Reblogged ingridverse
Reblogged
Gay and suffering the consequences
The fuck is any of this
I relate to this on a spiritual level.
#WHY ARE GIRLS SO PRETTY#AND WHY IS THIS ONE GIRL SO PRETTY AND NICE AND ACTUALLY TALKS TO ME#MY POOR GAY HEART#anyways yeah I’m fine#completely unrelated do you think giving someone a heart necklace you bought them in Italy that’s their favorite color#bc they said they like shiny purple things#can be considered flirting??? do you think someone would pick up on that maybe???
Reblogged junietuesday
If anyone was wondering, Duolingo just got even worse.
Duolingo was already on a downward spiral for years. I discovered it in 2015 and it was an incredible tool and I used it for a few years but then I started to notice a decline. It got worse and worse in a lot of ways.
I actually ended up having a surreal and jarring one-on-one conversation with Luis von Ahn, the founder and CEO, who reached out to me after a scathing critique I posted on Reddit started to get significant traction.
Talking to him was like talking to someone who had been brainwashed by a cult. I told him how I and others in my life had found Duolingo so useful and efficient for language learning, and that its usefulness was evidenced by me noticing a real-world improvement in ability to listen to, understand, and speak the languages I had been practicing, but that recent changes had made it dramatically less useful to where I needed to put much more time in to get the same amount out.
His response was like "But all our metrics are up, our data shows that our changes are working." It was so frustrating. The metrics were all about engagement. He was showing people were spending more time practicing languages, not that they were getting more real-world ability to converse in those languages. Practice time was going up but actual language ability was going down. I tried explaining that to him but he seemed completely unable and/or unwilling to understand my point.
It was like talking to a wall.
I left the conversation with any remaining faith in the Duolingo leadership completely shattered, and I completely withdrew from using the site.
I now use Clozemaster to learn languages in place of Duolingo, and I think it is far superior it terms of efficiency, especially when combined with listening to material produced by native speakers.
If you're looking for alternatives to Duolingo, here are some options that I'm aware of (and none of them are Babbel. Don't use Babbel):
- Busuu - Busuu is what I used while studying Chinese and Japanese, and the app is comparable to Duolingo.
- MangoLanguages - Many library systems are offering access to this to free! Make sure to check to see if your library card gives you access to this resource.
- Great Courses Plus - They also have a ton of language material, and are often offered through libraries!
- Linkedin Learning - Multiple language (and other!) options, also available through many public libraries.
- Anki - Gives you access to thousands of flashcards and the ability to make your own.
- Pimsleur - Pimsleur is one of the most highly recommended language programs, especially if you're working for a conversational level.
Other alternatives to consider are Youtube, often a great place for smaller schools and creators to post content. I supplement my classes with Easy German, and I used to be pretty reliant on EveryDay Chinese to practice my tones. If you're looking to learn it, there's bound to be a channel out there that is tailored toward your language learning.
A second resource to look into is textbooks with app learning. MaGraw Hill, for example, has a free app with practice material for the books you purchase. (QUICK EDIT: The app I was looking for only works on older phones, boo. But other textbook companies often have apps.) My German textbook is published by Hueber, and they also have an app. When you're looking to self study, it's definitely worth seeing if there's a textbook to work out of that has built-in app support.
Reblogged i-3at-s0ap
Reblogged
Red vines first aid, inspired by that bit from season 2 (Timestamp 57:27 - 57:38 but it’s kinda throughout the whole episode)
(Reblogs are crazy helpful btw! not to be that guy but these comics hit double digits in terms of hours spent on ‘em)
Reblogged i-3at-s0ap
@billy-babe
People who go spelunking. Hey you! Stop. Cut that out. What are you trying to accomplish??? Crawling in a tiny hole for no reason other than you like being in tiny holes? Pervert.
#hate caves#stay out of there#doorways to hell#god created man to be stewards of the earth and animals and god created satan to deal with whatever the fuck goes on in caves#inspired by nothing except I saw a post of someone in a cave and remembered my deep deep passion for them#that passion being hatred
Reblogged kiwimintlime
someone: prohibition in the united states was largely ineffective, cost millions, tried to force a religious belief on the entire country, only ever resulted in the increase in consumption of alcohol, as well as the increase in police violence, and ultimately failed
people: okay yeah that’s true
someone: the war on drugs is the exact same thing except this time because of the militarization of the police and private prison interests, is much, much more deadly and specifically exists to justify and widely reinstate slavery within the united states
people: what? but drugs are #bad, and we can’t let people use them. obviously this is the only way to deal with this situation