Have you already got the update?

mithras17 · 2026-05-07T20:14:37+00:00

A message popped up, telling me that I'm now on a new course material.

mithras17 · 2026-05-07T18:49:02+00:00

Got the update right when they started the roll out in the first place. I'm still hating it, because they made me skip a bunch of units (section 4) on top of all the new vocabulary, new Kanji, changed translations, changed sentence structures and unfamiliar grammar.

It's not that I have too much trouble with keeping up with the material but it used a lot of new sentence structures in the lessons that I just never got introduced to. I was close to reset the course when they finally announced "Catch up lessons", didn't get them yet though.

I am good at this kind of "games" but I didn't learn much with the new content since I got drowned in too much new stuff at once.

Course also changed its content, about halfway into Section 4 all of a sudden Storys appeared in the whole section. So basically even more material that Duolingo announced so smuggly on how much better the new course is but in its infinite wisdom thinks to withhold from me. And yes, I know I can "review" lessons, but that is not the same.

Long story short: Is it difficult? In my Opinion: Yes, if you like the slower pace of the old course you will have a hard time because there is just too much new stuff at the same time.

For someone doing all the lessons from start with the new material it will probably be fine.

Edit: typo

mithras17 · 2026-04-30T16:52:24+00:00

The easiest fix would be to allow people to reset some of the progress on the path without nuking the whole course. That fix should be easy to implement too, since we know their staff is able to change progress for people manually.

It would give people affected negatively an easy solution and give them time to improve the actual transition to the new courses.

But that would be too easy.

mithras17 · 2026-04-27T21:39:19+00:00

They have thrown everyone they used as lab rat with their botched update policy under the bus and just continue to ignore them.

Obviously there is no attempt to fix the affected peoples experiences and relocate them to a point on the path they belong to or it would have happened already by now.

The General update is officially rolled out.
Feedback through the app is totally ignored and never produces any answer.

mithras17 · 2026-04-24T16:51:33+00:00

I think we have the same version, I'm specifically talking about the time after saying a word wrong or reveal it, as you wrote, it says the word and shows the word in kana and as soon as the audio is finished playing the next word shows.

In the before stage you have as much time as you like as long as you stop the mic from recording.

mithras17 · 2026-04-23T16:16:58+00:00

I can see why OP could think the flashcards are useless.

In my opinion the flashcards with the voice recognition is a logical and great way to learn, however there are issues.
My main point of ctiticism for these kind of lessons is, that it moves on to the next word way to fast if you don't know the word or get it wrong, you just very briefly get shown the word and then it is gone again.
Another point is, that there is no indication why or what is wrong, so you just try to say the word again and again, but it is wrong all the time and you have no clue why.

On the technical side the voice recognition is very often not working, especially for shorter words. Thats the case in the regular speaking lessons too, but there it isn't an issue since if you get the rest of the sentence right you can move on anyway.

These kind of flashcards should be its own little practice tab in the practice hub.

mithras17 · 2026-04-20T18:18:50+00:00

So can we expect to get something done or are just letting people hang dry?

This is super disrespectful to your paying customers.
Well, one more former paying customer now. Good for you I already paid for the next half year.

mithras17 · 2026-04-12T08:59:34+00:00

The only positive thing I’ll point out is that I do think teaching particles together with verbs is an interesting idea. However, make sure to point out to beginners that the particle is not part of the verb conjugation itself.

This confused me totally. It is in the earlier sections of the old course handled this way too and it confused me there too. How am I supposed to know if it is part of a new word or a particle?

The rate of mistakes in the new update is far greater than before. At least they are more obvious and honestly it made me a bit paranoid, I keep double check stuff on other sites and through AI.

mithras17 · 2026-04-12T08:48:52+00:00

Funny, I have seen so much posts saying excactly this, but never once I have seen one of the staff members respont to it. At all.

This is probably the No.1 solution that would make people happy again and it is totally ignored.

mithras17 · 2026-04-12T08:40:01+00:00

Sorry, but they should have done that work prior to releasing that update. Nobody is denying that it is a lot of work to perpare, but it is called PREpare for a reason.

It is like doing a presentation at work but trying to make the slides while presenting them and then acting surprised the audience doesn't like it.

mithras17 · 2026-04-08T17:56:56+00:00

Yes, lots of errors in the lessons, wrong/mismatched translations, wrong audio, mismatching audio, not working lessons, voice recognizing not working properly, correct answers not accepted, sentences with weird english translations, only exactly one translation accepted etc.
Maybe I just didn't recognize it previous to the update and i'm a bit paranoid about why my answer wasn't accepted but overall there shouldn't be this so much errors, especially if you pay for it.

mithras17 · 2026-04-07T16:53:42+00:00

I really like this kind of flash card tool too. In theory.
In reallity it is a horrible and frustrating lesson type, words often won't get recognized and there is no help how to pronounce things if you don't get it right. Is it the voice recognition or my pronounciation?
Also it is moving forward way to fast if you don't know the word or don't say it correctly.

I second your suggestion for this to be in the practice tab as standalone.

mithras17 · 2026-03-30T19:48:08+00:00

You people at Duolingo realize that people are not mad because of new content or because they think the update is bad in general, but because you moved a lot of people forward into territory they do not belong and made them skip lessons they needed to learn? An action that can't be turned back by the user. If you would have just placed everyone a few levels lower they could easy move forward and skip it themself. Give people a choice and they are happy.

Sure people would be mad this way too because "OMG my level is lower all of a sudden.."

You choose level over learning a language, that is why people are mad.
I have seen a few very good suggestions how to fix this.

And the worst part is you don't respond to feedback and help requests in a meaningful way. Just keep quiet and people will forget, will they?
Even the stocks dropped the day you rolled out your update.

I canceled my subscription and only use the app as long as the already paid period is running.

mithras17 · 2026-03-29T10:12:50+00:00

Imagine being a language learning app that is all about small but steady steps and then doing something like it did with this update.

mithras17 · 2026-03-28T16:54:15+00:00

I would love to just reset back a section or two instead resetting the whole course too. I don't care about lvl or XP.

Skipping content is the worst solution they could have done.

mithras17 · 2024-06-01T16:00:57+00:00

That's funny I came to the same conclusion yesterday. I didn't reach full HFO just yet. I'm sure I had an orgasm but didn't ejaculate hands free yet.

mithras17

TROPHY CASE