I really like Duolingo’s approach to language learning (even though I know it’s not actually that effective) but considering the privacy nightmare that Duolingo is, plus the continuous enshittificafion of the app, I’d love to use a more privacy friendly and less ad ridden alternative.
Any suggestions would be appreciated :)
Anki?
FOSS and you can create your own decks or download those made by others.
Does this come with the language translations or is it like a DIY thing since the software provides something akin to digital flash cards?
I tried making my own, but generally I download them from Ankiweb. It depends on the deck how well build they are and which media they contain (audio/images/weblinks).
I use Duolingo every day, seems pretty effective to me.
I’m not sure how it’s a privacy nightmare. I gave them my email address for spam and a false name.
To avoid the ads, I use it via browser (firefox with ublock origin) on my phone instead of on the app.
There is a group that does studies on different apps. They look at how much time people spend using a language-learning app and how much each minute of studying adds to a standardized language test. Turns out, Rosetta Stone and LingQ are the most efficient per minute spent in those apps. If I remember correctly, both are privately held companies, which I see as a better sign than Duolingo’s public listing. I don’t know about their privacy policies, though.
Name the language. Don’t ask for a drop in replacement.
Not privacy focused but read on if you want my thoughts on Duo vs Busuu. I used Duolingo back in the day but they chased me away with their complete 180 on ads (they used to advertise as no ads ever!). Duolingo was great for learning vocab but terrible for grammar in my opinion (at least eng-> german and eng-> spanish).
After bailing I didn’t use anything for awhile but I picked up Busuu a few years ago shortly after it was purchased by Chegg. They have a premium and an ad supported tier and the ad tier is terrible, it makes you have to close out at the end of each lesson to proceed past an annoying screen trying to get you to upgrade. The premium is advertised at about $70 a year but it comes down to around $50 for good sales. The monthly is a bit pricey ($10 or $12 or something).
Anyways, I really like Busuu for learning grammar. They have a flash card section for vocab that’s excellent as well but the grammar is where I saw huge improvements. The grammar is introduced in the lessons then given a strength that degrades over time until you practice it again. It tells you where your skills are weak so you can focus on a particular grammar element.
I also really like that they include regional differences in word use and regional expressions.
They recently introduced an AI speaking feature but I haven’t opted into it because I’m not comfortable with them processing my voice data. I haven’t read the privacy policy. This means skipping 1-2 lessons each unit which isn’t a big deal to me.
Hope this info is helpful to someone!
I had Lingonaut recommended awhile ago here, but it is in early development and still doesn’t support desktop use. It looks like it has apple and android support (maybe? both in alpha I think) but that isn’t how I would interact.
It really seems to be made by one of those devs who think Android is by default an inferior platform, and that anything outside the iOS “ecosystem” is by default insecure.
Also yeah, no plans to make a desktop app.
rosettastone.com is something I used like 15 years ago. Kind of a desktop Duolingo or that’s how I remember it.
It works as a webapp
Old wiped android. VPN. Any old AI.
Start the conversation:
Quiero hablar español.
Or whatever language interests you.
