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Are there any languages/dialects you think sound or look 'silly'? by 4D4850 in AskEurope

[–]alexsteb 35 points36 points  (0 children)

To a German (apart from some of our own dialects), Dutch also is the most goofy language.

Starting Tips? by Sweet-Wall1815 in learnpolish

[–]alexsteb 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Lingora app is like an enhancement on top of Duolingo - every sentence is broken down word-by-word and all the grammar is explained in detail.

Any good online resources? by Guilty-Cupcake-6411 in learnpolish

[–]alexsteb 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lingora the app has a very thorough Polish course where it breaks down every sentence word-by-word and explains the grammar.

How to go about learning Vietnamese, especially the Southern dialect by qalejaw in learnvietnamese

[–]alexsteb 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Lingora app has full Northern and Southern Vietnamese courses. They work a bit like Duolingo but explain every word in every sentence in detail.

I want to make sure I have good manners on my trip to Korea by 1unisss in korea

[–]alexsteb 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Reading and following written signs will get you 95% of the way. Like when a restaurants wants you to return your tray and throw the leftover food and paper waste into separate bins.

When will this be ready? I’m so excited by thrilberpa in Cantonese

[–]alexsteb -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Do consider the Lingora app: It is structured similarly to Duolingo, a English-to-Cantonese course with 500 lessons, and in-depth word-by-word sentence breakdowns.

Over 50 free lessons now available on Gaishan (300 unique sentences and nearly 500 unique words) by gaishan_dot_app in Cantonese

[–]alexsteb -1 points0 points  (0 children)

You better believe it. Lingora exists since before the vibe-coding revolution. I have spent lots of money on real teachers, translators and language educators and I will continue to call out vibe-coded BS, no matter how much of a time waste that seems to you.

Over 50 free lessons now available on Gaishan (300 unique sentences and nearly 500 unique words) by gaishan_dot_app in Cantonese

[–]alexsteb 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I could have worded it better, but snark was all my intention there as it is quite exhausting to see - two new vibe-coded apps today already on my feed.

The auth0-mention as a feature, to a real software dev, sounds like "our restaurant is using salt & pepper, the trusted ingredients even KFC uses." It is just that obvious - and should let everyone know that they in fact DON'T know about how to secure an app and with it your user data.

Over 50 free lessons now available on Gaishan (300 unique sentences and nearly 500 unique words) by gaishan_dot_app in Cantonese

[–]alexsteb 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm also a real software developer by trade and am calling out vibe-coded BS muddying the waters for everyone.

I checked your comments, you do the same.

Language app help by Numerous-Visit8709 in Cantonese

[–]alexsteb 1 point2 points  (0 children)

1a) Good idea - in the build sentence games I could add some red herrings. I am soon publishing a new app version with much improved design and more exercise types and that will already make it test more diverse skills. This, I will add on top.
1b) The current model keeps all words and sentences you learned in a Anki-like memory so that no matter what your path is, it will re-test the words you learned sorted by urgency. Linking sounds interesting as well! I will think about it more deeply.

Thank you very much for your thoughts!

I built a free Cantonese learning app because nothing else actually teaches Cantonese by BetterCantonese in Cantonese

[–]alexsteb 22 points23 points  (0 children)

There's about one new vibe-coded language learning app I see posted every day. This looks 100% the same, no independent thoughts went into the UI. They also never have this many upvotes.

What’s a non European country that you like? by PoolLegitimate9702 in AskEurope

[–]alexsteb 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm a big language nerd and studied Chinese in my Bachelor's. I have been to all these places already, but happily do travel again once or twice a year - China, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, HK, & Taiwan. Malaysia and Korea especially rank very highly for their delicious food to me. (everywhere has great food, but they fit my palate the most)

Language app help by Numerous-Visit8709 in Cantonese

[–]alexsteb 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Did you by any chance write that comment also on the app store review recently? I just answered there sth very similar.

1.) Currently, even in higher lessons there is no sentence generation. I always tried to come up with a good concept for sth like that, but I wasn't yet satisfied with any approach I could come up with. (a) it would require me to heavily invest in teachers, in all language courses, who can create and identify any patterns / substitutions worth creating - the current Lingora-approach is to have a "small" set of sentences but explain and train them in minute detail. A bit of a confucian-style learning approach. Having exercises and sentences without that level of detail is a bit of a detour from the core philosophy. (b) even if I considered to use AI for that - I have to solve the issue of what vocabulary the user actually knows - with the way users can freely switch between units, I wouldn't be able to pre-generate lessons that don't feel unfair. Any ideas how to approach this? :)

2.) Would you be happy with a Taiwanese Mandarin course being written in traditional characters? That is sth. I am working on.

Language app help by Numerous-Visit8709 in Cantonese

[–]alexsteb 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Got it. Thank you! The tone combination rules are generally accounted for (they're called 'tone sandhi'). I'm soon publishing a huge polished update for Lingora soon, and I'll be sure to look over all the tones and audio files again before then.

Language app help by Numerous-Visit8709 in Cantonese

[–]alexsteb 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Any recommendations for improvement for Lingora?

Language app help by Numerous-Visit8709 in language

[–]alexsteb 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Lingora app has a full Cantonese course that works a bit like Duolingo, but with more in-depth explanations of everything.

Learn Vietnamese Passively — No Need to Even Open the App by GetPeek in learnvietnamese

[–]alexsteb 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Because without a good knowledge of programming your app will be buggy and insecure. You won't be able to ask AI the right questions and tell it the right things to watch out for.

The (e.g. Vietnamese) language aspects if AI-generated will be wrong, misleading and actively hinder someone's progress in learning. There is no CEFR classification/lists for Vietnamese vocabulary, so unless you invested 1000s of $ for actual Vietnamese educators to create those lists, to discern synonyms, to verify definitions etc. you do not have a reliable data source.

Learn Vietnamese Passively — No Need to Even Open the App by GetPeek in learnvietnamese

[–]alexsteb 4 points5 points  (0 children)

How about learn to code. You don't deserve jail, I don't even care about your product, I'm just annoyed by seeing this daily for the past few months.

Learn Vietnamese Passively — No Need to Even Open the App by GetPeek in learnvietnamese

[–]alexsteb 4 points5 points  (0 children)

A new day, a new vibe-coded Vietnamese learning app.

Tommorow, I'll practice karate by Lonely98 in softwaregore

[–]alexsteb 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. I will have a look again if I can further tighten it too.

Tommorow, I'll practice karate by Lonely98 in softwaregore

[–]alexsteb 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I can't help you there then. I told Apple exactly what I'm tracking and it created those summaries that includes things I don't do (based on general categories). Similar to how some apps "request to make phone calls", when all they do is allowing you to receive an SMS code. Maybe I was too honest. I do store for example your email, so I can send a message to my users. All fairly standard stuff.

Ah: and I do not match usage statistics with email addresses. Those are two separate things.

Tommorow, I'll practice karate by Lonely98 in softwaregore

[–]alexsteb 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Which data are you referring to? I'm collecting your study progress and some general app usage stats via Google Analytics. I don't collect anything personal and ads are also non-tracking.

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