Duolingo turned me into a monster (article)

[IceVajal]

About a Duolingo addict....

CNET: Duolingo Turned Me Into a Monster.
https://www.cnet.com/culture/internet/d ... a-monster/

[DmGabin]

A bulk of nonsense, not worth reading. It has been discussed many times. Just focus on language learning rather than on XPs, leagues etc.

[John Little]

I can relate to a lot of it. Perhaps he needs to know about the privacy settings.

[IceVajal]

[mention]DmGabin[/mention], I'm not interested in competition when it comes to language learning, but frequently people get caught up in the competition, so it seems to depend on one's mind setting. For some it is a problem, for others it isn't.

[Corinnebelle]

Quite interesting! I hope I learn more for my time than that guy. I'm not binging but learning at my pace and I do see tangible results for my efforts. I don't believe you will achieve success overnight in a language, but if you work at it bit by bit and truly want to learn, you will succeed. I must say I haven't really touched my other courses, except for good old Hebrew which is by native speakers, since they added all those bot voices.

I think one does need to say the words out loud and also he should of taken advantage of conversing with his wife at the same time to have a truly great learning process.

[ultimatequestion]

The funny story. It's all true for thousands people. This is a prime example of how the absence or displacement of a goal prevents a result.

...until the entire Sapphire league had been reduced to ash. ©

[gmads]

About a Duolingo addict....

CNET: Duolingo Turned Me Into a Monster.
https://www.cnet.com/culture/internet/d ... a-monster/

That was when Duolingo got a little bit… weird.

[PtolemysXX]

Typical behavior of a "monster":

_20230115_111703~2.png (13.05 KiB) Viewed 900 times

90k XP and 5 words learned. It is a minority though (but quite annoying )

[gmads]

A bulk of nonsense, not worth reading. It has been discussed many times. Just focus on language learning rather than on XPs, leagues etc.

If it only were that easy. Human nature makes the vast majority a target for money-hungry companies that rely on well-known psychological tactics to keep them hooked, yes, like addicts.

Discussing something many times doesn't take away the fact being discussed, and while well-intentioned, the given advice seldom works.

[Corinnebelle]

Typical behavior of a "monster":

_20230115_111703₂.png

I am wondering how someone got that far like that with that many levels and no crowns, or was it a bot?

[PtolemysXX]

Typical behavior of a "monster":

_20230115_111703₂.png

I am wondering how someone got that far like that with that many levels and no crowns, or was it a bot?

Judging by raw data i think this is a live person doing an average number of lessons in other languages and switching to Japanese only to make sure he/she wins. Perhaps at certain point Duolingo algorithms put a stop to this mischief because i saw that person delete their tree and recreate it (so they are now back at mere few thousand and 5 words).

[Deleted User 5745]

About a Duolingo addict....

CNET: Duolingo Turned Me Into a Monster.
https://www.cnet.com/culture/internet/d ... a-monster/

I can relate. I never considered myself to be a competitive person. But the leagues somehow bring out the desperado in me.
I even "talk" to the players.

Some girl takes my top spot and I'm like, "And where do you think you're goin' missy?" quickly racking up a couple of 100 points in retaliation.

By the end-time I open the app and yell, "Okay you pack of b*stards. Think you're clever, do you?" Then give myself a migraine hacking out more XP.

I managed to pull in the reigns the past week and made myself do mainly lessons. Not bulk mindless repetitive stuff I could do in my sleep.

Was gut wrenching nonetheless to watch those animals fighting for top place - knowing I wouldn't be one of them.

[4theAEsir]

Its all about the balance, I love to learn and I love to win so three weeks out of four I focus on learning but on the fourth week I play to win.

[FrankReynolds69]

Even if he made up half of his story it's still somewhat entertaining to read. I'm not taking it too seriously though.
For my part I am using Duolingo alongside many different sources (A podcast, youtube videos, classical course books,...). Nevertheless, I think it is also fun to go on the occasional Duolingo frenzy.

It's a mixed bag really. My main goal still remains to become fluent in Russian and sometimes Duo might become more of a hindrance towards that goal. But even if it might slow me down at times, on the upside I think I can also avoid a lot of tedious vocabulary management (about 2000 words less I need to worry about ) and get to do some fun, low-threshold practice in between.

Once I finished the Russian course I will return my focus toward more traditional means of studying (Course book with exercises and some writing practice plus youtube videos with TPRS stories for example, always interspersed with some confrontation with original native speaker's content like newspaper articles and interviews and the like).

In my "endgame" I see myself taking a B1 or B2 placement test and continue with some professional in-person courses from there (Some years ago I already took 2 semesters of a Russian course that was discontinued due to low number of participants).