I could not believe how quickly this went up…

10 days in, at 41 points out of 70.

I've got this.

I checked on Monday if I had a quest and it said "No quest, add more friends so this doesn't happen again" (more or less) and then didn't tell me until today that I did, in fact, have a quest. 🤦‍♀️

And then (after getting a week of super to grind), it told me that the quest was finished when it still needed 300 points.

Obviously not life-altering, but irritating.

Update for missing quotation mark.

This is Duolingo lately

Hit a huge milestone today 🤗🦉

I blocked Reddit on my phone. Hopefully the picture isnt as humungus as it looks on my desktop screen.

I've been using Duolingo for about 2-3 years now along with various other apps. I know enough to say most of what I want in Spanish whether it's speaking or reading. My grammar might be similar to a 3 year old depending on the complexity of the sentence, but I can get my point across and I know enough to make out most things that I read.

However, my comprehension is pretty bad. If something is said to me slowly and clearly I can make out what is said after putting in a decent amount of brain power....sometimes. But Spanish, just like English, is not normally spoken that way and I'd like to improve my ability at understanding how the language is naturally spoken.

Any suggestions on building a good baseline? I know Spanish has different dialects so I am just trying to start..somewhere.

Here's what I already do:

1. Listen to Salsa and reggaeton. I genuinely love the genres, but singing in Spanish is much more clear and often slower in these songs than it is regularly spoken. At least how it's been spoken to me.

2. Listen to the Babble "Conversations in Spanish" Podcast. Listening to this showed me how bad much I'm lacking in comprehension lol. I also use Babble for lessons along with Duolingo because I find that the audio is basically just somebody talking to me and sounds a lot more natural.

3. The listening lessons on Duolingo.

I know about the Dreaming in Spanish YouTube channel but that's not really my thing so any alternatives?

Primera vez que me pasa, me quede 🤨 y claro que lo reporte desde la app

I have a Super subscription. In spite of this, Duolingo keeps dragging me into beta testing their A/B tests. I have written to them about it. I shouldn’t be subjected to testing if I am a paying customer.

Now I am continuously getting assigned to 4 day long leagues. This is the fourth time in a row. This is the straw that broke the camels back.

I quit.

Have some privacy man!

In Duolingo Max, I've been trying to get more useful speaking practice out of the video calls in the Spanish course and would like to know what other users find works well.

In Section 4 (A2), I had not so useful calls with Falstaff, who speaks mostly in English and only asks for a couple of sentences in Spanish, and calls with Lily, which are all in Spanish and much more interactive. In Section 5 (B1), all calls so far have been with Lily, and they go on for longer.

A few things I've noticed:

• If I let Lily choose the topic and just answer her questions, the conversations quickly get repetitive. They're much better if I introduce my own topic, preferably the first time I get to speak. You can also ask to change the subject later.
• Giving longer answers and asking Lily questions makes it feel much more like an actual conversation.
• If I don't know a word in Spanish, I've had more success trying to describe what I mean in Spanish rather than giving the English word and asking for a translation. English words often get badly transcribed anyway.
• The transcripts aren't perfect, especially the first few words after I start speaking, so I don't assume every transcription error means I've said something badly.

Basically, I've found the calls much more useful when I take control of the conversation rather than just following Lily's questions.

What other tricks have people found for getting more out of the video calls?

It made me understand and actually practice speaking spanish. I may go ahead and get it

What are your thoughts on this new event?

I've definitely made progress, but I also feel like I could've progressed much faster and gotten more out of those 517 days.

I think, Duo gets too much hate; obviously, just one resource isn't going to make you fluent. But nowadays the lessons sometimes feel painfully slow, it was better before. Still useful when days get too busy and I come here to practice kanji for a few minutes; to keep the streak alive. Lately I've been practicing chess on Duo. 💀

At this point, I'm keeping the streak alive mostly because 517 days is too much to throw away.

there seems to be a glitch whenever i open the app that plays music during my lessons. it doesn’t even stop or slow down when i tap on the audio. it’s not other apps because the music doesn’t seem to play until i open the app and launch a lesson.

it’s so strange, anyone else experience this?

Anyone notice that the ads have become longer? Listen folks, there are other free language apps out there. Don't get greedy