Does Russian have microphone questions?
I am at level 10 in the Russian tree and have never seen a single question requiring me to speak. I was surprised to learn that in other languages there are microphone questions. Can one of the people who designed the Russian course indicate if there are any microphone questions in the course or not, and if they exist then at what level are they supposed to start regularly appearing?
[Edit: My microphone in the Settings has always been set to "on," so my microphone being set to "off" can't be the cause of me not seeing a single microphone question.]
26 Comments
Hey, I have the same problem. No speech exercises in Russian, even though Microphone is enabled and I get such exercises in other languages that I'm studying on Duolingo.
Duolingo just acts as if the microphone was disabled when it comes to Russian.. and only for Russian.
I think, that it just hasn't this type of exercises yet, as it is a new course so maybe we have to wait.
Many users have reported that they get them from level 3/4 and onwards though (I've asked here and on another forum). It seems to be a bug of some sort, which is affecting a small number of us.
I wonder if it's related to people starting out at too high a level. I tested in at level 8. The people responding in this discussion so far who seem to have microphone questions are now at levels 3 and 4, while the other commenters who have not seen any microphone questions are now at levels 6 or higher.
That is interesting. I don't remember what level I tested out at (I remember it was 23 skills... maybe level 7?) but my microphone is definitely currently on and I've never had any.
I had the impression the speaking tests were limited to the original courses and being beta tested in a couple of incubated courses, so I honestly never expected to get any, it's interesting that some people are apparently getting them.
504
I started with no testing out, did every lesson, currently level 7 and I also never got a microphone exercise, even though I get them for other languages.
Yes, it's always been set to "on" in the settings. I should have mentioned that in the original question and have now added an edit to the question to make that clearer.
Remarkable. I'm surprised that some users would get these and others never see them. Do you know about any setting related to microphones other than the on/off setting in the Settings table?
- 14
Which browser are you using? On a mobile or on a laptop/desktop?
I've heard rumours that some languages support microphone exercises only on Google Chrome, not on other browsers such as Firefox.
I use Firefox on a tablet and laptop, and Chrome on a desktop. Microphone exercises show up on none of them.
i use Firefox on a Mac, and occasionally my Android phone browser, and i have never gotten a microphone question in the Russian course.
- 86
I think there might be a point early on when you're asked if you want microphone questions and some of you might have accidentally said that you didn't? Or maybe the system is not detecting that you have a microphone?
I think there's an area here where you can ask technical questions. Maybe someone who knows how the system is technically supposed to work can tell you how to solve this problem.
Or maybe if we tested out of the first few levels we did not get such a question (the first thing I did was test out of the initial levels)? I at least don't remember seeing such a question. And if there were such a question then I'd wish it'd be set up so that someone who changed their mind later and wanted them after saying no could get them to appear.
My microphone is clearly detected, as when I switch to german I get all the usual microphone questions. But yes, maybe I/we somehow missed something at a point and "disabled" it by accident, even though it is still enabled in the options... But I don't understand why they'd ask such a question if we've got the option of enabling or disabling the questions in our settings too.
i was never asked during the Russian course. i know there's that setting in my profile, but i checked, and my microphone is set to be on.
- 1573
Weird. I thought that the Russian course didn't have microphone questions.
I'd like them. They would be a nice change of pace.
I'm not sure if this is any help, but I have an Apple Macbook and I'm using the Google Chrome browser. Even though my microphone setting was turned on, I had to hit the "fn" button (on the bottom left of the keyboard) twice which then gave me a message on screen saying "allow access to the microphone". When I clicked accept, I was then able to do the speech exercises, which I have to admit, I rather enjoy!
- 504
I also did not have microphone exercises at all in Russian. Seeing as many people mentioned Firefox, which was the browser I was using, I decided to try Chrome for Duolingo. You can imagine my surprise when the very first exercise I was given used the microphone! So it is clearly some kind of browser-dependent bug. I will be using Chrome (Chromium under Ubuntu, specifically) for Duolingo for now.
