KurtVonnegut [comrade/them]
Slop.Graph is from Yahoo finance: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/DUOL/?guccounter=1
Reuters news article: https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/duolingo-prioritizes-user-growth-over-monetization-forecasts-softer-bookings-2026-02-26/
"The language-learning app has spent recent years fine-tuning monetization through more ads and subscription prompts, helping lift bookings per user. But that coincided with slower user growth." Yes Reuters, that's called enshittification.
I habe used Duolingo for many years now, huge streak, but god its just gotten worse with the stupid gamey gatekeeping that punishes mistakes.
News flash Duo, failing and fixing mistakes, is part of learning languages.
Now its just "Oh I ran out of energy because I spelled it wrong too many times, guess I will hope I learn tomorrow."
Duolingo is a game, not a language learning app.
It keeps getting shittier but I will use the free version until it dies or i learn of a (free) alternative with scottish gaelic
Duolingo was never worth anywhere near 25 billion lol. It was just a pyramid scheme to transfer cash from the poorer shareholders so the richer shareholders could have a good exit.
Duolingo has basically been a shitty mobile game since the forums were deleted and they really really enshittified even more in the last 2 years.
I remember when it started, a key part of the business model was the users would do translation work to hone their skills and the app would get paid. AI ultimately destroyed all sides of the company.
Duolingo has basically been a shitty mobile game since the forums were deleted and they really really enshittified even more in the last 2 years.
Wait, their forums were deleted? I remember doing their German course like a decade ago and my favorite aspect of it was always the discussion boards that went into more detail on the lesson topics. That's insane!
That was the only good part about Duolingo. Volunteers spent thousands of hours explaining languages and grammar on the forums. Duolingo nuked all of that information.
clearly because they didn't use enough AI
I want to learn Chinese. I hear airlearn is good. I've just started on it and feels quite similar to Duolingo. Is it worth a subscription?
HelloChinese is better
Love this for them
What is this, bitcoin in the early 2010s?
I don't know what to say to people who bought bird language app stock at $500
💎 🙌🏻
56% gem
Step 1: Company
Step 2: Add AI to the Company
Step 3: ???????????????
Step 4: Profits
As it turns out, Step 3 might not exist.
Lol, shit. I saw such a major disparity that I thought the line graph was volume not price. I couldn't make sense of it.
sometimes the canary in the coalmine is an owl
Help! Get me out of this coal mine!
Here’s to many more companies doing the same!
You can literally do this with a generic LLM
Nooo my streakerino
HelloChinese
That owl had it coming
The owl app is still better than the alternatives, I have been trying to change app for years but all the other ones start charging you after 1 or 2 weeks.
I think HelloChinese was worth it at least for a year, there's a sale now for CNY, hurry up or wait for the next festival (ie discount).
Anyways Ankidroid is free and very good for its limitations
I really liked mango languages. It's not free, but lots of library districts have a license that lets you use the app for free if you have a library card.
damn shit like this could be the future of libraries
It really depends on the language. For Chinese, there's HelloChinese and other apps that are significantly better and don't use AI to develop their lessons. They do sometimes use them for silly example art.
Yeah the new HelloChinese course images all have the piss filter
Then Superchinese is really into their AI chat features but they are optional (paywalled). Btw I keep sniffing misogynist vibes from the example art.
Hmm. How about Korean? I haven't found any of the alternatives very convincing.
Unfortunately not familiar enough with Korean and haven't tried to learn it myself. To be honest, while trying to learn Chinese, I think apps should only be supplemental anyway to help with things like proper pronunciation and speech. Actual textbooks have been significantly better for pretty much everything else. Both China and Taiwan have government crafted textbooks that target their language exams, so if something like that exists for Korean, that's the route I'd recommend most strongly.
EDIT: It looks like it does exist and is called TOPIK, so there's probably good textbooks that target those exams as a good baseline for the language.
I found clozemaster was really helpful in grasping the flow of the language and practice recall. I will forever recommend this app. I got my grammar foundations from actual coursework though.
Lingo legend was a cute idea, haven't picked it up in a while so I don't know if it's changed but I'm pretty sure it's free.
Lingo deer is a pretty good clone of what Duolingo was trying to be when it first hit the scene. The app needed polishing last I used it but it definitely earned an honorable mention.
I've seen Anki highly recommended. Fair warning, it's not the most user friendly experience to a casual learner. People are snobs about building your own deck and shit but that barrier to entry is just not one I've been able to fully overcome, and the pre-made decks you can find were never appealing to me for one reason or another. You might have a better experience though if you're the type that can sit down and do the required data entry.
What language are you trying to learn? It’s really pretty bad, you can complete a whole course and be unable to have basic conversations, but it’s certainly better than nothing as long as you pair it with a rigorous study and practice regimen. Or, it was, before the AI-ification of it, now half the time it’s just completely wrong.
I've been a fan of Memrise
Yeah you can get the same functionality in notebookLM
