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To be fair, Super Duolingo is pretty good. Dropping the Ads alone is totally worth the subscription if you're a daily user (it's the only app I use daily aside

by lsllc 4y ago

To be fair, Super Duolingo is pretty good. Dropping the Ads alone is totally worth the subscription if you're a daily user (it's the only app I use daily aside from Messages, Email etc). I'm very curious about Max though ... the explain your answer is something I'm really interested in to help me understand the sentences I'm constructing (which is where I make most of my blunders!).

atlasunshrugged 4y ago
I also use it daily but I'm a bit worried I won't concentrate as much if I have unlimited hearts, have you noticed any decline in recall? But yes, the ads are super annoying... especially the same one to upgrade Duolingo puts in every time!
- gopalv 4y ago
  > I'm a bit worried I won't concentrate as much if I have unlimited hearts, have you noticed any decline in recall? I did a trial and I noticed I spend more time with the App when I had unlimited hearts, so I got through more lessons a day. Less attention to a single question, but a lot more time spent on the app. And that when it comes to actual recall, the mistakes don't count when it comes to learning. I don't really learn by recalling information, I learn by having stuff shoved into my brain with Spaced repetition. The unlimited hearts thing fed the repetition cycle a lot more.
- lvass 4y ago
  I haven't even noticed ads using uBO.
  - tylorr 4y ago
    They're a lot more intrusive on the mobile app
    - atlasunshrugged 4y ago
      Yes, should have added more detail, I was talking specifically about my experience on the mobile app
      - lsllc 4y ago
        ditto
    - uneekname 4y ago
      I've had success blocking the ads using a pi-hole. You still see ads for Duolingo Super and other in-house offerings, but the obnoxious video ads go away.
- lsllc 4y ago
  I haven't, but I got sick of the ads pretty quickly and have been signed up for super for most of my ~10 month streak. I try to spend 10-20 mins a day on it (learning Spanish) and actually do a lot of the "review" lessons which are good at drilling words. I am often surprised by my recall at phrases that I haven't seen in a while -- pretty sure they use the spaced repetition type algorithms. My challenges now aren't so much on vocab/recall, but on verb conjugation and sentence construction / structure. I kind of know what to say but have trouble putting it together. What I need to do is practice more actually speaking Spanish and interacting with Spanish speakers -- I had planned to spend a few months living somewhere in Hispanic America, but the 3 day-a-week RTO at my job has trashed that. I'll probably just have to settle for Skype-based chats/lessons.
  - dbtc 4y ago
    Depending on where you live, there may be hispanohablantes nearby too
- goldcd 4y ago
  Just starting my second paid year - I didn't put up with the adverts for long. Works far better for me without the hearts. Less time staring at sentences trying to make them perfect - more quick failing, learning why, iterating and drilling it into my head. Also much more likely to spend longer in the app, maybe a couple of times a week.
  - bluGill 4y ago
    After a few months of Duolingo you should move onto comprehensible input for learning. Your Duolingo subscription is holding you back
    - EvanKelly 4y ago
      That's a new term for me, but after researching it, it makes sense. What are your preferred sources of comprehensible input. After a few months on Duolingo I still find TV shows to mostly not be comprehensible, so not productive.
      - bluGill 4y ago
        Dreaming Spanish is well reported for Spanish learners. For other languages it is harder to find something.
    - perfmode 4y ago
      what’s comprehensible input? (ah. googled. makes sense. )
    - goldcd 4y ago
      You're over-estimating my intellect... I do occasionally get through some french youtube with subs and I'm getting better at roughly following - I'm not just relying on Duo. (I also have a grammar book to hand as well)
- llbeansandrice 4y ago
  I think any serious user should be using unlimited hearts. You learn by making mistakes.
  - larkost 4y ago
    I have found that it works better for me not have unlimited hearts. I make my mistakes, and in I am not ready on a level then I have to repeat it. And either way I then do practice rounds to fill my hearts back up to full (I try to always leave the app with full hearts). In the times I have had SuperDuolingo for free Have been annoyed that I can just keep plowing through mistakes (really: lack of knowledge), and don't have to really learn things before moving on with them... I just have to guess right once for each question. But I do agree that DuoLingo is all about learning by making mistakes. I wish they had a bit more focused teaching for grammar, at least it would help me with the Hungarian. For a few items I have had to go outside the app for lessons on what I am just not getting by repetition.
  - dazc 4y ago
    You learn by making mistakes. Amen
cool_dude85 4y ago
>the explain your answer is something I'm really interested in to help me understand the sentences I'm constructing They used to have an army of native-speaking volunteers to do this for free in the comments. I guess this is why they turned those off.
- bayesian_horse 4y ago
  Usually that decision is driven by the cost of moderating/deleting abusive content quickly enough in order to not get banned from use in schools...
  - cool_dude85 4y ago
    Maybe I'm wrong, but I would not be surprised if forum moderation was a volunteer activity. Even core functionality like developing the lessons, for less popular languages, was done by the Duo community and given very little support from paid staff.
    - bayesian_horse 4y ago
      Yes, but moderating and screening for abusive content can't reliably left to unpaid volunteers if it needs to be good enough not to scare off parents and educators. I remember that this was the death knell to a Lego online game: People were making genitals quicker and more inventively than anybody could keep up. In education technology, many seem to hope to get that from AI: the helpfulness of a forum of volunteers without the abuse. The rise of the "unsocial network".
- ArchOversight 4y ago
  They still have the forum style "help me out", but there are some where the responses are really a huge miss where I could see this AI helping out more by giving better answers.
jghn 4y ago
I've yet to try Super Duolingo. But I've also been tapering off my usage as they keep forcing to use the word bank instead of keyboard at an increasing rate. I've no desire to use the word bank, they seem to have no desire to let me use the keyboard. Unless that's buried in one of the premium options I see the writing on the wall.
- EvanKelly 4y ago
  Interesting, I am a Super Duolingo subscriber but I don't think that's one of the features. Anywhere I'm inputting a sentence I think I get the keyboard option, maybe I'm misremembering, but I do a lot of typing on my Japanese keyboard when I study.
  - jghn 4y ago
    They were clearly doing some A/B testing a while back based on sporadic complaints on r/duolingo. At some point I noticed it had solidified. The current setup is if the drill is target language to host language, you'll always get word bank. If it's host language to target language it'll push you towards word bank but you have a subtle thing to click on that brings back the keyboard. Sometimes it's called "make harder" or sometimes "use keyboard" (vs "make easier" and "use word bank")
- dotancohen 4y ago
  Try supplementing Duolingo with Anki / Ankidroid. Every word that I learn in Duolingo, I put into Anki. I do all my reviews in Ankidroid on a small E-Ink device but it's actually designed for phones. You can configure Ankidroid to require you to spell the words properly.
  - NoInkling 4y ago
    Also worth checking out something like Clozemaster.
    - dotancohen 4y ago
memsom 4y ago
If you enrol in the classroom version of Duo (which I originally did to get back the old style tree) it is firstly, free. Secondly - you can be a single participant. Thirdly - no ads. I even forgot there were ads because I haven't seen one since I enrolled - in eluding the annoying self promotion ads for Super Duolingo. I have a 1631 streak at the moment, so it is saving me quite a bit of time not seeing ads. It is not my loop hole, so I guess it is just something I found by accident.

by lsllc 4y ago

atlasunshrugged 4y ago

I also use it daily but I'm a bit worried I won't concentrate as much if I have unlimited hearts, have you noticed any decline in recall? But yes, the ads are super annoying... especially the same one to upgrade Duolingo puts in every time!

gopalv 4y ago
> I'm a bit worried I won't concentrate as much if I have unlimited hearts, have you noticed any decline in recall? I did a trial and I noticed I spend more time with the App when I had unlimited hearts, so I got through more lessons a day. Less attention to a single question, but a lot more time spent on the app. And that when it comes to actual recall, the mistakes don't count when it comes to learning. I don't really learn by recalling information, I learn by having stuff shoved into my brain with Spaced repetition. The unlimited hearts thing fed the repetition cycle a lot more.
lvass 4y ago
I haven't even noticed ads using uBO.
- tylorr 4y ago
  They're a lot more intrusive on the mobile app
  - atlasunshrugged 4y ago
    Yes, should have added more detail, I was talking specifically about my experience on the mobile app
    - lsllc 4y ago
      ditto
  - uneekname 4y ago
    I've had success blocking the ads using a pi-hole. You still see ads for Duolingo Super and other in-house offerings, but the obnoxious video ads go away.
lsllc 4y ago
I haven't, but I got sick of the ads pretty quickly and have been signed up for super for most of my ~10 month streak. I try to spend 10-20 mins a day on it (learning Spanish) and actually do a lot of the "review" lessons which are good at drilling words. I am often surprised by my recall at phrases that I haven't seen in a while -- pretty sure they use the spaced repetition type algorithms. My challenges now aren't so much on vocab/recall, but on verb conjugation and sentence construction / structure. I kind of know what to say but have trouble putting it together. What I need to do is practice more actually speaking Spanish and interacting with Spanish speakers -- I had planned to spend a few months living somewhere in Hispanic America, but the 3 day-a-week RTO at my job has trashed that. I'll probably just have to settle for Skype-based chats/lessons.
- dbtc 4y ago
  Depending on where you live, there may be hispanohablantes nearby too
goldcd 4y ago
Just starting my second paid year - I didn't put up with the adverts for long. Works far better for me without the hearts. Less time staring at sentences trying to make them perfect - more quick failing, learning why, iterating and drilling it into my head. Also much more likely to spend longer in the app, maybe a couple of times a week.
- bluGill 4y ago
  After a few months of Duolingo you should move onto comprehensible input for learning. Your Duolingo subscription is holding you back
  - EvanKelly 4y ago
    That's a new term for me, but after researching it, it makes sense. What are your preferred sources of comprehensible input. After a few months on Duolingo I still find TV shows to mostly not be comprehensible, so not productive.
    - bluGill 4y ago
      Dreaming Spanish is well reported for Spanish learners. For other languages it is harder to find something.
  - perfmode 4y ago
    what’s comprehensible input? (ah. googled. makes sense. )
  - goldcd 4y ago
    You're over-estimating my intellect... I do occasionally get through some french youtube with subs and I'm getting better at roughly following - I'm not just relying on Duo. (I also have a grammar book to hand as well)
llbeansandrice 4y ago
I think any serious user should be using unlimited hearts. You learn by making mistakes.
- larkost 4y ago
  I have found that it works better for me not have unlimited hearts. I make my mistakes, and in I am not ready on a level then I have to repeat it. And either way I then do practice rounds to fill my hearts back up to full (I try to always leave the app with full hearts). In the times I have had SuperDuolingo for free Have been annoyed that I can just keep plowing through mistakes (really: lack of knowledge), and don't have to really learn things before moving on with them... I just have to guess right once for each question. But I do agree that DuoLingo is all about learning by making mistakes. I wish they had a bit more focused teaching for grammar, at least it would help me with the Hungarian. For a few items I have had to go outside the app for lessons on what I am just not getting by repetition.
- dazc 4y ago
  You learn by making mistakes. Amen

cool_dude85 4y ago

>the explain your answer is something I'm really interested in to help me understand the sentences I'm constructing They used to have an army of native-speaking volunteers to do this for free in the comments. I guess this is why they turned those off.

bayesian_horse 4y ago
Usually that decision is driven by the cost of moderating/deleting abusive content quickly enough in order to not get banned from use in schools...
- cool_dude85 4y ago
  Maybe I'm wrong, but I would not be surprised if forum moderation was a volunteer activity. Even core functionality like developing the lessons, for less popular languages, was done by the Duo community and given very little support from paid staff.
  - bayesian_horse 4y ago
    Yes, but moderating and screening for abusive content can't reliably left to unpaid volunteers if it needs to be good enough not to scare off parents and educators. I remember that this was the death knell to a Lego online game: People were making genitals quicker and more inventively than anybody could keep up. In education technology, many seem to hope to get that from AI: the helpfulness of a forum of volunteers without the abuse. The rise of the "unsocial network".
ArchOversight 4y ago
They still have the forum style "help me out", but there are some where the responses are really a huge miss where I could see this AI helping out more by giving better answers.

jghn 4y ago

I've yet to try Super Duolingo. But I've also been tapering off my usage as they keep forcing to use the word bank instead of keyboard at an increasing rate. I've no desire to use the word bank, they seem to have no desire to let me use the keyboard. Unless that's buried in one of the premium options I see the writing on the wall.

EvanKelly 4y ago
Interesting, I am a Super Duolingo subscriber but I don't think that's one of the features. Anywhere I'm inputting a sentence I think I get the keyboard option, maybe I'm misremembering, but I do a lot of typing on my Japanese keyboard when I study.
- jghn 4y ago
  They were clearly doing some A/B testing a while back based on sporadic complaints on r/duolingo. At some point I noticed it had solidified. The current setup is if the drill is target language to host language, you'll always get word bank. If it's host language to target language it'll push you towards word bank but you have a subtle thing to click on that brings back the keyboard. Sometimes it's called "make harder" or sometimes "use keyboard" (vs "make easier" and "use word bank")
dotancohen 4y ago
Try supplementing Duolingo with Anki / Ankidroid. Every word that I learn in Duolingo, I put into Anki. I do all my reviews in Ankidroid on a small E-Ink device but it's actually designed for phones. You can configure Ankidroid to require you to spell the words properly.
- NoInkling 4y ago
  Also worth checking out something like Clozemaster.
  - dotancohen 4y ago

memsom 4y ago

If you enrol in the classroom version of Duo (which I originally did to get back the old style tree) it is firstly, free. Secondly - you can be a single participant. Thirdly - no ads. I even forgot there were ads because I haven't seen one since I enrolled - in eluding the annoying self promotion ads for Super Duolingo. I have a 1631 streak at the moment, so it is saving me quite a bit of time not seeing ads. It is not my loop hole, so I guess it is just something I found by accident.