languges :}

they/it, er/es, il/iel || 20s general language learning sideblog! I love chatting abt language learning and linguistics :} Currently learning: French, ASL, German, Japanese

[jpn-langblr]

Japanese Writing Practice Prompt Generator for Intermediate Learners

Japanese Writing Practice Prompt

Hello, intermediate learners of Japanese. Need some practice producing written Japanese, but having trouble thinking of something to write? Well, look no further. Here's a prompt generator featuring 193 different grammar points and a fairly solid library of topics, nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs for you to scribble a little something on.

Remember to get your writing checked by someone - a native speaker, if you can! If you don't know a person you can ask, HiNative or iTalki are worth trying.

[sheepolingo]

Je mange ce gateau à travail après son MA et il est trèssss seeec mon dieu. La nourriture sans gluten est. Triste lmao

[ruhua-langblr]

Duolingo Sucks, Now What?: A Guide

Now that the quality of Duolingo has fallen (even more) due to AI and people are more willing to make the jump here are just some alternative apps and what languages they have:

"I just want an identical experience to DL"

Busuu (Languages: Spanish, Japanese, French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Korean)

"I want a good audio-based app"

Language Transfer (Languages: French, Swahili, Italian, Greek, German, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, English for Spanish Speakers)

"I want a good audio-based app and money's no object"

Pimsleur (Literally so many languages)

Glossika (Also a lot of languages, but minority languages are free)

*anecdote: I borrowed my brother's Japanese Pimsleur CD as a kid and I still remember how to say the weather is nice over a decade later. You can find the CDs at libraries and "other" places I'm sure.

"I have a pretty neat library card"

Mango (Languages: So many and the endangered/Indigenous courses are free even if you don't have a library that has a partnership with Mango)

Transparent Language: (Languages: THE MOST! Also the one that has the widest variety of African languages! Perhaps the most diverse in ESL and learning a foreign language not in English)

"I want SRS flashcards and have an android"

AnkiDroid: (Theoretically all languages, pre-made decks can be found easily)

"I want SRS flashcards and I have an iphone"

AnkiApp: It's almost as good as AnkiDroid and free compared to the official Anki app for iphone

"I don't mind ads and just want to learn Korean"

lingory

"I want an app made for Mandarin that's BETTER than DL and has multiple languages to learn Mandarin in"

ChineseSkill (You can use their older version of the course for free)

"I don't like any of these apps you mentioned already, give me one more"

Bunpo: (Languages: Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Mandarin)

[ayin-me-yesh]

In light of Duolingo laying off its translators, here are my favourite language apps (primarily for Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and te reo Māori).

Multiple Languages

Anki is a flashcard programme and app that's not exclusively for languages. While making your own decks is ideal, you can also download shared decks for most languages.

If you're learning Japanese, specifically, Seth Clydesdale has websites for practicing alongside Genki's 2nd or 3rd editions, and he also provides his own shared Anki decks for Genki.

And if you're learning te reo Māori, specifically, here's a guide on how to make your own deck.

TOFU Learn is an app for learning vocabulary that's very similar to Anki. However, it has particularly excellent shared decks for East Asian languages. I've used it extensively for practicing 汉字. Additionally, if you're learning te reo Māori, there's a shared deck of vocabulary from Māori Made Easy!

Mandarin Chinese

Hello Chinese is a fantastic app for people at the HSK 1-4 levels. While there's a paid version, the only thing paying unlocks is access to podcast lessons, which imo are not really necessary. Without paying you still have access to all the gamified lessons which are laid out much like Duolingo's lessons. However, unlike Duolingo, Hello Chinese actually teaches grammar directly, properly teaches 汉字, and includes native audio practice.

Japanese

Renshuu is a website and app for learning and practicing Japanese. The vast majority of its content is available for free. There's also a Discord community where you can practice alongside others.

Kanji Dojo is a free and open source app for learning and practicing the stroke order of kanji. You can learn progressively by JLPT level or by Japanese grades. There's also the option to learn and practice kana stroke order as well.

[anneemay]

[deadryn]

For those lacking context:

Duolingo's Massive Layoff: AI Takeover, Impacting Thousands of Human Translators

AI Takeover: Duolingo AI adoption to replace human translators has led to a massive layoff, leaving thousands of translators in limbo.

Can an app decide if a language lives or dies? Not if Welsh speakers have anything to do with it | Gwenno Robinson

Duolingo is ‘pausing’ its Welsh course despite high demand – we need robust forms of learning that aren’t driven by profit, says writer and

[transarsonist]

basically to translate from economics into English: Duolingo is assumed to be significantly more potentially profitable after firing all specialist workers not directly related to IT.

to disambiguate the repurcussies: beyond the human cost of firing an entire field out of your business, the quality of Duolingo WILL suffer from this

everyone uninstall Duolingo and rate 1 star. communicate unequivocally that this will not be tolerated

[sheepolingo]

Review bomb their asses besties

[petiolata]

Duolingo recently sacked most of their translators to replace them with AI, and kept on a few who now just check the AI content for errors.

I knew Duolingo was aiming to be the poster child of good apps turned to shit by greedy soulless stockholders but this takes the cake.

[sheepolingo]

God this is so miserable. Fucking hate this company like. It used to be a free community-driven language learning service and now it's just a company that has publicly traded stocks snd shit that doesnt care about language access or preservation in the slightest.

[pjharvey-moved-deactivated20250]

this is so beautiful

[sheepolingo]

Hehe huhu...........learnin :}

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

I've developed a rivalry with an old man on Duolingo who has a 2 year streak going and frankly. it's getting a little psychosexual on my end

[vangoghs-other-ear]

les signes de ponctuation en fraçais

le point - period (🇺🇸) full stop (🇬🇧) [ . ]

la virgule - comma [ , ]

le point-virgule - semicolon [ ; ]

les deux points - colon [ : ]

Les trois points de suspension- ellipsis [ ... ]

le point d'interrogation- question mark [ ? ]

le point d'exclamation - exclamation mark [ ! ]

l'apostrophe (f) - apostrophe [ ' ]

les guillemets - guillemets [ « » ] (En anglais, on n’emploie jamais de guillemet français)

les guillemets anglais/les guillemets en apostrophe - quotation mark [ " " ] (🇺🇸) [ ' ' ] (🇬🇧) rarely/never used in French

les parenthèses - parenthesis [ ( ) ]

les crochets - brackets [ [ ] ]

les acolades - curly brackets/braces [ { } ]

le tiret - dash [ - ]

le tiret long/tiret cadratin - em dash [ — ]

la barre oblique/le slash - slash [ / ]

la barre oblique inversée/ le backslash - backslash [ \ ]

l'esperluette (f) - ampersand [ & ]

l'arobase - at sign [ @ ]

l'astérisque - asterisk [ * ]

[languageleo]

Quelques mots et phrases québécois et leur équivalents français

il fait frette = il fait froid

du change = de la monnaie

piastre = dollar

dispendieux = très cher

cash = comptant

comme du monde = normalement = comme cela doit se faire

s'exciter = s'énerver

jaser = bavarder

maganer = casser = briser

en masse = extrêmement = beaucoup

pas pire = pas mal

la liqueur = le soda

un breuvage = une boisson

bienvenue = de rien

le gaz = l'essence

le char = la voiture

full = plein

bon matin = bonjour

allô = salut

à tantôt = à plus tard

fait que = donc = alors

à date = jusqu'à maintenant

un bec = un bisou

achaler = déranger

chauffer son char = conduire sa voiture

chauffeur = conducteur

avoir du fun = avoir du plaisir

parker = stationner

la valise = coffre arrière de l'auto

un camion = un pick-up

tu es dans le champ = tu te trompes totalement

avoir de la misère = avoir des difficultés

blonde = copine

chum = copain

[linguistness]

Le futur proche & le futur simple

1. Le futur proche

-> for immediate or certain actions

je vais

tu vas

il/elle/on va + verbe infinitif

nous allons

vous allez

ils/elles vont

Examples:

Je vais aller en France.

Je ne vais pas aller en France.

Tu vas manger ce croissant.

Tu ne vas pas manger ce croissant.

Vous allez écouter attentivement.

Vous n'allez pas écouter attentivement.

Examples of "verbes pronominaux":

Je vais me doucher en 5 minutes.

Le soir, ils vont se coucher vers 22 heures.

Vous allez vous coiffer tous les jours.

2. Le futur simple

-> for hypothetical actions in the near or far future; predictions, dreams, promises, weather forecasts; after "quand", "lorsque", and "dès que"

je + ai

tu + as

il/elle + verbe infinitif + a

nous + ons

vous + ez

ils/elles + ont

Some irregular verbs:

être (serai, seras, sera, serons, serez, seront)

avoir (aurai, auras, aura, aurons, aurez, auront)

faire (ferai, feras, fera, ferons, ferez, feront)

voir (verrai, verras, verra, verrons, verrez, verront)

aller (irai, iras, ira, irons, irez, iront)

Examples:

J'irai en France.

Je n'irai pas en France.

Tu mangeras ce croissant.

Tu ne mangeras pas ce croissant.

Vous écouterez attentivement.

Vous n'écouterez pas attentivement.

Examples of "verbes pronominaux":

Je me doucherai en 5 minutes.

Le soir, ils se coucheront vers 22 heures.

Vous vous coifferez tous les jours.

[lafilledanslaville]

📺 words & expressions i have learned from french shows, movies, & tiktoks

c’est pas grave - it’s okay / it’s no big deal

(ne) t’inquiète (pas) - don’t worry

qu’est-ce que tu fais là ? - what are you doing here?

tu me manques - i miss you

on y va - let’s go

bien sûr - of course

j’suis là - i’m here

je vous en prie - you’re welcome (formal)

mytho - liar

ouais - yeah

un truc - something

voilà - there it is, that’s right, exactly, there you go

oh là là - wow, oh my god

bof - so-so, whatever

hein - the french “huh” or “eh”

ben / bah - well… / uhh…

s’il te plaît ➭ s’te plaît - please

félicitations - congratulations

un mec - a guy (slang)

une meuf - a girl (slang)

[sheepolingo]

Havent been posting here in a bit bc like. Well. Got mad how much i hate duolingo lmao. Then i realized i could still complain here so i might do that sometime!

[karmagotme]

It's been announced that DuoLingo will stop updating Welsh courses. They've always championed endangered languages in the past but articles say they want to focus more on popular languages like Spanish and French. The following is a link to a petition to get the First Minister of Wales to work with the DuoLingo CEO and get them to save the course.

As someone who is learning Welsh, it's devastating news. Yes, there is still Say Something in Welsh and other methods, but DuoLingo is also extremely helpfull, especially for anyone who may not be able to afford all of the later courses in SSIW.

So please, signage would be most appreciated.

https://petitions.senedd.wales/petitions/245888

[astrangeraccoon]

Magnus archive fan, to which fear does the duolingo owl belong to?

[sheepolingo]

Id have to say the eye. Knowledge and all that yknow!

[allinllachuteruteru]

Duolingo is NOT what it used to be.

Language learning app Duolingo to mothball Welsh course

Emily Price Language learning app Duolingo will mothball its Welsh course at the end of this month meaning it will no longer be edited or up

“Duolingo is ‘sunsetting the development of the Welsh course’ (and many others)”.

I’ve used Duolingo since 2013. It used to be about genuinely learning languages and preserving endangered ones. It used to have a vibrant community and forum where users were listened to. It used to have volunteers that dedicated countless hours and even years to making the best courses they could while also trying to explain extremely nuanced and complex grammar in simple terms.

In the past two years it feels like Von Ahn let the money talk instead of focusing on the original goal.

No one truly had a humongous problem with the subscription tier for SuperDuolingo. We understood it: if you can afford to pay, help keep Duolingo free for those who couldn’t.

It started when the company went public. Volunteers were leaving courses they created because they warned of differing longterm goals compared to Duolingo’s as a company; not long after it was announced that the incubator (how volunteers were able to make courses in the first place) would be shut down. A year goes by and the forums—the voice of the users and the way people were able to share tips and explanations—is discontinued. A year or two later, Duolingo gets a completely new makeover—the Tree is gone and you don’t control what lesson you start with. With the disappearance of the Tree, all grammar notes and explanations for courses not in the Big 8 (consisting of the courses made before the incubator like Spanish/French/German/etc. and of the most popular courses like Japanese/Korean/Chinese/etc.) are removed with it. Were you learning Vietnamese and have no idea how honorifics work without the grammar notes? Shit outta luck bud. Were you learning Polish and have absolutely no clue how one of the declensions newly thrown at you functions? Suck it up. In a Reddit AMA, Von Ahn claims that the new design resulted in more users utilizing the app/site. How he claims that statistic? By counting how many people log into their Duolingo account, as if an entire app renovation wouldn’t cause an uptick in numbers to even see what the fuck just happened to the courses.

Von Ahn announces next in a Reddit AMA that no more language courses will be added from what there already is available. His reasoning? No one uses the unpopular language courses — along with how Duolingo will now be doing upkeep with the courses already in place. And here I am, currently looking on the Duolingo website how there are 1.8 million active learners for Irish, 284 thousand active learners for Navajo, and even 934 thousand active learners for fucking High Valyrian. But yea, no one uses them. Not like the entire Navajo Nation population is 399k members or anything, or like 1.8 million people isn’t 36% of the entire population of Ireland or anything.

And now this. What happened to the upkeep of current courses? Oh, Von Ahn only meant the popular ones that already have infinite resources. Got it. Duolingo used to be a serious foundational resource for languages with little resources while also adding the relief of gamification.

It pisses me off. It really does. This was not what Duolingo started out as. And yea, maybe I shouldn’t get invested in a dingy little app. But as someone who spent most of her adolescence immersed in language learning to the point where it was literally keeping me alive at one point, to the point where languages felt like my only friend as a tween, and to the point where friendships on the Duolingo forums with likeminded individuals my age and other enthusiasts who even sent me books in other languages for free because they wanted people to learn it, the evolution of Duolingo hits a bitter nerve within me.

~End rant.