To give up my Duolingo streak

[outofofficeagain]

I’m on 520 days but enough! I’m over it. I find myself doing a hurried match madness at 11:30 which I’m not sure is teaching me very much.

I burn through a lot of streak freezes.

Will I be sad if I just say sod it!

These streak things are beginning to own me! I feel I need to take back control.

I like it, it forces me to do something every day and now I'm four years in and can actually do ok in Spain! If I hadn't done it daily, even rushed and just one lesson, I would have those language skills now, so I say stick with it.

I'm on 1220 learning Scottish Gaelic. I was disappointed that there was no fanfare when I completed the course, I ended up stuck on daily refresh for days before I realised what was going on.

It has been helpful to a degree, I've learned a fair bit of vocabulary but it doesn't explain anything. For it to really sink in with me I need to know why I need to add a H to this word or an S to that word etc.

I need to let it go now. Isn't it ridiculous, we're grown women, why do we care about a streak?

I've been doing Spanish for 4 years. I can read it really well but I can barely speak or understand spoken language. I'm close to finishing it then I'm deleting it. I need to talk to people, not this AI shit I'll never say to anyone in real life.

Dejare de usar Duolingo.

I’m just coming up to a year learning DH’s native language, more than once I’ve got him to do the lesson for me when I’ve remembered last minute It’s definitely not the right place to learn pleasantries for a holiday but I think I’m starting to understand a bit about the language structure now. Deeply frustrated that the spelling of colours changes when the thing you’re describing is a plural though, but that’s not Duo’s fault

Thought it was just me that felt like this. Been doing German and can read and understand it far better than I speak it - as evidenced by the fact that whenever I tried speaking German in Cologne or in Switzerland, people immediately switched to English. Very disheartening and fed up of Duolingo as well. Don't think I'll ever want to say 'The owl is smart' in any other language anyway! Don't particularly even want to say that in English actually.

I really enjoy it but I believe that I'm probably only proficient in my chosen language (Dutch) for Duolingo purposes if you see what I mean!
I'm on a 550 day streak and intend to keep it going but I had to stop caring about what league I am in. The stress of that was what was taking the enjoyment out of it for me.

I am now 155 days clean and still have the passive aggressive fucker on my app icons crying with the words 155 days and Abandoned across it.

They need to sharpen up their offer rather than coercing people with crying fucking owls.

I delved into conversational Portuguese purely for a short break and the world of what they can do, compared to what they do do for the core language I’m learning became clear. Not all languages are equal on Duolingo and with some there is better quality elsewhere.

And it is broken. Actually because I completely forgot about it last night and ran out of streak freezes.

The Gaelic course is really short, and you miss out on a lot of features which other languages have which is really frustrating when you are paying the same price. Particularly as they have said they aren't building us any more content.

But we have lots of native speakers doing the recordings - whereas I understand other languages use AI generated voices, and I don't think that is as good.

@Whiningatwine but at least I've learned how to say Mairi is stealing underpants. I'm sure that'll come in handy one day.

I'm on day 1870 but I've already cancelled my subscription a couple of months ago - it runs from and to the 28th December. I have already bought lifetime memberships for Babbel and LingoDeer - both do Spanish but Babbel is far more structured and helpful than Duo. I got LingoDeer as Babbel doesn't offer a Japanese course and LingoDeer is particularly highly rated for Japanese.

I really do not like the way Duo has changed - it explains next to nothing now - it's about as useful as an effing mime artist teaching you quantum mechanics. It seems to me they are deliberately obstructing the learning process to keep you needing to renew or take out a subscription and even if you do - if you want your wrong answers explained you need to buy the next level of subscription.

I used it for free for 18 months (to prove to myself I was keen enough to stick at it) then I paid for the subscription for 4 years. Actually I'm grateful as it got me started and I've stuck at it but it's time for a change. I've also realised through Babbel how much Spanish Spanish I was missing out on. Babbel and LingoDeer in particular, are so much more helpful than Duo has become. I'll probably still dip into Duo but I'm dropping it to concentrate on Babbel and LingoDeer - currently I'm doing all 3 apps every night.

I was on day 750 and let it break…I started off trying to learn German, got a bit boring so switched to Norwegian and Swedish…moved on to a few other languages, went back to German…it result wasn’t working for me 😂

So timely. I’ve got 18 minutes to save my streak. Today might be the day. I said that yesterday and caved at the last minute and did it. Even worse: I swapped to maths so I can get it over and done with and not lose my streak. wtf?!!!!

I’ve been doing German for three years now. Still can’t string a bloody sentence together. Feel like giving up too.

It doesn't work and it doesn't teach you the language.

I used it for a few weeks before going to france. It taught me sentences such as the cat is eating the pizza. When am I ever gonna say that on holiday or in general conversation.

I got to france and despite being on duolingo every day for weeks, I couldn't speak a word. It's just not worth it.

I agree and this is when I do mine .
I do agree with op though it can feel rushed .

Found this thread at ten to midnight and now I want to protect my streak.

Just a little tip that you can silence the app or uninstall it and just use Duolingo on a web browser, so you don't get the guilt trips...

This is how I see Duolingo . When I have got to a decent level of understanding I’d like to move it to real classes /learning at a higher level .

The Coffee Break Languages podcasts are good too, especially early on. The teachers explain things very clearly.

I was going to give up when I reached 1000 days but I couldn't do it and now I have no fixed cut off to aim for. I am just floundering along doing maths every day for absolutely no reason. The struggle is real!

The way I look at it is just a good boost to top up my second language when I'm not using it (which is most of the time) but that I'm not going to get back on the treadmill. I had a 400+ day streak a year or so ago and was mega competitive, having to move up the leagues and I then just got burned out by the nagging and sacked it off.

I've come back to it in the past few weeks because I don't want to totally give it up but I can't commit to feeding the green beast. So if I lapse I lapse and I'm not being bullied into it if I have too much going on. We are adult women and no one can put Duolingo ahead of their families or jobs.

It's a bloody effective model for them so I'm not surprised they use the hard harassment techniques but I wish there was a "pressure lite" version of Duolingo.

When I rule the world all “streaks” will be banned! We had trouble with the kids and their streaks in the maths program they had through school (I’m shocked I can’t remember what it was called, I’m a maths teacher, it’s too early in the morning for me). Streaks are trying to force you into addictive behaviour. It’s really not a good thing. With the kids we eventually decided they did Monday to Friday and didn’t touch it on the weekend so that they never had a streak of more than five days so there were no tears when it was lost.

Pick a different language or do maths

This!!!! There is enough pressure in life without a bloody owl harassing me as well!

The gamification aspects to trigger dopamine hits are by design and are the reason the app has been so hugely successful, particularly in offering opportunities to people in low income countries to learn English. I would think the gamification makes it less suitable for younger teenagers though. While I am not a fan of the AI use, and I think some languages are much better realised than others, the random sentences are deliberate and are intended to be more memorable. They don't think that you will ever need to say my cat is studying philosophy, the idea is that you will generate novel sentences yourself once you have learned the words and will be able to say 'I am studying maths'; 'My friend is studying economics'. I wouldn't use it as the only way to learn a language but I find it very helpful for practising rarely used tenses such as the subjunctive.