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How hard is it to build an open source alternative to Duolinguo? (feddit.it)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

35 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Speaking as a total ignorant from a coding perspective. But I guess that wouldn't be the hard part, considering that most of Duolinguo is just boxes and text inputs. How difficult it is to create a database of competent linguists with an efficient training who can progressively enhance your understanding of languages?

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Duolingo is pretty bad at teaching you a language so I don't think we really need to make an open source alternative. If you want to actually learn a language, just use anki (anki is open source) for flashcards and get a textbook. I say anki because it uses a spaced repetition system which is the only way to effectively study more than 100 flashcards and there are browser plugins that allow you to create new flashcards from a couple clicks on a new word. Once you get far enough you won't have to use the textbook and will be able to just sentence mine for words and have to google the occasional grammar point.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Repetition of words in isolation (ie flashcards or what anki offers) does nothing whatsoever to teach you a language.

Duolingo is far from perfect but it certainly does more than basic flashcards (which are fine if you're ok with just vocab). What people constantly miss about Duolingo is that it also offers lessons (to teach you how grammar works for example) but people have to read them and take the time to understand them. Which isn't what they normally do because it takes time and it doesn't give you xp (it's not gamified so everybody ignores it).

It's how school teaching works (no it doesn't work great either but that's because this part is only meant to teach you about the basic layer of language, not the rest).

So Duolingo and anki aren't designed to do the same thing at all. But if you're serious about learning a language, Duolingo is certainly a better start IF you do it right. A combination of the two is a better bet.

Duolingo open source? Doable but you need teachers to open source their lessons and vet them. Huge amount of time and probably costly which is where the cookie crumbles.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Well you don't just use the flashcards, You have to use textbooks and practice on supplementary material. Those aren't really software that can be open source.

Also Duolingo removed its grammar lessons a while ago, so its really not that different from flashcards now. EDIT: nevermind they only removed grammar on desktop.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Doable but you need teachers to open source their lessons and vet them.

If an OS alternative was trying to completely replace duolingo, it would need far more than that. Duolingo has had extensive work put into listening and speaking lessons. Almost all lessons have a listening componentwhich is a ton of content to make up for. They have significantly better voice recognition than my phone. The amount of effort to get something like that working for a language, let alone dozens of languages is a high bar.

Take a look at any of the job postings that duolingo has, they're only looking for Google employee level of skill for a reason (aside from how fucked the job market is).

It's not impossible for duolingo to be replaced with an open source version, but it's a giant undertaking.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Well I used Anki for quite some time during my studies and I really didn't like it.

First of all I'm a visual guy and the UI is pretty ugly imo. For example it's default card formatting feels very unintuitive for me.
Secondly the spaced repetition algorithm Anki uses isn't as effecitve for me as Quizlet's. Which puts me into a bad situation as I refuse to use Quizlet because it's closed source.
And finally the learning quality is heavily depending on the deck. Some are really making use of the various features which make Anki so versatile but most decks don't.

I think it's highly personal what suits you best but I really like the idea of a rewarding system or some fun repetition options just like Quizlet has it.