Lingvist and Duolingo for language learning

Along with my other learnings, I have recently become addicted to a web app called Lingvist. It is one of a number of gamified language learning sites, but I guess rather than earning XP from specific lessons, you can learn by the card and dip right in and out whenever you feel like it. Whether you want to do 1 or 1001, the main page just has a new flashcard with a missing word you need to solve.

The story behind the site is very fascinating, in a nutshell, being born from the desire of the developer to combine machine learning with memorization in order to help him learn French; all the way to the point he was able to pass a French language fluency course. When he realised a lot of people were interested in it, he started hiring developers to help him work on it, and it exploded from there.

Basically, it times when to next repeat a flashcard based on how many times you have answered that card correctly previously... Cards you keep answering correctly will appear less and less often (as your brain stores it in long-term memory), whilst cards you answer incorrectly will occur more often. It's the kind of tried and tested research-based learning that makes sense for its simple format.

And yet, I mention DuoLingo too? That is correct. I see both sites as complementary to each other and focused on different goals (even if I'm not quite as addicted to Duolingo right now). Whereas Lingvist focuses on building your vocabulary quickly, Duolingo feels more focused on the context of that vocabulary and the common phrases of the language. It means I reach a point in both apps where I already know certain words or phrases so I can speed ahead- but it never feels like duplication, as aiming to tick the box for studying both sites each day means I'm performing more gymnastics with that knowledge. And with Lingvist, which I'm slightly newer too, it just means those flashcards I'm already strong with just get pushed to the back of the pack quicker. Although I can't show any statistics to prove it, it feels like I am learning something greater than the combination of each service in isolation. It doesn't mean within 24 hours I'm fluent in German- but regardless it feels like I am progressing quickly.