hola 👋

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Duolingo is onto a winner with its latest feature.

have you taken it for a spin yet? 🤔

it was announced back in October and it's taken a while for Duolingo to roll it out across the user base

I've been ((very impatiently)) waiting for it to drop onto my device ever since...

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and the other day it finally did... 👀

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so what is this new feature? 🤔

Duolingo is calling it "Radio"

it's kinda like stories...

only instead of reading you're focussing more on the listening

each radio level plops you into a fictional radio show hosted by one of the Duolingo characters ((seems to be Vikram every time for me))...

the host takes a call from a listener... and your job is to listen in and figure out what they're talking about 👂

the discussions vary from level to level and focus on random everyday scenarios

the caller basically just rambles on about something going on in their life

could be about noisy neighbours,

learning German,

going to the cinema etc

as you listen along, you're prompted to answer comprehension questions to ensure you're understanding

things like:

• select the related image
• select the words you hear
• true or false

each level is short and snappy and offers a total change of pace to the usual lessons

+ they're worth 30 XP a pop -- so pretty good if you're grinding in the leaderboards as well 🚀

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how to get Radio 📻

like stories, radio is baked in to the learning path

a radio level is represented by a pair of headphones...

each level has one radio show/lesson

it should start appearing from Section 2 onwards, and then a new show should pop up again once every few units.

for the time being, it's only available in the Spanish course but is rolling out on all platforms

so that means you'll be able to use it on iOS, Android and web

...and don't worry if it's not showing on your path yet -- Duolingo tends to roll out stuff like this gradually, so it'll appear eventually

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anyway,

I think this thing has loads of potential

I really like the idea

the lessons could probably do with being a bit longer with a couple more questions

and I think Vikram can come across as a little too robotic at times ((guess that's the AI for ya 🤖))

but overall it's a decent addition and works really well alongside stories

hopefully we'll see it popping up on other courses in the coming months 🤞

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stay tuned, amigos 📻

Ciao for now,

-Matt

eat 🍽️ sleep 😴 streak 🔥 repeat 🔁

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