I ended my 1251 day Duolingo streak today. I quit. Not only because they are phasing out their human contractors. Not merely because their CEO announced that they are going to be an “AI-first” company. But because over the last several months, their content and voices have become so bad that I no longer trust the owl to teach me.
I started using Duolingo in 2022 as a way to refresh my skills in languages that I learned years ago, and to learn pronunciation for new languages. As an audiobook narrator, I often have to pronounce foreign words or even dialogue in foreign languages. Duolingo was a fun way to practice Italian while I was narrating a series featuring many Italian side characters. It helped me remember some basic French pronunciation that I needed for a romance novel. It taught me how to pronounce German words, which were plentiful in a travel memoir I narrated. Whenever I didn’t have a need for a specific language in a project, I defaulted to Spanish- a language I’m fluent in, since I don’t often get to practice with people in my rather isolated work life.
Over the last week, some of the voiced phrases that have come up have sounded like a broken Speak and Spell. And I mean BROKEN. Most of the others sound like a typical text to speech voice, which makes me think that the inflection in a sentence may or may not be the way it’s actually said by a native. There’s nothing wrong with GPS voice when it’s used in a GPS. If SIRI says “Continue on across the ben-EE-see-I-A Bridge, and I see a sign that says “Benicia Bridge”, I can figure out where I’m supposed to go. If I get to my destination and say “Sorry I’m late. There was a lot of traffic on the ben-EE-see-I-A bridge, I may even get a laugh from other GPS users. When I’m trying to play a convincing German character in an audiobook however, I need to sound authentic. Audiobook reviewers can be harsh, so I don’t want to take the chance of learning incorrectly. But even more importantly, Duolingo sucks now and I don’t wanna play anymore.
So thank you Duo (that’s the name of the owl). You showed me that I can be diligent enough to do a particular thing every single day for almost three and a half years. I don’t yet know whether I will look for another language app or just make a habit of doing five minutes of Youtube University every day. I’m taking a well deserved weekend off before attempting a new streak. Whichever I choose, I will be learning from actual humans.
Thanks for reading!
Rebecca H. Lee
Visit my narration website at becksvoice.com!
Follow me on social media!
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-h-lee-audiobook-narrator/
https://bsky.app/profile/beckcentric.bsky.social
https://www.youtube.com/@RebeccaHLee
https://www.instagram.com/beckcentric/https://www.facebook.com/beckcentric
https://www.tiktok.com/@beckcentric
