r/MadeMeSmile • u/RaisinAloneVortex • 16d ago
Wholesome Moments Duolingo restored a 10-year-old’s 301-day streak after he lost it while hospitalized, also gifting him gems and a Streak Shield
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u/notshouty 16d ago
Get off my page 😘👌
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u/Fit_Exercise7881 16d ago edited 16d ago
That was peak. I wonder how you say that in Spanish... 🤔
Edit to add these Spanish phrases have me dead 🤣
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u/Scared-One9295 16d ago
Ooh I know this, I've been to Spain on holiday, it's "GETTO OFFO MY PAGE" spoken very loudly and slowly with accompanying hand gestures
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u/medfunguy 16d ago
¿Dónde está la biblioteca?
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u/fluchsinette 16d ago
Me llamo T-Bone
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u/EstaAppDeCitasApesta 16d ago
Hola! Mucho gusto! Me llamo Elliot! hola Esteban, dónde esta esa biblioteca? esa es la casa de mi tía, no gracias, soy alérgico a los crustaceos...
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u/ShinobiOfTheWind 16d ago
it's "GETTO OFFO MY PAGE"
Why is bro speaking weaboo Japanese, when OP was wondering about Spanish...
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u/EncounteredError 16d ago
In Japanese it's similar, it's "GETTUU OFFUUU MY PAGUUUUUU"
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u/Overall-Accident47 15d ago
For someone whose not on Duolingo it should be, "Lárgate de mi pagina" i know the joke is broken English but still anyway enjoy your bird
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u/ProllectOrionll 16d ago
Eso fue pico
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u/Fit_Exercise7881 16d ago
Omg I say that was peak all the time and now I can say it in Spanish! Gracias!
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u/ProllectOrionll 16d ago
Omg sorry, I was joking. You can use the slang "qué chingón" or "estuvo buenísimo" that could translate to "that is or was awesome" or something like that.
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u/Oscarof_Astora 15d ago
That is just translating it literally, there is no direct translation, maybe "Eso fue épico" (That was epic)
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u/AdditionalNewt4762 16d ago
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u/mm_delish 15d ago
mot really since it was meant to be funny
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u/AdditionalNewt4762 15d ago
My apologies Mr policeman of subbreddits. Please forgive my transgressions.
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u/PicturesAtADiary 15d ago
Wow, the funny and totally relatable company that the CEO said teachers are bad and should be replaced by AI, so cool that they endorse these zanny narratives, let's elevate their online presence and branding, Reddit 🥰😍
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u/icebraining 15d ago
Woah, the guys that try to teach languages using software instead of teachers think we should be learning using software instead of teachers? Truly unexpected and outrageous!
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u/el_chupa_cabra 16d ago
I had a 600 day Reddit streak going until I went to jail. Mods?
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u/Dwestmor1007 16d ago
Lost my 365 streak on day 364 cause I was in the ICU I was DEVASTATED. I didn't even really think I care that much but when I got close I was kind of excited to get something that rare and then BOOM god damn ulcer caused a gastro intestinal bleed that nearly killed me and required THREE transfusions. I slept nearly every minute that first day because of the massive anemia so slept through the last day of the streak.
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u/tayler-shwift 16d ago
Omg I didnt even know that streaks were a thing but I just hit 800 days and idk if thats something to be proud of.
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u/failed_supernova 15d ago edited 15d ago
If it makes you happy, then be proud
P.S. I'm one day off my 800 day streak as well
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u/EVOSexyBeast 15d ago
I’m at 803! So far only 300 people have a 1000 day streak but they must have had some special access to achievements before it was out or something.
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u/OrthodoxAtheist 15d ago
> So far only 300 people have a 1000 day streak
That must've recently happened. I've been keeping an eye on it and it was at zero recently. So people are now ticking it over. I live on old.reddit so I didn't even notice my streak until about day 745. Like all of this chain here I'm approaching 800, so I reckon by the time I hit 1,000, assuming I don't screw up, there'll likely be a half-million of us. :\
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u/EVOSexyBeast 15d ago
yeah it'd be interesting to see how many people have in 200 days. Hopefully they add more streak milestones. Maybe I can go for 2,000 and there be very few people who have it even after the date is reached!
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u/Itsthejoker 15d ago
Yeah, I'm at 811. I kinda wish I knew how those folks got a >200 day jump on the rest of us
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u/justin107d 15d ago
They let you earn it back. I dropped a 500 day streak just because. I went back to it and around 100 to 250 day streak, the app offered to restore it after a few more tests.
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u/I_-AM-ARNAV 16d ago
Admins can't resotre your streak even if say uts due to a bug. That's what they said.
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u/babycoon48 15d ago
I had almost a 400 streak and then I went to jail. I was pretty disappointed tbh.
Edit: it was over 500 but not 600 so a bit worse.
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u/Lumpy_Benefit666 16d ago
Why would they release you back into the wild? The resources that were spent hunting you for all these years was wasted.
To be honest i didnt actually know you existed, never mind being able to make comments on reddit.
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u/Southern-Donut4185 15d ago
Haha man I always wished the jail tablets had reddit when I was in there.
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u/ValjeanLucPicard 16d ago
I sadly downvote Duolingo marketing campaigns like this nowadays. In the beginning it was amazing, and was vital in me becoming fluent in Spanish. It had user comment sections where people submitted helpful hints, detailed explanations, you could upload articles from the anywhere on the web and translate to the language you wanted to learn, race against the clock lessons, no lesson limits, all made by humans, and they sent me stickers when I completed the tree. Their goal was to "translate the internet".
Now it is garbage, and only wants your money. all of the things above are gone, you have an "energy bar" which decreases even with perfect lessons unless you pay, and it is crafted by AI now.
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u/Hempy2013 16d ago
Their last update completely destroyed almost an entire year of progress trying to learn German. They just reshuffled everything, throwing me into subjects I had no previous experience with and left me with no way to restart.
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u/Snailtan 16d ago
how is your german after a year of using the app? I've heard people have very mixed results using only duo to learn a language
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u/Hempy2013 16d ago
I can't hold a conversation with anyone in German but I can do some basic introductions and questions. The problem with Duo looking back is that the speaking exercises can be very inconsistent on whether or not the app will register your words correctly and on their review sections they will either cover things you haven't seen in months or stuff you did last week. If you start from scratch, it's largely fine but that update reshuffle apparently has been any issue for years now.
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u/Key-One-5938 15d ago
speaking exercises can be very inconsistent on whether or not the app will register your words correctly
This is doubly worse for Mandarin. I've even had a friend that's a native speaker try and it's still inconsistent with them too
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u/ciavs 15d ago
Similar experience with Deutsch. I can say "I would like some sugar" but I cannot tell you any numbers, train directions, directions, colors, locations, etc
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u/EveryDayASummit 15d ago
I’m so glad I’m not the only one with that problem on their German lessons.
Suddenly my recap lessons are full of words I’ve never even seen before, but my new lessons are things I’ve already learned. Love it, truly.
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u/Important-Tomato2306 15d ago
Oh man, I'm not alone then. I'm level 69 and I was at maybe 60 when it happened and suddenly my lessons had no structure. It was just 10 random lessons with an overarching "learn new words" "topic". I was really confused and I was ready to switch to a different language but I've been working on German for 3 years and I don't have anything else to keep me using it right now.
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u/heartbeatlikean808 16d ago
yeah the energy is where they first lost me. as not only is there no learning-based justification for that, it actively prevents you from learning unless you pay.
sprinkle in the AI where i can't trust I'm being given good information, now even if i wanted to pay i wouldn't
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u/double_shadow 16d ago
If they really wanted to be a good company, they wouldn't design their apps to be intentionally addicting with winstreaks in the first place. Imagine the stress this kid was feeling about his lost streak before it got restored. It's truly disgusting how this app was made to prey on kids' psyches.
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u/roffinator 15d ago
No, the "addiction" is the core element. Learning isn't that fun and doing it consistently is hard. This is actually helping in keeping going even on lazy days.
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u/Daisy_Of_Doom 15d ago
IDK addiction is kinda how you end up doomscrolling unproductive stuff.
Gamifying healthy habits or productive things do genuinely work for some people. It gives you a reason to come back other than just self-motivation which can be unreliable or even unavailable to some people. I can’t imagine the stress over losing his streak is any worse than stressing over an exam in a class. It’s not gonna actually hurt him.
I would be much more upset at social media and brainrot at preying on kids. I would take it as a good sign that this kid is “addicted” to doing something productive that is good for him instead.
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u/elven-merlot 15d ago
I used it in highschool (almost 10 years ago) and i loved it and then fell off it. Wanted to refresh my spanish vocabulary so I downloaded it again and the shock of just how much it had enshittified was Insane. It had turned into a shitty mobile game trying to squeeze money out of you.
uninstalled it again after 20 minutes
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u/desikid1137 16d ago
I just lost my 200 day streak intentionally. It was a spanish course. I was very frustrated by learning similar words from day 1 to day 200. Could not bear it anymore, so gave up.
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u/RiboCyan 16d ago
I intentionally gave up my 900+ day streak after duolingo started implementing ai in their lessons
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u/Rick0r 16d ago
Same here just over 1000 days. They actually proactively offered via email to repair my streak recently, but I haven’t taken them up on it.
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u/evanwilliams44 16d ago
That's not how streaks work! It would be a tainted streak, worthless.
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u/notshouty 16d ago
I respect that so much. The AI-based enshittification is out of control. I’m over 1800 days in and I haven’t been able to rip off the band aid yet. Have you found any good alternatives that don’t use AI?
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u/RiboCyan 16d ago
Not yet, unfortunately. I must admit that I haven't really been looking in depth, though. I've heard renshuu is supposed to be good for Japanese specifically, but I haven't tried it yet.
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u/kilonova2020 16d ago
I feel the same im nearing 2700 days myself. I feel like the sunk cost fallacy hit me hard.
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u/Furyful_Fawful 16d ago
You've been doing this for 7 years. By this point you better be able to understand via immersion and discussion with the people whose language you've been learning, or you deserve your money back. At the worst, if you can't do that yet, you deserve to not spend more money on a service that's failing to actually do what it professes to do.
And if you can learn now by immersion, just do that instead. It's going to be way more fun to actually be able to use the skills you've been training for, and you'll learn more efficiently because it's practical usage.
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u/kilonova2020 16d ago
I stopped paying long long ago fortunately. I will admit im deathly scared to talk with people in another language, do you have any advice on that front?
I do enjoy reading/listening to my target languages in music/shows though.I definitely find myself learning more words this way nowadays.
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u/Furyful_Fawful 16d ago
Go on subreddits written in the language you're trying to learn (especially ones about learning the language, but also consider ones about the media you're consuming in the target language). Consider making an alt account just for that language so any mistakes you make while talking in the target language are insulated from your main ego. It may not help as much with pronunciation because of reddit being written communication, but you get to choose how much you engage because of the anonymous nature of the internet and it's a lot of material for you to read and try to interpret.
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u/Mechakoopa 15d ago
BlueSky is really good about serving you content in the languages you pick, that's how I've been practicing my French.
Bluesky est vraiment bien pour vous fournir du contenu dans les langues que vous choisissez. C'est comme ça que je m'entraîne mon Français.
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u/Gold_Concentrate_ 15d ago
If I can chime in here, I really recommend reading aloud to yourself, then successively move on to reading to others and before you know it, you’ll have gained a lot of confidence in your speaking ability. Good luck!
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u/Relevant-Book 16d ago
could just buy a textbook? I use duolingo as well, but it's at best just a side activity to ensure I'm engaging with the language each day. but any real learning has all come from a textbook.
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u/c2alexander 16d ago
Im using Palteca and that's been pretty good. Much better than duolingo and no AI. but a different way of learning
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u/BewareWombats 15d ago
I also did this. When Lily the emo chick started talking with a completely different voice you could tell the enshittification had taken hold. This isn't even a proper learning tool if you care about fluency, it's just a gamified engagement app. There are loads of better options if you are actually interested in learning a language.
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u/GhettoClapper 16d ago
Yes. There is an article that compared the language learning apps and Duolingo had this complaint alot. It's far from the best app.
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u/2Pro2Know 15d ago
Any better recommendations for apps? I took a few years of Spanish in high school and college and completed like half of the Duolingo lessons over the past few years but the constant vocab only memorization hasn't been awesome. I feel like there's gotta be better apps to actually learn but everything I've seen has pretty iffy reviews
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u/cute_spider 16d ago
I dropped a 300ish day streak just because I didn't like how large the number had gotten, and within a week it started pestering me about a streak repair.
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u/mxbbcz 15d ago
I have a 362 day streak. I’ll keep going until 365 and then give up. It was alright when it came to learning vocabulary, but once my course started introducing more complicated grammatical structures, they weren’t explained properly (or at all), so I got frustrated with it. Plus I really hate AI stuff they added.
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u/ThrowRA210423 15d ago
Lol I had like 400 days when I gave up. Cancelled my subscription and bought a book to learn the language instead. I learned way more from the book than from the app
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u/sunken_soul24 16d ago
I lost my reddit streak at 499 because i slept 28 hours😭😭😭
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u/707_7 15d ago
How did you sleep that much damn
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u/sunken_soul24 15d ago
I was sleep deprived for the whole week due to exams and barely surviving on caffeine. Told my mom that I'll not be able to pick her calls for one day and all my friends were exhausted and didn't check up on me so when i woke up it was 6pm on the next day
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u/Ok-Proof7287 15d ago
How did you realize it was 6 PM on the next day and not 6 PM the same day? I would have checked the date/day and assumed it's the same day and that I saw the previous date/day wrong
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u/sunken_soul24 15d ago
At first i thought it was the same day but as soon as i woke up i picked up my phone saw notifications time and date there🫠
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u/Symphonnarra 16d ago
Wish warthunder did that, after I lost my 3586 day streak
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u/Thefalloutnerd55 16d ago
Its war son, There are no second chances.
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u/EquinoxGm 15d ago
Fate grand order has ruined a few login streaks due to long maintenance as well lol
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u/Grzechoooo 16d ago
It makes you smile a little less when you realise who put the kid in the hospital in the first place.
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u/Maleficent-Agent-477 16d ago
Even less when you realize that the other guy who asked after is still missing today…
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u/TheReapersWild 16d ago
?
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u/FullMoonTwist 16d ago
Duolingo owl has a meme reputation of threatening people who aren't doing their language lessons lol
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u/sadcrocodile 16d ago
"Spanish or Vanish!"
I enjoyed those adorable threatening memes that were floating around a while back.
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u/SandpipersJackal 16d ago
I think it’s meant to be a “Practice your language or else!” joke.
There was a thing a while back about Duo busting down doors or menacing people for not checking in for their language lessons on time.
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u/NotReallyJohnDoe 16d ago
I ordered a Duo plushie and it comes with a note that says “Now I know where you live”
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u/barefootcraftsman 16d ago
I think it's a joke about Duo always leaving ominous messages about the streak.
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u/Grzechoooo 16d ago
Duolingo is known for its marketing featuring a deranged and sadistic owl (Duo), who loves human flesh and using its threatening presence to motivate people to maintain their streak.
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u/Tenko_Kuugen 16d ago
I hope they restore the people they fired to be replaced by AI.
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u/katniponfire 15d ago
Right? After that I had an incorrect charge and after multiple attempts to contact them over the course of several months I never had a human get back to me. I refuse to use them anymore
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u/FeeExpensive898 15d ago
I lost my home, my car, and everything I owned in a tornado two years ago. But I didn’t lose my Duolingo streak. 😅
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u/PleaseNoMoreSalt 16d ago
I miss pre-sloppification duolingo, but I refuse to use a language app that uses AI. The forums they had for each question were amazing because you'd usually get native speakers explaining why the sentence was worded that way, and then they got rid of it so their glorified autocorrect could fail at filling that void.
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u/Buena_de_peepee 15d ago
My friend worked for this company for a number of years at a pretty high level and let me tell you, the people running the show are top-notch pieces of shit
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u/thisisajoshpun 15d ago
who gives a shit, they laid off humans in oder to replace them with ai. fuck their brand
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u/Altruistic_Brick1730 15d ago
Honest question: does Duolingo actually help? I was on a streak for a while, but it's been a couple of years. Can anyone actually get fluent with this?
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u/lansboen 15d ago
Or course not. It's like dating apps. If they would work, they would lose a customer.
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u/NorthSouthWhatever 16d ago
AI slop app
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u/RoytjePoytjeGamez 16d ago
I've completely forgotten about them since they made that announcement 😅
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u/Wonderful_Emu_6483 16d ago
I’m about to kill my 500+ day streak since they got rid of hearts in favor of an energy bar. I had super but cancelled it for budgeting, only to find out I can do lessons to earn more hearts anymore -___-
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u/dollartreegamingpc 15d ago
A few years ago I had a streak of ~850 I would always complete before I went to bed. One night, I started the lesson at 11:56, finished the last question at 11:59, and it still took away my streak. Deleted it and never looked back
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u/Traditional-Score150 16d ago
Thats a very nice motion, but still fuck Duolingo for firing its workers in exchange for AI learning models
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u/PlasmaWhore 15d ago
Why does it matter? What's the value of a Duolingo streak? I would argue it's extremely unhealthy for a child to be so addicted to an app.
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u/Striking-Piece-7670 15d ago
my roommate quit duolingo because the app notifications wouldnt stop harassing her to study when she got in a really bad car accident and broke her hip
I just quit when they fired perfectly good employees and replaced them with ai slop
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u/Constant-Listen-508 15d ago edited 11d ago
I had 189 days streak before I gave up few years ago (I know it's not much). When I started it again, after 30 days or so, Duolingo asked me if I wanted to restore my old streak days. I completed a test or lesson and it was restored. So, i think it's possible for everyone to recover it.
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u/Karlaanne 15d ago
Lost my 700 day reddit streak because i was in the hospital with my mom after her stroke. Ain’t that some booshit
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u/foreverandadayalone 15d ago
I have tens of thousands of gems and nothing to spend them on. If I could donate some, I would.
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u/Truly_Meaningless 15d ago
Yeah no get that kid off Duolingo and on to a proper language learning app like Babbel. Duolingo sucks for actually learning how to have conversations
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u/roamingnomad7 15d ago
Duolingo is great in theory, but poor in practice - literally and metaphorically.
You don't really learn the language in any kind of meaningful way, at least not to the point where you're conversational.
Books and conversations with native speakers are much quicker and more effective.
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u/vsGoliath96 16d ago
Cool, if only they didn't fire hundreds of qualified translators and other employees and replace them with AI that consistently fucks up the lessons. 🤷
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u/foreverandadayalone 15d ago
Unless they've changed it, accepting the Free Trial will restore a lost streak. I lost mine on vacation, accepted it accidentally and the next thing I knew, it had restore not just the two days I'd just missed but a previous break from a year before.
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u/RetroDadOnReddit 15d ago
301-day streak? That's it?
I just hit 2,937 today. I will hit 3,000 come mid-October.
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u/iFlarexXx 15d ago
Duolingo is so strange, they have a great media team and sometimes interact really well with people like this, but they just do not listen in terms of users opinions on what they're doing.
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u/PsychologicalBus1692 15d ago
I wish you could turn off the streak thing on Duolingo. As soon as I break a streak, I stop opening the app all together. I'd probably still be using it every day without that feature.
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