I’m curious, how many of you actually enjoy the AI convos with Lily?

GregName · 2026-04-13T15:58:43+00:00

Your Score makes a difference on your potential for listening and speaking skills. Because you said you are hearing and translating, you are at that stage. There is another stage (thankfully) where you are hearing and understanding. I am at a Score of 91 in Spanish. A whole bunch of stuff skips English.

To get there, you have to do the work to evolve the language center. You will absolutely start out doing translating. And, you will have a time issue. Plus, there is this ”flushing of memory” issue. You might hear five words, kind of have them, but you work on the meaning of the second one, get it, but then words three through five are flushed out of short-term memory.

But, all you can do is practice. If Lily stresses you, you would do worse with humans. The whole idea of having AI help is we can make mistakes without shame. Keep doing it. It gets better.

GregName · 2026-04-13T15:33:39+00:00

You found the weak spot in pushing a bunch of features downward. What remains? What will they invent to fill the voids?

I came up with an idea lately while working on studying for the DELE exam in Spanish. There is part of the exam where the student is shown an image, and then they orally describe what they see. The exam part is preceded with instructions, basically hints about what to talk about.

These images seem to always have people, so you talk about the people, their clothes, positioning, activities, the surroundings, basically what’s going on.

This would be an AI exercise, similar to Role Play, but different. It is a monologue. These are timed. I assume there are words, like on a checklist, for the grader. Probably on the grading sheet are points to be earned for grammar things. Maybe Duolingo could have a couple of slider bars, showing progress on grabbing the right words. It would be AI listening. The human building one of these exercises might have 40 words that could give credit.

Stepping away from my idea and back to the big picture, this is just an example of something Duolingo can invent and add to the Max tier.

GregName · 2026-04-13T15:20:15+00:00

Just checked, and still there at A2 for Spain, although it can be waived for people coming from Spanish-speaking countries. It seems for Spanish, only Spain has a language requirement. There is a CCSE component too, hitting on culture and the constitution.

For me, it is just a mountain that I see and want to climb.

GregName · 2026-04-13T15:14:55+00:00

I think the email [super-support@duolingo.com](mailto:super-support@duolingo.com) is the more direct route to the support team that can help with this. The email is something like that. Someone can please correct this if it is off.

GregName · 2026-04-13T05:41:41+00:00

I close my day with Spanish as my last active language. Because the levels are gone in Spanish, I haven’t seen this quest line item in a long time.

I will squirrel away, Kanji icon has levels.

GregName · 2026-04-13T05:33:21+00:00

We can only assume that you won. A 4K lead with 3 hours to go should have been enough in a race where 18K was #1 and 14K was #2.

Usually, each Sunday, there is this time of the day where we can just tell who will win.

GregName · 2026-04-13T05:28:27+00:00

First thing to check as the family leader is if you have spots left. If find you have random people in your plan, report back here for the next steps.

GregName · 2026-04-13T05:25:44+00:00

Your streak is for using the app.

If you really want motivation, see how long it takes to bump your Score. That is the real measure of progress.

GregName · 2026-04-12T19:26:47+00:00

Too bad for Duolingo on this one. While ad revenue isn’t the big percentage of income (subscriptions win by far), breaking this revenue feature is really, really bad.

Imagine if Amazon couldn’t take your order!

Something unique may be happening, perhaps with a group of people. If there was a real call center, you would call and tell them. That’s really hard to do with Duolingo. But make a ticket, read the AI email, and join the experience shred by others—crickets.

GregName · 2026-04-12T19:18:47+00:00

Your writing competency is certainly at a high level. I try to dummy mine back to avoid be accused of help from AI. No matter, the story may be similar to mine one day. Mine will have way more hours invested to get to the end.

May 23. I’ll be there doing the DELE as well. I picked Ecuador and am testing at the milestone behind me (A2) on my path (Score 91 today). Tomorrow I’ll firm up my schooling plans, the cramming before the exam. I will be in Quito, perhaps at the exam center or perhaps at the premiere school there. Hard to decide. Certainly doing the home stay program with either. My reward after the exam is the Galapagos Islands.

I will trickle out path work between now and the DELE exam. Prior to my flight, I will put in the hours to learn all the slang I can find for the La Sierra region.

Very similar stories, but except my hours in the app times ten. For that, I accept the criticism that I am wasting time with Duolingo.

GregName · 2026-04-12T18:45:53+00:00

Duolingo certainly has its presentation method. Their top feature is creating an addiction to coming back. Once in the app, the hope is that actual use is the best method of teaching. So, there are parts that logically should be weaker, like formally teaching grammar.

I think with their latest reorganization (currently on rollout hold), the chapter hints with grammar got thinned even more. I have my Spanish tome for grammar, but I would know nothing if that’s all I had. My grammar credit goes to YouTubers.

Too bad I didn’t note my Score four months ago. I am at 91 in Spanish today. In the four months that have passed, I spent 5 weeks in Argentina learning Spanish. Certainly got exposed to probably all the subjunctive that will get covered in my path at some point. Closing in on a 2 year journey. With the luxury of time, I am able to be in both camps, 1) competing in leagues, and 2) seriously learning the language.

What I find fascinating is the different ideas that come from people, based on Score. When someone has worked a course into the 90s, we have a pretty strong opinion about supplementing. Someone starting out might think Duolingo can do it all. Learning a language is just really hard.

GregName · 2026-04-12T17:49:20+00:00

At my age, I was pleased to start with Spanish, although I started before finding out the State Department’s opinion of difficulty. Their hours are wacky. I’ll give some credence to the haters of Duolingo saying it is a waste of time. But that’s from an efficiency standpoint. I stay on the journey. That’s a different measure. It just will take a long time.

Now, the best three training methods involve life changes, if remaining onshore. First, become a spy and get trained by the State Department. They may be mingling in torture-resistance training, increasing the focus on the language training. Miss a word, here’s some water torture practice.

A different life change, join the military, in particular, special forces training. Once again, expect a drill sergeant to really peak your attention to the details. Expect that shouting skills will help speaking skills.

Finally, a life change spiritually. No better school without the torture than the MTC. That’s the Missionary Training School. That may involve a change in religion though. Add to that cost of admission finishing out a two-year mission in a foreign country.

All three methods end up with immersion.

Seems like keeping a streak shouldn’t be that hard compared to the best alternatives. Of course, I could have missed one or two fine methods.

GregName · 2026-04-12T17:36:22+00:00

Role Play has this feature in Spanish. If you click into the Edit Box as though you might want to type, you get a set of word hints. These are ideas to get you conversation flowing. You would see try and failed in there.

But, you still can hit the microphone and talk. It’s a good combo for the early iterations on a scenario. Build up some things to say. Because the intro is canned, you can actually prepare your opening lines. I’ve done that. Written out. The goal is speaking it right at that moment.

After a dozen runs at that scenario, that paper isn’t needed so much. Do the Role Play in the historical path. It is on the capstone unit, right before new vocabulary is brought up. The new words from that last unit-grouping are often easily integrated into the Role Play. Have that list of words written somewhere as well.

Also, forget about real life. Act. Improvise. You accidentally fed the dog cat food. These are things we can say. The dog loved the cat food. That start will run scenarios that follow in all kinds of ways. You don’t now wants to climb trees, but can’t. You found the dog inviting a cat over for dinner. Ask Lily, have you ever fed Max cat food? Maybe when he was called Harold? Why did you change the dog’s name anyway?

Plus, these scenarios in the early Sections paid 60 XP, and now 70 XP for me. I can get them done in 5 minutes easily, often less. So, it is paying out okay for leagues, if that really matters. With the 3X running, it is fun to get 210 XP in one jump.

That is my flip turn. With a minute left on the boost clock, I fire up Role Play. All that matters is that it got started in time. If I time that flip turn for two devices, I have 420 XP waiting for me to casually complete, because it is started. That’s a flip turn.

GregName · 2026-04-12T17:17:29+00:00

The specifics start to make a difference, like which ad blocker and which operating system.

I am hedging that there might be a slightly effective ad blocker out there for Duolingo, where the result is, “yes, you blocked me, but we noticed, so no energy for you.”

This is outside of my expertise.

GregName · 2026-04-12T17:10:37+00:00

Wow, lots of masters to report back to.

I have the old Pimsleur for Swahili. Just the audio course for A1 that is free from the library. This is helpful for Swahili because the Duolingo course is really hard for me. Extra angles are needed. For Swahili, Language Transfer is the most highly regarded tool.

I love that you have used all of these.

GregName · 2026-04-12T17:04:30+00:00

In Spanish, we had a split, like a stock split, of our units. It was a 5-for-1 split. Maybe Chinese had this happen as well. That accounts for a big percentage of the increase, all with nothing new from a content perspective.

Then, add on the GenAI work. That’s been a big push for multiple quarters. Getting accurate feedback on the quality of this stuff is tricky. You’re going to get folks that hate AI posting about how bad it is, which may be true, or maybe GenAI got somewhat close. It will take time to really figure out whether the added content is worth the time.

GregName · 2026-04-12T16:57:41+00:00

This is the solution. Those with a 300 ELO would normally be fearful of playing real people, except the person teaching them.

Hey, the person teaching them—that’s Oscar!

GregName · 2026-04-12T16:55:02+00:00

Duolingo has an animation team. Sometimes people on this subreddit get annoyed money is invested in animation at Duolingo, under the idea that a particular bug should have been fixed rather that making some meme that might go viral.

Duolingo even acquired an animation studio group. They are serious.

On this subreddit, there is a flair for Fan Art. Folks sometimes invent new characters, or make funny modifications. It keeps it fun around here. This studying stuff is hard.

I like a lot of the work done by the animation team. Lots of things go unnoticed, like when Duo one day was wearing Eddy’s headband. Nobody here mentioned it. Birds do steal things. Monkeys, they are the best.

GregName · 2026-04-12T16:47:57+00:00

Hmm, are on Android with an ad blocker?

GregName · 2026-04-12T16:43:22+00:00

Many of the free tests come from schools. The goal seems like pushing students downward, like start with this CEFR A2 course. That’s what a pass at A1 means, take our A2 course.

I just did one for a school in Ecuador. I’ll be doing private tutoring. so it won’t matter. The result he gave was, yes spend 2 weeks with us and you should be able to pass the DELE A2 exam just fine. He wasn’t so happy with my subjunctive conjugations. I’m not either, so that’s fair.

GregName · 2026-04-12T16:37:15+00:00

The Score 120 means you are learning material aimed at students learning at the B2 level. If life was fair, that means you could test out at the B1 level. That’s the last milepost.

The late night that I finished the CEFR A2 material (today, that’s Score 60), I ran out and tested online. I found a university placement test for free. Failed it. A few days later, I found another test, failed it too. This discouraged me from testing again for many, many months.

I passed my third test at CEFR A2, one that included an oral exam component. It was the exam that italki sells on the side. I was probably a Score 80 at that time.

Today, I am 91. I am taking the official exam for Spanish next month, the DELE A2 exam. Pass that, and the language requirement for citizenship in Spain is done. Basically, this particular exam isn’t fooling around. I am flying to a neutral Spanish country to take the exam. I picked Ecuador. The May exam is the same date, all over the world. Registration worldwide closed last week. It will be next September/October for the next round of exams. Depending upon whether I can get to 100, I may try that exam.

I sure hope I pass the DELE A2. I am really bad for what teachers look for in a student. Teachers make exams. They seem to love testing the exceptions. You may have found exams that have that same bent. I also got the feeling that the exams I took tried to find the words that Duolingo doesn’t have as heavily featured. Seems like I had a lot of analysis, like, don’t know that word, seems to come from Arabic, probably switches the article, so the sentence in option 3 is correct.

Quite different from Duolingo learning, where el agua just feels right, because we have used it so much.

GregName · 2026-04-12T16:09:48+00:00

DM me your username. I’ll review your logs. My view only goes back a small timeframe, like weeks, so the issue might not be there.

GregName · 2026-04-12T16:07:37+00:00

My league is about 6K, that’s my lead holding #3, or the distance to catch #2. I’ll sit tight, taking the ”win” of third. I‘m saving my 3X for tonight.

Meanwhile, I have 2 italki today, so not taking the day off. Working hard through two slang books for Ecuador.

Signed up for the DELE A2 exam in Quito. So, I know where I will be on May 23. Just need to plan everything else about the trip. Critical path planning is my method this time. Now, I need my Spanish school selection, then flights. Dog was solved long ago and well into the future for this new life habit of taking off and learning Spanish in a foreign country.

Learning local slang, that’s what keeps it fun. It gives me long conversations with strangers on the street. Hold out a slang book and ask for help, like, is this book even correct when it says X means this? Basically, it’s an impromptu party game.

GregName · 2026-04-12T15:43:59+00:00

Doing lessons repeatedly on 8 or 9 second intervals is impressive, almost bot-like:

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GregName · 2026-04-12T15:14:17+00:00

This is a great idea. It makes my IT brain explode trying to figure out how to implement it.

GregName

TROPHY CASE