The popular language-learning program Duolingo cut 10 percent of its contracted translators last month amid a generative AI push.
  • Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    23·
    10 months ago

    I noticed that they stopped giving free streak freezes two weeks ago. I have a 1200 day streak and my premium sub renews this month but I might just switch to another platform.

    Edit: Canceled my subscription and left feedback about streak freezes. Three days later I get a free streak freeze. Not sure if it was a glitch or what. I’m gonna wait to confirm before renewing my sub.

    • smeg@feddit.ukEnglish
      15·
      10 months ago

      Free streak freeze? As in an option to stop an arbitrary counter that does nothing from being reset?

      • Overzeetop@beehaw.org
        14·
        10 months ago

        Humans are so massively susceptible to gamification. It’s nice for providing motivation, but it ends up being like an addiction the way companies leverage it.

        • mondoman712@lemmy.ml
          2·
          10 months ago

          I want my language learning app to have things like that, to help motivate me to keep coming back every day.

      • PhobosAnomaly@feddit.uk
        16·
        10 months ago

        Anecdotally, a friend who’s pretty handy at languages uses more Memrise than Duolingo now. Similar sort of setup, but with a different style of delivery - more visual cues and a better repetition approach.

        • noodlejetski@lemm.ee
          10·
          10 months ago

          in my experience, Memrise teaches you useful phrases much faster, while Duolingo drills you about horses eating blue apples and turtles wearing yellow hats.

          • Bob@feddit.nl
            2·
            10 months ago

            To be fair, as a Duolingo hater myself, I do see the logic in teaching wacky phrases. It at least gives me the impression that it makes it easier to improvise sentences based on the grammar you’ve learnt by drilling “the bear should eat some cheese when it rains” or whatever.

        • oeverbloem@feddit.nl
          4·
          10 months ago

          I just tried it out and I like it a lot better than duolingo.

          Duolingo is super gamified and you can’t keep practicing after you made a few mistakes. I just practiced for an hour with memrise and it was nice. There’s also video exercises in the app, and you can also practice chatting (with an AI probably?). I hope it holds up.

          I would love to compare babbel too, but Arabic is not available there.

          • mondoman712@lemmy.ml
            1·
            10 months ago

            Just fyi you can keep practicing as much as you want in Duolingo, just tap the heart in the top right and click practice to earn more hearts.

            • oeverbloem@feddit.nl
              1·
              10 months ago

              Huh, I didn’t know that. I just tried it out and it worked.

              I think I’ll stick with memrise for now.

              Thanks though!

      • jarfil@beehaw.org
        9·
        10 months ago

        Back in the day, I found Rosetta Stone to be a decent approach, it’s the only reason I still know how to say “the kid is under the plane” in Arabic, without barely knowing any Arabic (it was in the first free demo lessons). The context turned a bit dark after 9/11, though…