LET DUOLINGO DIE (BRING BACK TEXTBOOKS)
I know Duolingo is fun, and I'm not saying it can't be useful for casual study. But it should come as a surprise to no one that Duolingo is far from perfect, and definitely not best way to learn a language.
If you're one of the many who are looking to ditch the app, I'd love to recommend a tried-and-true alternative: THE TEXTBOOK.
Switching out Duolingo for a textbook instantly solves pretty much every complaint I've seen people share about the app.
"I hate all of the advertisements on Duolingo!"
Textbook.
"I hate Duolingo's stance on AI and their rampant use of it!"
Textbook.
"I hate how Duolingo barely explains any grammar concepts to me!"
Textbook.
"I hate that I can't control my own learning pace because Duolingo makes reviewing previous concepts a pain in the ass and pushes me forward even though I might not be ready to move on!"
Textbook.
"I hate how I'm more invested in my streak than I am in actually learning a language!"
Textbook.
I know it's not the most flashy or even fun option, but imho the owl app will never be as useful as a textbook.
With a textbook, there are no advertisements. There is no AI (yet). You control your own learning pace—you can breeze through easy concepts and slow down on difficult topics. You don't have to shuffle around vaguely-worded lesson titles to find that one grammar concept you're trying to review. YOU HAVE IN-DEPTH GRAMMAR EXPLANATIONS THAT ACTUALLY MAKE SENSE.
With a textbook, you can actually learn a language.
The best part is that many language textbooks can be found for free online. For example, here's the Japanese GENKI Textbook available in its entirety on Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/Genki/Genki%20-%20Elementary%20Japanese%20I/
I hope this post didn't come off as condescending. I'm just so sick and tired of watching my friends with 1,000+ day streaks stumble their way through basic sentences. I'm tired of seeing them waste so much time on a glorified vocab list while simultaneously complaining about every single aspect of the app.
please for the love of god can we just bring back textbooks
