My worst language in is German, where every manual is well elaborated in terms of graphical design, but every exercise askss you to insert a word or two into a sentence. Or pick an answer from a set. Basically, Duolinguo sent to printer. So after couple of years of working with teachers and taking intensive courses, my level is B1..2. I can listen to radio and understand something, I can read something. I actually can speak in a shop -- they'll understand my level and speak accordingly -- but I can't do a normal conversation. I couldn't find a teacher that doesn't just drill you through these same fancy books.

"A friend who had been learning some language in Duolinguo and then couldn't say a sentence to a native", should be proverbial nowadays.

So, despite the app idea being interesting and compelling, this teaching approach, picking correct options from lists, are good for testing (if the subject is given little enough time), but futile at teaching.

Regarding learning languages, I'm not a fan of this style of learning. It seems to me this is still Duolingo, just with a different interface. I had good success with https://www.languagetransfer.org/

1. A HUGH repository of raw materials, both in text and in audio. They are all written/recorded by native speakers, not non-native language teachers.

1.5. (Optional) The materials come with supplemental vocabulary lists and grammar guides.

2. You take a test.

3. It recommends materials for you to read/listen to, according your proficiency level shown in the test.

3.5. (Opt-in) it can read your YouTube history and social media to recommend materials that you might like.

4. Every month or every N hours of reading/listening, you take a new test to recalibrate your proficiency level.

That's it. However due to copyright issues, I don't expect to see such an app in near future. What a bummer.

(Not-so-off-topic) Personally I consider all the apps that don't resemble the above workflow "dictionary-like" (useful but as a reference tool, not a learning tool) or "Duolingo-like" (a healthier alternative to doomscrolling, but nothing more). The article sounds Duolingo-like.

Ah... those pesky people speaking their very own language instead of the (ahem...) lingua franca.

What I’m trying to say is that this is someone who can really, really write - he’s deeply funny and self deprecating, but obviously also knows his shit, big-time. And that’s a massively powerful skill, maybe as much of a skill as being able to write Swift or make great interfaces or ship an app.

> “If you grew up with Tamagotchis, you already understand why this was tempting. Not the “cute pixel pet” part. The part where a device the size of a digestive biscuit turns into a low-resolution hostage negotiator.”

This is irritatingly good and it makes me want to buy his products and subscribe to his RSS feed. Great writing is powerful magic.

Slightly off-topic, but when learning to speak a new language, it is helpful to actually speak the language as often as you can.

There are a couple of websites that make it easy to book short conversation practice with native speakers. The one I use to practice Spanish is italki.

I find the practice of actually speaking, no matter how badly, helps way more than any app.

Cool app though.

But, in my first attempt to read it, I got totally lost in the very first part. I had to go back and forth to understand where it was coming from and where it is heading. I think a little bit of guidance at the beginning would not hurt, for example something like: “this is my personal journey related to the design of an app,” maybe in light gray and italic.

I like this article, but statements like this go far too far. An app cannot disallow someone's life. It's not that important.

I just can't understand how can adult person be so traumatized by silly mistake in a coffee shop, so they will build an entire app to learn a language so this will not happen again.

I mean, I understand you made an error and you could not understand native speaker. Happens to me a lot of times with English and British people. But situation that you may not understand someone speaking foreign language abroad is expected. For me at least. How can you call it a humiliation? Just smile and ask politely to repeat because you do not understand. Point at you ear, which should be understand by everyone that you did not hear. Or look at register and check the price. Or just give them much more that you think it really cost and wait for a change. Awkwardly looking at your phone seems a bit rude.

I got to level thirteen having seen only four verbs (aller, faire, être, and parler) and mostly in the present.