Is it just me or does the Duolingo bird looks sad/old/tired? What happened to the previous icon?

  • umbraroze@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    They recently added some unlockable graphics for the widget. Nothing major.

    Guess they changed the icon just for the hell of it while they were at it.

    • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
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      3 months ago

      Makes sense. My partner was showing it to me “see? It’s probably because I’ve got notifications muted” unmutes notifications, “no that isn’t it” then I suggested they complete a lesson to see if it changed and it still didn’t, so she put it away. Later I heard that the app notified her that two of her friends congratulated her for starting to again.

      It’s a cute program, but wow does it hector people.

    • rollingflower@lemmy.kde.social
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      3 months ago

      Changing the Duolingo icon to look sad, old, and wrinkled is a strategy to make users curious, so they open the app to see if there are new updates or content. In other words, Duo is only trying to get your attention.

      This tactic is rooted in the psychological effect known as the “novelty effect,” where new stimuli can temporarily increase engagement and motivation. Snapchat similarly employs this strategy with the red dot and yellow dot on the Bitmoji.

  • echo64@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Duolingo keeps doing mass layoffs, so the bird is overworked. You can help him out by switching to a language learning app that actually helps you learn a language instead of endlessly throwing flash cards at you without teaching you anything! Win win.

    • plantedworld@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I’ve been working on my Spanish with practice from some of my coworkers and patients. So far Duolingo’s “flash cards” have actually been pretty helpful, but I grant that some of the actual "instruction"isn’t there. I went from really rudimentary Spanish to being able to conduct a patient evaluation in Spanish as long as it’s straight forward.

      Everyone shits on Duo but I’ve found it to be a really helpful practice tool myself.

      • echo64@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Anything is better than nothing. This is true. But that doesn’t mean you aren’t wasting your time on something that does the bare minimum.

    • criticon@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      What app do you recommend? I’ve seen good progress with duolingo since I upgraded to premium but I’m willing to try something different

      • Cyberpunk3000@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        Busuu is much better. It feels like it actually tries to teach you the language in an efficient way, instead of teaching you useless phrases like “my owl never paints” and waisting your time

        • criticon@lemmy.ca
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          3 months ago

          I mean Duolingo does not teach you to memorize that phrase. It teaches you the structure of the language and words so you can start making phrases on your own

          Edit: didn’t mean to sound to dismissive, I’ll give it a try, thanks for the recommendation

          • sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works
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            3 months ago

            I would also recommend getting a textbook and using a flash card program like anki to memorize words. Apps like that have an incentive to keep you from ever getting good enough at the language that you might stop using the app. They can be a good tool but they won’t get you where you want to be on their own, especially not in a time efficient manner.

            • Donkter@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              Absolutely wild thing to say. The time it takes for someone to learn a language enough to delete an app, especially an adult is so astronomical that there’s no reason for apps to try and stop you from learning the language.

              • sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works
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                3 months ago

                I really wouldn’t describe a few years as astronomical. And that’s how long it takes to actually learn a language. You might delete the app a few months into it and switch to other methods if you were actually progressing quickly. The longer you stay on the app, the better chance they have of tricking you into spending money on it. I’m definitely not the first person to notice this. People have been talking about it for years.

      • Synthuir@lemmy.ml
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        3 months ago

        Language Transfer has been highly recommended in the past. I’ve only gotten through two lessons so far, but it seems like a good place to start, at least. It doesn’t have anywhere near as many languages as Duolingo does, though.

  • morgan423@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I’m tired, boss. Tired of bein’ on the the app store, wantin’ to be lonely as an owl in the rain. I’m tired of always havin’ people annoying me, tellin’ me to give them new words. Mostly, I’m tired of people never memorizin’ the vocabulary. I mean, how many times can I give you “Cómo estás?” before you finally remember what it means, Cletus?

    There’s too much misremembered - it’s like pieces of glass in my head, all the time, I’ve fed you the entire Spanish lexicon ten times, and you’ve learned three words. Can you understand?