Duolingo Effectiveness Debate
Discussions focus on the pros and cons of Duolingo for language learning, including user experiences with streaks, its limitations for fluency and certain languages, and recommendations for alternatives like Anki, Babbel, LingoDeer, and supplementary methods such as podcasts and immersion.
Activity Over Time
Top Contributors
Keywords
Sample Comments
Sounds like you actually want to learn a language. You don't need a duolingo alternative, you need youtube, textbooks, podcasts and grinding vocab on Anki.
Why should I use that instead of duolingo ?
It's helpful in learning nearby languages. I am a native English speaker, and my French can approach fluency given some immersion (it's pretty rusty right now, though). DuoLingo helped me improve transactional Spanish and Portuguese (BR) very quickly, meaning I can get through airports, grocery stores, restaurants, and read news articles. I'll need something more to have free-ranging conversations or read novels, though.
I had an 1000 day streak with Duolingo. The streak is great for being consistent, but I spent almost half of the time on Duolingo at the aim of keeping my streak rather than truly learning the language.When I stopped using the app, I could read the language I learnt ok, but I wasnât conversational, and couldnât understand people speaking at their normal pace. Still a beginner.Someone suggested the free language learning website called âLanguage Transferâ here on Hacker News last year.Wi
As someone who's learning a language (french) with Duolingo, and also supplementing that with other methods (podcasts, social media, online chatting, talking to chatgpt) I've also really wanted a way to get duolingo type experience with my own set of vocabulary that I encounter. So i'll definitely check this out. Also your english is impressive!
Potentially amusing related analysis: Duolingo is the Devil by Langfocus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbmXSR_QiP8
How does it differ from Duolingo ?
A language learning platform that works would be nice, instead of this.
Duolingo is not good for learning East Asian languages. For Japanese, it is particularly bad. Try LingoDeer instead.
i know duo isnât perfect. but i appreciate it because itâs the only language learning thing thatâs gotten me to consistently do it everyday for over a year.anything else i couldnât maintain the habit. obviously not going to fluent off but as a novice i do appreciate it.