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You learn the vocabulary, you learn pronunciations and you learn how to listen and comprehend. I don’t see what’s so bad about it. It’s never going to be able t

You learn the vocabulary, you learn pronunciations and you learn how to listen and comprehend. I don’t see what’s so bad about it. It’s never going to be able to compete with a native speaker just speaking to you in that language but nothing will.

andy_ppp 3y ago
Never is a very long time, I suspect you’ll be able to chat with an AI assistant, in a language of your choosing, within 5 years.
- huytersd 3y ago
  You can do it now. ChatGPT vocal conversations are brilliant and mind blowing.
Panini_Jones 3y ago
It's deceptively ineffective. Sure, it can teach you things, but it has not been a good use of time for me personally (I'm not OP btw).
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
gretch 3y ago
I’ve used duolingo several times on and off throughout my life for different languages (Spanish, German, French). Sometimes paid, sometimes free. In the beginning I thought it was excellent and that’s why I kept coming back. I tried it again the last 12 months and the app wasted so much of my time making me skip through promotions and do-nothing animations. Opening chests, collecting gems, all the gamified stuff. I didn’t need it. I was already self motivated to learn without a bunch of time sinking doodads that you have to click through. I guess duolingo is good if you are struggling with motivation. Recently I used a paid app called Pimsleur that I liked. There’s also a lot of good free resources on YT
- bdamm 3y ago
  Your point is a good one, although I have to point out that Duolingo does at least let you skip through the gamified stuff very quickly. When I'm doing lessons I reflexively double tap the "Ok" button to skip over the little whoo-hoo animation. It would be awful if I was forced to wait for the animation to complete, which fortunately, they do not. The same applies to basically all the animations except for the opening screen.
bavarianbob 3y ago
The problem lies in the perceived benefit that the user believes. The app, through its marketing and content, leads you to believe that you can and in fact, will, learn the language of your choosing. Anecdotally, this has not been the case for me. Similar to the parent, I have accelerated my learning tenfold by ditching D**** in favor of reading, watching, and listening to content in my target language as well as speaking to a tutor I found online. I've wasted a tremendous amount of time going through and ultimately completing a tree only to find myself crossing the finish line not being comfortable saying anything in that language. Is that a criticism of me? Perhaps. But, the big D once fooled me into thinking the answer to that question was that it is. Which is to say, I don't believe it's a criticism of me.
- huytersd 3y ago
  My anecdotal experience has been that it taught me enough words in Spanish to start talking to people at bars and then once I started doing that my conversational ability exploded.

andy_ppp 3y ago

Never is a very long time, I suspect you’ll be able to chat with an AI assistant, in a language of your choosing, within 5 years.

huytersd 3y ago
You can do it now. ChatGPT vocal conversations are brilliant and mind blowing.

Panini_Jones 3y ago

It's deceptively ineffective. Sure, it can teach you things, but it has not been a good use of time for me personally (I'm not OP btw).

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

gretch 3y ago

I’ve used duolingo several times on and off throughout my life for different languages (Spanish, German, French). Sometimes paid, sometimes free. In the beginning I thought it was excellent and that’s why I kept coming back. I tried it again the last 12 months and the app wasted so much of my time making me skip through promotions and do-nothing animations. Opening chests, collecting gems, all the gamified stuff. I didn’t need it. I was already self motivated to learn without a bunch of time sinking doodads that you have to click through. I guess duolingo is good if you are struggling with motivation. Recently I used a paid app called Pimsleur that I liked. There’s also a lot of good free resources on YT

bdamm 3y ago
Your point is a good one, although I have to point out that Duolingo does at least let you skip through the gamified stuff very quickly. When I'm doing lessons I reflexively double tap the "Ok" button to skip over the little whoo-hoo animation. It would be awful if I was forced to wait for the animation to complete, which fortunately, they do not. The same applies to basically all the animations except for the opening screen.

bavarianbob 3y ago

The problem lies in the perceived benefit that the user believes. The app, through its marketing and content, leads you to believe that you can and in fact, will, learn the language of your choosing. Anecdotally, this has not been the case for me. Similar to the parent, I have accelerated my learning tenfold by ditching D**** in favor of reading, watching, and listening to content in my target language as well as speaking to a tutor I found online. I've wasted a tremendous amount of time going through and ultimately completing a tree only to find myself crossing the finish line not being comfortable saying anything in that language. Is that a criticism of me? Perhaps. But, the big D once fooled me into thinking the answer to that question was that it is. Which is to say, I don't believe it's a criticism of me.

huytersd 3y ago
My anecdotal experience has been that it taught me enough words in Spanish to start talking to people at bars and then once I started doing that my conversational ability exploded.