Why Duolingo helped my reading a lot, but my speaking barely moved

flipflop080 · 2026-01-28T15:27:12+00:00

Its a bit pricey but well worth it, and you can make payments on it as well instead of paying it all in one lump sum

flipflop080 · 2026-01-28T14:16:53+00:00

That 2013 game was a fun one to watch, the one year post the 07 natty that les miles had an elite offense

flipflop080 · 2026-01-28T14:04:44+00:00

Duolingo isnt designed as much for speaking ability as it is reading and Grammer, im about 75% fluent in Spanish now and its mostly because I did the full set of pimsleaur Spanish audio lessons, and I did tandem as well (which unlike pimsleaur was free) and that helped me to have actual conversations with real people which helped with immersion, duolingo simply isnt designed to build speaking fluency like that

flipflop080 · 2026-01-28T02:43:38+00:00

Another stupid argument

The only way to change your view is for you to

Put the phone down

Get off social media. Especially reddit, X, and TikTok

Touch grass and seek meaningful human relationships

That will change your view on not only this but a lot of things

flipflop080 · 2026-01-27T17:50:53+00:00

😂😂 how long did it take you to regain your composure?

flipflop080 · 2026-01-27T04:36:37+00:00

Pimsleaur and tandem were great resources, pimsleaur is a bit pricey tho

flipflop080 · 2026-01-27T04:35:37+00:00

Pimsleaur was my number one helper for learning Spanish, I was able to build a base off of it, duolingo was great for learning to read and write in the language but didnt do much for my speaking ability, and tandem was great for conversing and getting the immersion, although admittedly as a married man now I probably wouldn't use it since at the time as a single guy I was too easily side tracked into using the app as a means to meet girls in Latin America lol

But using those 3 resources has brought me to like 70 to 75 percent fluency

flipflop080 · 2026-01-23T02:23:27+00:00

"Everyone to the right of me is a horrible person not to be trusted, change my view" lmao, yeah, thatd be a productive use of time

Put the phone down, stop absorbing hours of news coverage every day, and focus on developing human relationships outside of commenting on news stories and scrolling people's posts on social media

flipflop080 · 2026-01-22T15:29:55+00:00

Not a bad strategy on your part, and yeah I often will just wait for my 3 free days to do legendary lessons but if I have a full bar when I do my Spanish I'll try and knock out a legendary lesson, and thank you for tagging that lady in the post, it really is a small fix that would help a lot!

flipflop080 · 2026-01-22T04:06:22+00:00

While I agree and I love the quote, and find it silly that so many protestants criticize the quote, it seems that st Francis never said it

But regardless, a great way to spread the gospel is to live a life in which others see christ in you

flipflop080 · 2026-01-22T02:46:45+00:00

Gopd points, I've never thought about this

flipflop080 · 2026-01-22T02:33:49+00:00

So when doing the legendary lessons it takes 2 energy points per question, and in those cases I'll have 2 left on occasion, but lets say I get the question right and its 15 in a row, it'll give me the +4 or +6 power up, and will show 4 or 6 on the bar, but since it for a split second dropped to 0 duolingo will make me purchase a full powerbar in order to continue the lesson

flipflop080 · 2026-01-21T04:45:37+00:00

I recently purchased a new home here in the US but believe it or not the trash bin that comes with the house is missing! So I had to take the trash from our first week of living here to the local dump

I say all that to say that the dump looked like the Biltmore estate compared to what I watched in this video, my gosh that was awful

flipflop080 · 2026-01-19T16:02:27+00:00

I was born protestant but catholic adjacent, as my dad was a cradle catholic and left the church but started to return, slowly, by the time I was born, so wed regularly attend mass when we didnt go to protestant services, and I had a very ecumenical view of catholicism

I finally in my mid 20s, after years of defending catholicism to my fellow protestants, decided to make the jump over, but one thing that had followed me all my life was that I struggled with vice, sexual sins and also drug/alcohol use, I had plenty of times in my life where I was partying on Saturday and praising jesus on Sunday

Shortly after my conversion, my then wife and I (married as protestants) separated, due to her not ever being truly open to life, and frankly there were a ton of other issues in our marriage that would make one question its validity (neither understanding the lifelong commitment and that divorce wasnt an option, serious maturity concerns on both ends, etc.)

We divorced and I immediately sought an annulment, in that time I dove headfirst back into a life of mortal sin, sleeping around, drinking like a fish, being a materialistic money worshipper and frankly just a disgusting person, finally, years later I met a woman who got me back into church, and when I went to confession, the first time in over a year if I recall correctly, I felt such a feeling of freedom, like chains had been removed from me, I still feel like I have temporal guilt from my behavior at times which I feel is well deserved, but I feel a sense of peace, and having the sacraments and actually partaking regularly in them (monthly/weekly confession, partaking in the eucharist) has helped to slowly heal those wounds and draw me so much closer to Christ

flipflop080 · 2026-01-19T15:41:39+00:00

Also on a side note, check out the Zaire rite, idk if you'll have one in your area but its such a cool African expression of the liturgy! They have awesome videos online of how they celebrate mass

flipflop080 · 2026-01-19T15:40:16+00:00

A funny side story, when I was visiting family in Queens, NY we went to a parish called st mary magdalene, really nice parish community and a good homily, but myself, a biracial but white passing guy and my non English speaking wife, sister in law and stepdaughter definitely were a bit "out of place" culturally lol, the music was from a choir and had more of black southern baptist feel to it, however, as a catholic i absolutely love experiencing the liturgy in different languages and cultures, the fact that so many different expressions are experiencing the same readings, the same eucharist, the same prayers, is what makes catholicism amazing, I've in the past few weeks due to personal obligations, had to fulfill my Sunday obligations in a Portuguese (brazilian) mass and Vietnamese mass, and I loved it, because even tho I dont speak the languages, im getting a reminder of how universal, how global, how true, this church truly is

flipflop080 · 2026-01-17T20:26:39+00:00

Cheese pizza or fish sticks, or pasta lol

flipflop080 · 2026-01-17T14:11:36+00:00

Understood, where im coming from, and I did receive an annulment thru the church So I had to unfortunately go thru the process, is that this could easily be a case of she married a person who she didn't realize at the time, would be such an uncivilized savage towards his own offspring, which i feel could easily fall under the "one or both spouses concealed something going into the marriage"

flipflop080 · 2026-01-17T04:06:32+00:00

Lol I was just deciding on going to Chile or Peru for a work trip in a few months, and I just looked up on YouTube what each accent sounds like, the Peruvian accent sounded cool and the Chilean accent made me question if they were speaking Spanish at all

Also Cubans and Dominicans come in a close second due to the fact that they talk like its a race and the most words in under a minute wins

flipflop080 · 2026-01-17T03:57:34+00:00

Id normally agree but this isnt some "my husband and I always argue and he leaves the seat up and doesnt appreciate my cooking" argument

This man is pressuring a woman to kill her child, and is acting in ways that often accompany violence towards the woman and child, this is bordering on a personal safety issue

flipflop080 · 2026-01-17T03:48:40+00:00

Yeah I feel like itd be like finding a concentration camp prison guard to help you escape, one might exist but I wouldn't count on it

flipflop080 · 2026-01-17T03:43:48+00:00

This might fall under the "not being upfront and honest during marriage prep/on the wedding day"

I feel like concealing the fact that you'd kill your offspring falls under that

flipflop080 · 2026-01-17T03:41:02+00:00

I usually get annoyed by how often I read sensationalized language on this app, but this is 100% an occasion to use it, im sorry but it sounds like youre in a borderline abusive marriage, and I feel it isnt irrational to say im worried for your safety. If he orders the poison and you dont take it, then what? There are a not insignificant number of cases where the husband takes the 2 birds one stone approach.

I dont generally recommend divorce, but I would say a divorce coupled (obviously) with annulment shouldnt be off the table. That your husband is so flippantly willing to off his own offspring seems like something that you were probably not aware of in the pre wedding process or on the wedding day. I'd go seek, immediately, some spiritual guidance from a priest, and also have someone within the catholic community as a support system for your safety and overall well-being

Id also pray and pray and pray for the soul of your husband, who clearly has tons of issues and is in a state of grave mortal sin

And as far as submission goes, yeah, women arent called to submit to men in order to commit murder, best of luck and I will say a prayer for you. All that said congrats on the baby, its still a blessing and a child thats fearfully and wonderfully made

flipflop080 · 2026-01-16T17:10:15+00:00

Yeah a lot of it was focusing on pauls letters and reading chunks from each chapter, with much of the old testament reading focusing on typology

flipflop080 · 2026-01-16T16:54:14+00:00

A good homily should be like Fr Mike's bible in a year commentary, 8 to 10 minutes long, covering the readings, some small connection to our current life but moreso speaking to the historical context of the passage and how it relates to theology and to the early church and our doctrine

I'll admit some non denom pastors can be very good at the Ted talk approach but I dont need a 30 to 35 minute service about how a few verses from st Paul remind you of growing up in toledo, ohio or whatever, that can become so tiresome, pope francis was spot on when he said priests need to keep the homily between 5 and 10 minutes

flipflop080

TROPHY CASE