hola ๐
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how would you rate Duolingo's year on a scale from 1 to 10? ๐ค
with 1 being terrible, and 10 being excellent?
I've been mulling this over all week and I'm still struggling to settle on an answer
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the reality is -- it's been a very mixed bag
lots of highs... but also many lows
Duolingo definitely ended the year with a flourish
but it got off to a very rocky start...
a poor first half ๐ฌ
the first half of 2024 was anything but pretty for Duolingo
at times it felt more like a basic mobile game than a genuine language learning app ๐
for many (myself included) I was just going through the motions, keeping my streak alive without committing much effort
I just didn't feel as though I was learning.
more and more, the wrong things were getting rewarded
genuine learning was quietly discouraged
the whole thing felt stale, conflicted, and uninspiring
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and then, we rolled into May, and Duolingo did something that still boils my blood ๐ค
in its typical, unannounced fashion, Duolingo slyly moved unlimited hearts from its Super subscription to its Max subscription
no price changes
no genuine improvements to Max or a wider rollout to other courses
just making Super worse to make its over-priced, top-tier subscription look better ๐คฆ
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"It's just A/B testing", they said
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but what they actually meant was:
"We're just seeing what we can get away with"
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it was a blatant money-grab
a giant, green middle finger to a loyal user-base that had made it the most popular language-learning platform on the internet
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it rattled me so much ๐
which seems stupid, because it didn't even affect me
I'd had Max for ages at that point
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no, the issue for me was the sentiment behind the move
the complacency
the arrogance
they were testing the waters to see if the user-base would just go along with it
the ultimate departure from Duolingo's original mission of making language learning free, fun and accessible ๐
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it just stank.
it really, really stank.
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and that's not all...
a quick flick through the Duolingo subreddit and you'd question whether Duolingo users even liked Duolingo ๐คท
constant criticism,
regular owl-bashing,
disillusionment with Duolingo's god-awful customer support,
and despair at a declining free subscription that makes only the paid tiers seem feasible
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as tough as it was for me -- as someone that had given so much of his time to Duolingo -- I couldn't help but agree with so much of it.
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redemption? ๐
and then, we entered the second half of the year
and it's like we got a completely different Duolingo ๐ฎ
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after much protest, Duolingo very quickly reverted the change to unlimited hearts
and from then on, proceeded to shower (some of) its users with a bunch of interesting new features:
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Video call ๐คณ
Adventures ๐
Radio ๐ป
big, path-based features that added a totally new dimension to the Duolingo experience
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and they didn't stop there.
we also got:
- friend streak, a new type of streak that you share with one of your Duolingo buddies
- friend clash, Duolingo's first 1v1 competitive mode, again with one of your Duolingo friends
- custom comments in the friend feed
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Duolingo Max also landed on Android devices and received some long-overdue upgrades:
- Bigger, more dynamic libraries of Roleplays
- Greater flexibility in Explain My Answer, allowing you to pinpoint specific parts of the sentence for explanation
- Rollouts to more courses, including German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Chinese
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and perhaps one of the best introductions of all: the all new Score system, that finally takes the emphasis away from XP and the leagues, and places it squarely on making progress through your course
while at the same time, making quiet, yet significant, tweaks to the awarding of XP, aligning it more closely with learning rather than gaming
together, these changes have created a learning environment that finally rewards learning, not just unhelpful, grindey competition-focussed habits
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as we move into 2025, Duolingo -- to me, at least -- is starting to feel like a genuine learning platform again ๐
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back in the fridge? ๐ฅ
a great man once asked:
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if your milk goes stale, what do you do with it? ๐ค
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ordinarily, I would pour it away, knowing it's passed the point of no return
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but this year, I chose to put it back in the fridge.
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Duolingo seemed to have exceeded its expiry date
thickening, curdling, turning into something beyond what I originally got it for
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but then, little by little, it started to come back ๐
and while it's still far from perfect, with many users and courses still lagging behind on the latest updates and fanciest features,
I can once again take a swig without holding my nose or scrunching my face ๐ฎโ๐จ
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let's hope Duolingo builds on this momentum heading into 2025 ๐
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๐คช Weird Duolingo ๐คช
Following on from last week's tears, what better way to end the year... than with even more crying?
Cheers to Aria for sending in this cracker:
First, they make you cry. Then, they mock you.
Onions: the ultimate savages. ๐ง
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thank you ๐ซก
while it's been turbulent year for Duolingo, it's been an absolute corker for me
the newsletter has grown exponentially, and for that, I can only say a massive thank you
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thank for you reading
thank you for engaging
thank you for sending in all your weird sentences
it's been an absolute blast
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and it's only gonna get better... ๐
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I've got some exciting things to share with you in the new year
things that will crank your Duolingo and language-learning experience to an entirely new level
I can't wait to share them with you ๐ช
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but until then -- have a blessed festive period
eat lots
sleep lots
keep that flame burning ๐ฅ
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and I'll see you in 2025. ๐ค
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| how would you rate Duolingo's year? ๐ค (1 = terrible. 10 = excellent.) |
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