too simplistic. On topics such as the future perfect, it constructs weird sentences such as 'Nosotros habremos llamado a la policía' (we will have called the police (strange in the first person plural)) and 'la pareja habrá muerto' (the couple will have died). I suspect little human effort goes in to the examples. There are tumblr blogs dedicated to Duolingos funny sentences!

buckhx 10y ago

I really wish I could use Duolingo on the subway...

boulos 10y ago
You can... When it asks you to speak, you can hit "Not now" and it disables the microphone for an hour. It's not great about caching lessons offline, but it definitely prefetches a handful.
- buckhx 10y ago
  Everytime I've tried that I can usually finish the section I'm on, but can't move onto the next one. I've read they used to have an implicit caching behavior, but that hasn't been my experience.
  - CaptSpify 10y ago
    You can set it to never speak/listen and only do text. That's how I use it. Obviously I'm missing out on the hearing/speaking portion of learning the language, but it's still been pretty useful

boneheadmed 10y ago

This sounds incredible. Can't believe I haven't heard of it. My kids are trying to learn French and I'm going to have the whole family try to use it. This is one of those things where I say "Why didn't I think of that?" The chatbot lives and has utility, who knew?

m0nty 10y ago
Have you used the current Duolingo app? It really is good. I'm also using it for French, I've been stuck on "basic French" for too long now so I'm making a concerted effort to raise my game. They also just release spaced repetition software called Tinycards, although Anki might be better at the moment, according to the reviews. Either way, I wish I'd had this stuff at school.

Goosey 10y ago

Still patiently waiting for duolingo to have Korean for English Speakers as an option. :/ it's been years

BirdieNZ 10y ago
I believe recently they moved some stage ahead with English for Korean speakers, but it seems to be taking forever :(