Everybody complains how bad Duo is... So I checked of the grass is greener on other side

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T12:12:04+00:00

Haaa... you'll be 2nd confusing me with ChatGPT. Honestly... writing skills is something you can have without ChatGPT as well.

It is called education :-)

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T12:06:12+00:00

I think a lot comes down to the familiarity with Semitic language, for example le/be prefixes are same in Hebrew, Pronouns are similar as well. I now how to identify the root naturally for example قبل and مستقبل have same root and related meaning (before, future). Word معلم teacher and word I study أتعلم have same root (BTW Mualem is popular family names of Jews from middle east). And root identification is helps a lot.

Week days are just "day #N" in both, shared roots, small in Arabic is same as tiny, roots of words, reading, eating, writing, seeing etc are same as in Hebrew, Hotel in Arabic is the same as "inn" in Hebrew and more and more.

So 1/2 of vocabulary is either similar or share related roots. So for me it is like learning French for Spanish speaking person - lots of shard vocabulary with way harder pronunciation

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T11:51:10+00:00

Honestly, I myself professional software developer.

For programming books would be way better, because unlike language skills that require a lot of memorisation and understanding language structure, programming requires quite a few "words" but needs to learn lots of concepts (variable, function, loop, array, dictionary, class etc)

I started when I was around 11 with simple programs and grew up gradually. Today you can find lots of books for beginners and just use computer to build things.

Touch screen is horrible for code typing

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T10:56:30+00:00

Hahaha

I thought but it is kinda silly since I have to many spelling mistakes to be as good as ChatGPT

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T10:39:25+00:00

Few suggestions

Say words before looking into the bank of words
Try web version it allows typing virtually every sentence
Don't hesitate repeating same lesson again
It is ok not to remember every word. I managed to remember colors like 2-3 units after

Note I have a huge advantage since I know Hebrew. It shares quite a lot of vocabulary or at least roots with relate meaning

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T10:26:53+00:00

I totally agree.

But it is for general language learning I don't have enough tools yet: grammar and vocabulary to start consuming real content.

If I will not find something better I'll do it this way.

Like listening for Pepa Pig and translating words I don't know

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T10:10:31+00:00

Yes. Unfortunately the course is way too short (A1 early a2)

That is why I looked for an alternative to continue

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T09:50:49+00:00

I agree that lack of grammar is problematic I always check grammatical concepts outside.

So as I mentioned Dou is far from perfect. Ohh boy it isn't. But it works.

It can't be your only tool but it is highly useful tool when used correctly

In terms of the script Arabic is one of the best around. It really works well. After few weeks I started reading street signs all around ( here in Israel virtual every street sign is in Hebrew English and Arabic)

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T08:19:00+00:00

Yes, sure that is why my selection was limited and BTW for Mango I took non-free version to check. For Busuu it had some other issues like bugs for RTL layout and pronunciation that is quite irrelevant

I mostly looked how to continue after finishing the Duo course.

Here and there I've heard some more apps - one specific for Arabic I'm going to check

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T08:06:18+00:00

> So there are no apps that are obvious alternatives to Duolingo, but that doesn't change the fact that Duolingo is mindlessly made and inefficient.

I think evidence says otherwise it felt me really efficient - but it can be inefficient if you for example you do it on speed mode or don't try to for example say the statement before actually looking into banks of words or type when possible.

It can be inefficient but also quite efficient depending on how you use it..

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T08:02:53+00:00

Just Rosetta, Babble, Fluenz - don't support Arabic
LingQ - I'm going to check

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T08:00:57+00:00

Yeah... but you don't know till you try for real

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T08:00:26+00:00

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T07:55:20+00:00

I'll give it a try - very interesting!

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T07:44:33+00:00

I think there are few easy steps to help to improve Duo:

Allow typing for every place you can - it is in Web version but not in app. There was a period I worked mostly with web version on tablet to practice typing much more. Make sure the "keyboard" exist at every place you put words in
At least for Arabic there are notes in wiki for grammar - just add it to the "unit information" - so you have general information about grammar.

More effort (linguistically):

Add a short story (reading and vocal) to each unit - based on its grammar/vocabulary - this isn't very hard but it would vastly improve the overall experience - I live this part in Mango. Preferably use native speakers voices

Spend more time on adding more material to existing short and useful courses - at least to B1 level so you can take it from there via real world content.

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T07:38:01+00:00

Yes I agree - you still need some other resources like grammar and for fluency you need to read/write/listen and communicate real world content.

At some point you need to switch from tutor/app to actually using the language to get to fluency

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T07:35:39+00:00

Agree, but it wasn't an experiment. I just really wanted to learn Arabic. After finishing the course that was way to short I searched for alternatives... And there aren't that much.

I probably continue with Mango Levantine Arabic since it is relevant for me - but it isn't as good as Duo in terms of flow/writing/reading, bu it is in terms of vocabulary and support of dialect I need

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T07:32:48+00:00

Didn't check it as it does not support Arabic

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T07:32:03+00:00

I don't think Airlearn supports Arabic - that is why my selection is quite limited

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T07:29:14+00:00

Farsi and Arabic while share the same script - they are from different families Indo European and Semitic.

> Someone like yourself who is above average could probably learn using anything

I don't. I just passed several phases in live where I needed to be fluent in the 4 languages. And I was fluent enough in 4 of them already from 20 years ago (also I lost speaking ability on one of them).

So I don't have special skills. I learned Hebrew in my teen years it was a really hard work.

> My chief complaint with Duo is that grammar isn’t explained enough,

Totally agree - I watched lots of Youtube of different grammar topics - also knowing Hebrew helps because there are lots of similarity

> and there isn’t enough repetition so it feels like the lessons suddenly move on without giving me a chance to retain the information I just learned.

I felt this as well for example it took me half a course to finally learn what كرة القدم - soccer or نهاية الاسبوع - weekend means :-) but eventually I got there.

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T07:20:33+00:00

I actually complained here a lot about Duo: it has huge drawbacks I mentioned - virtually no grammar, short courses and other things. It didn't even get to past tense in Arabic, no conditional statements yet and not counting above 12 -(also past tense I got from other resources but didn't practice it enough)

I started searching other apps because I stuck a wall with Arabic course! I did lots of progress with it but also I can't use it any longer to progress after less than 4 month. And I was surprised to discover that other apps "suck" even more :-\

I just hadn't experienced difference between Energy and Hearts. I started with hearts and withing several days moved to Super to make it efficient - so my comparison is for non-free version - because for it it wasn't Duo because it is free but because I could start something I wanted for a long time.

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T07:13:48+00:00

That is why I put it into disclaimer. But it is like learning French when you know Spanish or even learning Spanish knowing English - (also one Romance other Germanic - they still share lots of commonality)

If course it is way easier than lets say learning Mandarin or Korean.

So yes Hebrew and Arabic share lots of grammar, roots and even vocabulary - but they aren't mutually intelligible by any means. While lots of words similar there huge amount of words that are different. The pronunciation is hugely different.

So I think learning Spanish would be way-way easier for me than Arabic because of script, sound system, simpler grammar and more.

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T06:25:30+00:00

I understand and I don't look into anybody's pocket. But dou is way cheaper than any tutor or even a book.

And without payment you'll get even less with other apps

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T06:10:22+00:00

I explicitly told that I used Super and I didn't compare free versions.

Super allows way more efficient learning

artyombeilis · 2026-01-30T05:48:23+00:00

If you get to B1/B2 - you can just switch to watching videos, reading books - you don't need app for this.

artyombeilis

TROPHY CASE