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A comment on Duolingo Cuts 10% of Contractors as It Uses More AI to Create App Content. Parent comment

Re:Duolingo Cuts 10% of Contractors as It Uses More AI to Cr... by simonw on Monday January 08, 2024 @05:18PM (#38919049)
"Unless anyone has had a different experience"

I've tried classroom instruction, and teacher-driven courses, multiple times in my life. They never really stuck for me.

Duolingo has worked for me where other techniques haven't. I'm now at a stage where I can read a newspaper article in Spanish and understand ~90% of the content.

(5 year streak, but that's 5 years of 5-15 minutes a day which turns out to be exactly the commitment that works for me.)

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Re:Duolingo Cuts 10% of Contractors as It Uses More AI to Cr... by chrisdbanks on Monday January 08, 2024 @11:42PM (#38922422)
For comparison, I taught myself Spanish with paper flashcards I wrote, and a grammar book and I was at a similar stage after 5 months. 3 hours effort per week approx so a bit more than you.
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Re:Duolingo Cuts 10% of Contractors as It Uses More AI to Cr... by simonw on Monday January 08, 2024 @11:58PM (#38922514)
If I had the discipline to do it I'm sure I could get further with other techniques, but for me the biggest feature of Duolingo is the way you don't need very much discipline at all to make progress with it.
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Re:Duolingo Cuts 10% of Contractors as It Uses More AI to Cr... by dayjaby on Tuesday January 09, 2024 @12:55PM (#38929374)
"You don't need very much discipline" and "5 year streak". Sorry, but is my definition of discipline that off? You managed to have 5 years of discipline. That's the reason you managed to learn a language, not because the duolingo gamishittification does miracles.
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Re:Duolingo Cuts 10% of Contractors as It Uses More AI to Cr... by simonw on Tuesday January 09, 2024 @04:08PM (#38932116)
The gamification is what helped me make it this far. Remembering to pop open an app for a few minutes on your phone takes so much less discipline than any other form of language learning I've tried in the past.
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