[jvvw]

I was really puzzled by Duolingo for ages - I just found all the animations etc. painful and other apps seemed to much better for language learning. And then my kids (10 and 12) started using it and absolutely loved getting streaks, lingots and so on and were choosing to use it for fun. It doesn't really matter that it isn't the most efficient way to learn French if they enjoy it.

Any sort of LLM-based tutor is tricky with children as you can't guarantee that it won't come up with something inappropriate, even with the various guardrails in place. As a parent, I'm happy to take that risk especially if I am around to explain anything, but if I were a teacher for example then I probably wouldn't be and I imagine businesses are going to be in a similar situation.

[gs17]

That explains it. I sometimes try it out again (another year, still no stories for Chinese) and the amount of animations and popups you have to deal with for finishing a lesson felt like they take longer than the lesson! "You completed a lesson, you started a streak! Set a goal now! You completed a quest and got a streak freeze! You moved up in the league! You earned points for the event! Invite your friends!"

[ben_w]

> the amount of animations and popups you have to deal with for finishing a lesson felt like they take longer than the lesson!

Same.

For over a year before I finally gave up on it, I was force-quitting the app and reopening it for the next lesson because that was faster.