I Quit a 1000 Day Streak (DUOLINGO: FINISHED)

[@peteswanson5759]

It’s also so frustrating that you have “hearts” why can’t we just make mistakes? That’s how we learn!!!

[@emc8729]

@@weropeal I have duo lingo on android and i have hearts :-(

[@laracombina]

@@emc8729 Really? I dont, only for tests or skipping topics

[@weropeal]

Also you can get plus version

[@laracombina]

@@weropeal They are kinda useless anyways, both in PC and Android

[@benjaminwasfound2]

You can practice for 1 heart.

[@berenice6084]

The streaks do encourage you to stay, but it’s their owl that’s the real guilt tripper for me.. Always brings me back when I see he’s sad 😂

[@flawyerlawyertv7454]

Lol

[@slappy_chimp]

Emotional blackmail :/

[@Sammydodger45]

Don’t hurt his feelings, he might cry

[@scottvelez3154]

Be careful, he's always watching, no one knows where he comes from, or what he is, or how he finds his victims, but if you don't practice your Portuguese, you go to the mortuaries.

[@berenice6084]

Scott Velez 👀👀👀 what’s that behind you? Hola...

[@GD-me2lv]

Duolingo says I have learned 496 words. I wonder what they are?

[@daysandwords]

😆

[@muhammedjunaid4095]

Hey you can see all the words through desktop version

[@VRC_KiinG]

muhammed junaid that’s not what he meant😒

[@flawyerlawyertv7454]

Lol

[@randomperson1714]

I’m dying 🤣🤣🤣

[@samysellssf]

Honestly it must depend on personalities because I like the streak concept and personally it helps me staying motivated and practice my Spanish a little bit every day. Duolingo + Podcasts + KZbin in Spanish + some newspapers is a great formula to learn or in my case getting back a language long not used.

[@daysandwords]

Hi - thanks for your comment. Yeah, of course whether you like the streak etc is a personality thing. I'm just saying that a 1000 day streak is pointless. You can learn the language so well in that time that you'd know more than Duolingo has to teach.

[@viezepizza]

Hey, I was wondering what kind of videos do you recommend watching on KZbin in Spanish? Greets

[@maiamolina6987]

@@viezepizzayou can watch Luisito comunica, Angie Velasco, Verdeliss, Viole Franco, Bajoneando por ahí, and also you can change your ubication to a county that speak Spanish and KZbin will recommend to you videos in Spanish

[@viezepizza]

@@maiamolina6987 Gracias para tu respuesta Maia voy a check it out!

[@lalolbc]

Casper Huurdeman Watch SUPERHOLLY. She’s an American that has lived in Mexico and her Spanish pronunciation is probably better than mine.

[@ProfessorDoggy]

I'm quitting my 476-day streak. It just became a chore to do keep it, and I wasn't learning anything. And I hate the new updates. I realized I'm going to quit one day and it just became so annoying. But it wasn't easy, I was worried I would regret it and never get my steak back, but I was getting more and more sick of Duolingo and keeping my streak, so I quit.

[@coolfr0sty836]

Same

[@soyboy6]

You weren't learning anything? Did it feel like you progressed alot during those days?

[@richiebrovis8737]

Duolingo isn't bad for a beginner, just like you said. But after a while, you can go to more advanced learning materials. Thank to duolingo for enabling you to take the very first step.

[@magnusm4]

Learn basics on duolingo. Then join language servers and just observe.

[@StandWatie1862]

​@@magnusm4 What is a language server

[@frxnk_]

​​@@StandWatie1862Discord servers In case you don't know what that is either, it is another social media that is quite popular among "youngsters". Basically WhatsApp group chats with as many people as you can get in them, but they usually are based around a topic. In this case learning new languages

[@copernicub]

​@@StandWatie1862 keep me updated if he ever answered

[@tovarishchfeixiao]

@@StandWatie1862 I guess he did think about discord servers for language learning purposes.

[@dogestep64]

My current study plan is 30 minutes of pimsleur and 15 minutes of busuu and it has worked very well

[@daysandwords]

Great job! Yeah I can imagine that would work pretty well! Which language?

[@dogestep64]

@@daysandwords currently I'm learning Japanese

[@dogestep64]

@@daysandwords I just hope that Busuu does make some test if you actually speak the language because I have been corrected incorrectly before

[@daysandwords]

@@dogestep64 By Busuu or by the other users? If you watch my full review of Busuu, I mention this in the flaws, that other users can correct stuff and a lot of the English corrections are wrong or incomplete. Busuu do already have level tests, but they aren't like placement tests or anything. I'd be 3 times as confident with a Busuu correct as I would with a Duolingo correction.

[@dogestep64]

@@daysandwords other users have corrected me wrong before

[@Sean-ll5cm]

I love duolingo. I just find that the way it teaches and revises in that structured manner is sooo effective for me personally. It's obviously not the be all and end all, but it's so handy if you've always struggled with trying to retain new information because its repetition is so perfectly embedded in the tree. If anything it's a very handy springboard that helps see you on your way imo

[@daysandwords]

It totally helps springboard you, I'll definitely pay that. In fact I have a much earlier video about that: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nGGvgJqfhLZ5qdU

[@walkernick86]

Sean I have a friend who has been using duolingo for like two years! He still doesn’t speak the language!

[@celiawong4559]

I have been using Duolingo to learn Arabic since a year ago when I was an absolute beginner. Now I know more than a thousand words and can communicate with people in Arabic although not well. I live in a Chinese speaking environment so this app is my primary source of learning and practice plus maybe some youtube videos here and there. I Love Duolingo!

[@seanboglio3605]

The problem with duolingo, the way I see, is that it is like... the entire begginner's section set in topics. No one is getting fluent because of it but, like... It can get you to a point where you can learn the language consuming content made in itself. There is a time to let go of it... (and by let go I mean stop having it as your input source) but, again... it is pretty good to keep all that content standing still in your head. So like... duolingo is guilty of false advertisement BUT until the point the promise is broken it does a great job.

[@Bazza5000]

@@walkernick86 Well, if your friend combined Memrise and Duolingo, he would definitely be able handle a basic conversation. Using Duolingo alone, nope.

[@kxra.69]

I clicked on this *And I got an ad of Duolingo*

[@randomperson1714]

Damn

[@edenhope8913]

I got one for Rosta Stone, the competition is feirce!

[@yuckie_]

*Spanish or vanish*

[@honeybeesbebe8787]

O

[@sharonoddlyenough]

I am a beginner, and I like that I am forced to speak Swedish out loud on Duolingo, because I am shy and would have a hard time speaking to anyone in such a rudimentary way. It's nice to have a tool to bring me up to a basic level. I have a lot of time to devote to it, and I am supplementing with slow Swedish videos on KZbin. In a 10 day streak, I have done about 23% of the tree, and I do feel like it has been of benefit to me. It's a useful tool, but that's all it is. Hopefully in a month, I can switch to podcasts and language website.

[@Хуареко]

i’m glad there’s another language enthusiast that actually worries and cares for others that are learning languages and desires the best for them. love your honest content mate keep it up!

[@daysandwords]

Thank you! I think too many people are like "Oh whatever works for you" but nobody wants to admit that some things are popular but crap.

[@KarenVanessaBuitrago]

Yes, you inspire me to make better videos. Thank you

[@cate01a]

@@daysandwords I mean I more see this video, despite it being well intentioned, meaningful and helpful, that it's trying to hyper optimise someone that's just trying to get their foot in the door. Like say some fat guy entering a gym and starts idk lifting light weights. Then someone runs up going "That's not the best idea, instead you should..." and another person "No no here's a better way to use your time here and to get you your results". And before you know it you've scared them off

[@biuliu7157]

@@cate01a Scaring them off? Just sign in to Busuu.

[@SmokeandSteel]

I have a 280 streak. I was looking for this video exactly. Thank you!

[@adenovirus.]

Thank you for saving me from duolingo. My wife was also using it and accidentally Missed a day and lost her streak then gave up learning language altogether.

[@daysandwords]

Well yeah, that happened to me with Spanish. I think the streak can be good to get you through to about day 80 or something, until you are without a doubt STUDYING the language. Your wife gave up on it because she hadn't really committed to it in the first place (that's not me saying something bad about your wife, that's just what people do sometimes) - it was the same with me and Spanish. I realised that I never cared about Spanish. I cared about my streak. With Swedish it was different, when I very nearly lost my streak at day 72, I realised that I didn't care so much about the streak but I would NOT be stopping Swedish. The same goes for French now. I haven't studied French for 5 days... that doesn't mean I no longer study French. Thanks for all your recent comments!

[@adenovirus.]

@@daysandwords Thank you for your channel I subscribed and I agree with so many things you say especially about interfaces and time wasters. Trialling Clozemaster, Lingvist and Busuu the last several days and each has its own advantages but all seem to not be a waste of time! Watching content and conversing and reading books etc are all good but apps are great for using otherwise idle time (eg train journey or on the loo) What I now noticed is Duo makes me type in a huge sentence and I get one little letter wrong or even auto correct on the keyboard changes the word while I wasn't looking. Then in red you see the required answer but don't remember because you cannot retry the question there and then you have to wait until later (and maybe other mistakes) then often make the same error again. This is not learning from mistakes this is pure time wasting. A Simple program change to make you get it right before moving on to the next question would fix that. I didn't have these thoughts until I started using other apps. its also a misuse of the SRS concept. Also when they ask for an English translation what they require often is sometimes dubious, something I would never say in real life. How can a native English speaker get marked on the wrong English? (the meaning was correct and the point is understanding the foreign language) I was starting to forget I wanted to speak in another language and beginning to think the only thing that mattered was the streak, position in the league and number of followers. Planning to quit Duo at exactly 365 day streak early in the new year. The other apps have streaks anyway :-). Still recommend Duo to somebody JUST starting out and have no plan.

[@calm.aware.]

Quitting Duolingo is harder than any breakup ever!

[@heatherperleberg7816]

Me: im going to take a day off to let my brain rest Duolingo owl: How about you learn how to say 'i took your family' in italian!

[@spicybiscuit5530]

I think Duolingo is an ok language app, and I know that repition is good for learning but a week of just "The woman eats the orange" "the fly eats the cheese" is not helpful. Edit: Apparently it's just French that has a weird obsession with The _ eats the _. The Hungarian course isn't as bad and it's helping with remembering vocabulary and setence structure. It's definitely not enough to learn a langauge by itself though. (My favourite duolingo hungarian sentence is "Ez nem alma, hanem autó" - "This is not an apple but a car". It's so stupid and random)

[@coolingheat5644]

Spicy Biscuit but ¡Mi vida, Duo, mis amigos! Por favor, mi vida! ¡Dúo! NO, is helpful alot tho 😆

[@kaalengoonga1584]

The day you can understand “the stupid and random” that day you will be able to claim fluency. It is like building muscles if all your exercises are the same routine ones you will never build strong muscles;)!

[@magnoliabraun4291]

And the man is eating a crosont l'homme mange un croissant

[@kaalengoonga1584]

Maggie Braun Et heureusement pour les adeptes de Duolingo, à Duolingo l’homme fait beaucoup plus que de simplement manger des croissants. Il est beaucoup plus sophistiqué que ça ;)!

[@lucaslucas191202]

It's not about the sentence as a whole, but the parts of it. 'This is not an apple but a car' isn't helpful cause you would actually say it to someone, but it is helpful because you learn how to say the general 'This is not x, but y'. Using apple and car is just because they're nouns you're familiar with, so when you learn the sentence you know which part corresponds to x and y. You also cement the nouns apple and car, and the word for 'this'.

[@अजिङ्क्यगोखले]

I started learning Japanese on Duolingo, and currently I'm doing it on both Duolingo and Busuu. I've to admit that when it comes to conversational ability, Busuu is useful, they even teach about stroke orders. However, Duolingo did one thing which very few language learning apps do: they got the alphabet out of the way first (although regretfully, it seems to have no concern for stroke order, thank you to Busuu there). It suited me. When I learn a language whose writing system is different from the ones i use, I prefer to get the alphabet out of the way; vocab and grammar can wait. Another thing I like about Duolingo is that they don't spoon feed grammar rules. They leave some of them for us to guess. I like it better that way. I tend to lose interest if I am just told everything and don't have to use my brain.

[@rigure]

tbh I feel like they don't tell me any grammar and I find that kinda annoying 😅 they could easily put that in a button so you can read it if you need to, it's hard to research if I can't speak the language yet, I feel like it's only letting me learn what they want me to, I don't feel like I can make my own sentences and that's exactly why I didn't like school but school actually did a better job😅

[@yasminaamro2543]

the whole stroke order thing changed btw im new at duoilingo and we write each hiragana on screen and just recently after finishiing the first section im onto a few kanji

[@TooManyChoices1]

Welcome back!! I did the same thing with mine because it started feeling like it was trying to force me to use it and it wasn’t giving me the vocabulary or the grammar I wanted. It’s better now with the update. I quit my 200day streak and now came back because it is actually better being in control and leave it behind again no worries.

[@prabuddh_mathur]

some of the most heated battles in the history of Language learning Matt vs Japan Days of French and Swedish vs DUOLINGO

[@daysandwords]

Bahaha, I'm honoured to be thought of like that.

[@heidiridgway6280]

Thank you for this! I'm on a 326-day streak learning Italian, but had a difficult lesson tonight that left me almost in tears (especially after losing my last heart to a stupid typo) and am starting to question whether Duolingo is becoming more of a "need to keep my streak" burden than a source of joy and fun. I'm pretty sure your video answered that question for me, so thank you/grazie! :)

[@michelemoneywell8765]

Want infinite hearts for free? Set up a Duolingo school, and enroll yourself in Italian and any other class you set up. Enroll others to give them infinite hearts. It's all free. But you will have to do a little research to figure out how to do it

[@_moonmoth]

I found that Busuu teaches me more faster, because it doesn´t waste time repeating the same sentences over and over and instead just uses every "checkpoint" to introduce something new. In Duolingo you will spend a whole week just doing 100 permutations of two or three topics.

[@evaphillips2102]

I like duolingo as a way to pass time and review vocab. It’s also great as an introduction to languages if you don’t know where to start, especially those that use the Roman alphabet.

[@stevengao8527]

I can't make a judgement about the Duolingo course but their French short stories are amazing.

[@0GodJudges0]

Yeah, Im surprised I haven’t heard anyone talk about the stories. They seem to be very helpful for context and exposure to listening to actual people talking instead of robots.

[@flawyerlawyertv7454]

@@0GodJudges0 nice

[@rebekahmontesdeoca565]

@@0GodJudges0 i think the stories are relatively new, so that might be why

[@alpnamarwah3201]

And some of them are amusing.I actually laugh and enjoy them very much.

[@johnd1464]

The first few are good but then they go down hill. There’s one about a girl who walks into a café called ‘the potato’ and tries to order something without potato in it.

[@johnhazlett3347]

I like duolingo. I like how it rewards your completion of various lessons and stories. It also helps reduce some of the tedious nature of learning lessons, and help boost consistency. My supervisor commented I have good pronunciation. It might not be the best, but it's better than nothing.

[@amanda.jeaniwh]

Trying to learn Scottish Gaelic on Duolingo and the "streaks" and "leadership board" is making me feel anxious... It's something I still want to do but it feels like a chore now. I'm definitely going to have to take a step back and find a better way.

[@In_time]

I felt this too! I highly recommend not “checking in” on the leader boards! I found many times that I was spending so much time trying to ensure I finished at number 1 that I never advanced forward in learning my language. I just practiced the same levels over and over to gain the needed points (which is great, yay practice) but I never had time to learn _new_ things. Im learning that duo isnt that great either but when I do use it, I stay out of the leaderboard section and it helps keep me focused on my language and not beating others lol 🙈 Good luck in your language!!:)

[@enrapturedgoose5317]

why are you learning Gaelic? I'm Scottish and don't know anyone who speaks Gaelic

[@In_time]

@@enrapturedgoose5317 it doesn’t have to be popular to want to learn it or for it to be considered worth learning. Asking someone “why” they’re learning a language is like asking them why their favorite color is their favorite color. “I just like it/wanted to” is enough. 🤷🏼‍♀️

[@enrapturedgoose5317]

@@In_time thats interesting to hear. I assumed before reading your reply that people wanted to learn a language so they could visit that country or to speak to people in that language, but I'm happy to be wrong. I was confused also why the uploader of this video was learning Swedish since its not popular, but your reply explains what may be the reason he is. I only started learning a second language yesterday so I'm new to all this lol

[@chuvakizsingapurjye]

@@In_time Halò ! Tha mi ionnsachadh Gàidhlig

[@kylefer]

I had no hearts until I lost a 150 day streak, now I do. I hated hearts at first but now I like the heart system. You can either hit refill to repeat past mistakes and earn hearts back, or, just go do some hard practice on past lessons you've already completed and you'll get 1 heart back. That helps me cement what I recently learned, and therefore, I get it, the heart system that is.

[@geyoda64]

Yeah I also really like the heart system for the repetition. I feel like paying for unlimited hearts is actually a downgrade.

[@PinkGoesWellWithGreen24]

I have been using it close to two years now and I always tell people not to ONLY use Duolingo. I use a varity (all free) apps everyday, and I use Duolingo daily to refresh things I struggle with and I also watch youtube in spanish instead of english and read a chapter of a book everyday. I honestly think only trying to use Duolingo is the problem as different places give you different ways to learn and teach you in different ways so you get a whole range of content, especially because Duolingo can hinder you progress as it teaches the languge from a specfic place that you might not be learning it for and they teach words that won't be useful to you or you miss thing you need to know. I think Duolingo is a great resource, epecially starting from scratch, but if you want to get fluent in all aspects, reading, writing and speaking, you have to use a wide variety of resources to do that and find which are helpful to you and even if you aren't a fan of the app I highly recommend the short stories and podcasts as they teach you must faster and really improve your level in my exprience.

[@maximobertuccioli3838]

I was on a 21 days streak on Duolingo looking forward to a full year streak. You made me save so much time!

[@traxillia]

The thing is any language learning apps including Duolingo teach you the Basics of each language not the full stuff what everybody expect the rest come it from books or reseaching in internet or learn with native people

[@matthewblankenship7274]

I agree with this completely, I plan to use duolingo to get a grip of a language and when I finish with that I’ll find other things!

[@pushparahi5681]

Yess I agree, I mean no app is perfect 😌☹️

[@kennethirgendwas4616]

I think duolingo works really well for me. I use pimsleur simultaneously and the value duolingo provides comes mostly from the comments under each sentence discussing pronunciation, grammar etc. Theres native speakers on there that i can ask questions and the value that those discussions provide are imo already enough.

[@rhiannon9549]

For my, Duolingo is the basics of a language I've never learnt before. Once I finish the trees I'm going to move on. There's no point going over the same lessons or learning a language I'm not interested in to keep my streak. I'm specifically learning the languages I am for academic reasons (i.e. to read academic articles) so as soon as I finish the tree, I'm going to jump into articles and see if I can understand them with the help of online dictionaries. If I can, then I'll call Duolingo a success

[@peterstrianus1790]

I studied estonian 3 years alone with books. I registered 2 weeks ago to a course I developed more fast than in 3 years. I have no Idea why people underestimate courses. Yes they can be expensive but gosh you stay there and speak. A language has to be spoken not only clicked to associate words. It's okay Duolingo Mondly Assimil Teach Yourself and so on but a 4 months course still really teaches you.

[@ktyy777]

Peter Strianus I agree fully!!! I studied French through Duolingo, but Duolingo almost never explains grammatical rules, it just taught me phrases. So when I took a French course in college it was absolutely stressful BUT I learned a lot and I love learning it now

[@naturerey1845]

@@ktyy777 cool

[@checkmatebjjtournamentseri884]

Mate you're making duolingo sound like a criminal organization. The streak makes me addicted. That is a good thing. I knew no Spanish before duolingo, now I've learned a lot of Spanish. I supplement this with speaking with native speakers and watching spanish Netflix and spanish music. I've been doing this for 3 years now man, and it has worked

[@daysandwords]

Hi Aaron - ok a couple of things to get through here: I don't know when I made Duo sound like a criminal organisation. But they are a company who want to keep you using their platform (and they DON'T care about how much of the language you learn, as long as you're using Duo). This much is fact. The streak turns you into an addict... Good thing? Well, for the first 100 days maybe. While you are trying to make the language into a habit. 3 years later? Dude... you can enjoy Duo as much as you like, but after 3 years... why are not just reading novels and stuff? One page of a novel will contain as many new words for you to learn in an interesting context as Duo will contain in 5 lessons. One could criticise my level of Swedish after 3 years given that I still find reading novels hard... but then I remember that I have also built a very decent level of French in this time. So basically I've learned 2 languages in that time, and that was WITH trying to keep up the ineffective habit of the streak... if I dropped that on day 100 or 200 like I should have, then I'd be better in both languages. Speaking with native speakers and Netflix etc., is absolutely fantastic and you should do it. (No subtitles by the way... turn off the subtitles way before you feel ready, or you'll never be ready). But that stuff is not the supplementary material. Duo should be the supplement. Spanish series and speaking with native speakers should be your main diet. In fact I see that you are saying you like in a Spanish speaking country? Honestly, keeping Duo after this long and living in a Spanish speaking country to me is just further evidence of the addiction like behaviour that the streak encourages. Basically your two comments together seem to be able to be summarised as: 1. Duolingo is good, and you make them sound like criminals. Stop that! 2. I am addicted and this is a good thing. (Once again: it's a good thing, they are not criminals.) 3. I live in a Spanish speaking country and I have a 3 year streak on Duolingo. Other activities don't (or can't?) help me more than a toy translation app does. ???

[@javierdonaire6877]

Aaron Van Tassel watch this channel. Spanish real lessons

[@Nancy-sj7yg]

i was using Duolingo for about the last year to try to maintain my Italian - i was at a high intermediate level a few years ago and then decided to focus on German. I felt that the Italian was fading, so Duolingo seemed like a good option. I wasn't enjoying it, and the last straw was the recent "upgrade." So I quit - and now am using Busuu for Italian, which I find far superior. No cutsie stuff on Busuu, and I also like that they weave in cultural information about the country. And no silly sentences like "I am giving water to my pig" which is classic Duolingo.

[@widdershinnz]

Duo is like a warm up. I use it on TOP of everything else haha

[@pushparahi5681]

Yo 🤓

[@jonaskeepauthor1935]

I use Duolingo for a very simple reason, I enjoy it. I don’t get nearly as much out of it as I get from pimsleur and I am looking forward to starting ouino on my next payday (thank you for your review on that) but Duolingo does help me with motivation and habit building for the more useful programs.

[@carlosvillegas8775]

I quit duolingo and went to bussu, I got tired of "the turtle have the milk" what the heck? Nothing useful

[@CarboKill]

That made me lol so hard. Duo has some stupid fucking example sentences. The tips which teach grammar are also lacking, and you learn more by reading the discussion pages for each question, which, btw, are filled to the fucking brim with people asking why a sentence or word is the way it is, because Duolingo doesn't actually teach you anything.

[@BlackHen25]

bruh u made me spit my milk

[@counterfeit1148]

@@CarboKill It's just pure memorization, which is not the best way to learn a language

[@flawyerlawyertv7454]

Lolll

[@flawyerlawyertv7454]

@@BlackHen25 lol

[@lexmole]

I just started two weeks ago learnig Greek and Dutch with Duolingo and I assume that you're right with what you said. It's pretty nice to start with, especially if you read the hints - so it's a nice and easy way to get in touch with a new language and to give a new learner a feeling about how the language sounds like and is structured. But once you will be progressed, I don't really think that Duolingo will help to improve skills at an advanced level. But, again, it's a great tool to start with and it's for free, so people can just try and figure out if they really want to learn a specific language to its details.

[@alexholt5739]

I've always heard duolingo is 'The' way to learn a language online, but omg it's such a slow way to be able to even understand basic sentences. People always forget that if a product is free, then you're the product, the thing you said about the streak having no value and just being designed to keep you coming back could not be more true. Those push notifications like "we miss you, please come study more french" aren't to keep you learning, it's to keep you addicted to the dopamine rush of the number going up on your streak.

[@daysandwords]

THANK.... YOU....

[@timberhochwandi931]

I am on a 36 days streak and I think it is enough.

[@santiagosilva2600]

As a person who's fluent in about 7-8 languages, native in 3-4, and who's taught myself languages , I'd be surprised that anyone, including Duolingo would ever make the claim that ONE...and ONE system ONLY, is enough to become fluent. Of course "fluent" can be quite subjective. While I have aided in Italian medical calls, including for government agencies, I don't know thing 1 about car and car parts. But then I don't know car parts in any languages. I personally find that it's best to set personal goals, and know what you want to accomplish; 1.) Be able to introduce myself, and have a small conversation about my day. (Learn phrases and words for that context.) 2.) Learn my everyday life/ job, in that language; replace words and phrases in your head in w that language. 3.) Various other social situations, and its terminology. (these last 2 examples can vary night and day from person to person) 4.) Watch various TV shows in that language, so that I can hear what the "official" language sounds like. etc etc etc I've seen ppl (on the KZbin) who claimed to be fluent thanks only to Duolingo. Me personally, I found that their pronunciation was not good. But then, some languages are so world wide spread, that accents, and "grammatical errors" , have become accepted. I suppose you could be "fluent" in writing, and have perfect speelling, and not actually know how to speak-speak , (which I have seen), and STILL be considered fluent. (Me personally have always had a knack for pronunciation.) And tbh, I kiiiind of got the impression that the ppl in question were perhaps sponsored by Duolingo. So that could be something as well I suppose..? I would say use Duolingo as maybe a springboard to get started , and as a keep-your-mind-busy-tool, for when you can't practice IRL. But do incorporate other things. Rant over :D

[@poke-champ4256]

"İm native in 3-4 Languages" Bro you livin in İndia or been movin between different countries how did you accomplish that.

[@santiagosilva2600]

@@poke-champ4256 I was (un)lucky that my dad was from Chile , and my mom was from Romania (that's where I was born) , we moved to Sweden when I was ~3. At home, my dad always spoke Spanish, my Mom always Romanian, and me and my brother Swedish. I moved to Canada in my early 20's and the States in my late 30's. in between I also learned a series of other language. For a while I was living w girl from Brazil and we only spoke Portuguese at home. ( I work as an interpreter for several agencies in the States and around the world, so I get a lot of practice in the various languages that I speak on a daily basis.)

[@poke-champ4256]

@@santiagosilva2600 İf thats true, thats epic good for ya man Have good day

[@santiagosilva2600]

@@poke-champ4256 it's been a blessing and a curse. I was just lucky that I found a job where i could do what I am naturally good at doing + flexible enough that I can work around my insomnia. Also, I come from a long line of polyglots, so you could argue there's a genetic component. I'm more impressed w ppl like the owner of this channel, who learned a small language, far away from that country, seemingly out of thin air. Me being born into something, is just luck.

[@MsMRkv]

La verdad después de terminar el árbol en dos mes, me di cuenta de que sabía muy poco y estar repitiendo una y otra vez el mismo vocabulario para mantener la racha no servía para nada, así que desinstale la app y me puse a ver vídeos en vez.

[@lorenacolmenares9228]

Currently I'm using three resources to learn French: Busuu (for grammar tips), Memrise (Vocabulary), and Pismleur (pronunciation). I think that Duolingo is more like a video game that with the time becomes really boring. BTW, I also recommend Takelesson, you can take 4 classes for free every month and some of them are really cool because you can have an opportunity to talk, even if it's just for a short time :)

[@daysandwords]

I thought I replied to this but it seems to have gone? Anyway, thanks for the tip! Have you ever used iTalki? I mean, I spend about 40 minutes of every hour talking with iTalki haha.

[@lorenacolmenares9228]

@@daysandwords yes! I use Italki too! I have some classes every month and that's helping me a lot too! :D

[@alxndradelcastillo]

Totally agree with everything you said Personally for me I use Duolingo like a game, I rather play Duolingo than plants vs zombies And yes you become addicted I was super mad when I lose my longest strike I didn't talk to anyone in two days

[@SMoggyinski]

I'm currently on a 1952 day streak and have no intention of quitting. Not because I'm obsessive (well, much) or because I'm in some way being manipulated by an overly assertive green owl, but because (a) it's fun, and (b) Duolingo is a really useful _starting point_ for learning a language. Which is the point I feel. No one is going to "learn a language" from simply doing Duolingo, or from simply using _any other_ language learning app or website (whether paid or free, or whether all the supposedly "serious", cool language learners are also using it or not). But Duolingo does give you a really useful and fun way of getting a feel for a language and a basis/platform which you can then build on if you decide that's what you want to do. That said, I totally agree that people should ask themselves .. when they get to a 100 day streak or at any other point .. what they're actually getting out of doing it and whether it's really right for them, because everyone is different (especially when it comes to something as individual and complex as language learning) so obviously different things will work for different people.

[@gilbertollamasromano8091]

You are absolutely right. I have been using Duolingo un swedish for two months and have gotten much more fluency, it is just good.

[@tremarley9648]

I quit a 650 day streak on Duolingo too. Felt like a waste of time.

[@boyohazard]

Hoorah for someone that speaks honestly and critically! I recently got to a 251 day streak on DuoLingo and I am really scratching my head as to why. For a start it isn't even a true streak. I have used so many streak freeze things that it is probably closer to 230 than 251. I also recently caught myself clicking "I can't speak now" and "I can't listen now" to skip those question types and I STILL get full XP for completing the lesson! And yet I can't quite get myself to stop. Rather infuriating at times. You have posited some excellent questions though, so thank you for that. I am going to reflect upon the answers and take it from there.

[@daysandwords]

Thanks for this comment! The streak freezes don't count days that you don't do... so like, if you start on January 1, and you use a streak freeze every second day, then at the end of that year, you'll have a 183 day streak, not a 365 day streak. But you're right, it's still not even a streak. I mentioned this in another video somewhere. Once it goes beyond about 80 I think it's not worth it. Just stop now before you get too far down the line like I did!

[@boyohazard]

@@daysandwords I didn't realise that. Not until after I posted my comment and thought, "Wait a second. I started learning in February which would be more than the 251 day streak"

[@daysandwords]

Yeah exactly. Honestly it sounds weird, but I feel so free to actually learn languages now that I've quit. People joke about it taking your family hostage... it isn't when you quit, it's when you keep the streak that it takes you hostage!

[@Xae_in_a_Coat]

Came here because I’m currently stressed out about the leaderboards/leagues,I don’t have a problem with maintaining my streak or doing my lessons daily,but heck,those leaderboards are on the top of my stress list right now(along with school)...I understand that this whole thing is meant to boost the learner’s motivation and add a competitive quality to the app,but it doesn’t work that way for all learners(myself included)...it started off as a decent way for me to practice more,then it got to a point where I was just churning out a ridiculous amount of XP to make sure that I didn’t lose the 1st place spot,and now it’s just another factor of constant stress,anxiety,and unenjoyable work for me to accomplish everyday...I used to enjoy using the app when I first got it,I felt like I was actually putting in the effort to learn a new skill,but now I’m just clicking through the same stories to win some stupid league,hardly taking the time to acknowledge new words and phrases...I’m not saying these “competitions” shouldn’t exist,but it definitely shouldn’t be forced onto everyone’s Duolingo experience,instead,the creators should add an option to join/leave the leagues(something like “hey,are you looking for something a little more competitive?If so,maybe you should try competing in the leagues!” should pop up when someone is creating an account for Duolingo and ask them if they’d wanna try it out,along with yes or no options...then just in case the learner changes their mind in the future they can go back into their account and join/unjoin the leagues whenever they want)...another problem I have is the hearts,we learn from our mistakes,so why should we have to pay with a heart whenever we screw up...it makes you end a session,wait for more hearts,or go and get Duolingo Plus whenever you’ve used up your 5 chances of life...other than that I actually don’t find anything extremely wrong about Duolingo,it’s just another standard language learning app with a couple of flaws that I hope the creators will address and fix soon...

[@daysandwords]

Yep: Duolingo encourages lots of Duolingo.

[@zengseng1234]

I finished all the Duolingo French lessons, but everything I remember in French, I learned from MANGO LANGUAGES! The Duolingo Japanese helps me review words which I already learned from MANGO LANGUAGES! I even have a better app for Japanese (LingoDeer) which I PAID FOR, but I devote my time to keeping that damn 500+ day streak on Duolingo and end up ignoring the better app!! Thank you for helping me realize that I need to cut the Duolingo cord.

[@Volleyball_Chess_and_Geoguessr]

I used Mango for Hebrew and it was fun at first, but ended up not really liking it in the end. I love Duolingo!

[@Tehui1974]

I've never used Duolingo and no disrespect to anybody, but I probably won't try it. I'd rather focus on immersion via listening & reading.

[@Wandering.Homebody]

Duolingo is quite good for Greek. I will finish the Greek tree, and then just switch to reading Greek novels. I m at day 66, and have accumulated almost 18000 exp, and my Greek has improved so much! I honestly keep feeling quite grateful that such a free resource exists, there for sure isn't all that much out there for Greek.

[@crucerob]

I found your video while looking for information about 'how' to buy a streak freeze on Duolingo. After listening to you, I realized that you are absolutely correct. I got too hooked on gaining points and competing against the others ahead of me. (The competitor in me.) However, that being said, I am learning. And when I see a grammar point I don't understand, I google it to learn what it's all about. I don't plan to quit Duolingo, but I'm going to approach 'my learning' in a way that works for me. To heck with streaks and points. Who cares? I want to learn and I like the way it has me learning. I used to use Babbel, but I didn't learn nearly as much with that program as I am learning now. Thank you for your video. Takes the stress out of my learning and puts 'me' back in charge.

[@DoughBrain]

I appreciate that Duolingo encourages me to practice at least a little bit once a day. I have a few learning disabilities that make it hard for me to remember to do anything. (That includes daily tasks that most people can do without thinking about it.) I understand that it isn’t effective for everyone nor would I ever argue that case. It is nice to hear your reasons for uninstalling the app. It definitely helps me see why other people don’t like it too much.

[@peterpike]

I agree with your decision. I did a 250 day streak, and now I'm on a 22 day streak after a break of about 14 months. I was surprised as much of Spanish stuck as it did, so in that sense Duolingo isn't a complete failure, but I'm running into the same frustrations I had that made me stop the original streak, only they're happening much quicker. Duolingo just isn't set up to learn language well. I remember running into tons of problems the first time through trying to differentiate between when to use ese, este, esa, esas, estas, aquellos, etc. etc. My solution to the problem was to use a flashcard program I had written for a completely different purpose and spend about 20 minutes learning those terms by rote. Having to use a different program to make it past the learning curve Duolingo already showed it´s not a good program--at least to my style of learning. Now that I´m back I´m running into similar problems. I basically have to teach myself the grammar based on how I fail, because it´s not explained. The problem is that Duolingo isn´t consistent either. As an example, most of the time if I´m supposed to translate ¨Mr. Cortes is working today.¨then I write out ¨El señor Cortes trabaja hoy.¨ That is correctly about 90% of the time. But the other 10% it doesn´t want the ¨El¨at the front. But if you DON´T put it in when it DOES want it, you get a tip that says, ¨In Spanish, use the article so it´s el señor.¨ So why does it fail me the 10% of the time when it suddenly doesn´t want the article? I still don´t know from Duolingo when I´m supposed to put the article there and when I´m not. I haven´t magically figured out the rule that´s in place. I mean, I can learn which sentences Duolingo wants it on, but that´s not the same thing as learning Spanish.

[@conornolan5745]

I was having the same problem with the El señor Cortez but if you use the forums I learnt that if you are addressing the person you don’t use the El but if you are describing them then you do use the El. It would be better if duolingo told me this but at least it is relatively easy to find out on the website.

[@MoiraOBrien]

Losing my hearts made me subscribe…. And I did not regret it. Yes, the streak does give me a guilt trip but it DOES keep me learning every day and I probably would not without it. I am supplementing it with other things as well, like reading newspapers, conversing with a native via zoom and some other videos on KZbin.

[@dirtydan2721]

My goals have completely changed throughout learning spanish, at first I was using Duolingo to get an acceptably low level of knowledge. Once I had enough of that I moved on to watching some Marria La Del Barrio english subbed to get ahold of hearing the language, after that I did dualingo short stories and wrote down 15 words that I didn't know each lesson, repeating each one + english translation 4 times each to fill the page (31 lines on each page, 15 new words twice on each line for 4 times to neatly fill the page) Now I sometimes do the duolingo short stories but my main method is just to read one chapter of a book a day minimum, and if I want to do more than that any particular day I'll add on some of my previous learning methods. Writing out definitions is definitely way better than flash cards, and at the same time I've re-learned the cursive writing that I learned in school while writing those definitions. I'd advise dumping dualingo as soon as possible and picking up their short stories instead, writing out 15 new words every lesson. it's also much more fun hearing those stories than it is just mindlessly tapping on a screen. The most important part of self-study is that it feels fun / rewarding and those little short stories will always be more entertaining than dualingo, as will reading some fiction.

[@CassieCollision]

I'm at a point where I honestly feel like the lessons and the skill tree on Duolingo are wasting my time more than they are teaching me. But what is keeping me using the app at the moment is the stories. I find that I enjoy them way more than the lessons, and I think that the more varied phrases and sentences in them are more valuable than what the lessons themselves provide. So what I have been doing as of late is deliberately cheating at the skill tests to get the crowns necessary to unlock the stories faster. I write down each new word I discover in the stories and make an Anki card out of them for further review and spaced repetition. The point where the Duolingo has no more stories to offer me is probably when I will quit using it, assuming I can bring myself to. Sunk cost fallacies are a powerful trick of the mind.

[@sandmancesar]

I completely disagree. Yes, there are better ways of studying than Duolingo, but that’s not the point of keeping a streak. You keep a streak to remind yourself that you’re engaged with learning the language. For example, I use Duo and LingQ, it’s really hard to keep a streak there, sometimes I will spend a couple of months without learning anything(life gets busy for everybody). But duo will eventually remind me to go back to LingQ, to never give up in the process. The easy duo streak has kept me engaged with language learning for ten years and I’m sure that without it I would’ve followed most language learner’s destiny: to give up on the language for so long you don’t feel like picking it up again. Yes, if I had set aside an hour a day to study Chinese seriously for two years maybe I’d have a higher level than after five years with my current method. But I know myself, and I know I couldn’t keep that up. The fact is I’ve been practicing Chinese for five years every day, and that’s way more valuable than spending a couple of months with your method and then giving up. I’ve figured out that ANYTHING that you can do to keep the consistency is better than something that might rise your proficiency at the cost of consistency. Any effective language journey cut short is worse than an ineffective one that never stops. As long as you’re moving forward you’re good, don’t mind the speed. The speed should be the one that allows you to reach your goal. If it takes you 10 years to learn a language by practicing 5 min a day, that’s better than the guy who gave up after one year of intensive classes. 10 years later, you’re the one that knows the language.

[@royboivin]

I started with Duolingo for learning German currently 19 days in and between 50 and 60 hours spent int he app learning. I feel so far its the best way i have found to learn a language. I have taken both high school and colledge classes in multiple languages, used pimsler and rosetta stone and find duolingo to be far better for me than any of the things i have used in the past. Although i am learning and spending way more time then15 mins a day and im not even close to 100 days into the app. I do not expect any app to get you fluent but i think they are a good start to getting you to being able to be conversational in another language. After you master everything in the app i would move on to other things to continue to learn more advanced topics (technology, construction, political, etc)

[@danielsobral1831]

I was aware since the beginning that I wasn't going to seriously learn a language with duolingo. But after using other resources that were likely much better than duolingo, in the end duolingo is the only one that keeps me going there, exactly due to the skinner box effect. So I'm consciously keeping my Duoling streak more as a reminder that I really want to learn the language, and hopefully at some point go back to seriously doing it (with other resources)... it is still usefull to keep a few words in my mind (although I'll surely become quite biased in their use!) so it's not a total waste of time... but yeah I've also thought about dropping my streak for similar reasons as the ones said here.

[@syppie9172]

I just like duolingo, i do it for fun. Not even to learn a language fluently but to compete with my friends and stuff.

[@daysandwords]

Yeah that's fair, I'm kinda doing that at the moment actually.

[@albertmoffet2116]

I dont understand the criticism duolingo gets. I was learnin french on it for a couple months until they banned me a week ago. Since then i have found NO app that comes close to teaching a beginner (that's also free). Duolingo taught you how to construct your sentences, grammar, rules, pronunciation. It was the best out of all the "better than duolingo" apps that other videos have recommended. Busuu was the funniest one I tried, maybe the worst app ive used considering how messy the layout is and how unusable it is.

[@daysandwords]

There is a much newer and better video with 12 FREE language learning tools: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e3y6iYKqjMuVi6c&t=1s Thanks!

[@albertmoffet2116]

@@daysandwords Cheers ill have a look

[@Schmuni]

It is crazy that i happened to click on THIS video precisely on the day i hit my 100 days streak on mandarin. I have come to the same conclusion as you. Coming from gaming, the gamification suited my motivation; but i was weary beforehand and still am because i know the template that has went through the whole industry these past 10 years. They try to keep you in the game and make you spend money. Once you spent enough money (or time; see achievements, daily quests) you dont "wanna" leave cause of all the prestige/digital goods you have amassed. I like some games that actually further some form of skill and dont just try to keep you in a hamster wheel, but with duolingo theres no doubt it actually teaches me a real skill. I will keep going and probably not miss a day until im done with the whole mandarin course, but i will not see any obligation to keep doing it after that. Also i have started to use Pimsleur just last month (@using multiple sources). Thx for giving awesome advice and reading my comments on your videos.^^

[@EllaH_09]

Even with no hearts, you feel quitting because of illness, school and more, duolingo is pure evil, especially the streaks!

[@mithukashyapp9230]

I noticed a cute panda in the background I want it now.

[@riaconradt2554]

I have a >500-day streak on Duolingo (including my other streaks, I’ve been using Duolingo for a longer time). I do admit that Duolingo has it’s limitations. In fact, I had decided to take formal language lessons because of its limitations. But what it does is it that forces me to get daily exposure to the language I’m learning and drilling in vocabularies and concepts I had learned in my formal lessons. I still hate all the adverts I get but c’est la vie. I don’t pay a cent for this service. It’s mutually beneficial.

[@ymmv99]

The Duolingo streak system is there to make people feel anxious about not practicing every day. You can only learn a new language if you work at it regularly and the streak system can certainly motivate people to stick with their language learning, to make it part of their daily routine. That's a good thing. Too many people attempt to learn a new language and then give up after a while because they only put time and effort into this new hobby in the first weeks or months and didn't stick with it. I'm learning Russian myself. Duolingo isn't my only resource. I've been doing evening courses, I follow vlogs on KZbin, I listen to Russian podcasts to improve my listening skills, etc. I found the Russian course on Duolingo an excellent way to drill grammar and a basic vocabulary. Russian is a tough language with a deep grammar and it just takes a lot of time to internalize that system. The Duolingo Russian course certainly helps. It's how I started and I will stick with it for the time being. And I'm certainly not going to fault Duolingo for their daily streak system. If you got a 1000 streak and you blame Duolingo for forcing you to exercise every you, that's your problem.

[@alixwithani8250]

I’ll admit I haven’t used other apps aside from Glossika, which was a bit of a scam for the price, but I like that Duolingo has such niche languages. I’m learning Irish, for example, and many of the bigger apps don’t offer content in it at all. Many add new languages by the day, but the sheer ability to access a free resource in the language is better than none at all

[@rozanylas]

I find this channel quite interesting honestly. It’s different than usual channel about this topic. Already subscribed :)

[@annanelson4934]

I'm now just watching this video, and yes, I agree Duolingo CAN be a bit iffy. Personally, it's one of the few (free) resources that helps me with Norwegian that gives a solid (and somewhat in-depth) explanation for the lessons that they give. I do break away from Duolingo, though, to watch kids cartoons here on KZbin in Norwegian so I can apply my knowledge. I also listen to podcasts (mainly on Spotify) and stuff if I'm busy doing online university coursework so I can listen to the language in the background! Off-topic, but I also changed my phone's language to Norwegian (Siri included) so it forces me to think about the language on a daily basis (this also goes for KZbin and other apps as well)

[@daysandwords]

Yeah, it can be decent for the less commonly studied languages like Norwegian. Good job, keep it up!

[@dylondismas1131]

"How could free things be bad?" *Looks at 3 star rating mobile games*

[@chuckmiller8977]

Yesterday I completed 365 days - a One Year Streak of Spanish. I'm done. I'm here because I am exploring other options.

[@chiregio58]

I think it's very interesting and very useful what you say about Duolingo. And I think I'll do the very same thing that you did, that is I'll just finish a 1000+something streak, just to accomplish a personal challenge, and then I'll change the way I use Duolingo. Actually I am kind of disappointed at Duolingo, because I'm finishing the tree of french with all activities in Level 5, and what really gets me angry is that the translation at level 5 are most of the time wrong! I've been speaking french for more that 23 years, I got a French Baccalaureat and a Dalf C1 Certification, I got it in 2013, I worked for a french company for 22 years, I lived in Switzerland at Lausanne for 4 years, and I can tell you that Duolingo is not good and accurate when you are in a high level of speaking. But.. as you mention, Duolingo it's useful for practising, and eventually, to have a preview of a language that you might like to learn ...

[@jellybun12]

This was a wake up call. Memrise was doing this to me too, the points thing is unnecessary

[@shreddder999]

When I'm #2 in my league, I like to come back on and do a practice lesson or two so that #1 freaks out and does another 1000XP so that I don't catch up.

[@shounak10]

The point you presented at 6:20 is very true. When i first started using Duolingo, I didn't realise that I was mostly doing it for the points. But later I slowed down and started really learning my French, noting down the sentences and memorizing the vocab before i hit the next button. That being said, Duolingo remains one of my favourite apps to learn a new language. It helps to keep in touch with some aspect of the language daily. And the questions are quick and short so I can answer them in intervals. Checks though most of my 'requirements'.

[@marcorojas-vazquez6792]

I mean on everything thats free you're the product mate. I definitely see where you're coming from but no need to hate on duolingo itself other free platforms also make you the product it's just the way business works at the end of it. my mom was learning English and duo honestly did her wonders.

[@Ytuser8795]

I’m at 670 streak and thinking to delete it.

[@josemariafarizano9666]

I think Duolingo could be seen as an approach to a foreign language. I completely agree with you on the fact that streaks only benefit only the creators of the app and not learners, but I have to say that it helped me build vocabulary and that's the only thing I'm taking out of this platform. I do love learning new languages and I think it is possible to acquire one with loads of different sources, such as reading short stories, talking to natives, listening to music, watching KZbin channels. The list goes on. You mentioned there are other apps we can use that are better than Duolingo, which are them? Thank you for this content!

[@GlasPthalocyanine]

I have been using Duolingo for more than 5 years, lost a 1000+ streak, went to premium, and now I'm back 980+. The main language I'm learning is Welsh. I have 2 other resources for welsh but I'm going through the Duo ladder for the 3rd time. I agree with what you say about 100 days. Sometimes I feel like I'm cracking up or even unlearning what I already know. So I go to another language for a months break. I usually go to a different alphabet Japanese, Hebrew, Arabic and Hindi. I am interested in calligraphy so most of what I need, drawing the shapes and making the sounds is in the blocks of learning up to the 2nd checkpoint.

[@nhatran5107]

I have used Duolingo for 4 years, and after watching this video, I realized that this guy wrong. Duo helped me a lot in Japanese and I never feel like I am wasting time on the streak. Btw, why I don’t see any people talk about the short stories on Duo? It’s also very very helpful!!

[@brandonjackson6696]

You have used only Duo for 4 years and for one language? You need to be more specific.

[@novamaster0]

Honestly I am within my first 100 days and yeah you're completely right... The Beta Finnish course has been handy, there's far less Finnish resources out there, there's no running out of hearts penalty, and it's been really good for helping build up vocabulary, and hearing native Finnish. There's only 3-4 checkpoints as well which means you have to sort of keep pushing. Currently the only apps I've found that have it are DuoLingo, Mondly, and 50Languages. My goal right now is to finish all the checkpoints in Duolingo Finnish, then migrate over to another app for more resources (It took me about a month to get through the first check point so...) I was also doing Pimsleur for a bit, but I'll admit that it's a bit boring.

[@maitlandbezzina2842]

I am full time in uni and have used DuoLingo for about 90% of my Mandarin learning over the past 12 months. I think the best thing about Duo is that it’s very casual. I understand that I’m not the best at speaking to people or listening (however I listen to podcasts occasionally that have helped a lot), but it doesn’t take away much of my study time, it’s easy and most importantly, it kept me active on something I usually would have of just quit after a couple of weeks. My plan is to finish the Mandarin learning tree and then leave it for other resources.

[@leonardomellado1949]

1 year learning mandarin and listens to podcasts? I am 1 week in and it sounds amazing! I know the comment is 2 years old but could you understand well at the time?

[@maitlandbezzina2842]

@@leonardomellado1949 Hey Leonardo! Good luck on your learning journey, I am still learning mandarin now and I am currently living in Taiwan. I was lucky enough to be given a scholarship to live here for 18 months. I’m currently in my 5th month. I can tell you I study very differently now from when I was using Duolingo, but I must say the 12 months of using Duolingo certainly gave me a base point for getting into the more difficult stuff, and it was great because it didn’t really feel like I was ‘practising’ too much. I use apps like Anki, HelloChinese (for traditional characters because they use that in Taiwan) and podcasts now. I am also learning to write traditional characters because I’ve come to learn that writing can help you differentiate between similar characters easier, such as 跟, 很, 根. So for example, when I am reading a sentence I can more quickly see the difference so it doesn’t slow down my reading

[@Volleyball_Chess_and_Geoguessr]

I'm learning Hebrew on Duolingo and it seems the best from what I can see. I listened to the Pimsleur trial lesson, I completed Biblical Hebrew on Mango Languages, I did some of the free Mondly. I like Duolingo. Memrise is nice as a supplement too.

[@rickj.9202]

Dude. You have a real hardon for Duolingo.

[@atf300t]

I used Duolingo many years ago (when it was completely free and without ads) and I even completed one language tree, all in gold, but, in all honesty, it was just an introductory course, which was meant to get you to the level when you can read simple texts in the target language and translate them into your native language. At that time, the company hoped that, after learning some basics of the language, users would translate texts through collaborative work, and the company would make money by selling its translation service to others. However, cooperative translation did not go well, because the award system encouraged quantity over quality and competition over cooperation, so it quickly fell apart. So Duolingo changed its business model and started to sell ads. Unfortunately, that introduced the wrong incentives -- to keep users as long as possible with simple repetitive lessons. While Duolingo may be good for learning some basics, it is better to move massive reading and listening in the target language as soon as you can.

[@schoo9256]

I got an email 8 months after i quit using duolingo saying "you made duo sad". Like no, mate, I refuse to be guilt-tripped by the marketing team behind a collection of digital pixels. It was so blatantly manipulative.

[@cate01a]

yeah fair points but for me: I suddenly tried learning a language I was casually interested in after learning it was free. 100 days past and I'm continuing to (slowly) learn it a bit more and more. Even if my comprehension of the topics is crap, I would still be able to identify and understand individual words which is atleast something. So I imagine that after like a year of duo I would have become not-shit-enough to be able to begin to listen to podcasts and 'casually' learn from there, then try changing my computers language etc It does seem as you've explained duo is not good for people with good understanding of a language, though it seems to me duo is good for beginners. And personally the streak encourages me to continue doing it. I could easily imagine myself going "eh fuck it. 11:30 and work tomorrow. I deserve a day" then repeat that mentality until I forget about it all together. Though that's a preference

[@HikAri-iw7xe]

So I'm I the only one who doesn't care about streaks or leaderboards? I just use it because it has a repetitive system which is soo good for my memory. I am learning german . It might not be the best app of course or the only source of learning, but it 's free and helps me to learn more rather then wasting time on Facebook. I learned a lot from it especially from the stories. Idk . Perhaps things are completely different for advanced levels

[@alexc1485]

How do people care about their streak in the first place? I just use Duolingo when I fancy it and don't really think about the points or streaks. I get that it can be good motivation but really you aren't going to lose all progress you've made from missing a day. I can't help but feel those that get hung up on the streak don't really care about learning the language and are just hooked on proving something to themselves, but maybe not, to each their own.

[@bodinian]

I use Duolingo, Pimsleur, and Rosetta Stone. Rosetta Stone is good for giving visual cues with your vocab learning, but is devoid of explanation of grammar patterns. Pimsleur is number 1 for refining one's accent and for learning to understand spoken word in your target language as well as replying quickly, but the version I use is devoid of visual information. Duolingo is the best at keeping me motivated to study every day because it turned studying into a game, but it is bad at teaching you to pronounce things correctly and only the stories are good for training you to listen. I don't think Duolingo is bad, it has its strengths just like the other resources. I do think you shouldn't rely on it alone, or else you'll end up like that notorious video of the guy that completed Spanish on Duolingo and had a horrendous accent when speaking it.

[@jacobf_139]

The reason I use duolingo is because I am learning Italian. Tbh I wish I could use lingvist it looks so much better.

[@daysandwords]

Italian has HEAPS of resources. There's really no need for Duolingo for Italian. Check out my review of Ouino, but even free stuff... there's HEAPS of it.

[@jacobf_139]

@@daysandwords really, I'll have to have a look. I do use some other programs, like drops and pod 101, and I also tried busuu but I found it didn't work too well for me. I'll have to have a look at ouino!

[@davidgroode]

The breakthrough of showing up consistently can be applied to any area of life where one is committed to breaking through. Baby steps everyday get you up the mountain until you can take bigger steps. Consistency builds energy and momentum through consistent actions and efforts that propels people forward to reach a new level and result.

[@glitch5174]

I like duolingo because i’ll go on to get my streak up, then when i’m in the mood of that language i go and do other things with the language. Albeit i’ve never tried duolingo from ground zero. I already speak spanish so i’m flying through the Portuguese tree. I’m not sure if duolingo truly is shit or since i already “know” what i’m doing i find it helpful.

[@cheezycup]

I have Duolingo but then I deleted and then Duolingo just make a motivation about "you make Duo sad :("

[@michaelshort2388]

I stopped duolingo recently, (after finding your channel actually) and I am instead just reading books that I like (currently working my way through Harry Potter in Swedish) and also listening to podcasts / watching youtube in Swedish) while using the gold list method to learn words that I discover through these activities.

[@daysandwords]

Wow! I must admit I have only ever gotten all the way through one novel in Swedish (and some kids 'graphic novels', like, maybe half the size of actual novels). So that's respect from me, the Harry Potters are pretty tough (especially from book 4 onwards haha). Unless that is a MASSIVE slog, your Swedish must be pretty good then? I have some books from Bokus arriving soon, and in 2020 I am going to try to read all 6 of them, 1 per month for the time that I'll be in Swedish (the other months I'll be in French). Some of them are really tough books, like, written no holds barred for native speakers, but I have been REALLY REALLY wanting to read some of them (the English versions) so I figure I step into that motivation. Harry Potter, I am going to save for French. Firstly, they're cheaper in French, secondly, French vocab suits it a bit better (with all the Latin etc). Did you buy the paperbacks or is it e-books? By the way, really appreciating the comments from a fellow Swedish learner. :-)

[@michaelshort2388]

@@daysandwords I¨'m only about 6 chapters into book 1 right now. It's tough going, but I am enjoying it because I enjoy the book. I am finding with each chapter i am having to stop and translate less and less, which is encouraging. My swedish isn't bad, I can have online chat conversations with swedish without much trouble. I am not so good at speaking though, I need to make more of an effort to speak more even if I have nobody to speak to. lol I had one swede ask me if I was Danish when I spoke swedish lol

[@michaelshort2388]

Ironically, importing the book into lingq would be quite useful. but I don't think the price of it is worth it, I just use my kindle app and add annotations when I don't know a word so that I can go back and add it to my list of words to revise.

[@daysandwords]

@@michaelshort2388 BAHAHAHA. I used to get asked whether I was Norwegian, because my intonation had that happy -up-at-the-end-ness, and sometimes Finnish too, because I used to pronounce every R 'properly', which is a very Finnish thing. Danish I never got. These days they generally think: You lived in Sweden until you were 13-14 and then moved here with your parents. Because they basically think I sound like a Swede who has forgotten a lot.

[@daysandwords]

@@michaelshort2388 OH DUDE - CHECK OUT BOOKMATE FOR SSSUUUUURE then, because for FREE, you can add the book (if you have the e-book) and it's got a really nice reader platform in it (good on mobile too) and then you can translate. It's only an online translator but you totally get the sense of stuff. I give a better breakdown of why it's good in this old crappy review: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aHy1m6htiKqhbc0

[@Noel-Marie4]

I'm on day 234 on Duolingo and I do it every day for the reason you stated in the video: to keep my streak. I do learn and pay attention, but I mainly do it late in the day to not lose my streak. I noticed this a while ago and seeing this made me think twice about using it. I'm currently in an online Spanish class, I've subscribed to Lingopie and I have a thick Spanish learning book I can use. After I complete the golden tree I'm going to seriously think hard about deleting it from my phone.

[@---ut6fk]

Right now I'm only using Speakly and online tutors for Spanish. My Spanish has SKYROCKETED in such a short amount of time. When I was using duolingo (and I have nothing against it) my Spanish was improving very slowly. Glad I switched. Thank you for your insight Lamont!

[@bennieon]

i learn japanese with duolingo (not only of course) and it helps me a lot for Hiragana/Katakana (the alphabets). The streak helps me stay motivated and it’s kinda fun to me, but that’s also probably bc i get bored easily and the leaderboards and streaks make it easier for me to see it as game! I think if you don’t know where to start, duolingo can help, but you should change to get serious:) great video and thanks for sharing your opinion^^

[@asdfghjkl900321]

My take on Duo is this: If you want to learn a language and don't know where to start, start with Duolingo. If you know where to start, start there. Duo is good for beginners.