The popular language-learning program Duolingo cut 10 percent of its contracted translators last month amid a generative AI push.

Duolingo is very much on the Enshittification path, seems like they fired a number of translators and have the rest just proofreading AI.

For the interested, here’s the place where you can request your personal data and delete your account

PhobosAnomaly
link
fedilink
1610M

Anecdotally, a friend who’s pretty handy at languages uses more Memrise than Duolingo now. Similar sort of setup, but with a different style of delivery - more visual cues and a better repetition approach.

I just tried it out and I like it a lot better than duolingo.

Duolingo is super gamified and you can’t keep practicing after you made a few mistakes. I just practiced for an hour with memrise and it was nice. There’s also video exercises in the app, and you can also practice chatting (with an AI probably?). I hope it holds up.

I would love to compare babbel too, but Arabic is not available there.

Just fyi you can keep practicing as much as you want in Duolingo, just tap the heart in the top right and click practice to earn more hearts.

Huh, I didn’t know that. I just tried it out and it worked.

I think I’ll stick with memrise for now.

Thanks though!

PhobosAnomaly
link
fedilink
210M

Awesome, I think I may go back to a language myself. Thanks for checking it out and letting us know!

🦄🦄🦄
link
fedilink
210M

They also use AI.

in my experience, Memrise teaches you useful phrases much faster, while Duolingo drills you about horses eating blue apples and turtles wearing yellow hats.

Learn how to say “two tabs of acid” in 10 languages

Bob
link
fedilink
210M

To be fair, as a Duolingo hater myself, I do see the logic in teaching wacky phrases. It at least gives me the impression that it makes it easier to improvise sentences based on the grammar you’ve learnt by drilling “the bear should eat some cheese when it rains” or whatever.

Create a post

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:


This community’s icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

  • 1 user online
  • 59 users / day
  • 169 users / week
  • 619 users / month
  • 2.31K users / 6 months
  • 1 subscriber
  • 3.28K Posts
  • 67K Comments
  • Modlog