For those out there wanting to learn another language this is a decent offer considering its usually 220+
60% off Duolingo Annual Subscription (A$96)
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Last edited 31/12/2020 - 12:07 by 1 other user
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Download lessons for offline useIn my experience from the trial i don't think this subscription is worth it as i train casually for about 30 minutes a day
Nothing if you use the web version with an ad blocker.
Mobile, you have to deal with ads, and the gem system. You get 5 hearts, which refill gradually, but if you get a question wrong you lose a heart and when you're out of hearts, have to pay 350 gems to restore it. Or you can do a lesson to restore it, or just wait and it returns on its own. If you pay, you never run out of hearts. You can get as many wrong as you want, not that this is how you should be learning anyway.
If you can deal with this, there's no point paying what they charge for it.
I recommend the web version because there are tips that explain a lesson before you start the lesson. Mobile app does not have those tips.
I only use the app to test myself on lessons I've already completed. For new lessons, I always begin with web for the tips.
Mobile has tips..
You just have to access them manuallyare you using ios or android?
@lostn: iOS but both should be the same… I don’t understand why the downvote?
You even gain XP sometimes by reading instructions.. there’s even an award for your first time@[Deactivated]: I did not downvote you. That was someone else.
I don't have tips on mine. Maybe only old accounts got it? I'm recent.
I can positively assure you I don't have tips. And I'm not the only one.
Apparently DL is conducting some test. Some users get tips and others don't, to see if the tips actually help.
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/14090921/No-tips-and-note…
@lostn: That might be it…
It also depends on the language and lesson…
Some languages like Vietnamese just don’t have it.
Japanese has it for some…
German has it for mosthttps://ibb.co/gP3BNhL
https://ibb.co/kKjRZJs
https://ibb.co/t20KS3M@[Deactivated]: I have tips 100% of the time if accessing via the web.
The same language in mobile, no tips or notes.
We are part of an experiment that has been going on for years. Some people will get the tips, others won't. They want to know if you can learn better without tips (when children learn language for the first time, they don't have tips or grammar guides). They want to know if we can learn like children if we are thrown into the deep end blind.
I prefer tips but was put into the unfortunate group that gets no tips, while you are in the group that gets tips. Fortunately, the workaround is to use the web version which gives tips for everyone.
I suspect the group that got no tips makes a lot more mistakes (and has to spend more gems) than the group that doesn't. I suspect also that this group is more likely to spend money on the paid subscription. This could be part of their experiment also.
I notice in your app, you have an extra menu tab on the bottom of your screen (2nd option). I don't have that one. I assume that is your tips section. Actually you have two extra menu items. You have 6 items total on the bottom menu. I have only 4. The other one I don't have is the megaphone. What does that do?
@lostn: News feed it seems
https://ibb.co/8DTj0S2Edit: I only get 6 options for languages like Korean and Japanese that have a Kana or Hangul alphabet… that should be for everyone studying it
@lostn: Tips are a button for each lesson, not an icon.
You are missing stories (book icon) which are only available in Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, German and English.
The megaphone icon is for the news feed which dates back to September.@E L LA: The tips button is not in my app. And millions of other people can confirm they don't have it either. See the links above. We're not all blind. They just aren't there. Many didn't even know there were tips at all, and didn't find out until they logged in on the web frontend what they were missing out on. They found the lessons so difficult that they gave up on Duo.
@lostn: You said that already. You asked what the two other icons were, so I let you know that neither are tips. One is stories, the other is newsfeed. You’re welcome.
As mitchins said, mobile has tips. They appear as an option directly above the start button for starting a lesson. You do need to press that to be displayed the tips and once you’ve completed the five levels of a topic the option to view tips goes away until your topic cracks from too long since you reviewed it.
Could you show me where that button is?
I'm not the only one who doesn't have them
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/25299851/Why-are-Tips-and…
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/30361735/Duolingo-still-n…
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/8862271Apparently an experiment has been running for years. The users themselves are unaware of this experiment.
iOS users who hear from someone that they do have tips assume the tips are exclusive to the Android version. Android users who hear someone else has tips (like me) assume the tips are exclusive to the iOS version. But no one has been informed by Duo of the experiment, so we're all just making assumptions.
Was excited when I saw this on the app but it’s misleading as it’s 60% off the monthly cost x12, normal price for the annual plan is $130 anyhow, so really only a ~25% saving
Monthly steak repair
Duolingo cordon bleu 😊
Use the web version with a browser on your mobile phone, unlimited hearts! :)
Maybe if I combine with 15% or 20% off iTunes vouchers it will finally be worth it
Duolingo is poo for Japanese, it's not a "beginner" learning app. At least for the first couple of weeks/months of content, it offers no grammar, it offers very little mnemonics and horrible in the sense that it's too easy to cheat and pick the right answer based on visual recognition rather than recognising the actual word you are learning. I don't know how to explain what I mean, it's like someone asks you what's a cow, and you pick the cow picture but only because it's four legged rather than because you recognised it as a cow. I have to block the screen with my hand so that I can try to visualise the actual answer rather than guess between the 2-4 possible answers which is dumb.
The basic drill every day is, hey, learn this canned phrase (or rather, what does this canned phrase look like, oh it has a word in it you don't recognise? I don't care just memorise how to say it in this phrase), and repeat. I don't want to memorise a bunch of canned phrases and infer how to craft my own using grammar, what? I want to learn grammar, learn some words and THEN use those tools to say a sentence. Duolingo does not do this and I don't know who learns like this.
yes, that is the nature of these apps. If it's multiple choice it will be easier than if you had to come up with the answer on your own.
Polyglots disagree on what is the best approach to learning a language, whether it's beginning with grammar, words, or none and just telling stories (small children aren't taught grammar. They acquire it naturally just from being immersed in the language). Some say that even correcting a person's mistake is not useful. Most of them say language apps and the flash cards they use are a bad way to learn. They're better than nothing but they are based on memory, and don't give you real conversation practice.
Aside from the major languages Duolingo's lessons are crowd sourced. People volunteer the content, like wikipedia. And some languages have fewer volunteers and thus less content. Japanese would be one of those.
Picking the cow word based on the picture is a beginner lesson where they introduce the word to you for the first time. You shouldn't see the cow picture again after the lv 1 in that lesson. The picture is there to connect the image with the word in your mind.
Memrise is based on memory alone. There's no english. It's just that language and pictures.
A lot of the success depends on dedication… people swear by Rosetta Stone, but as an app developer personally I find their app just crap…. it’s got seven menus deep to access content sometimes and you can’t just “start learning”.
Horses for courses I guess.. I just find Rosetta too unintuitive to navigate and it feels like a 90s computer app dumped into a mobilethats right.
But language teachers have are polyglots swear by a technique called TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling). It's very effective somehow, and the difference between people who 'learn' a language and those who 'acquire' it, are that 'learners' will translate a language into their primary language because they are still thinking in their first language. 'Acquirers' think in the new language and speak it naturally. Statistical research showed that TPRS was the most effective method.
@lostn: That’s pretty neat… Duolingo is better for languages like German where it has conversational practice.. absent in most or all Asian languages I’ve seen
@[Deactivated]: by conversation practice, I mean speaking to a real person.
When you are asked to translate a sentence, that's doable as long as you remember the grammar and vocab. You see the text on the screen so if you didn't catch what they said, you can read it clearly. And you are not on any timer to answer it. But when you talk to a native person, you find that they speak faster than you are used to, or native speakers shorten some words, which they understand but you don't. And then you find yourself pausing, needing time to absorb what they've just said and understand it, then formulate your answer. Or they use vocab you haven't learned yet, or vocab that is considered slang or informal. And you find that it's a very awkward conversation and you are not quite able to hold a conversation, even though you thought your language skills were decent. You're proud that you're able to formulate a question only using words you've already learned and not need google translate… and then the person answers you and you don't quite understand their answer. And you don't know how to answer them back. Or you didn't quite catch what they said because they spoke fast and you need them to speak slow, but you don't want to keep asking them to repeat what they said. Awkward.
The ultimate goal of any language learner is going to be to speak the language in a two way conversation, not ace some test where the other side doesn't speak back to you. Language Apps alone (like Duo, Memrise, Rosetta) or tapes will never give you that kind of experience which you're going to need if you ever want to become fluent.
Congratulations on your 634 day streak btw.
@lostn: Haha thanks..
And you’re absolutely correct, I studied German for years at school and even did an exchange but native speakers are just way too fast and it’s hard to catch the words of not even the context.I find watching movies is one of the most effective options short of having paid tuition or direct access to people.
With enough context stuff just sinks in - assuming you have good subtitles.
I’ve been meaning to pick a simple book like Harry Potter or something I’ve read in English and try it in another language.
I use duo on Android; have collected thousands of gems, but have nothing to spend them on
I bought Duo a tux, but even on putting it on he looks the same
Update my phone?
Other than that, gems are used to refill hearts and to buy Streak Freeze or Weekend protection.
You can get streak freeze for free if you don't already have it equipped. Weekend protection is kinda redundant if you already have streak freeze.
Worth it? What the different between free and paid?