The Duolingo bird can be very encouraging to a language learner. But it can also get angry.
With Suzanne’s family leaving soon for six months in Stockholm, I’ve been trying to learn some Swedish. I hope to try it on my grandchildren come next January. So it’s daily Duolingo for me. If I ever get to the point where I can understand Erik when he uses Swedish with the kids, I might also try expanding my French. I like the way the silly Duolingo bird cheers me on.
I was surprised to learn how many new languages the app has been adding lately. In the beginning, it didn’t even have Swedish. Now, according to an article in the Verge, it’s adding things like Maori, Tagalog, Haitian Creole, and isiZulu.
Jay Peters reports, “Duolingo is ‘more than doubling’ the number of courses it has available, a feat it says was only possible because it used generative AI to help create them in ‘less than a year.’
“The company [said] that it’s launching 148 new language courses. ‘This launch makes Duolingo’s seven most popular non-English languages – Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin – available to all 28 supported user interface (UI) languages,’ dramatically expanding learning options for over a billion potential learners worldwide’ … the company writes.
“Duolingo says that building one new course historically has taken ‘years,’ but the company was able to build this new suite of courses more quickly ‘through advances in generative AI, shared content systems, and internal tooling.’ The new approach is internally called ‘shared content,’ and the company says it allows employees to make a base course and quickly customize it. …
“ ‘Now, by using generative AI to create and validate content, we’re able to focus our expertise where it’s most impactful, ensuring every course meets Duolingo’s rigorous quality standards,’ Duolingo’s senior director of learning design, Jessie Becker, says in a statement.
“The announcement follows a recent memo sent by cofounder and CEO Luis von Ahn to staff saying that … it would ‘gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle.’ AI use will now be evaluated during the hiring process and as part of performance reviews, and von Ahn says that ‘headcount will only be given if a team cannot automate more of their work.’
“Spokesperson Sam Dalsimer tells The Verge in response to questions sent following von Ahn’s memo. ‘We’ve already been moving in this direction, and it has been game-changing for our company. One of the best decisions we made recently was replacing a slow, manual content creation process with one powered by AI, under the direction of our learning design experts. That shift allowed us to create and launch 148 new language courses today.’ …
“Dalsimer acknowledges that there have been ‘negative reactions’ to von Ahn’s memo. Dalsimer also notes that Duolingo has ‘no intention to reduce full-time headcount or hiring’ and that ‘any changes to contractor staffing will be considered on a case-by-case basis.’ “
Hmm. That is giving me pause. But I do like the app and the way that for English-speaking students like me, Duolingo starts out with some vocabulary that sounds like English. It makes me wonder if it does the same for learners who come from other languages. That could be really tricky.
Have you used Duolingo? I know that blogger Asakiyume, a mega language learner, used Duolingo to add Spanish and Portuguese to what she already knew in Japanese and more obscure languages. One thing I know for sure: she won’t like that Duolingo contractors will lose jobs thanks to AI.
More at the Verge, here.
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
We’re using Duolingo to improve our French. Good luck with your Swedish!
Thanks! I think it will always be extremely limited in my case, not more than understanding a few sentences.
It also helps to follow a TV series in the original language. Beck would be a good choice!
Yes! We watch one in Swedish: Maria Wern. Will look for Beck.
Thanks! Unfortunately Maria Wern isn’t available here in NL.
What a wonderful experience for your grandchildren. With all that’s going on in our country, I would be tempted to stay in Sweden.
LOL. Hope they don’t decide to do that! Suzanne is doing great work in the Rhode Island political scene. We need that!
Sure do!
Fifteen years ago, when I started refreshing my French, Duolingo was helpful for reviewing grammar and vocabulary and I pushed through all of its courses in about 3 months. I found it to be very helpful for strengthening the weak knowledge base that I already possessed.
Over a year ago, I began using it to learn Italian from scratch. I have a 445 day streak at this point and I have a hard time believing that anyone can learn a language this way.
Because I know French well, I realize they’ve been trying to introduce conditional, past and present tenses. Yet, without giving the student a breakdown of the conjugation rules. After more than 400 days, I have only an inkling of how this is done. And I know that if I were in a class, these rules would be presented as well as other grammar rules, like how to form the partitive. Again, I recognize the partitive when I see it in the Italian phrases but I’m not sure of the contexts in which you use it. Are they same as in French? I don’t know. But I do know that a five minute lesson would give me the info I need.
At this point, I can read a bit of Italian but my writing, listening, and speaking are basically useless. Until, I start plumbing other resources for learning the language, like grammar books, and audio lessons, videos and written exercises, I have little prospect of using Italian to communicate. Apps like Duolingo are not worthless but their marketing departments have convinced people that they can deliver far more proficiency than is actually the case.
As for using AI, as long as human experts have the final say, I think this is a perfectly reasonable strategy.
Sorry to be long-winded. I have strong opinions on this subject. 🙂
Well, your informed opinion is important to me. I think when Asakiyume learned Portuguese, she somehow also got a tutor through Duolingo. I know I am never going to be good at Swedish, but I think understanding it better might be doable.
Definitely. I think Duolingo is useful, it just overpromises as do all the other language learning apps. If I ever wrote a book about how I learned French, I’d love to title it something like “Babel my Ass” but I suppose that would not be very nice or particularly marketable. Ha!