I can almost have a conversation already.

  • abbadon420@sh.itjust.works
    451·
    2 days ago

    I am at a 970 day streak. I must continue to a 1000. But 30 days from now, I will completely delete that app from my phone and never look back.

    I’d like to say it’s completely worthless, but that would be a lie. It’s a nice, easy introduction into language learning, but you’re not actually learning a lot.

    The thing that bothers me most is their predatory attention seeking. Changing their app icon into annoying figures every day. Sending push notification where they literally beg you to practice your language. Pulling you in with stupid rewards and threatening you with deducting imaginary points.

    It is so toxic that i’d rather watch casa de papel to learn spanish. I might actually still do that if I wasn’t learning spanish. It’s a good show.

    • Dicska@lemmy.world
      2·
      20 hours ago

      I’m not trying to get you to keep using it (I should have stopped using it myself, as well), but if you insist using it for another month, you might as well just delete the app right now, and just visit (the owl’s website name).com with the uBlock Origin extension.

      I’ve been using it that way from the start, and never installed the app. Zero push notifications, and as opposed to push notifications, you can actually filter your emails if you want to keep certain types of messages for some reason. It’s still not the best, but certainly less annoying.

      What made me decide to stop (at two years, also ~2 months from now) is the constant, unnecessary inflation of sections to keep you grinding, always moving the goal line. Well, and the obvious AI solutions, clearly meaning they booted a lot of people for cheap labour. And for gutting the discussions. Especially that: I used to learn more from the discussions/comments than the actual sections.

      But apart from obsession, there’s really no difference between still using it for another X days and quitting right now (says me, wanting to make it a nice and round 730 days). Yes, you might be able to learn a few extra words, and AT BEST one new thing about grammar, but the difference is just negligible, and you might have actually learned more from some other source during those X days, instead - with fewer of the aforementioned annoyances.

    • Sushi@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      10·
      1 day ago

      I recently let my nearly 1600 day streak die for the same reason. After like 5 years or whatever, the app was worse than it was when i started.

      I think the thing that finally pushed me over was the new energy system. It felt like whenever i was feeling inspired to do more than the bare minimum it would stop me after only 2 lessons. And i found in the new content they’d just added to my course most of the hints were completely incorrect

    • bcgm3@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      2 days ago

      If you quit now, BigBalls05 will take the Gold Medal for the day! Are you gonna just let that happen?

    • Demdaru@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 day ago

      It’s attention seeking is literally the point for me. Heavy problems with self-discipline, so this helps me return to learning daily. And it’s good to go from zero to a level where you can start learning by consuming content in the language you’re learning.

      But yeah, energy can suck dick and I can see how what helps me may be irritating for folks who can manage their own time easier than I so.

    • icelimit@lemmy.ml
      4·
      1 day ago

      There was a visual bug where my streak changed to 5683 or some crazy number. Saved it of course.

  • finitebanjo@piefed.worldEnglish
    451·
    2 days ago

    I would rather forget about the bird mascot company that fired all of its linguists for AI.