How about creating a point system, so that we can compete with each other? At least for me, that drives me to study, and I miss that in Readlang.
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Like Duolingo’s leaderboards you mean?
Yes, something like Duolingo or Memrise. Is it doable? I think that would be cool. I’m becoming an elderly lady, and I still love to compete.
Some amateurs like me—who sincerely want to learn but are lazy and distractable—need social pressures to actually put in the work. Duolingo is dumb, for all the reasons professional-grade language learners list, but those leagues and friend streaks and shared progress things are the reason I study Norwegian and Spanish every.single.day, twice a day, morning and evening. It’s not the lightning bolts, it’s not the “Amazing!” pats on the back from the app, it’s how automatic and continuous Duolingo keeps me feeling just enough fear of shame, hope of pride, and the sense that I can’t let my friend streak partners down.
By contrast, my efforts in Persian are very spotty, embarrassingly so. Well, I would be embarrassed, but no one knows, because Duolingo doesn’t do Persian.
I wish Duolingo took different, better approaches to teaching, and I’m sure I could learn these languages a lot faster and more fully if I used ReadLang as much as I do Duolingo. But having learned how much more effective those crude social pressures are than my good intentions at getting me to study, I’m sticking with Duolingo until I experience an authentic, sustained increase in spontaneous motivation, or until ReadLang, or LingQ, or some other better-than-Duolingo platform duplicates in essence the embedded, automatic competitive, sharing and social obligation features of Duolingo. (People who don’t need or want such childishness should be able to shut all that off, of course, but people who need social pressure need it badly, so it should be omnipresent if it’s on. Where’s my phone? Gotta get my XPs before I drop into the demotion zone in this week’s league.)
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