I recently started learning Vietnamese using Duolingo. Probably not the most efficient way, but I’ve always thought of it as a quick way to get my foot in the door. It’s been frustrating.
In video games, there’s a concept of easing a player into new ideas. This can take the shape of a tutorial, where ideas are introduced in a structured way, or a set of progressively harder challenges that build on each other. Games that don’t prepare the player are usually considered un-fun.
With Duolingo, I’m often introduced to new phrases without any prompting about what they mean. The frustration is sharper because sometimes Duolingo does this right. It highlights a phrase in purple to signal that it’s new. For some reason, just acknowledging that I haven’t seen something before makes it feel better, even when no extra information is provided.
This got me thinking about how we learn. I’ve always thought learning should be like constructing a building: start with strong fundamentals, then build everything else on top. It should feel planned, like a lesson from a teacher or a multicourse meal at omakase.
But I’m also wondering if that’s how babies learn. In my head, babies are incredibly good at taking random noise and forming structure from it.
All this to say, is this a skill issue? Is my frustration just a sign that I need to “get good” at processing unstructured information? My gut tells me it’s somewhere in between. We use unstructured information to learn what we don’t know, then go back and fill in the gaps.
Duolingo still has a ways to go as a language-learning platform. Everything feels like a random knowledge check rather than a test of application. I’d rather practice chatting with a language expert who can adjust to my level and tell me when something sounds off. I’m sure someone there is already thinking about it.
Update: I found the missing help. Naturally, that gave me something else to complain about.