itt: stories of yr attempts to master tongues via DUOLINGO

I've just got back into iTalki and I'm really enjoying my sessions with Kozo the Translator. Just focussing on conversation rather than anything specific but it's really working out for me. (also use my referral code this shit costs real money)

Thanks! May take you up on that, been resisting that software for a while. I'm assuming that code doesn't have an expiration date.

Or maybe it is for a Limited Time Only.

it think it is forever.

Forever breathes the lonely word.

Anyway came to post that this Clozemaster Pro Cloze-Collection feature works really well with Duolingo.

One can take some sentences from Duolingo or otherwise, stick them in a (private) collection and then do listening exercises, using exactly the same IVONA/Polly voices that Duolingo uses, at least for the baker's dozen languages it is available for. In fact one can choose a voice or cycle through the voices for those languages with more than one.

Mil naw naw naw

I'm so disappointed in myself...this is the third time I've tried to learn Russian. First time it was cassette tapes, second time discs, that shit sits on my floor mocking me. Now I got Duolingo...then shit goes all to hell and the next thing you know Duolingo is reminding me what a FAILURE I am for missing my last session. I'm so frustrated, I want to learn something other than "here is the mashed potato" before I die.

And maybe I should capitulate and finally learn Irish.

https://med✧✧✧.c✧✧✧@tiff✧✧✧.vi✧✧✧/what-i-learnt-by-getting-to-the-top-of-the-duolingo-ruby-league-then-falling-into-the-depths-again-23b948268dc4

Ruby, don’t take your love to town

Liking this XP Ramp Up Challenge thing

finished 90 days with drops!!!

Been messing around going slowly with Irish for a while - so slowly that none of it is sticking - actually committing now and building a streak. Supplementing with Anki, reading a grammar, whatever else comes my way.

finished 90 days with drops!!!

― maura, Monday, March 30, 2020 4:00 AM (four hours ago)

finnish

Wow. How many words are you at?

381!

Cool. Are you using any other study materials?

just that for now.

Really dig that app, haven’t come across anyone else using it besides you.

There is no Finnish on Duolingo but I have done the Duolingo Hungarian course, in both directions, and have now been working the Drops Hungarian. I have to say that there are lot of ways in which the Drops approach seems superior, which hopefully I can elaborate on soon.

Whoa. Drops just added Estonian. I guess their model makes it faster to add new languages.

...and my Lenten Language Quarantine is over, so think I will take a peek at the Estonian course. Seems that the drops founders are Hungarians who live in Estonia.

Hey, Glossika has some free courses, including Welsh, Catalan and Gaelic.

Hi James Redd,
Thank you for suggesting “Evet. İyi geceler” as a translation for “Yes, good night!”. We now accept this translation!

Duolingo keeps getting better thanks to language lovers like you. We really appreciate your help!

—The Duolingo team

How’s it going, everybody?

really fell-off precipitously because, I realize, I mainly did duolingo when I was home alone, which I haven't been for a month

Bien, gracias. Todavía uso Duo cada día y mi clase de español semanal sigue por Zoom durante el crisis. ¡Pero, echo de menos la clase real! ¿Y tú, JR+tBs?

So Drops now has Farsi, which Glossika also has and Farsi seems to be easier than Arabic so...

Sorry, krakow, I am a bit of a Duo dilettante.

Farsi is indo-european and the word order isnt too difficult to comprehend for English speakers iirc

Right, that's what I have heard.

The script seems a little more, um, open, than its Arabic counterpart, or am I imagining that.

I’ve been trying out Glossika, particularly for Hungarian, and it seems to be helping, I have to say.

Rather than a conversational, vocabulary-based or grammatical orientation it takes more of a functional approach.

Hi James Redd,
Thank you for suggesting “A szüleim őt tisztelik” as a translation for “My parents respect him.”. We now accept this translation!

Duolingo keeps getting better thanks to language lovers like you. We really appreciate your help!

—The Duolingo team

Is Drops actually good? I've been using it for about a month and it seems like all I'm learning is to attach their weird picture language to abstract concepts.

I think it is maybe better for vocabulary than Duolingo, yeah. What language are you using it for?

I have been giving glossika a try and despite testing up to a higher level it still seems to be giving me really basic sentences and I'm not really sure what it is for other than repeating these sentences a lot of times, which has it's merits. (Although much better when I turned off the English).

I think there is a really dearth in intermediate level tools out there. In my case for Japanese but I'm sure for every other language learner. No surprise as there are way more beginners than intermediates out there. I still need support because reading native content is till hard and listening even harder. I need the support to train my ear, eye and brain, and the addictiveness of these gasified platforms is very powerful.

Are you trying it for Japanese? If so I think it won't be too useful. As you say, your level is too high, among other things.

I also didn't like that it was using hard kanji that my predictor wouldn't find in those kind of easy sentences so I stopped using it for Japanese.

Is "gasified" an intentional or unintentional misspelling of "gamified"?

gasified - gamified (over aggressive autocorrect)

Theres' no way of turning off the furigana, it seems. So kanji knowledge is irrelevannt

One of my problems is I've boosted my Kanji (and to a lesser extent my vocab) way in advance of my grammar understanding and listening skills. What I really need is something that structures and challenges me through limiting and reading of more complex stuff. I do have books for that, but the gamification helps me stick at things.

I've been using Drops on Italian, which I already have a pretty good grasp of – and it seems like it's good on vocabulary (and nouns in particular), but it falls apart on phrases – when you're faced with a picture of two people interacting, it can be hard to tell if that particular picture is associated with "excuse me" or "can you help me" or "it's fine" even if you know very well what those phrases are. Things that aren't nouns aren't great either.

Maybe I should just be skipping the phrases entirely? I would like it a lot if it were just nouns.

Drops does inadvertently make me appreciate the better job that Duolingo has done with gender representation – in Italian Drops the subject is always a young guy who trying to interact with a foreign woman.

To be honest I have be finding drops helpful when the vocabulary is really foreign to me. Don't know how good it would be for Italian for somebody who already knows it.

Glossika Japanese does weird stuff like use the kanji like this 此の instead of just この.

That’s definitely in the category of you should know it but you’re never going to see it.

Actually if you are working on your grammar you might want to keep slogging through Glossika. It seems to have a cumulative effect.

I'm closing in on the end of the 1-crown Irish tree, and simultaneously going back through from the top to refresh.
The leagues suckered me into going a little too fast for a couple of weeks, but I keep not quite switching them off. I'm in slightly healthier drill + new stuff patterns now, but still think I should resist fighting my way through Amethyst with sunday night grinding -
There's a good Memrise companion to the course, and I've been getting into that to up the detail (which I feel like I can fudge on Duo). But maybe time soon to switch to something else because I don't really want to be doing the duolingo sentences over and over forever. Downloaded a Pimsleur course that could help with spoken/listening, but may give Glossika a go.

Really never tried to go too far on the duolingo Irish tree, there is no audio on so much of it for one thing. Yeah, Duo and its league tables encourage one to go too fast. Do like to do that league table purple lightning bolt XP Ramp Up Challenge through.