I’m pretty glad I don’t use Duolingo, it’s easier to learn language tips from YouTube
I don’t get the connection between losing access to tik tok and starting a +20 years journey to learn chinese
I believe that a clickbait title about 400 idiot people starting the first lesson in Duolingo and then quickly quitting without deleting their accounts is the through line here.
“only idiots show interest in a second language” is a take for sure
That’s very clearly not what they meant and you know it.
A small but vocal chunk of people moved to another Chinese social media app with the announcement of the TikTok shutdown. This app is mostly used by Chinese users unlike TikTok. The idiots are the ones trading one foreign monitoring app for another - one which doesn’t even primarily use the language they speak
Okay buddy 👍
Well, considering that I speak 4 languages myself, maybe that’s not the take I was going for.
The context of this bump is people being so enamored with tik Tok that they’re interested in a second language just to use a potential replacement.
You can be a dumbass but still be interested in a second language. That doesn’t imply everyone interested in a second language is a dumbass.
It shouldn’t take quite that long.
Firefly timeline!
FIREFLY TIMELINE!!
FIREFLY TIMELINE!!!
I guess it’s better than some alternatives, at least because we never found out what the Space Confederates were fighting for
Real anti capitalists learn Esperanto
May I ask why?
Because it’s a W language meant to foster international communication and understanding.
Sorry for my ignorance, what’s a W language??
W, like winner. It’s internet slang. It’s a winning language.
You sent me down this rabbit hole, you meanie.
Lol, I had never heard of that before. That’s awesome!
I was like “oh a programming language you can speak now I want to learn it.” 😭
Есперанто товарищ!
I did not know that was a thing. Now I need to learn to read cyrillic esperanto as well. Thanks!
Nah, they’d learn Toki Pona, because it’s an amazing interlanguage.
Esperanton estas bona lingvo. Ĉu vi parolas Esperanton?
Jes. Mi lernis paroli Esperanton antaŭ kelkaj jaroj. Estas amuze, sed neniu parolas ĝin.
I’m no anti capitalist, but I also learned Esperanto a few years ago. But nobody really speaks it, so I switched to learning something a bit more practical (SO’s native language so I’m less helpless when we visit their country).
Yeah good luck with this on Duolingo lol. I’m years down the line and also having studied full-time over there, still far from “fluency”.
Duolingo is a game for points and badges. it’s not actually useful for learning anything.
I believe it is called a classical education
As with learning anything, you have to commit yourself to using multiple resources. Duolingo has been a great way for me to pick up vocabulary. Do I use it for sentence structure and grammar lessons? No. But it’s a fun way to replace the monotony of flashcards.
Yes, as any resource it shouldn’t be discarded completely, but there are always much better resources out there which for me makes Duolingo a time waster. Even if I would start anew with another language. It’s an app made by a company who doesn’t care about learning or languages, they just want to make people to stay for as long as possible on the app and pay for stuff like to restore their streak. Especially now since they’ve started using AI to generate content
I think it’s great for basic grammar and vocabulary. Pair it with a grammar text book, dictionary, and media in the target language (written and spoken) and you should be able to understand the language fairly quickly. If you can get conversation practice with a native speaker, you’ll learn so much faster.
Shame it’s Duolingo though. HelloChinese and DuChinese are way better for actually learning the language.
HelloChinese is a little better on content and a lot better on not being an annoying ad machine.
This Tiktok ban is going to make people in the US do what they never did before and learn a second language. 万岁
More like start learning a second language and give up after a week.
This may be a stereotype, but TikTok specifically caters to people with short attention spans.
Yeah learning to speak Mandarin is one thing but learning to read it feels fucking impossible if you don’t start young.
Step 1: Die
Step 2: Reincarnate in Taiwan (don’t pick mainland China like I did in my current incarnation)
Gateway learning.
I learned Spanish to write love letters in 2nd grade.
And now 30 years later, I know like a dozen languages at a basic level, but still good enough to be sent all over the world on business trips for free.
I wonder how many 7 year olds are picking up Mandarin to protest this tiktok thing.
什么万岁？
Not that there’s anything wrong with people wanting to learn mandarin but I wonder whether this uptick in engagement with the Chinese world will just be a blip and soon people will get bored of it and look for more “Western” platforms again.
Like, when the enshittification of reddit and Twitter took root, you would also see very big numbers of users flocking to alternative platforms like Lemmy (like yours truly!) or Mastodon but in the end, after the initial novelty wore off, how many of those people actually ended up sticking around or moved on to something else after a short while?
My point is that it is still way too early to judge whether RedNote will become the next TikTok in the US, or whether this could be the start of a mass grassroots movement for American and Chinese people to get closer.
Just as I finally see Chinese culture gaining more global cultural relevance— and it had to be in order to bypass a ban of an intrusive app.
Gotta rise up to that Firefly/Serenity lore.
the app wasn’t banned, the company refused to split American operations off.
… And because they refused, is now banned.
So, yes it was.
no, they were given the option.
- split into two companies
- close down operations in the US
that’s pretty cut a dry they chose to end operations in the US. The US didn’t ban them.
☝️🤓 Well, actually…
#2 is a ban.
I’m really not sure why that’s so hard to understand. If I said, “sell me your house or get out of town,” how is that not me running you out of town?
Removed by mod
so when other companies that refuse to adhere to labor laws in the US move their factories to other countries, are they banned?
Removed by mod
Can you just use duolingo as a translator?
No.
These kinds of figures are pointless without knowing the starting number of users, it could be an increase from 10 to like 30 or something… Also, this sudden rush of articles mentioning rednote seems more like an attempt to induce movement to it, but that could just be me being cynical.
你们还要学中文？
老子一出生就已懂中文了。
你们已经迟到了，party 早就开始啦！
Optimists learn English
Pessimists learn Chinese
Realists learn AK-47
True humans know: chaos language
Unga unga ugh baah baaah
Kuwata (soba) tsuno wovalai Tsurizhi (swakhna) pura alekai Kondəvain (kondəvain) umbu fərtun blonnuwail Shurtətei (skora) chegi hiato
Chinnata (bamba) iferih pulei Lechona (nawa) sowethi anei Shijako (shijako) alekhni fatalinya Nih pisha (fali) unhore sile
Utrashain aforen zhəkuraswa Towa ihatosei, ihatosei tsufralai Utrashain aforen zhəkuraswa Towa ihatosei, ihatosei tsufralai Keisha
Ulilya kozhizhi chachu kaija Nyame fetsu mekri, fetsu mekri ling ganal Ueri manja khutei araku Ali laraga chei, laragath yei shindulo
