Comment on Duolingo will replace contract workers with AI | The Verge

andros_rex@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I was so upset last year when they got rid of the comment section. There were often helpful explanations for WHY you conjugate the word that way, or how native speakers might use a different word.

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  • eatCasserole@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Yeah, the comment section was amazing…and then they came out with “max”, where you get “explain my answer” for a premium, powered by a [notoriously fallible] LLM. This is the definition of enshitification.

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    • clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      One of the languages I am learning is an endangered native language, and it was super helpful to see knowledgeable people in the comments.

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      • antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        That’s honestly enraging!? Such data can be greatly valuable for learners, and the native speakers’ community, and linguistics.

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      • Ledericas@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        i encountered some people that spoke some MAYAN.

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    • boonhet@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Literally canceled because of that change. Fuck them.

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      • eatCasserole@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        This “AI first” thing was the last straw for me, but ever since I noticed that the comment section was gone there’s been a bad taste in my mouth. I wonder how many of us there are.

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    • mbehling@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I’m pretty frustrated they removed dark mode as well, made it very hard to do a lesson before bed.

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      • atx_aquarian@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Duolingo? Mine still has dark mode. Maybe just for subscriptions?

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  • hydrashok@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Don’t worry, you can upgrade to Duolingo Max for even more money and have the AI explain it. (Seriously.)

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    • clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yeah, I saw that. I have the family plan (some people in the house go through a lot of hearts (mistakes)) and still have to see ads for Max.

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  • Psythik@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Never used it but that sounds like such a neat concept.

    Does anyone know of any free language learning apps that have a comment section?

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  • sqibkw@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I don’t know how good this feature was on Duolingo, but there’s a site/app called HiNative that does a really good job at this sort of thing.

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    • clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      that looks cool. Thank you for pointing it out!

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• CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  It’s not gamification that’s the issue. That aspect really held my attention and gave me consistency.

  It’s the push to a pay-to-win model that made me quit. They made the challenges harder and harder to complete without using boosts, and to use the boosts you had to use gems. And gems were really hard to get unless you bought them with real money. It doesn’t matter if you have a super subscription (or whatever it’s called), you still had to pay to get the gems.

  And the prices for the gems were just as predatory and the disgusting mobile gaming industry. Never should there be an option to spend over $20 for in-game consumables, nevermind over $100. It’s sick.

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• GoatTnder@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Tell me more about Mango library subscriptions? How would one determine?

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  • jabathekek@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Your local library may have a subscription plan for card holders. You might be able to find it on your their website but a librarian would definitely know.

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• CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  The gameification part was good, it made it easier to keep up the habbit, though I recently got locked out for no apparent reason so apparently they just outright want to fail? Any good free alternatives? (I wasn’t using the paid version)

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  • andros_rex@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Here’s a website with those FSI courses I referenced earlier, as well as Peace Corps training materials. This is going to be the boring route. Drill drill drill, but you get good at it.

    As a general strategy - on the Omniglot forums a billionaire years ago there was a method called Listen-Read which I think does wonders for me. You pick a longer book, preferably one you have enjoyed and read already in English. You get a copy of that book in English and your target language, as well as audiobook (let’s go with say, French), then you listen to the audio book in French while reading the book in English, then switch to listening to an English audiobook while reading the French book, then the audiobook in French while reading the French.

    Librivox and Project Gutenberg are godsends. I did Candide this way, and part of Les Miserables. This is obviously less immediate fun/dopamine satisfying than Duolingo is, but will teach you to read better than Duolingo will. It’s not great at expressive language - while I can read Proust, my « je voudrais un Diet Coke » was not well received in Paris.

    If you have a language in mind I can probably point you in some other directions.

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  • antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Any good free alternatives?

    You won’t like the idea but…

    spoiler

    pirating a textbook from Libgen/Anna’s Archive

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  • clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    What language(s)? Lots of good free resources.

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• CrowAirbrush@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Duolingo was shit for learning, for me at least.

  So i left rather quickly, then came back hoping i could pick up some more Italian and noticed they summomed another paid tier. I wonder how many tiers they can summon up until they stop existing.

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