Has anyone else struggled with the new Duolingo?

[FlorettaB]

I’ve been happily using it for months and then it changed overnight. From what I’ve found out through googling it, it seems like they’ve been rolling out this new version since August.

I learn through repetition and I feel really lost with the new set up. It seems to assume I know stuff that it’s not covered at all.

I'm getting used to the new version. I reminded myself that when they do big updates on applications at work, you get used to it in time and forget how it used to be after a time.

It's been a different experience in different languages. I'm about 4 months into Dutch from scratch, and it seems to have kept my progress there. Welsh I've been doing as a backup to proper, real life classes, and I could skip a load there.

German, French and Spanish I've been doing to keep my hand in, having done them to A-level years ago, and then lost a lot, and they seem to have sent me back quite a way. I might try and skip some levels at the weekend when I have more time - some days, it's hard enough to fit in a single lesson, and revision won't harm me. It is annoying, but I try to ignore that.

There are things I don't like about Duolingo anyway. I like a good verb table etc, seeing the patterns, so I have bought a couple of Dutch grammar books to get explanations that Duolingo doesn't supply (there are still some aspects of personal pronoun use i don't yet gully get even then.) I know others are put off by language learning by too much focus on grammar, so I suspect it's just a question of learning preferences - and in any case, using more than one tool for learning is usually a good thing.

Oddly, I find one of the most off-putting bits is the app icon on my phone now shows as an angry fiery owl, rather than the calm green one it used to be. I know this is about the least important thing, so it's weird how it bothers me.

@EBearhug the fiery icon is a reward for being in the 'Streak Society', aka, having a long streak. I haven't chosen to change mine, because like you I find the green one cuter - but I think you can change it back if you go to the 'Streak Society' bit of the app (on my version of the app, you go to the flame icon at the top of the screen, the swipe right a couple of times and click 'enter now'.)

I've been sent so far back! About to start unit 5 in French before and new version has put me back to level 39. I'm skipping to go up but this is really annoying.

I was dreading the update but actually prefer it. I’m using it for French and Dutch. My whole family are on it which is quite good fun.

@Ohuhu thank you!

I'm on the paid version FWIW. I didn't like the change but so far it's ok. I never used to do the stories and still not keen on them. The circles/eggs don't have a name attached to them now so it's impossible to remember which ones they were is you want to go back and trust or avoid certain ones that you remember from earlier. I preferred the tips to be in with the task not as an expanded booklet at the start of a series of tasks - it's true the tips weren't always as relevent as they could have been (that was a criticism and something they could have improved). I suppose it might be better because they are trying to hammer home, through lots more repetition, the set of teaching points in a particular section instead of jumping around from one topic to a totally unrelated one. I preferred the look of the old layout. I'm on unit 64 in Spanish and on day 912 - it seems like a long way to the end at this rate - I think there are about 180 units so that might be another 1800 days. I do an hour or two every day. I aim for quality rather than quantity - I do read all the questions in Spanish aloud - I'm not trying to rush through it without repeating the questions just to score points.

Sorry to revive an old thread - but my Duolingo updated recently and I HATE IT!

I HATE the way I can only do ONE lesson on the 'path'now, rather than pick a themed lesson I feel like doing ie Shopping, food, travel etc. I could 'jump' ahead, but I might miss something. So I'm stuck on 'Apply to College' - it's boring!
The lessons only seem to give you 10-15 points, whereas I'm sure I got 20-25 points per lesson before.
I hate the way they translate 'Kind' (German) into KID - every time! Kid is slang! It's child!

I have pointed up that they also translate a sentence into 'whom... does it belong.....to ' - in a DATIVE lesson! I responded 'TO WHOM does it belong' and it is marked wrong! Again - in a Dative lesson!

I hate the 'Hearts' - why do you get to make 5 mistakes and then you cannot learn any more today? What sort of lesson in learning is that?
I had done all the stories in the old format, and if I fancy redoing one, it says for 5points, then doesn't give you them!
I've been on Duo for about 8 years, and got a 440 day streak, but I can't be bothered any more. I don't care if i drop out of the obsidian league or whatever. It's totally ruined my love of learning German.

"I hate the 'Hearts' - why do you get to make 5 mistakes and then you cannot learn any more today? What sort of lesson in learning is that?
I had done all the stories in the old format, and if I fancy redoing one, it says for 5points, then doesn't give you them!"

Is that the free version? I think there was a suspicion it was to encourage people to subscribe to the paid version where we have unlimited hearts. We used to only have three hearts on the challenges, and that was changed to one heart for a brief period during the recent changes, though hearts are now also unlimited on challenges.

I've needed to report a couple of bugs since the recent changes; things just not working properly.

@ciderhouserules The most annoying thing for me learning Spanish is actually the use of American English - it's not simply calling trousers pants - there are so many subtle differences that crop up - I wish they would employ a native English person to correct the English translations.

I didn't like the path to begin with. Not.At.All. But - it's fine - I don't love it but it'll do. I also pay for Babbel+ which is completely different in the way to teaches - it's a good quality app a rich variety of lessons - it's good to have an alternative.

Oh yes @larkstar. It accepts the British version but it would be nice to have it changed.

If you run out of hearts there’s an option to get more.

click on the heart icon on the top right of the screen and you get the option to pay for hearts, buy unlimited hearts or practice for extra hearts.

I quite like this as one of the things I hated was the cracked eggs going, I used to do them every day for reminders and easy points. Well if you click on practice you get an old lesson you’ve already done and the chance to get two hearts - although you do have to watch adverts.

I really hated Duolingo when they updated it but I’m used to it now and not tempted to break my 900 day streak.

Yes I wish there was a UK English option to be based in. I've had things like at my house, chez moi, be marked wrong in favour of 'at my place' etc. I wonder how Irish English speakers or Antipodean English speakers find it?

I can continue but I don't really feel like I'm learning very much anymore. I'm pretty much doing the minimum now where as before I used to be the kind of user that had the monthly challenges done by day 10 of the month.

I’ve stopped and signed up to an online class instead. I decided that if I really wanted to be able to talk and write Italian, I wasn’t going to get it from Duolingo.

yes it's the free version.
re american English - I've also come across 'high school exit exams'. i've no idea what these are! I have flagged up that we DON'T HAVE THEM in England, but nothing seems tp get changed.
The Hearts - it annoys me that i would have to do a 'practice' to gain a new Heart. Or buy them wtf?

I'm another who does the bare minimum now. 10 minutes per day - doing 6 lessons on 'how to apply to college' is deathly boring!

@ciderhouserules I started in May 2020 and saw the ads for a discounted price pop up around Christmas - after only 6-7 months I still wasn't sure if I was going to be able to stick at it and also (wrongly!) thought - there will be other offers throughout the year... so I had to wait until xmas 2021 before I saw the ads for the discounted deal - I had managed to stick at it so decided for a few reasons to go ahead and buy a subscription

1. I was irritated by the ads and hearts limitations etc
2. I realised learning a language is a lifetime commitment - I met some former Italian language teachers - both in their 70's - just a conversation when we met at a stile in the middle of the countryside - they said they still had lots to learn after 27 years and annual holidays in Italy - they were still keen to learn more.
3. I have really got a lot out of applying myself to learning Spanish - I like learning anyway but at school I was very dismissive about the importance of learning French and German - I hated them both TBH and we had poor teachers generally - an angry native French woman whose accent was so strong I couldn't tell if she was speaking in English or French - a lovely quintessentially English lady who spoke French without a hint of a French accent - she spoke like the Queen and a fearsome teacher who terrified everyone in the French class - who used to creep about the class sitting in complete silence - and would appear behind you and unexpectedly smash a desk leg down on the top of the desk you were working at and snarl an incomprehensible question at you in French. We also had teacher who had no ability to relate to students at all who had to teach German when very clearly he could barely speak it himself - he was probably only 2 pages ahead of us while trying to teach it. But - I have enjoyed learning Spanish and I have started to take a real interest in its history, culture, literature, art, music etc.
4. it's only about £60 for the year - the paid for app is so much better to use - I have no regrets. I also think that paying helps keep the app free for those that want to use it for free - I think that for some of them they will eventually reach the tipping point that I reached and realise that they are serious about wanting a new language to become part of who they are and can see themselves sticking at it for life.

I wish my language teachers had tried to sell the idea of learning a language as an intellectually challenging pursuit - I was only ever interested in maths, physics and chemistry because they had rules and you had to be able to build models in your head to be able to understand many things. Learning a language has made me see that it is a great intellectual challenge - to learn all the rules and exceptions and to be able to train your brain to think differently about sentences are formed - it really is quite a challenge and so for me - really rewarding.

Well Jeez @larkstar , if you like rules then you should love German!
I baulk at paying £60 a year for Duo; it does however seem to be aimed squarely at getting people to pay for it now!
I honestly think that it's run its course with me.

I think I'll go back to reading German books/listening to radio or TV on youtube in German.

(Your language teachers sound terrifying!)

I agree larkstar learning Spanish - since the first lockdown - is the main thing I do with my brain and I love it. Dc have endless vocabulary tests which they forget at the end of the lesson whereas I find I really remember the vocab by doing a bit each day. I struggle with the grammar and sentence construction but there’s no deadline like there is with exams so I will get ‘there’ when I get there (wherever that is).

@ciderhouserules I really don't like the sound of German. Or French TBH. I like the sound of Russian, Japanese and Spanish is quite nice - it's has a music and a rhythm to it. I haver also been doing a bit of Japanese - mainly because I like the sound of it and because it is so effing weird as a language - lots of symbols to remember - I like it because it's really quite hard.

@stealthninjamum it's ridiculous to think it's possible to master even the rudiments of a language in a short period of time. I actually find "learning" something "enjoyable" - I'm learning like I would eat a good meal in a restaurant - I'm not going to try and bolt it down to empty my plate as fast as possible - I'm taking my time - because there's no point in rushing - trying to rush isn't going to make me learn faster - some things need time to be absorbed - don't you find that one week you are constantly flummoxed by something e.g. the imperfect and the preterite, and yet a couple of months later it seems that the conjugations you first think of are actually right - but - it's a slow and gradual process - I can tell I am getting there - I'm far from perfect with that but it's just needs me to keep repeating the exercises and doing the same types of question and it will, eventually, become second nature - as so many things I've already learned already are. I'm on day 984. I'm thinking about trying to book a week away on a language course in Spain - I need to interact for real with Spanish speakers. I can't put it off forever - I'll probably never convince myself I'm ready. I've got this far and there's no way I'm giving up on it.

I enjoy DuoLingo, but I'm lucky in that my iPad is now too old to handle the new format so I still use the old format. My phone's stuck with the new one which I really don't like very much at all, but use if I'm in bed and have to (iPad lives downstairs).

I set my daily goal at 20 so I wouldn't feel pressured to do it, so I would enjoy it. I've discovered that I'm quite competitive with myself but not my 'friends'! I have quite a long streak going so I'm determined to keep on every day - to the exrent where I have actually done lots of horrible lessons recently which feature those creatures with 8 legs that terrify me and give me nightmares... i hope they stop going on about them soon; there's got to be a noun of feminine gender which is less likely to have phobics about, surely? I have to consciously stop myself from looking up to see if there really is one on the ceiling etc! It's very distracting

It's really interesting seeing how another language works.

@Jux What language are you learning - I haven't been plagued with questions about incy-wincy's. At times I have thought the Spanish course a little obsessed in a negative way about short people! People's height was being mentioned far more than was needed to introduce the word for short - Your husband is short. My wife is not short, etc. Why go on about it? Is this really a reflection of something real in Spanish culture?

I'm currently doubting the claims that the new design is based on good research into learning. I feel like I'm continually swimming through treacle - how does anyone know if they are actually making much or any progress - it doesn't feel like it ATM. I'm often looking at verbs with conjugations I find hard to understand - I they are often verbal that have been introduced with one meaning that are now being used in a totally different way to mean something else and I don't remember this new user it meaning being introduced and there is no way to track back to the point where it first started being used to check to see what, if anything, was said to introduce this. It's a pity you can't click on a conjugated verb and see an explanation of the tense and a statement about how this been can mean this or that or something else. It feels like I'm on a treadmill in the dark - I've no idea how fast I've come out how far I've got to go, how fast I'm going, where I've been or where I'm going.

The extreme heatwaves in Europe - including Spain - have put me off from thinking about traveling there atm. I was thinking of taking a 3 month trip in my campervan there for the couple of months either side of Christmas but I'd be on my own abs have to have the dog with me - appropriately a springer "spaniel" (from the word Spain).

I'm on day 1145. My Duolingo name is (unimaginatively) "larkstar". I'm just about to start Unit 7 "Express Opinions"

I'm in section 5 - Adventurer - it has 42 units! I can't even scroll to the end of the course any more so no idea how many more sections and units they're are to complete.

Ah well - just keep plodding along.

It's a pity you can't click on a conjugated verb and see an explanation of the tense and a statement about how this been can mean this or that or something else.

I have a grammar book alongside, because it makes more sense to me then. And I like grammar. I know it puts some people off, but not me. A few nice verb tables can be very calming.

Yes i love grammar!! And so few people do. I get grammar really quickly bit struggle with vocabulary, if it's not Latin origin and I cant relate to another language it falls into a black hole in my brain.