[oslac]

I would not call Duolingo a language learning application. It behaves more like language mimicry application. You learn a very particular subset of the language that I'd call "Duolingo <insert lang>". This is my conclusion after using it for two non-English languages.

You seriously need a basic beginner book if starting from fresh, and use Duolingo just as a repetition tool when you can during the day

[fermentation]

I realized that, after a year of learning German on Duolingo, the app had become something that I hated. The initial gamified fun-ness became a stressor. Seeing the notification every night that my streak was about to end stressed me out. I had long since stopped enjoying the learning process because it had felt like I wasn't learning anything at all. Ending my streak felt amazing.

I'm learning Japanese now through books, Anki, and a few webapps. The gamification is gone and streaks don't really matter. I'm sticking with it because I'm enjoying learning, not because the owl is threatening me.

[xk_id]

Consensus among Serious language learners (i.e aiming for a B2+ level) is that duolingo is marginally useful for learning some vocabulary. A thorough course or textbook are essential

[kurthr]

I used it for most of a year, and from what I can tell they go out of their gamified way to not teach any grammar or even vocabulary. Not all the time but ~20% popping up sounds and spellings, but providing no way at all to know/check what the meaning is... Why? Why not have a dictionary of the words you've "learned" and will be tested on?

Going to a fixed sequence of learning "the path" so that you're forced to cover topics and words in a specific order, and then introducing grammar that has never been taught... Why? Either cover them in order, or don't.

Eventually, you figure out the right answer by trial and error and "learn" it, but only after having developed a bad habits and wrong answers... Why? Of course there are Anki's and such out there that cover all the words so I guess they want you to just do that.

[xk_id]

I'd say the answer is because they don't measure success in terms of who becomes competent in the language, but in how many users they have. typical neoliberal "number go up" mentality, rejecting ideological definitions of "genuine" value

https://youtu.be/m8Mc-38C88g?t=176

[oslac]

I agree.

[j45]

Duolingo gets a lot of hate.

You can pick a lot worse to learn to be able to stumble through a language for vacation.

Learning the first few words in a language to start becoming competent in it is not a bad thing. Managing one's expectations is really important.

Not all learners will learn best with a textbook or course first. Variety helps.

Humans have learned language by speaking before as much as, if not more than reading/writing.

Now, are there better apps coming out for this kind of thing? Absolutely. The potential for LLM to be able to generate and listen to pronunciation will be amazing.

Prioritizing speaking before learning to read or write a language really seems to irk some folks.

[jcul]

I found Duolingo very good while I was actually in the country and speaking the language I was trying to learn.

It didn't teach me to speak alone but expanded my vocabulary enough to stumble through conversations. Which was enough to being improving through speaking with locals.

[wordpad25]

If you're learning Duolingo subset of a language, it's still a language learning application.

[JCharante]

It's more like a side quest rather than main story line. And that's okay.

[aitchnyu]

What alternative would you recommend?