00:00:00
so Duolingo just added some features
00:00:02
which make it actually useful for
00:00:04
learning a foreign language which
00:00:05
honestly I'd kind of given up hope of
00:00:08
ever happening when it came to the hopes
00:00:10
of duo lingo ever actually being decent
00:00:12
again I sort of felt the same way I do
00:00:15
about the Chicago White Socks this year
00:00:17
it was just like there no he drops it
00:00:20
but it's actually improved duo lingo
00:00:22
that is and we're going to look at those
00:00:24
changes what they mean for language
00:00:25
Learners and by talking about what it
00:00:27
still doesn't have we can learn
00:00:28
something about what we need to look out
00:00:30
for and do as aspiring language Learners
00:00:33
in order to learn languages and just
00:00:34
really quickly I want to let you know
00:00:35
that story learning are doing their
00:00:37
midar sale they call it a summer sale
00:00:39
but I refuse to call it that because
00:00:40
it's winter where I am so if you're
00:00:42
interested in learning any of up to 14
00:00:44
languages that they're up to now then
00:00:46
you want to know that their uncovered
00:00:47
courses are 50% off for the next few
00:00:49
days if this video is less than 6 days
00:00:51
old than the sale should still be
00:00:53
happening so check the link in the
00:00:54
description I only ever mention them
00:00:56
when they are on sale because why would
00:00:58
you buy it when it's twice as much that
00:01:00
just doesn't make sense buy it when it's
00:01:01
cheap that makes sense shos to language
00:01:04
learning and dualingo which have always
00:01:06
been pretty different things in my eyes
00:01:08
but they've narrowed the Gap a little
00:01:10
bit so biggest update first video calls
00:01:13
the video calling feature involves AI as
00:01:16
you can imagine you're actually talking
00:01:17
to some of the dualingo characters but
00:01:20
the latency is magical you will be asked
00:01:23
a question in your target language you
00:01:25
respond and then they respond to your
00:01:27
response in such a small amount of time
00:01:30
I said I can only describe it as magic
00:01:31
so if and only if you are one of the
00:01:34
select iOS users you can now video call
00:01:37
an AI bot now in all likelihood this is
00:01:40
running some sort of version of chat GPT
00:01:43
whether it's 40 or an earlier version I
00:01:45
don't know and I can see how that would
00:01:47
excite some people obviously but I do
00:01:49
find it interesting to note that to
00:01:51
characterize their bot they have chosen
00:01:53
the apathetic teenager character Lily
00:01:55
Lily is basically April from the show
00:01:58
parks and wreck except not actually very
00:02:00
funny what I'm getting at is that her
00:02:02
character trait is that she exhibits no
00:02:04
emotion over anything she's apathetic to
00:02:07
everyone and everything and bored 100%
00:02:10
of the
00:02:17
time I think they've done this very
00:02:19
deliberately because it's much harder to
00:02:21
make an AI sound genuinely emotional and
00:02:24
excited so this way when people say it
00:02:26
sounds bored and monotone they can just
00:02:28
say yeah well that's Lily this just
00:02:30
interests me personally I'm not bothered
00:02:33
I don't care I feel the same way about
00:02:35
this as I do about most so-called Ai and
00:02:38
that is yes it definitely has some use
00:02:41
cases but it's probably not really AI we
00:02:44
are starting to see a lot more chatter
00:02:46
about the idea that most AI is not
00:02:48
actually AI for example G Chomsky among
00:02:51
others says that it's fancy predictive
00:02:52
text and basically plagiarism software
00:02:55
so if you want to disagree with Mr
00:02:58
Chomsky then you can go right ahead for
00:03:00
better or worse when we say AI most of
00:03:02
us these days what we actually mean is
00:03:04
an llm a large language model the other
00:03:06
thing that I find somewhat curious about
00:03:08
this change is that they've been teasing
00:03:10
it for ages now I think it was late 2019
00:03:15
when I first heard of this feature as a
00:03:18
possible thing that was going to come to
00:03:19
duo lingo and people were talking about
00:03:21
it like it was imminent like in the next
00:03:23
6 months or so and we're what 5 years
00:03:26
later 4 and 1/2 years later now so I
00:03:28
don't know if maybe they just thought
00:03:30
that they were going to be able to do it
00:03:32
sooner and the technology is just taking
00:03:34
longer than they thought or if they knew
00:03:37
full well that they weren't getting this
00:03:39
for another few years but they just
00:03:40
talked about it and teased it to get
00:03:43
people interested raise Venture Capital
00:03:45
that kind of thing but whatever it's
00:03:47
here now you still can't just jump
00:03:49
around at will in the course and
00:03:51
apparently with the video calls you can
00:03:52
only do them once you can't have that
00:03:55
call again once you've had that call
00:03:57
it's done but look I don't think that
00:03:58
this is a bad thing this is a positive
00:04:00
change in my opinion for language
00:04:02
learners but it seems like duo lingo
00:04:04
priority is AI or at least the illusion
00:04:06
of AI which really means share price
00:04:09
while if it were on language learning
00:04:11
then they would do something like fill
00:04:12
out the podcast feature a little more
00:04:14
and add it to more languages and this
00:04:16
complete control of your so-called
00:04:18
learning and progress through the path
00:04:21
or the tree has been for a while one of
00:04:24
its bigger problems in my opinion
00:04:26
because it's the problem that causes the
00:04:28
most other problems as a follower the
00:04:30
more useful parts of duo lingo are
00:04:33
generally found further along the path
00:04:35
like longer lessons with more words and
00:04:38
more complex sentence structures you
00:04:40
really should be able to do those
00:04:42
whenever you want like just let me do
00:04:44
the bits that I want to do at any time
00:04:46
it's not that hard this is why in my
00:04:48
last video I mentioned that if people
00:04:51
really desperately feel that they need
00:04:53
to use duo lingo then at least test out
00:04:57
of each section and just cheat your
00:04:59
through the test using Google translate
00:05:01
or chat GPT that way you can at least
00:05:04
open up the path for yourself as you can
00:05:06
probably tell the level of Spanish that
00:05:08
she and I used was pretty basic about A1
00:05:10
in the CFR the common European framework
00:05:12
of reference of languages you know the
00:05:14
OG and that's a bit weird considering
00:05:16
that I'm in the B1 part of the path
00:05:19
towards the tail end of the B1 uh B1 is
00:05:22
a bit more advanced than just simple hi
00:05:24
my name is e yeah I'm actually going to
00:05:26
defend duo lingo here so you know Mark
00:05:28
this day in your calendar it will be
00:05:30
studied in future schools or something
00:05:32
but I would say that that is correct
00:05:34
they're admitting rightly that being
00:05:36
able to tap on Words and translate
00:05:38
sentences does not equate to spoken
00:05:41
ability so they're starting the
00:05:43
conversation at a much lower level than
00:05:45
you're up to in the path because there's
00:05:48
not really a direct correlation
00:05:51
sometimes I would argue no correlation
00:05:53
at all but also I would have thought
00:05:55
that the level was somewhat up to you
00:05:57
because the chatbot just asks if you
00:05:59
like receiving gifts so the complexity
00:06:02
of your answer should depend on your
00:06:04
ability unless I've got that wrong and
00:06:06
another aspect of this is that people
00:06:09
have this idea that language fluency is
00:06:13
in direct correlation with complexity of
00:06:16
speech but that's wrong as you become
00:06:19
more fluent at a language you realize
00:06:21
that sometimes fluency is about being
00:06:24
able to be brief and sometimes even tur
00:06:27
I'm not saying that you should practice
00:06:28
fluency by being being brief or not
00:06:30
saying anything at all I'm just saying
00:06:32
that sometimes the A2 response might be
00:06:35
ah well I'm not really sure while the C1
00:06:38
or C2 response would be no if you're
00:06:41
interested in the description I will put
00:06:43
a prompt that you can use for practicing
00:06:45
your language with an AI now it was
00:06:47
written for chat GPT but it should work
00:06:49
for Gemini as well it's very detailed
00:06:52
and it generally gets good results out
00:06:54
of the bot you can see what's written in
00:06:56
the prompt so you'll know what to expect
00:06:58
it's not my prompt it was written by my
00:07:00
friend Eric he does great personality
00:07:02
videos too he knows a lot about what
00:07:04
makes people act the way they do so
00:07:07
check out his channel both the prompt
00:07:08
and his channel will be linked in the
00:07:10
description and just so you know we
00:07:11
meaning Eric myself and people who watch
00:07:14
this channel have tested that prompt
00:07:16
I've had generally very good feedback
00:07:18
over the past few months du have really
00:07:20
been leaning hard into more listening
00:07:22
focused lessons at first it's been
00:07:23
little things like trying to incentivize
00:07:25
you to listen rather than read by giving
00:07:27
you more XP if you choose to turn off
00:07:30
the words and just listen to things like
00:07:32
stories so anyone that likes a little
00:07:33
bit of extra XP who doesn't it's a good
00:07:36
dopamine release will try that out and
00:07:38
that's just one little aspect by giving
00:07:39
people the ability to opt into listen it
00:07:42
allows us to feel like Hey we're we're
00:07:43
we're choosing to work on that weak part
00:07:46
of our learning experience and it helps
00:07:48
us so that we're not overly relying on
00:07:50
subtitles when we're watching media we
00:07:51
can just listen they've implemented
00:07:53
quite a few exercises where the text is
00:07:55
hidden and you have to be able to repeat
00:07:57
what is said just by hearing which yet
00:07:59
again is a step in the right direction
00:08:01
of training your ear and not relying so
00:08:03
much on just reading so this is
00:08:04
definitely a good thing in my opinion
00:08:06
anything that incentivises listening is
00:08:08
great I'd still like to see more
00:08:10
listening and less baby listening at the
00:08:13
moment it's way too slow and way too
00:08:15
clear I know that because I can
00:08:18
understand the German stories really
00:08:20
easily and I do not speak German and
00:08:23
whenever I say this people say oh but
00:08:25
Lamont you speak Swedish that's why you
00:08:27
can understand German and I'm think y
00:08:30
but I don't understand actual German
00:08:33
people just like I don't understand
00:08:35
Danish or Italian I can understand those
00:08:38
things when they're in extremely basic
00:08:40
and slow clear sentences but I can't
00:08:43
understand the real thing so what does
00:08:45
that tell you about the fact that I can
00:08:48
understand German to me this training is
00:08:50
just not quite lifelike enough to be
00:08:52
genuinely useful I'd rather see
00:08:54
something more like speakly has which is
00:08:56
30 or so full listening exercises where
00:08:59
someone tells a story almost like a tiny
00:09:01
audio book with yes I guess somewhat
00:09:04
simplified vocabulary and sentence
00:09:06
structure but still with full native
00:09:08
like
00:09:27
fluency the reason lingo doesn't do this
00:09:30
in my opinion is that they never want to
00:09:32
make their user feel uncomfortable and
00:09:35
like they can't keep up and that makes
00:09:37
sense from a business point of view it's
00:09:39
not a good business move to make your
00:09:41
user feel uncomfortable obviously but
00:09:44
unfortunately from a language learning
00:09:46
point of view it's the only move that
00:09:48
will actually get anything done I
00:09:50
remember thinking that I was pretty epic
00:09:52
at Swedish because I could speak Swedish
00:09:54
and I would speak to swedes and they
00:09:56
would tell me that my Swedish sounded
00:09:58
really good and then I would go to watch
00:10:00
something in Swedish and think well I
00:10:02
speak Swedish so let's turn the
00:10:04
subtitles off and the second I turned
00:10:06
them off I'd think I did that just
00:10:10
change it to swah what what's going on
00:10:13
here what was going on was that I sucked
00:10:15
at listening because I'd never tried
00:10:17
listening at a native level so it is
00:10:19
good I think that du lingo is
00:10:21
incentivizing listening but if they ever
00:10:23
want to progress past Little League they
00:10:26
need to move into native level listening
00:10:28
and know the Duolingo podcast which is
00:10:31
definitely a better aspect of du lingo
00:10:34
still doesn't count because it's still
00:10:36
too slow still too clear and it has
00:10:38
English holding your hand the whole time
00:10:40
I'm not saying it's useless I think the
00:10:42
DU lingo podcast is a great format but
00:10:45
it's still not native level listening I
00:10:47
spoke in more detail about this in my
00:10:48
last video my recommendation for
00:10:50
something harder than Little League
00:10:52
listening but still easier than full
00:10:53
native level would be an audio book of
00:10:56
which you already know the story
00:10:58
Storyteller is where I happen to get my
00:11:00
audio books they have a good selection
00:11:01
in a lot of languages and after a few
00:11:03
books that you've already read or that
00:11:05
you know the story of you can then
00:11:07
progress to listening to books that you
00:11:09
haven't read or heard before some people
00:11:11
think that my stance on this is too
00:11:13
hardcore but my stance on this is just
00:11:16
reality do you want to play in the major
00:11:18
leagues or not because native speakers
00:11:20
are like major league pitches they might
00:11:22
be nice to you for a little while but
00:11:24
eventually they're going to stop lobbing
00:11:26
it down at 60 for you FR and the pitch
00:11:29
right there strike three call goes to
00:11:31
the heat 100 mph but another big update
00:11:34
involving audio that's been slowly
00:11:35
rolled out on Duo for the past 6 months
00:11:37
or so involves animated characters
00:11:40
giving a little podcast Radio Show type
00:11:42
deal first they introduce themselves
00:11:44
they tell you hey here are some words
00:11:46
that you should be listening out for and
00:11:48
then a caller calls into the program
00:11:50
talks about a specific topic and they
00:11:51
test you on your listening comprehension
00:11:53
now that is more like it that is a leap
00:11:56
in the right direction like listen out
00:11:59
for this word and now you'll hear that
00:12:02
word somewhere in this conversation
00:12:03
that's at full speed we're actually
00:12:05
doing something in this video that I
00:12:07
didn't think we would ever do which is
00:12:09
discussing du lingo and language
00:12:12
acquisition rather than language study
00:12:15
unbelievable now look I would check this
00:12:17
if I could but I don't have an iOS
00:12:19
device and even if I did I would have to
00:12:22
hope that I was one of the people in the
00:12:25
like group of people who get these
00:12:26
features first before I could actually
00:12:28
check it just because I've used so many
00:12:30
language learning products over the
00:12:32
years I can imagine that it would be
00:12:34
like listen out for the word lamp and
00:12:36
then you hear the word lamp so so
00:12:38
clearly or maybe even 10 times or you
00:12:41
hear it once but the one time is like
00:12:43
you can't possibly miss it that's what
00:12:45
I'm imagining at least like I said I
00:12:47
can't check it but still what I really
00:12:49
like about this feature is that
00:12:51
hopefully it will teach people who don't
00:12:53
know any better that this is the heavy
00:12:56
lifting I feel like if it's done at all
00:12:58
well people will realize oh right this
00:13:02
is what I need to do more of this is
00:13:04
what language acquisition is truly about
00:13:07
I said this in my last video but then I
00:13:08
ended up removing it so it was actually
00:13:11
not said in my last video but basically
00:13:13
the outtake from my last video was this
00:13:15
when you know a language properly you
00:13:17
don't hear and understand every word
00:13:19
separately and piece together the
00:13:21
meaning you might think that even in
00:13:23
your native language you are doing that
00:13:25
but just really quickly but what you're
00:13:27
actually doing is hearing and
00:13:30
understanding the meaning in its
00:13:31
entirety and you couldn't not do this
00:13:33
even if you wanted to that's also why
00:13:36
you can hear words in a very wrong order
00:13:39
and still immediately understand what is
00:13:42
being said even though you wouldn't be
00:13:44
able to recite the order in which those
00:13:46
words were said and this can only really
00:13:48
be trained by doing just that no amount
00:13:51
of typing words or tapping on words on a
00:13:53
screen is going to help you understand
00:13:55
meaning in context at full speed the
00:13:58
biggest thing that I actually really
00:13:59
like about this podcast feature is the
00:14:02
people that call in aren't speaking
00:14:04
slowly at least with mine they're
00:14:05
speaking Spanish and woo Mo Rapido you
00:14:08
know what I'm saying like it's very fast
00:14:10
my guess is that it's probably not quite
00:14:12
at Native speed or if it is then they've
00:14:14
still gone out of their way to pronounce
00:14:16
everything extra clearly but even if
00:14:19
it's sort of 80% or 90% of native speed
00:14:22
then that's a good thing because people
00:14:25
should not be Molly coddled too much
00:14:27
when they're learning a language when
00:14:28
you think about it kids are not Molly
00:14:30
coddled and they pick it up just
00:14:36
fine so this is good but it might be a
00:14:40
case of enjoying it while it lasts
00:14:42
because I would not be very surprised if
00:14:44
this feature is eventually withdrawn
00:14:47
because it's sort of almost pointing out
00:14:50
that the emperor's got no clothes on
00:14:52
once you realize that you can listen to
00:14:53
things at full speed and not understand
00:14:56
everything but still get something out
00:14:58
of that that and still progress your
00:15:00
target language way more than you
00:15:02
thought you could then you might start
00:15:05
to question the point of duo lingo but
00:15:08
then again maybe for other people maybe
00:15:10
even for most people the streak is a
00:15:12
more powerful motivator than the feeling
00:15:15
of real progress I don't really know if
00:15:17
you haven't seen any of these updates
00:15:18
yet it could just be that you're not far
00:15:20
enough in the path to have unlocked them
00:15:22
it might be that they're for like more
00:15:23
advanced Learners at this point so if
00:15:25
you keep learning you'll get them
00:15:26
eventually or it could just be that
00:15:28
they're not yet available for your
00:15:30
target language a lot of the updates
00:15:31
with dualingo usually start at Spanish
00:15:34
or French and then they trickle down
00:15:35
sometimes they get to German and then uh
00:15:38
that's kind of usually where they stop
00:15:39
that's true and I'll admit that it does
00:15:42
bother me a little bit when people site
00:15:44
some of this stuff as a reason that
00:15:46
dingoes great and then it comes out that
00:15:49
they're actually learning Dutch or
00:15:51
Swedish and I'm thinking like you're
00:15:54
arguing for the benefits of a program
00:15:58
that you don't even get the benefits of
00:16:01
I made a video about this a few years
00:16:03
ago where I mentioned that the only
00:16:05
reason to use Duolingo is if you're
00:16:07
learning a language that is decently
00:16:09
served by it but that is underserved by
00:16:12
everything else so anything like French
00:16:14
Spanish German Italian Mandarin or
00:16:17
Japanese they are all out you have so
00:16:20
many resources just at your fingertips
00:16:23
that using duelingo for them would be
00:16:26
like me moving to Norway for the beaches
00:16:30
apparently 60 million people using duo
00:16:33
lingo for Spanish it's like dreaming
00:16:36
Spanish exists and you're on du lingo
00:16:39
but then moving to the less well served
00:16:40
languages like Swedish means that Dingo
00:16:43
has a lot less competition sure but it's
00:16:45
also not as good itself so personally I
00:16:48
can only see there really being a use
00:16:50
case for maybe something like Scots
00:16:52
gelic Navajo Hawaiian and disclaimer I
00:16:56
have no idea if those courses are even
00:16:58
decent on du lingo I just know that
00:17:01
those languages aren't well served
00:17:02
elsewhere so du lingo is at least in
00:17:05
with a shot they are actually trying to
00:17:07
use that Animation Studio a lot more and
00:17:09
now I don't know if you've seen these
00:17:11
yet but in my path I get full-on little
00:17:13
animations of two or so minutes long I
00:17:15
think I've had four so far and they
00:17:17
actually teach you some more Niche stuff
00:17:19
that the lessons actually don't do
00:17:21
sometimes involving grammar I know do
00:17:23
lingo and teaching grammar the study of
00:17:25
grammar is a complex topic but if I had
00:17:29
to say one thing about it it would be
00:17:30
that learning grammar is not the same as
00:17:33
acquiring grammar and because people
00:17:35
don't realize that there is a difference
00:17:38
they often get upset that they're not
00:17:39
being taught grammar because they think
00:17:42
that this impedes their ability to speak
00:17:45
but in reality what impedes your ability
00:17:47
to speak is having a weak subconscious
00:17:50
model of the language so a grammar
00:17:52
explanation May well be the first step
00:17:54
but after that you'll need to hear the
00:17:56
grammar used in dozens if not hundreds
00:17:59
of contexts before you've actually
00:18:00
acquired it I'm not against the study of
00:18:03
grammar but if it means that people
00:18:05
think that they've learned it because
00:18:07
they know the rules then I am against it
00:18:10
because that is false confidence and you
00:18:12
see this all the time there are people
00:18:13
who could score literally 100% on a
00:18:17
difficult exam in that language because
00:18:19
they know all the words and they know
00:18:21
the grammar but they couldn't get
00:18:22
through a single sentence because they
00:18:24
don't have a robust subconscious
00:18:27
understanding of the language I would
00:18:28
actually say that more important than
00:18:30
learning grammar is learning what
00:18:33
language acquisition is because once you
00:18:35
know what language acquisition is and
00:18:37
how to do it then you also know how to
00:18:39
learn grammar and just in case it wasn't
00:18:41
clear language acquisition is the
00:18:43
development of a subconscious model of
00:18:45
the language that can only come through
00:18:48
Reading and listening to the language
00:18:50
not explanations of the language but
00:18:52
just the language itself so first thing
00:18:54
I've noticed Navy testing is rather than
00:18:57
receiving the standard 10 XP and then
00:18:59
plus five if you get a lot of answers
00:19:01
correct I'm receiving 30 XP for lesson
00:19:04
that's a huge jump and they also seem to
00:19:06
be giving XP to me out like candy like
00:19:08
oh is it a Saturday plus 5 XP uh is it
00:19:11
happy hour when is happy hour we don't
00:19:13
know plus 5 XP did you speak GG a plus 5
00:19:18
XP I mean thanks uh that does add up
00:19:20
especially when it comes to using a two
00:19:22
times multiplier so if I actually spend
00:19:24
like 15 20 minutes on dualingo for the
00:19:26
day I like rock it up to the top of the
00:19:28
Le and I don't think that is a feature
00:19:31
that everyone has my girlfriend's family
00:19:33
has it I have it I have some friends
00:19:34
that are like what do you mean I only
00:19:35
get 10 XP this one is so weird to me
00:19:37
like obviously I don't care about XP but
00:19:41
it does feel a little bit unfair for
00:19:44
them to have the leagues remain a real
00:19:46
thing and encourage people to do well in
00:19:48
the diamond League or whatever it is but
00:19:51
then give people different amounts of
00:19:53
points based on anything other than just
00:19:56
how much they do like do you invented
00:19:59
this points and League system it seems
00:20:01
almost like social manipulation to just
00:20:04
randomly award certain users more points
00:20:07
to the point that others don't even
00:20:09
stand a chance so yeah that feels La
00:20:11
dodgy to me but not particularly
00:20:13
surprising I have tried switching into
00:20:15
the French language on the app but I
00:20:16
have not been given a score bit annoying
00:20:18
so I've gotten some screen grabs from
00:20:20
Heather and her family so it seems the
00:20:21
more lessons you complete the hire your
00:20:23
score but what exactly is a score it
00:20:26
looks like it's kind of like the A1 A2
00:20:28
B1 so on framework but with much smaller
00:20:31
easily digestible bites so you can not
00:20:33
only understand like what type of
00:20:35
sentences you're able to speak at this
00:20:37
point clicking into about your score we
00:20:38
can see that levels are broken down into
00:20:40
being able to communicate certain
00:20:42
Concepts effectively whether that be
00:20:43
being able to answer simple questions in
00:20:45
a score of like 10 to 20 or discussing
00:20:48
movies telling stories talking about
00:20:49
your hopes and dreams at score 70 to 90
00:20:52
they did used to have something similar
00:20:53
to this where there were 25 levels but
00:20:56
each would require exponentially more XP
00:20:59
than the last one so to get from level
00:21:01
24 to 25 you would need to do almost as
00:21:04
many points as you had done in total
00:21:07
thus far just to move up that one level
00:21:10
this new system where there are more
00:21:11
levels I certainly don't mind I think it
00:21:14
could be quite a good thing because the
00:21:16
feeling of progress is certainly
00:21:19
something that language learning lacks
00:21:21
and that's possibly why a lot of people
00:21:22
don't do it as adults but my critique of
00:21:25
du lingo now and in the past has been
00:21:27
that the feeling of progress far exceeds
00:21:30
the reality and by the way that's
00:21:32
probably why it's so popular you feel
00:21:35
like you're progressing and that feeling
00:21:37
of progressing that's a good thing now
00:21:41
they just need to do the actual
00:21:43
progressing part and it's the case in
00:21:45
language learning in general that the
00:21:47
tools which we use to measure progress
00:21:49
are far too simplistic so whenever I see
00:21:52
these progress charts or marking rubrics
00:21:54
that say things like can discuss movies
00:21:57
and music but then higher up than that
00:21:59
is can discuss faith and whether they
00:22:01
believe in God I always think one of
00:22:04
those is not necessarily more complex
00:22:06
than the other linguistically it just
00:22:09
seems like it is because one is more
00:22:11
trivial and the other is existential but
00:22:14
if you lack automatic control of certain
00:22:17
key elements of the language certain
00:22:18
tenses or idioms then sooner or later
00:22:21
whether you're discussing films of Faith
00:22:24
you're going to have a problem now does
00:22:25
that mean that I think this new way of
00:22:27
measuring progress is is a negative
00:22:29
update a bad thing no not at all but it
00:22:32
Remains the case that any app or program
00:22:34
or even full course with an actual
00:22:36
teacher can only really gauge your
00:22:39
progress to an extent and just so you
00:22:40
know that I'm not picking on other
00:22:42
people here I'll use myself as an
00:22:44
example I know that I would pass a C1
00:22:47
test in Swedish with flying colors now
00:22:49
I'm not saying that to flex I just know
00:22:51
that to be the case but I also know that
00:22:53
if we were comparing my Swedish with my
00:22:55
English then my Swedish is lacking a lot
00:22:58
more more than just vocabulary it's all
00:23:00
these little things that you barely
00:23:02
realize exist things like little half
00:23:05
nods that will mean different things in
00:23:07
different cultures and languages a purse
00:23:10
of the lips that means I disagree with
00:23:12
you or even just the right word for coat
00:23:14
or jacket depending on how thick it is
00:23:17
and whether it's winter or not or any of
00:23:19
10,000 more little things like that that
00:23:21
are just not within my current skill set
00:23:24
because I'm not Swedish and I've never
00:23:26
been to Sweden Swedish 10-year-olds
00:23:28
would know that stuff I don't know it
00:23:30
yet I would still pass the C1 exam even
00:23:32
with a speaking component because it
00:23:35
doesn't test for that stuff my point
00:23:36
being that just pointing to a number or
00:23:39
even a level like C1 and saying there's
00:23:42
my progress is a two-dimensional measure
00:23:44
of a 50-dimensional skill and I think
00:23:47
that the danger of such a simplistic
00:23:49
metric is although people understand
00:23:52
that they're simplified they don't
00:23:54
realize by how much in my last video I
00:23:57
talked about this comment I got from
00:23:58
someone saying that it took them 400
00:24:00
Days to complete Swedish duo lingo and
00:24:02
they' hoped that after that they'd
00:24:04
understand 30 to 50% of spoken Swedish
00:24:07
and found that they understood according
00:24:09
to them literally nothing his mistake
00:24:11
wasn't one of magnitude because imagine
00:24:14
if the course had been twice as long and
00:24:16
therefore taken 800 days to complete
00:24:18
would he have understood any more than
00:24:20
he did after completing it no he still
00:24:22
would have understood nothing because
00:24:24
you can't study your way to
00:24:26
comprehension or to fluency I do think
00:24:29
it's a good thing if the biggest brand
00:24:31
in language learning the biggest name in
00:24:33
language learning is actually improving
00:24:35
in terms of real language learning then
00:24:38
that's of an overall benefit to the
00:24:40
language learning community I know that
00:24:41
some of my viewers are actually kind of
00:24:44
hooked on du lingo even though they
00:24:45
admit that it's not that effective so if
00:24:48
it's improving for real towards real
00:24:50
language learning that's of course a
00:24:51
good thing I genely find this a very
00:24:53
very very exciting update as I've always
00:24:55
said the main weakness of dolingo is the
00:24:57
lack of actual speaking not just like
00:25:00
repeating things or saying things out
00:25:01
loud but listening comprehending and
00:25:04
responding that's and as for myself I am
00:25:06
sick of talking about du lingo so I'm
00:25:08
not going to talk about du lingo anymore
00:25:10
in fact to be perfectly honest I'm sick
00:25:12
of talking about language learning and
00:25:13
I'm not going to talk about that anymore
00:25:15
I'm going to Pivot and become a baseball
00:25:17
Channel starting right
00:25:22
now for my first video I want to talk
00:25:25
about the infield fly roll and why this
00:25:27
call against Andrew Vaughn is the worst
00:25:29
freaking thing I have ever seen Pro to
00:25:31
my word I'm going to send one of your
00:25:32
subscribers this limited edition Yankees
00:25:35
1996 World Series look yeah I get it of
00:25:38
course shatani didn't cheat he just
00:25:41
broke numerous laws that normally carry
00:25:43
a lifetime ban and somehow didn't get
00:25:45
banned Siri is the biggest show pony
00:25:48
ever get that guy out of the team I
00:25:50
don't care how much The Bling around his
00:25:52
neck is worth a center fielder who can't
00:25:54
catch and doesn't know where the strike
00:25:55
zone is is useless suuki under
00:25:58
against with two outs and loaded bases
00:26:01
who should step to the plate but the man
00:26:04
himself Suzuki you could not write
00:26:08
subscribers you guys are amazing but
00:26:10
even more amazing than that you heard
00:26:12
the news the Rockies are through to the
00:26:14
World Series clean swing makes a good
00:26:16
crack deep to left see
00:26:21
Suzuki PA say goodbye to rly field dad
00:26:25
come
00:26:26
on dad you slept in you're going to miss
00:26:29
your
00:26:30
plane to where to Stockholm in like 3
00:26:34
hours your plane leaves let's go what do
00:26:36
you mean Stockholm there's no baseball
00:26:38
there you've been learning Swedish for
00:26:40
like 7 years you make videos about
00:26:42
language learning oh Farm are your bags
00:26:50
packed
00:26:53
yeah there shall we I'm scared
00:26:58
oh
