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Comment by bacheaul | Hacker News Reader

Pro tip: Duolingo is a game and basically a dead end for properly learning a language. If you want to really learn, you need to build intuition, and that only comes from huge amounts of level-appropriate input. Find yourself some good native language podcasts that are targeted at language learners and native reading material. Search for "Refold" for a better strategy (no affiliation, it's just awesome), and make sure that whatever you do, you enjoy it. Language learning is a marathon, the fun is in the journey, not just the destination.

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I always say, that if you want to learn a language, then surround yourself with it.

I learned all languages I know this way. When it comes to Polish, I mainly saw people writing in that language without knowing much. Translator came to the rescue. I picked up common words and phrases that way, and it helped with grammar, too, but it was not a fast process as it is a difficult language. I do not speak it well, although I speak it understandably enough, because I did not listen nor speak to people in the language much, as opposed to English, and this includes movies, TV series, etc.

Spanish was easy, all it took was a translator and long conversations with 2 people and some music. :D Pronunciation is not an issue, my native language helped.

French would have been a bit more difficult to learn, as I have tried, then lost interest and reasons to do so.

I am trying to learn Arabic, but for me, that is a whole different one.

Plenty of people enjoy Duolingo. And I wouldn’t say it’s a dead end any more than simple picture books or a total beginners class. Will it turn you into a fluent speaker? No, so what.

> No, so what.

Because it promotes itself as a platform to learn fluency. That’s why it’s important to recognize its limitations.

I guess I just don’t know anyone who doesn’t recognize the limitations, perhaps that’s a function of an environment where we all know multiple languages already.

If literally everyone recognizes the limitations, then Duolingo won't be harmed by changing their advertising to be accurate.

My impression of duolingo was strongly influenced by a former PM who said basically what OP said without any hint of ill will in their voice. Duolingo discovered that it was easier to reward-hack short term signals of language learning instead of scaffolding those signals into longterm language learning. Today it’s essentially Candy Crush for people who think they’re too smart for Candy Crush.

That’s not even a diss, it’s just The Way Of The World when you are directly rewarded for growth and retention and very indirectly for language learning.

> Today it’s essentially Candy Crush for people who think they’re too smart for Candy Crush.

That's overly harsh. I use Duolingo for Japanese because

- I thought it would be fun to learn a little about Japanese. And I do learn some, and it is fun.

- I wanted to "understand" a bit of what was being said during subtitled anime I watch. This was _partially_ successful. I understand some words, and I notice some things like "oh, that was a question", and sometimes notice when what was said doesn't match the text. I get enough out of it that it adds to my enjoyment

So, clearly there's a group of people out there that are there to gain some knowledge out of it, and _not_ to rack up some kind of score (and feel superior).

Sorry, that came out as unnecessarily harsh on users when it was intended for Duolingo’s product department. I don’t mean to suggest that the amount of language learning is literally zero, just that whenever language learning is in tension with legible metrics, the latter tends to win out internally.

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