Another German Tree course update is underway.

[01tmJ8kb]

My tree has just shrunk without warning from 160 skills to 137. Everything after the fifth checkpoint is new, and I have lost my owl for the second time.

[eI000yo]

Nothing new under the sky.
Only by creating a school and adding your account can you prevent tree updates.
But eventually the updates also reach the schools.

[MatOzone]

My tree has just shrunk without warning from 160 skills to 137. Everything after the fifth checkpoint is new, and I have lost my owl for the second time.

As far as I know (and I could be wrong!) your "old" 160 skills tree" was a "rare one", not "in standard use".

It seems there are four "German from english" trees in use:

137 skills / 674 lessons (actual one?)

178 skills / 827 lessons
149 skills / 697 lessons
133 skills / 566 lessons <- Only for " school" AFAIK
121 skills / 458 lessons <- Only for " school" AFAIK

...all the other versions are (or will be) "merged"/changed to one of these, probably the "137 skills" one.

But Duolingo is known for making lots of "A/B tests", with different tree versions (adding gramatics, changing "checkpoints",...)

[01tmJ8kb]

My progression in the last year has been

• ? skills
• 178 skills, Units 1 - 3 reorganised/rewritten
• 160 skills, Units 4 & 5 rewritten
• 137 skills, Unit 6 rewritten and subsequent units removed.

I assume there will be another update before long with new material for Unit 7 and above.

[GrahamW]

I've just received the update that @01tmJ8kb noted recently. Since starting German in Jan 2021, my tree progression has essentially matched that of @01tmJ8kb:

• 121 Skills (Jan 2021)
• 178 Skills (Oct 2021)
• 160 Skills (Jan 2022)
• 137 Skills (Mar 2022)

The update from 121 to 178 was completely unintelligible, but fortunately the next 2 updates at least had some recognizable structure where one could relate the old tree to the new tree. Nevertheless, I basically abandoned German after the second update, as it was clear that it was poorly constructed and would be updated before too long.

As @01tmJ8kb notes, the only change now is after the 112th Skill (Checkpoint 5), and everything that I had above that has remained in the same state as before. Below that, the 16 Grammar/Verbs Skills have been discarded (presumably to return in a revised form sometime in the future, as in the French and Spanish trees), along with 5 Skills that had vague names (Vocabulary, Abstract 1-4), and 27-theme-based Skills (House 2, Location, Medical, People 4, Feelings 2, Working, Let's Go, Talking, Internet, Education, Science, Chat 1, Business 1, Chat 2, Animal 2, Body 2, Spiritual, Conditions, Banking 2, Business 2, Sport, The Arts, Politics 1, Fantasy, Music, Politics 2, The World).

The 25 new Skills, which all have 5 lessons/Crown, are all theme-based and bear no obvious relation to Skills in the 160-Skill tree. Specifically, these Skills are: Literature, Market 2, Basement, Café, Berlin Zoo, Dogs, New Year, Luggage, Road Trip, Family 6, Dining 2, Wishes, School 3, Trivia, Shopping 5, News 1, Cheating, Opinion 3, Government, Media, News 2, Soccer, Jobs 3, Homesick, Reunion.

[MatOzone]

I see that Duolingo is fixing the course, meanwhile it's quite chaotic, yes. Let's wait for the arrangements to be finished...

2022/03/25:

German from English:

Crowns: 826
Lessons: 674
Skills: 137 (+2 optional: Idioms and Proverbs, Flirting)

[easailor320]

Gruss Gott. Das ist frustrierend!

[eI000yo]

Gruss Gott. Das ist frustrierend!

Warum ist das frustrierend?
Die Duolingo-Kurse sind noch nicht fertig.
Manchmal gibt es neue Materialien.
Das ist eine gute Nachricht.

[Rincewind42]

Things are about to change quite a lot in Duolingo. Some Duolingo for schools users has had a preview of what is coming. As usual, iOS users will get the updates first, but everyone will be seeing big changes before the end of the summer. See this block post for details: https://duolingoschools.zendesk.com/hc/ ... mSb-iiib6Q

[Heidi58]

I understand the need for continual improvement but taking away a previously earned owl seems harsh!
I'm sorry 01tmJ8kb.

[MSanJose1]

Things are about to change quite a lot in Duolingo. Some Duolingo for schools users has had a preview of what is coming. As usual, iOS users will get the updates first, but everyone will be seeing big changes before the end of the summer. See this block post for details: https://duolingoschools.zendesk.com/hc/ ... mSb-iiib6Q

Hopefully this change will just be for schools users, not for regular accounts.

[g-heike]

It is intended for everyone, because students have the same access as normal users. They only have an area on the right side where the teacher sends them assignments and the teacher has another view so that he can see the progress of the students.

[CarlosTSG]

I'd wished Duolingo would have kept a record or even test you what level/stage of the language you're at first before they relegated you back to the middle of the course.

[Garry]

I have been using Duo since January 2019 to learn German and have, according to Duo, completed 939 basic crown levels and 8 legendary crown levels.
Viewing the details of the German course as currently available on my iPad shows that the latest iteration of the course has 685 crown levels, of which I have apparently completed 333 crown levels.
I eagerly await the next version of the course so that I can go back to having completed 0 crown levels.

[Madness]

All these constant, out-of-blue updates on the German tree are rather discouraging. It feels like walking in mud, basically.

Not long time ago my tree was updated to one of the previous updates but I got it reversed somehow. I think I mentioned it on the forums and the staff just gave the old tree back to some who had complained. I think my progress went from like 80% to 30% or less which was not fair at all. So, with that old tree I actually managed to finish the whole tree and got my golden owl! But did not get to enjoy that for that long, as maybe in 1-2 months or less I also got the update and half of my tree was gone again, including a huge part of the very beginner skills that I had to do from 0 to 5. I think it changed one more time when I was trying to go through the new content, the positive side being the fact it actually has lots of new vocabulary there too, and I'm mainly doing the German tree now for the vocabulary.

However, I managed to get all the skills to level 1 finally, and now a few days ago I noticed there was yet another update. Some of the skills I recently went through, again, completely gone (as in they are not in the whole tree anymore, if I'm correct) AND the last checkpoint was locked and none of the skills done. Which means: most of the work I have done, has gone down the sewer. At least in theory, hopefully the knowledge is still stored in my memory.

Duolingo is also using lots of English words and sayings or even slang that is actually very difficult for someone whose 1st language English is not. I am fluent in English, but lately I have been facing so many words or sayings I have never heard before and therefore it makes it really difficult to translate into or from German when I can't even understand the mood of the English sentence, or Duolingo only answers certain words because it's still missing alternative translations. And the lack of forums... new sentences simply don't have discussions, and you can't participate in the old discussions anymore.

Well, why am I stressing myself out over the German tree, then? Because I like achieving things, but the thing with this tree is: I feel like I can't progress and I'm never done when all my work can be wiped out in seconds when a new update is installed. I'd have loved to keep my old tree with the golden owl, I was planning on making another account just to test out the new German tree, but then did not need to do that when the German tree came to me instead... I just wish the progress I have made over the years would stay. I have been using Duolingo for German since 2013 and I'm just very close to losing my motivation completely at this point.

[weerwater]

Do not let your desire to master German language be robbed. Please go for a professional course while your motivation is still there.

[Madness]

Do not let your desire to master German language be robbed. Please go for a professional course while your motivation is still there.

I won't, I'm anyway already around B1 or B2 level with my German, and I have gone through a proper professional course years ago. Which is another problem: I still would love to learn more of it, but most online courses are only on the beginners levels or offer more advanced lessons only if you pay them. Duolingo is the only, sorta gaming-like platform that has content that matches my level and like I said earlier, I'm using it mainly for the vocabulary and to help me memorize the word order rules etc. better.

I think the biggest problem now is that I'm more often failing English rather than German, simply because alternatives are still missing from the new sentences or Duolingo uses the kind of English I have never learnt before because I'm not a native, and can't know every single slang word and saying that exists. I use external dictionaries a lot when doing these (especially if I don't understand the meaning or context of the English word, or if the Duolingo fails with the hints), and sometimes the dictionary gives me a word that then Duolingo doesn't accept, or that does not match Duolingo's suggestion at all.

[pawndemic]

I won't, I'm anyway already around B1 or B2 level with my German,

If your level in German is already B1 or B2 then you are beyond Duolingo. Then maybe it is time for the real stuff

[Seiryuu]

Hmm, it seems I've received the course update as well. I had the last module, World, on level 2 but that's vanished.

[g-heike]

Here again the reminder: If you want to work on the old stable and grammatically orient German learning tree, you can set up a classroom for yourself via the menu item "MORE" and "Schools". Then the learning tree changes to this old tried and tested. This is not as extensive, but it already has many alternative translation options and the updates have not yet been installed here.

The Deutsche Welle course should also be mentioned here again: https://learngerman.dw.com/en/overview#

If you want to invest a little money without being stuck in a subscription, you can also get the interactive language journey from digitalpublishing for a Windows PC/notebook: https://www.digitalpublishing.de/de/pro ... rs-deutsch

There, the main focus is on pronunciation and grammar. If you have learned the basics with Duolingo or other freely available apps, you can get a good polish and many pronunciation exercises and opportunities to repeat entire conversations. However, you need a medium-priced USB headset to avoid frustration.

On the linked page there is also a test version for download, where some exercises have been unlocked.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

[sandygaletoo]

However, I managed to get all the skills to level 1 finally, and now a few days ago I noticed there was yet another update. Some of the skills I recently went through, again, completely gone (as in they are not in the whole tree anymore, if I'm correct) AND the last checkpoint was locked and none of the skills done. Which means: most of the work I have done, has gone down the sewer. At least in theory, hopefully the knowledge is still stored in my memory.

Duolingo is also using lots of English words and sayings or even slang that is actually very difficult for someone whose 1st language English is not. I am fluent in English, but lately I have been facing so many words or sayings I have never heard before and therefore it makes it really difficult to translate into or from German when I can't even understand the mood of the English sentence, or Duolingo only answers certain words because it's still missing alternative translations. And the lack of forums... new sentences simply don't have discussions, and you can't participate in the old discussions anymore.

Well, why am I stressing myself out over the German tree, then? Because I like achieving things, but the thing with this tree is: I feel like I can't progress and I'm never done when all my work can be wiped out in seconds when a new update is installed. I'd have loved to keep my old tree with the golden owl, I was planning on making another account just to test out the new German tree, but then did not need to do that when the German tree came to me instead... I just wish the progress I have made over the years would stay. I have been using Duolingo for German since 2013 and I'm just very close to losing my motivation completely at this point.

I also noticed that much of my previous work 'went down the sewer'. My tree has gone from 8 sections back to 6, with the majority of my Gold skills and my golden owl, now gone. And over half of the tree is locked. Very frustrating. I do not understand why they reset so much of the tree, and left any Gold at all. Especially since the Gold ones do not seem to update in strength after practising.

Also, no warning and no option to keep one's existing tree 'as is', and starting the new one as a new course. I feel like I have been 'thrown under the bus', to use a colloquial phrase.

I agree with you about the quality of the English translations presented by DL are frequently terrible, and I am a native English speaker. More and more I am looking up the words and the grammar rules of both languages to confirm my understanding. Often I use the word bubbles for the English translations, to see what DL expects.
So ... maybe this additional study will be a positive outcome.