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been using Duolingo in the 10s and last year, I gave up because the course seems very repetitive. Even if I got the answer right 10 out of 10 times, the same qu

by est 1y ago

been using Duolingo in the 10s and last year, I gave up because the course seems very repetitive. Even if I got the answer right 10 out of 10 times, the same question kept coming. It almost looks like the app is trying very hard to make me stay as long as possible, instead of study as effecient as possible. So for a good alternative app, is there a dynamic course pace I can adapt to?

freetonik 1y ago
Which course? The quality of different language courses on Duolingo differs a lot. For example, the Finnish language course is very bad, full of useless words and nonsensical phrases like "The cat is a viking". In contrast, the Swedish course (which happens to be the 2nd official language of Finland) is amazing and full of phrases immediately useful in daily life. A few modules in, Finnish Duolingo is all e.g. "My mom is a shaman" and "The cat is a viking", while Swedish is e.g. "I'd like a glass of cold water" and "Emma wants a pizza". In addition, the multi-modality also differs a lot. Finnish and some other languages simply don't have speech exercises (where you have to read something into the microphone).
- est 1y ago
  German and Arabic course. So in other words, the course is programmed by a human? Well I hope with today's AI tech the course should be highly customizable. I don't want to learn "The cat is a viking" 100 times.
- vladvasiliu 1y ago
  > In addition, the multi-modality also differs a lot. Finnish and some other languages simply don't have speech exercises (where you have to read something into the microphone). They have the speech exercises in Spanish, but they are ridiculously bad. It often says I'm correct before I get to say half the sentence. Other times, I'll need to repeat a word 10 times until it gives up and says it's fine.
gary17the 1y ago
> the same question kept coming I was under the same impression, but later the problem disappeared. You have to give Duolingo a couple of months of learning effort first, so that Duolingo has a larger base of sentences that you should already understand.
- npinsker 1y ago
  I used the app for 6 months (granted this was around 5 years ago) and the problem never disappeared for me. To answer the question, it depends on which language you're learning. Japanese and Spanish probably have the most resources for English-speaking learners.
xandrius 1y ago
Duolingo is to feel like you're learning not for actually learning. Great for telling people you are doing something, that's all. For me, the best has been to get a anki deck to get the most basic 1000 words, once finished, go find a tutor to speak 1h a week on Preply and then create a personal Anki deck with words you encounter. That has been the easiest way to improve for me. And this is for Japanese, one of the hardest languages I tried learning.
- rmnwski 1y ago
  Did you learn the kanji for the first 1000 words? Looking into learning Japanese as well. I tried the Remembering the Kanji by Heisig but that felt rather abstract after a while.
  - K0nserv 1y ago
    It's mentioned elsewhere in the thread, but I've had good success with WaniKani[0]. As an aside, the company behind it, Tofugu[1], also have a lot of good free resources. The main tag line on the WaniKani website, "2000 Kanji. 6000 Vocabulary words. In just over a year." is very optimistic, I'm around level 12 (of 60) after that long. It might be possible to do it all in a year, but you need to put in a lot of work. 0: https://www.wanikani.com/ https://www.wanikani.com/ 1: https://www.tofugu.com/ https://www.tofugu.com/
    - runarberg 1y ago
      Shameless plug: I created a free and open source alternative to WaniKani https://shodoku.app/ https://shodoku.app/ using open dictionary data and the same SRS system as anki. It actually has a very different learning philosophy from WaniKani so it is not really an alternative. * shodoku teaches writing as well as reading, the point being that writing it helps you remember it. * You learn components (radicals) and vocabulary at the same time as the associated kanji. * The order doesn’t need to be by simplicity. This is deviates from both WaniKani and Remembering the kanji. * You rate your self, just like anki. I find it is actually more important to learn the kanji in the words you are learning, if a new kanji has three new components, it is not hard to simply learn these new components at the same time (and create a story / connection of them). And learning the reading of the kanji is easier if you learn words containing it. So what I do is I bookmark a couple of words each time I start a new kanji card, and during reading review, if I remember how these words are pronounced, I rate it as good.
cynicalkane 1y ago
You can skip ahead full units by passing a test, and I recommend always doing it if you can. I do 1-2 Duolingo lessons daily, supplemented with 15-30 minutes of real Japanese study. If I can't skip ahead after completing the first "star", I feel disappointed. I'm often able to skip two or three units in a row. Though this is partly because I'm only using Duolingo as an easy, gamified supplement to serious study.

by est 1y ago

freetonik 1y ago

Which course? The quality of different language courses on Duolingo differs a lot. For example, the Finnish language course is very bad, full of useless words and nonsensical phrases like "The cat is a viking". In contrast, the Swedish course (which happens to be the 2nd official language of Finland) is amazing and full of phrases immediately useful in daily life. A few modules in, Finnish Duolingo is all e.g. "My mom is a shaman" and "The cat is a viking", while Swedish is e.g. "I'd like a glass of cold water" and "Emma wants a pizza". In addition, the multi-modality also differs a lot. Finnish and some other languages simply don't have speech exercises (where you have to read something into the microphone).

est 1y ago
German and Arabic course. So in other words, the course is programmed by a human? Well I hope with today's AI tech the course should be highly customizable. I don't want to learn "The cat is a viking" 100 times.
vladvasiliu 1y ago
> In addition, the multi-modality also differs a lot. Finnish and some other languages simply don't have speech exercises (where you have to read something into the microphone). They have the speech exercises in Spanish, but they are ridiculously bad. It often says I'm correct before I get to say half the sentence. Other times, I'll need to repeat a word 10 times until it gives up and says it's fine.

gary17the 1y ago

> the same question kept coming I was under the same impression, but later the problem disappeared. You have to give Duolingo a couple of months of learning effort first, so that Duolingo has a larger base of sentences that you should already understand.

npinsker 1y ago
I used the app for 6 months (granted this was around 5 years ago) and the problem never disappeared for me. To answer the question, it depends on which language you're learning. Japanese and Spanish probably have the most resources for English-speaking learners.

xandrius 1y ago

Duolingo is to feel like you're learning not for actually learning. Great for telling people you are doing something, that's all. For me, the best has been to get a anki deck to get the most basic 1000 words, once finished, go find a tutor to speak 1h a week on Preply and then create a personal Anki deck with words you encounter. That has been the easiest way to improve for me. And this is for Japanese, one of the hardest languages I tried learning.

rmnwski 1y ago
Did you learn the kanji for the first 1000 words? Looking into learning Japanese as well. I tried the Remembering the Kanji by Heisig but that felt rather abstract after a while.
- K0nserv 1y ago
  It's mentioned elsewhere in the thread, but I've had good success with WaniKani[0]. As an aside, the company behind it, Tofugu[1], also have a lot of good free resources. The main tag line on the WaniKani website, "2000 Kanji. 6000 Vocabulary words. In just over a year." is very optimistic, I'm around level 12 (of 60) after that long. It might be possible to do it all in a year, but you need to put in a lot of work. 0: https://www.wanikani.com/ https://www.wanikani.com/ 1: https://www.tofugu.com/ https://www.tofugu.com/
  - runarberg 1y ago
    Shameless plug: I created a free and open source alternative to WaniKani https://shodoku.app/ https://shodoku.app/ using open dictionary data and the same SRS system as anki. It actually has a very different learning philosophy from WaniKani so it is not really an alternative. * shodoku teaches writing as well as reading, the point being that writing it helps you remember it. * You learn components (radicals) and vocabulary at the same time as the associated kanji. * The order doesn’t need to be by simplicity. This is deviates from both WaniKani and Remembering the kanji. * You rate your self, just like anki. I find it is actually more important to learn the kanji in the words you are learning, if a new kanji has three new components, it is not hard to simply learn these new components at the same time (and create a story / connection of them). And learning the reading of the kanji is easier if you learn words containing it. So what I do is I bookmark a couple of words each time I start a new kanji card, and during reading review, if I remember how these words are pronounced, I rate it as good.

cynicalkane 1y ago

You can skip ahead full units by passing a test, and I recommend always doing it if you can. I do 1-2 Duolingo lessons daily, supplemented with 15-30 minutes of real Japanese study. If I can't skip ahead after completing the first "star", I feel disappointed. I'm often able to skip two or three units in a row. Though this is partly because I'm only using Duolingo as an easy, gamified supplement to serious study.