How badly they want to show me ads, it’s impressive. Desperate ain’t sexy guys
6 lessons? ew.
They’re pathetic but not in a way I like.
Duolingo is not about learning a language. It’s about giving you the illusion of learning a language.
Look fuck the company but Duolingo absolutely can help learn a language
As long as I learn to ask where the bathroom is before I get there I’ll bet ok.
Why leave the app installed if you’re done using it?
Knowing how prone they are to this kind of crap, I wanted to wait and see what it’d say when my streak ran out, I wasn’t disappointed
If you use the duolingo widget you can watch duo drop down a depressive spiral until they eventually die alone in the desert. It’s my favorite part of the app.
I uninstalled the app years ago and still see this in the play store.
Damn! The more I read I about it, the creepier it gets! The fuck is wrong with them.
Alot. Which is a shame because the app used to be decent a little over a decade ago. I remember using it back in highschool before the gamification and, without paying, it would let you access community forums, review lessons, and a lot of other features now locked behind a paywall or gone entirely.
I still remember when the heart system was first introduced and getting pissed that i had to essentially get everything right to keep moving forward in the lesson or pay to refill my hearts. I uninstalled when it became 3 wrong answers and youre done for the day without payment.
I actually started using Duolingo recently and the hearts system has you either pay, start your free trial for its subscriotion, or you watch an ad, even then though, that’s just shitty.
Come to think of it, an application threatening, shaming, and guilt tripping you into coming back might not be the healthiest thing ever.
The aggressive notifications to do a lesson are literally why I use it. I have ADHD. Without the owl threatening to kill me and everyone I know, I would forget about it and forget all that I’ve learned so far. 😔
The gamification is genuinely so helpful. You can get it through other apps like habitica with some setup. I have ADHD too but I found Duolingo good for habit building but jot the greatest for actual language learning
Personally, once I realized the gamification wasn’t actually helping me learn the language, engaged or not, I started resenting it more than anything. The app cared more about my streak than I did and when I decided to deliberately let mine end, it would use freezes and shit to keep it going despite missed days. And then nag me to buy more freezes which it would just give me as rewards for doing a single lesson that day.
After that, all the gamification shit was annoying because it meant I had to sit through like 5 screens of “rewards” I didn’t give a shit about after each lesson.
The thing that made me dislike the gamification was the p2w mechanics of the timed challenges. “Oh you ran out of time, but you can buy an extension!” How the fuck is buying an extension going to help learn a language?
And from there I realized that the multiple choice form of the questions meant my test taking skills were carrying me as much as or more than any language skills I was developing. There’s only so many legal sentences you can build from a limited set of words and if they usually have only one verb option, it’s not going to help learn the different verbs.
I have trouble sticking with things. Gamification is absolutely manipulative but it also worked for me. I tried to keel that streak going even when it did nothing for my goals. So I kept the gamification but changed the app so that I’m manipulating myself to further my goals and it works just as well
the streak is half the work, the other half is actually having done the thing. if i just tap “ya i did that” (when i didn’t) because i want to keep the streak going it’s meaningless
I do think we tend to underestimate how much you can accomplish with 5 minutes of study a day. My main problem with Duolingo is that it isn’t effective, but if I spent the same 5 minutes using anki or a better tool I get results
Yeah i uninstalled
It could be aggressively persistent without sounding like a psycho, too, no? I mean, I have no frame of reference, but I sort of assume that constant reminders would work as well as constant belittling reminders. Maybe I’m wrong.
Ideally, for myself, it would be like getting a dog’s attention and getting called a good boy when I actually complete a lesson.
Positive reinforcement wins. You’re a good boy! You’re a great boy, even!
DuoLingo replicates all the same patterns as an abusive relationship.
Kinda does wonders to develop habits when you have ADHD.
that’s why i liked duolingo when it was a good leanguage learning helper app, it really did keep me thinking about my target langauge every day at least a little
Fuck. I dunno what to do with this
Edit: just cancelled my subscription to super Duolingo. Fuck them
I’ve been using the free version with ad blockers (and browser only) for years. No annoying notifications, no ads, no tracking of user data via an app, and I simply press back on the occasional Super promotion page. The only thing I miss is the discussion page for every lesson/question.
I think posting your high score might make people want to top you.
<UwU>
Hello @DoubleSpace!
Is this where the line to top @voodooattack begins? I’ve brought a ✨fabulous✨ selection of headwear with me and I do daresay we’ll find the perfect fit. How uh, oh dear !, how do you plan to top @voodooattack?
It’s unfortunate they stopped subbing…
My score can never be dominated
And yet AI has done it at the throw of a switch.
Their AI is nothing but a cock in a cage 🐓
But I am le tired
I stopped using duolingo a couple years ago because I noticed I was just doing the bare minimum to maintain my streak instead of actually learning something new.
that actually helped me remember that my target language exists, it was good for me to at least have a brush with some learning on the days that i just didn’t feel like doing much.
what was the final nail on the coffin for me was duolingo neutering the japanese course, they delayed introducing kanji so hard i was seeing the most basic basics like 母, 父, 語, even 何 in hiragana, which made the course deeply counterproductive as reading japanese in hiragana only, when you know the kanji already slows you down considerably. consider: ははははなをもっています vs 母は花を持っています, both mean “my mum has a flower” but one of them has a string of は you need to decipher the meaning of first before you can understand the sentence, the other’s meaning can be understood instantly
That’s a shame. Duolingo was never great for learning kana, so I guess they thought to use it more in lessons, but they should’ve just improved the dedicated kana lessons instead. I had learned kana before using duolingo so it was a smooth transition to take on sentences introducing more and more kanji. It sucks that they’re just making things worse since there were some nice things about the app before.
Same thing happened to me. Also when trying something new, failing took something like gems or hearts. That made it so I only grinded the very easy lessons to get the gems and never actually using them.
Oh yeah, that’s another thing! They made it tedious to make progress, probably in an attempt to squeeze out more money, but I ended up just losing motivation for actually learning because it became a drag.
if a non shit app would add an “import streak” feature (just make me upload a screenshot or type in the number) id switch in a heart beat.
Why is a streak so important?
Dopamine
I’ve come to realize that Dopamine is the reason for EVERYTHING.
As someone with ADHD, I feel this so hard.
bc ive been at it for over 3.5 years https://youtube.com/shorts/b4C8yeQ1NCM
Duolingo is a toxic ex.
never used Duolingo, but i think i can relate now, i had a toxic girlfriend that would talk to me in Portuguese, i don’t speak that language
never used Duolingo
i don’t speak that language
I believe I may have a solution
i am trying not to go back to abusive relationships
Portuguese isn’t that bad
Sounds like they’re threatening to steal your dog or something.
“Streaks” are shitty dark patterns IMO.
I liked it because it was a learning app and I have a tendency to fall off. But paying real money to restore my streak? Hell nah
people calling every engagement tactic a dark pattern these days is giving me teenagers using therapy speak in wrong ways vibes
I wish the whole streak paradigm was time weighted. Like I got over a 1 year streak on my Apple watch over Covid. That’s basically never going to happen again. I wish there was some kind of “this is your longest streak in the past <time period>” or something. It all just feels so all or nothing.
I believe you can get a users longest streak from the public API end point. IIRC it’s something like
duolingo.com/users/{username}but it’s been a few years
Yeah but at least the interests of the user and duolingo are somewhat aligned in this case
Duolingo is so stupidly annoying these days. It has gotten so much worse compared to a few years ago.
Constant bugging, too many popups that are almost as bad as Microsoft products. I want to learn a goddamn language not jump through a hundred hoops every single time.
Not to mention that it all boils down to a guessing game. Some questions have multiple answers and unless you choose that specific one that DuoLingo had in mind it counts as wrong. It also won’t tell you why you guessed wrong.
Are there better apps these days?
Duolingo isn’t in the business to teach you a a language, that would mean you won’t need the app anymore.
I’ve used Babbel, it seems more to learn a language, but it requires a paid plan to use. It does work more like an actual language course though, with more emphasis on longer sessions instead of 5 min per day.
I remember a while back, I was too busy for a little while to use Duo and came back to the widget trying to guilt trip me into using it. Because I missed like half a week. It’s so toxic and honestly isn’t even that useful for learning. So I uninstalled that shit immediately.
I can ask for an apple in so many languages.
One notification like this and your app immediately gets notification permission revoked on my phone (if not uninstalled).
I have notifications disabled by default, by that I mean the moment an app requests permission I deny it, unless it’s a messaging app, an app store that I want update notifications from or something I trust etc., and if it triggers more than three requests it’s off my phone.
I understand the logic of doing the streak system, keep you engaged by threatening to lose your streak if you don’t do it every day, but it’s a double edged sword.
If I’d lost my streak though… I should just go “oh well” and call it a day/quit.
I deleted the app when they said they were going to fire translators for AI. But I have adhd and forgot, several days, even with reminders, to do it some days… It never ended up mattering because they let me keep my streak anyway
Most users aren’t logical or sane like you, so this notification may actually catch their eye in their notification tray with 8k other notifications from cancer apps.
Same, it was sad but I’m not gonna use the all anymore due to that decision.
Wife’s streak is at 1,618 days across multiple categories. Almost 4.5 years. I imagine it’s like smoking at this point.
Does she actually speak the language she’s learning?
Not even a little
Donde, está, la biblioteca. Me llamo T-Bone La araña discoteca. Discoteca, muñeca, La biblioteca Está en bigotes grandes, el perro, manteca. Manteca, bigotes, gigante, pequeño, la cabeza es nieve, cerveza es bueno. Buenos dias, me gusta papas frías, los bigotes de la cabra Es Cameron Diaz.
El tren de la Magdela al a una
What is the actual point of a streak?
A sense of pride and accomplishment?
To make you addicted so you keep coming back
At one point it was gamification to tie the reward center of your brain into continuing to train using the app. Now it seems that it’s half that or half https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_pattern to get you to pay to keep that reward system going.
Personally, my interest in language learning comes and goes. Doing the minimum to maintain a streak prevents me from forgetting too much before my interest returns.
Sense of achievement mainly
Gamification including social aspects if you’re a regular app user.
Abusive ex if you aren’t a regular user.
The only way it could get worse is if they put a slot machine or roulette wheel in to give you prizes.
I fucking hate the gamification they did to Khan Academy. Just give me the knowledge map back.
Having heard very mixed things about Duolingo’s actual usefulness, does your wife speak or write well in any of the languages she’s used the app to learn?
Not at all
My friend learn japanese and able to speak fluently after using the app. Though she does have japanese customer from time to time that she can test it with some of them.
Why the fuck is it still installed
