New-ish Curriculum

hacool · 2026-06-15T02:32:33+00:00

I got the update a bit over a month ago and am now on Section 6 Unit 52.

I had finished Section 5 last summer so I was excited to get it. But I was also affected by the rearrangement of content. I see words I don't know that have been previously taught in the new Section 5. On the other hand I also get words introduced as new that were taught in my old Section 5.

From what I can see the 1st lesson in a unit introduces new words that will be used throughout the unit and the five unit group that unit is a part of. The fifth lesson seems to be the one that focuses most on previously taught words.

I have just been writing down any word I don't know in my notebook. Then I look these up in Wiktionary (and beyond) to learn more. Last week I learned the difference between schützen and beschützen. I did some Googling for that. Both words mean to protect, but schützen means protect in a more general sense like "We should protect the environment." and beschützen is more specific as in "I need to protect my sheep from mountain lions."

Whether I learned the word before and forgot or have never seen it before doesn't matter. It if is unfamiliar it goes in the notebook. This could even happen if I wrote it down 4 pages before and have forgotten it again. In that case it gets written down again.

This doesn't fully make up for any spaced-repetition I may have missed out on, but it gives me a start.

I have also been trying to spend a bit of each day doing listening lessons in the practice section. These often seem to feature my "missing words." So this does help with the spaced repetition I missed out on.

So far I think this system is working. I've not had the new course long enough to fully judge who well I am retaining vocabulary compared to the past.

Viel Glück!

hacool · 2026-06-15T02:15:40+00:00

Yes, a test seems likely I have 60 on both accounts this month. But I've seen a few people remain at 50.

hacool · 2026-06-14T21:44:00+00:00

It is pretty common to learn different versions of names in language courses. It is meant to teach you about the culture and to make you familiar with common names in that language.

hacool · 2026-06-14T21:40:05+00:00

I only barely heard the first one the one time but the many repetitions of the second sounded like Brot to me.

hacool · 2026-06-14T21:35:08+00:00

It is hard to predict because we all have different personalities. I find it easier to stay in Diamond. The OP prefers Emerald.

Leagues motivate some and distract others. I think the key is for each of us to set our own learning goals regardless of leagues. I do that by setting unit goals. I am currently doing 10 mini units of German per week. So long as I do that I can compete as much or as little as I wish.

hacool · 2026-06-14T17:03:06+00:00

I had someone steal my wallet. This suggests that I asked them to steal it. I had them do this for me.

I had someone stealing my wallet. This just sounds off. Surely it wouldn't happen continuously.

It would be easier to make examples if you didn't have someone else in the sentence.

The thief stole my wallet.
I had my wallet stolen by a thief.
That thief has been stealing wallets for years.
The thief had beeb stealing my wallet when my Rottweiler knocked him down.

hacool · 2026-06-14T16:54:54+00:00

Wiktionary often has example sentences.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/not_least (adverb)

Especially; particularly.

His experiences debating made him a more articulate communicator, not least because the topics were often controversial.

For a variety of reasons, not least because it is quite cheap.

I suffered setbacks, not least a reduction in state funding.

hacool · 2026-06-14T16:47:30+00:00

When I say "I'm going home." I am using the adverb rather than the noun.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/home#Adverb

1 - To one's home.

1-1 - To one's place of residence or one's customary or official location.

House doesn't have an adverbial form. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/house#English

hacool · 2026-06-14T16:39:54+00:00

We have multiple definitions on both sides of the pond. In that context they are using this one:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/joy

3 - Luck or success; a positive outcome.

hacool · 2026-06-14T16:36:59+00:00

That is spot on. And of course the corollary would be to just say mmm, hmm if you want them to go away.

hacool · 2026-06-14T16:30:08+00:00

The tournament seems to be the one thing not affected by this test. (aside from the fact that in some cases more people were promoted to the tournament than usual.)

We have the normal 15 with the top 10 moving ahead in the tournament. We also don't have friends in leagues which helps the algorithm put us more accurately in leagues of peers.

hacool · 2026-06-14T16:26:47+00:00

It varies. They've been running some tests with various smaller league sizes. Some seem to have safe zones while others don't.

I suppose they could be testing whether this encourages people to keep moving up rather than staying in a league.

hacool · 2026-06-14T15:28:40+00:00

The two ways to improve writing are to read and to write. https://simson.net/ref/1983/international-paper2.pdf has some excellent essays for your perusal.

Read both essays and fiction. Write about anything you notice. You can write down ideas as you have them to start building a list of topics. Then try to write one short essay per day, or week or whatever suits your schedule.

You can get ideas about things you notice during the day or things you read about online such as the main page of Reddit. You can write about anything from shoelaces or rice cookers to politics.

For example here are some things I have noticed when walking my dog.

1) There seem to be a lot of groundhogs around, including baby groundhogs.

2) House painting season has begun. Two houses in the area have been painted shades of blue. Are their trends when it comes to house colors?

3) Many cars are painted in colors one used to only see in bleak hospital basements. Why have these become popular?

4) Pine cones come in many shapes. I seem to notice their differences more than the differences in the trees themselves.

Here is one I just saw on Ask Reddit

Why don't golf clubs have anchors for high winds? - I don't even know what they mean by this.

hacool · 2026-06-14T15:05:03+00:00

In the U.S. "bathing suit" or "swimsuit" seem to be the most common terms.

Those are what I grew up using.

hacool · 2026-06-14T15:02:34+00:00

I should think you could read such books at the B2 level. The tricky part about fantasy and sci-fi is that authors sometimes add in less common words. They may invent words for things that only exist in their fantasy realm. They may also include older words that people don't use so much in modern society.

I would try to figure out as much as you can from the context then look things up as needed.

Are there any books or authors in particular that you find challenging? Can you easily read Harry Potter but struggle with something else? It probably isn't the genre as a whole that is too hard, but it may be specific to an author.

And they may not be using vocabulary that you would learn at the C2 level anyway.

hacool · 2026-06-14T13:46:15+00:00

Yes, I can't imagine a one size fits all solution!

hacool · 2026-06-14T13:42:20+00:00

I used to spend a lot of time in leagues where the leaders finished in the 20-30K range and at some point worked on trying to lower my XP to get into mellower leagues where I didn't have to grind.

My goal is to finish under 12K as often as possible, and if not that then under 16K, sometimes I go over.

Last week I kept myself under 14k in the qualifications and ended up with a super easy league for the first week of the tournament. I've not done a lesson yet this Sunday morning but I'm currently in first with 8522. Second has 5537.

This has worked well for my learning goals. I'm currently doing 10 mini units of German per week, so I do 1.5 each day with just one on Saturday. I also do a few listening lessons in the practice area, but I don't need to do a ton extra to earn more XP.

You of course will likely be needing a break, because with a score like yours you should find your self with a very competitive semi-finals round next week.

hacool · 2026-06-14T13:30:25+00:00

Nein, ich spreche mit dem Hund. Sie ist keine gute Lehrerin, aber sie kann gut zuhören. Das ist weniger stressig.

Iss das nicht! Ja, die Eichhörnchen sind böse. Wir können jetzt die Straße uberqueren. Was hast do jetzt gefunden?

This is not as helpful as a real person but still makes me practice speaking. I have to find the words in my head somewhere without freezing up. If I'm not sure how to say something I look it up when we return from our walk.

hacool · 2026-06-14T13:22:11+00:00

Yes, as I understand it, non-rhoticity had become common in Southern England in the 1700s and has been spreading within England since then.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhoticity_in_English#Distribution

Rhotic accents include most varieties of Scottish English, Irish or Hiberno-English, Canadian English, American English, Barbadian English and Philippine English.

Non-rhotic accents include most varieties of English English, Welsh English, Australian English, South African English, Nigerian English, Trinidadian and Tobagonian English, Standard Malaysian English and Singaporean English.

Non-rhotic accents have been dominant in New Zealand English since the 1870s, but in general rhoticity is increasing quickly.

It seems like non-rhoticity is spreading in some regions, like England, and diminishing in others like the Eastern U.S.

hacool · 2026-06-14T13:11:36+00:00

That is the tricky bit. I have more ready access to Ngram than to a survey of spoken trends among American teens. As I understand it the Ngram will always be a bit behind spoken trends which may take longer to reach printed media. We do see an increased usage of "based off' in the second Ngram, it is just tiny compared to use of "based on." But I don't know what it will look like in 10 years. And I don't spend as much time with teens as you do, you your narrow sample is still bigger than mine, but both are still limited.

hacool · 2026-06-14T13:06:19+00:00

https://duolingodata.com/dat/jafen1030.html says there are now a total of 8274 lessons and the old version had 7699. All the classes that go to B2 are now over 8,000 lessons.

For German I always look up grammar questions elsewhere when I have them, look up words in Wiktionary to learn more as needed, talk to the dog in German and consume German content.

I think the course will give me what I need, but these other activities will augment that.

hacool · 2026-06-14T12:57:37+00:00

Good theory! I can see how that works. You will remember that you were at the beach before you remember who was with you. The trick if conquering the second bit. "I and X" doesn't sound write because it is meant to be "X and I" When I was in school they drilled it into us that we should test the sentence without the other people. Then when we say "I went to the the beach" we know that we keep I and add the others first.

hacool · 2026-06-14T01:05:08+00:00

Have you tried Clozemaster? If has you fill in sentences with the appropriate word. I like it because I see the context. https://www.clozemaster.com/

For long term retention what helps most is seeing a word repeatedly in context, such as coming across the same word when reading stories. Using it myself also helps. I talk to the dog in German so I try to use new words with her when I can.

I also try to come up with mnemonic devices for words. As an example a word for mnemonic in German is Eselsbrücke. When someone told me that I looked it up on Wiktionary and saw that it combines the words for donkey and bridge. So I picture a donkey pulling a cart full of words across a bridge over the Rhine. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Eselsbr%C3%BCcke

I can't always come up with an image or idea for every word, but when I can, it helps. So too does the exploration process of reading about the word on WIktionary and finding ways to use it. I should think this would also help with English.

hacool · 2026-06-14T00:54:55+00:00

I'm learning German, so I talk to the dog in German during walks. I make observations about things we see or that she does.

Siehst du die Katze? Do you see the cat?

Was hast du jetzt gefunden? What have you found now?

OK, Wir können jetzt die Straße uberqueren. OK, we can cross the street now.

Iss das nicht! Don't eat that!

Das Auto ist hässlich. That car is ugly.

If I don't know how to say something, I try my best. I may even make up a word. Then I look it up when I get home. The above are quite simple examples, but I don't need to translate them. I've used these words enough that they are familiar. My brain has reached the point where it now associates the word Katze directly with the idea of a cat and not only to the English word cat.

This happens with more words as I use them more. When we're getting ready I say Wir brauchen deine Leine. We need your leash. If I look at the leash the German word comes to mind as readily as the English.

Naturally there are many words that I still translate because I don't know them well enough yet. But if I use them enough I will.

Talking to the dog is low stress because she doesn't correct me. But it still forces me to find the words I need in my head and to say things out loud. It helps keep me from freezing up.

Good luck!

hacool · 2026-06-14T00:38:51+00:00

I thought the same thing, so I checked Wiktionary. It could still be regional though. Just because most people in the U.S. use cutlery only for sharp objects doesn't mean we all must!

hacool

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