Random observations on the new Spanish tree
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Some of the word choices are now in sync with the reverse tree (Spanish to English)... for example, "marrón" for brown and "sándwich" rather than "emparedado". The structure of the tree also seems to more closely mirror the reverse version.
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Some of the new skills promote me to crown level 1 halfway through the exercises. Perhaps the latter half was "remembered" as complete from the old tree?
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Some of the pictures for newly added words do not provide audio when clicked. Not sure how to report this to DL as the only report option has to do with the picture not matching the audio.
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Such random scattered crowns after the conversion! Will be a fun challenge to level these up though.
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There is lots of repetition in the lower levels and re-learning of terms. But -- lots of quick XP! LOL
More?
19 Comments
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I like the longer trees, more practice for me is better. I also like the new material. My only concern is that is seems like it will not be possible to redo any of the sections. I know there is the practice option but to be able to do an occasional redo would be nice.
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words tied to pictures, I don't have that. I thought all of the visuals were done away with.
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Looks like they're back. I've had a lesson made up almost entirely of images yesterday ("Travel").
Thanks Joe, for the observations!
I lost 15 crowns total on my Spanish tree with the update today. Anybody else lose crowns?
I lost 40 and it's very discouraging. I went from practicing enough to get several hundred XP daily to just practicing enough to keep my streak because of this. I'm doing this to learn, not just to get crowns, but most of my skills reset from 5 crowns to absolute zero, so I can't even see what I've already worked on. And about 1,000 words disappeared from my "Words" list. That makes me think that some of my progress was actually erased, not just adjusted a little to account for lesson changes.
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A major new software release is normally made available on an opt-in basis for a warm-up period.
A production version is only retired after existing consumers have been informed and that they need to migrate within a grace period.
So I agree, Duolingo have a lot to learn if they want to become players in the software industry.
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So there's another update rolling out? OK, DL switched me from full gold tree to crowns about a month back. But are you talking here about something else heading my way that robbed you guys of your progress in crowns?!!?
Yes. They've added skills and updated the lessons. In my case, it took several 5-crown skills and completely reset them to zero. Not even 1 crown like when they switched to crowns in the first place. Seems like if I've done enough to get all 5 crowns, even with the updates, I shouldn't be set all the way back to no progress at all.
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That's hellish demoralising for you :( Could it be they did that to make sure you were exposed to all the nice new material they've added? Either way it's harsh and I'm not sure I could go through all that lot again.
It's very discouraging. Some warning, such as an email about the new update before I logged in to see my progress gone, would have been helpful. I still haven't seen anything that tells us how many new skills were added, so I don't know for sure how many were reset and how many are just new. I don't pay a lot of attention to how many crowns I have, but the last time I noticed, I had 164 or 166. Now I have 126. (Which I only looked at because my tree was reset.) So I lost at least 40, possibly more, and I have no way of seeing which skills I've already practiced. I also use the general practice, so it's not just about crowns, but it's helpful to be able to see what I've practiced.
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I agree 100%. This is the second time in the past couple months - the first when they changed to crowns, and the second with the expanded tree - that it feels like the site has just arbitrarily wiped out huge chunks of the indication of my progress. It's kind of demoralizing, but it wouldn't've been so bad if I'd known it was coming... going to focus on a different language for a while I think.
I was unsure when I first read about the crown system, but once I was able to use it, I loved it. I didn't feel like any progress was lost there. The skills in the top half of my tree started out with 2 or 3 crowns because I had practiced so much on the old system. The skills at the bottom that I hadn't had as much time to practice were all at 1 crown. So I was okay with that switch because it didn't look like I lost progress. And if skills I had already completed were at least at 1 crown now, I wouldn't be quite as frustrated.
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You're welcome, and yes, I believe most of us lost crowns. I am regaining them quickly though with entry level crowns from the new skills, as many of those recycle a majority of their words from the old version.
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I've lost about 10 crowns, so I wasn't particularly happy either. Especially given that I was working on getting "Food" to level 5 for the past few days, and it's moved all the way down to the bottom and got reset to 1. Quite upsetting.
My whole "old" tree was all 4s. I lost 30 crowns, and all the new skills were set at zero (it went from 63 to 115 skills total on the tree). However, it also gave me the option to test out of a bunch of stuff, which I did and which - weirdly - netted me more than 4,000 added XPs in one day.
I've noticed the the new skills (the ones that were all set at zero level to start) have a lot of more interesting, more colloquial meaning and sentence structures - which I like.
Though it was disorienting at first, I find I like it after having spent a couple of weeks with it. My tree was, as I said, all 4s before the change, and I was about to hit level 25 in XPs. So I was kind of thinking - what's next? But now I feel like I have a lot of new stuff to work on...
I'm back to doing an hour or so a day now that I'm relatively sure my progress won't just disappear. Now that I've recovered from the shock of logging in to find my tree reset, my main complaint is just that they didn't tell us before the update. The in-app notification six days later wasn't particularly helpful.
When I finish the Spanish tree, I'll go do the reverse tree and find a language partner on a site like italki. There is always somewhere to go once a tree is complete. ;-) I'm curious, though, about how you tested out of lessons. Since I had already completed my tree before we switched to crowns, I no longer have the option to test out of skills. I'm not sure it matters at this point. I'm almost up to all the different verb tenses and that's what I really need to practice anyway.
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Did anyone lose XPs? Or the Spanish that they've learnt so far?
I think that the upgraded systems have downgraded many people's brains.