Languages, Politics, and Philosophy
Nov. 7th, 2022 11:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tcpipIt is a curious thing, that in the week that I have written an extensive essay on how the new user interface of Duolingo will probably damage the company and is sufficiently bad that I have cancelled my paid subscription of many years, that I should end up on top of the Diamond League for the week. But then again, that does display how extensively I have been a user. Following a bit of investigation I have discovered - not to my surprise - that there are some reasonably good free-and-open-source software solutions, the most attractive seems to be the media-rich Anki flashcards, built on the principle of spaced repetition, but with user-created content (including your own). I can see why it has received such positive recommendations on various language-learning forums.
There have been a few political engagements in the past week as well, this time being an essay for the Isocracy Network, "The Failure of Putin's Gamble", which basically says what is stated on the title; Putin thought that Ukraine would be easy to defeat and it wasn't. Ultimately I keep returning to the article I wrote in 2014; let the oblasti in question themselves determine what country they would prefer to live under. On a much more local scale, I must mention that I also attended a local candidates forum for the State election, where both candidates and voters did not surprise in either the questions or answers.
The last item being noted here is that I've discovered that the philosopher Geoffrey Klempner has died. He is not the sort of philosopher that has left a magnum opus in terms of philosophical insight, but rather his great strength was opening up the discipline through the journal "Philosophical Pathways" and establishing the International Society for Philosophers, of which I am the University Outreach officer. I do have some concerns on the future of the organisation now that Geoffrey has gone as he really was the main driver, despite an extensive supporting board.
There have been a few political engagements in the past week as well, this time being an essay for the Isocracy Network, "The Failure of Putin's Gamble", which basically says what is stated on the title; Putin thought that Ukraine would be easy to defeat and it wasn't. Ultimately I keep returning to the article I wrote in 2014; let the oblasti in question themselves determine what country they would prefer to live under. On a much more local scale, I must mention that I also attended a local candidates forum for the State election, where both candidates and voters did not surprise in either the questions or answers.
The last item being noted here is that I've discovered that the philosopher Geoffrey Klempner has died. He is not the sort of philosopher that has left a magnum opus in terms of philosophical insight, but rather his great strength was opening up the discipline through the journal "Philosophical Pathways" and establishing the International Society for Philosophers, of which I am the University Outreach officer. I do have some concerns on the future of the organisation now that Geoffrey has gone as he really was the main driver, despite an extensive supporting board.
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Date: 2022-11-07 12:58 pm (UTC)I haven't been on Duolingo since 2021 because of COVID brain - I completed a few trees, my highest proficiency is in Norwegian [yes, despite having a Dutch username] - but I've been hearing about the coming changes and didn't realize it was this bad. This effectively guarantees I won't return, because there's no way I can learn via the one-path-only, especially not for longer courses; I wouldn't have survived Norwegian that way.
I've heard good things about Memrise but I haven't really used the site. Have you tried it?
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Date: 2022-11-07 09:03 pm (UTC)The one-path-only decision of Duolingo is weird, because it stands in contrast with everything I've read in language education which emphasises "extensive learning first, then intensive", which an approach which the old model allowed and arguably encouraged.