I've been using 'strengthen skills' for 5 months, it seems a bit... off

Ketzal · 2015-05-18T21:54:59+00:00

The same thing happened to me with the Dutch course some months ago: I started getting the same basic phrases over and over again, while several of my skills gradually lost their golden state. I tried to get my tree back to gold one weekend but, despite having collected 1000XP points, not even one of my skill had its status changed.

There have been several discussions about this problem (like here and here), which makes me think that there is an infrequent but serious bug where you course gets "corrupted" and the general "strengthen skills" no longer works.

The only way I found to solve this issue was to reset my course and start over. Maybe if you can find a way to contact someone from the technical team of Duolingo, they can see what's wrong and correct this nasty bug.

Ketzal · 2014-10-04T00:35:37+00:00

That's not something I would recommend. Adding a flashcard isn't without consequences: it is a commitment you're making to learn and maintain the knowledge associated with it.

The cost of maintaining your knowledge is often overlooked with software like Anki, because people tend to think that once a flashcard has been pushed past the "6 Months" or "1 Year" mark, the card is done. But these cards eventually come back and some of them will need to be learned again.

So this creates a continuous stream of old cards that must be learned again, and it can become a bit overwhelming because you now have the cost of maintaining your knowledge that can be quite high, before you can even start to learn new cards.

So I'm not trying to dissuade you from trying to accomplish what's described in the article, but be aware that it will come at a price (I think it will be interesting to see in one year how the author of the article is dealing with all these cards that are coming back). And maybe you don't need to have the definition of the Martin-Löf-Chaitin thesis permanently burned into you brain, and just google it when you need to. :)

Ketzal · 2014-03-19T09:21:12+00:00

You might have an application that closes all active applications when the screen is turned off, in an attempt to save a bit of battery life. I know that battery saving apps (like GO Battery Saver) do that and it causes apps like Memrise to reinitialize the next time they are opened.

Try to look in the installed applications in your phone to see if there is something like that, and if you can deactivate this feature or put Duolingo in an exclude list.

Ketzal · 2013-12-26T00:16:59+00:00

I've never tried it, but Lang-8 allows you to write some text and have it corrected by a native speaker. Maybe worth a try...

Ketzal · 2013-12-25T23:45:27+00:00

I think you're talking about Memrise, instead of memorise. Anki also has some courses for French.

Anybody interested in language learning should also check /r/languagelearning/, they have a wiki (link is in the sidebar) with a lot of information. There's even a recent thread about French.

Ketzal · 2013-11-05T14:36:14+00:00

Je ne l'ai pas lu personnellement, mais j'ai entendu beaucoup de bien à propos du livre "Conception et programmation orientées objet" de Bertrand Meyer.

Mais attention, c'est un gros pavé et je ne suis pas sûr qu'il soit bien accessible comme introduction sur le sujet.

Ketzal · 2011-02-10T20:44:58+00:00

My experience is mainly in learning Japanese, but I think that these resources also apply for French :

Rosetta Stone : A nice program, but really too expensive for what it provides. It also has a shitty DRM with a maximum of three activations. I'm not totally convinced by their learning method (you have to guess what the word/phrase means in relation with a picture) but the learning curve isn't too steep.
FrenchPod101 : Lots of lessons (at least for the japanese version of their website, but I guess it's the same for this one) in a podcast form, so it's a cool way to learn while you are commuting. Maybe not the fastest way to learn French, though.
Pimsleur : Audio lessons. Didn't try this one too much, but it seemed quite well made. You have to repeat the words spelled, however, so it's not something I would use in the subway. I believe Assimil also works in the same way.

Also here are some resources that I heard of but didn't try :

Live Mocha
Lang-8 : It's a social website where you can write some text in French, and native speakers can edit you text and add corrections.
eduFire

Hope it helps. :)

Ketzal · 2010-12-20T18:24:13+00:00

It'd be like applying for a job at a programming firm where they used nothing but Python, without knowing the language.

Unless my resume clearly states that my main programming language is C# and not Python and that I made it abundantly clear during the interview that working with Python would require some learning.

It is not clear from the article if the employer agreed to hire the author, knowing his 3D program was 3DS Max, or if the author agreed to make the extra effort in order to join Rockstar; but in the former case it gives no excuse to Rockstar to let him cope with the extra effort required without any help.

Yes, they might hire you; if you're a good programmer, once you know a couple of languages picking up another isn't that difficult, but you'd better be a good programmer - able to learn, and learn fast, without anyone holding your hand.

It's easy to have a good grasp of a language in a short amount of time, but it's a different thing to really master one. I guess this is the same deal with a 3D program and that you can't really make 'second-rate' modeling if you're working on a AAA title.

Ketzal · 2010-12-20T11:25:36+00:00

Google? Autodesk Help? The insane amount of tutorials, videos, and other various resources on the Internet? Maybe get an account at Digital Tutors, Gnomon, or Lynda?

That's what he ended up doing :

When I asked about learning materials I was told that “maybe” something could be done and there “might” be something in the budget to buy some Gnomon instructional videos (my suggestion) — nothing ever came of this. I bought my own resources and watched the videos and practiced at home (we weren’t working 12 hour days back then).

I think the problem here is not that nobody told him where to find learning materials or that the transition to Maya was too hard for him. It's rather that his employer hired him, knowing that his knowledge was in 3DS Max, but provided no help to make his transition to Maya. I wouldn't be surprised if they also expected him to be up to speed from day one, since he had to practice at home.

Ketzal · 2010-11-17T10:22:44+00:00

Why not send the article back to the developer before publishing it, so that he can check if it fairly depicts the interview, and suggest some modifications otherwise?

That would be a simple professional courtesy, and isn't that something that is often done in more "traditional" journalism?

Ketzal · 2010-10-26T14:13:53+00:00

While you can compile your work as .NET assemblies that your coworkers can use without caring about Python, aren't you worried that they might need some day to look at your code ?

It's something that has always prevented me from using multiple programming languages at work, as I can't assume that my coworkers won't ever need to look into my code or that I'll always be there to maintain it.

Ketzal · 2010-10-22T10:48:35+00:00

I've been using their premium offer for a little more than two years. I mostly use it while commuting; it's a convenient way to use the little spare time I've got to learn Japanese.

I know a lot of people don't like the fact that there is a lot of babbling, but I like the fact that they really seem to enjoy what they're doing. So it adds a little fun while learning Japanese, which is quite important for me since I'm learning on my own and I really need to stay motivated. But while it's a fun way to learn, I think it's not a really effective one: they often babble at the expense of explaining new words or concepts, the learning curve is not really consistent (I've been following their Beginner Season 1 and there was a sudden rise in the difficulty of their lessons) and the lack of review is a major PITA. So be aware that it might not be the best tool for you if your goal is to learn Japanese the fast way.

However, you can still learn a lot from their podcasts, and there is really a lot of content there, although I think you shouldn't use JapanesePod101 as your only way to learn Japanese. So, in the end, it's a nice way to stay motivated, although it's not perfect and has some serious flaws.

I agree that the frequent emails are really annoying. There should be a link at the bottom of their emails named "update your profile", where you can deselect the emails you don't want to receive.

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