Red Dove Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 I started on Duolingo last week along with some of my children. I love the accelerated pace of learning a new language. In my opinion, the site does a great job at introducing new words and phrases and that is uses a lot of repetition. My problem is that I recently read one of the “stories” that I found inappropriate for my children. I then did a google search to see if other stories had content I deemed inappropriate for my children, which there are. I would like to find an app or website that is similar to Duolingo that I do not have to stay ahead of my children and filter content. For reference: We are a conservative Christian family. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 Can you use Duolingo and then books from the library or the multitude of Spanish resources available on the internet? Salsa or Pocoyo jump to mind. There is no requirement that you use the "stories" part of Duolingo. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Dove Posted February 4, 2022 Author Share Posted February 4, 2022 3 minutes ago, SusanC said: Can you use Duolingo and then books from the library or the multitude of Spanish resources available on the internet? Salsa or Pocoyo jump to mind. There is no requirement that you use the "stories" part of Duolingo. I’m slightly worried that the content of the stories might seep into the other exercises. And also of concern, I am not sure I want to continue supporting a company that I am not in line with. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 It is definitely aimed toward adults. You could build your own plan for language study, and if you are slightly tech savvy I highly recommend Anki for spaced flashcard practice. You can make all your own cards pretty easily. That would mimic one valuable aspect of Duolingo. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethel Mertz Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 Look on YouTube for kids’ shows in Spanish. Pokoyo is one of them that comes to mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted February 5, 2022 Share Posted February 5, 2022 Mango, often free through the library. Rosetta Stone. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted February 5, 2022 Share Posted February 5, 2022 You can set up a 'school' account, add your kids as students and assign them lessons. I would think/hope you could just not assign stories? Or maybe there's some other way to limit access?? I've been using Duolingo for quite a while and I can't think of any questionable content outside of the Stories and the optional flirting topic, both of which are not even available in most of the languages, but of course they are in the most popular ones... I've generally not found Duolingo all that useful for kids, honestly, as it really works best for motivated learners, which honestly most kids aren't. It's easy to skip the explanations and cheat by using hints (which again, are great if used judiciously, but I've seen kids just use them without any attempt at retention) But I've seen a lot of the other online 'teach yourself' stuff, and I don't even like them for motivated adults. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brittany1116 Posted February 5, 2022 Share Posted February 5, 2022 9 hours ago, Red Dove said: I started on Duolingo last week along with some of my children. I love the accelerated pace of learning a new language. In my opinion, the site does a great job at introducing new words and phrases and that is uses a lot of repetition. My problem is that I recently read one of the “stories” that I found inappropriate for my children. I then did a google search to see if other stories had content I deemed inappropriate for my children, which there are. I would like to find an app or website that is similar to Duolingo that I do not have to stay ahead of my children and filter content. For reference: We are a conservative Christian family. My son used it for 3 years before quitting for the same reasons. Some stories I had already instructed him to skip based on topic, but the same content popped up in the other topics. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Dove Posted February 5, 2022 Author Share Posted February 5, 2022 Thank you for all the advice. I’ll check it all out. Also, thank you Brittany for informing me that my issue will likely continue to come up if I stick with Duolingo. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawyer&Mom Posted February 5, 2022 Share Posted February 5, 2022 What languages are you looking for? The ULAT teaches French and Spanish and its founder is a conservative Christian. I haven’t seen any objectionable content. It’s also just better than Duolingo for actually teaching too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenecho Posted February 5, 2022 Share Posted February 5, 2022 What language? (There's some language specific apps). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brittany1116 Posted February 5, 2022 Share Posted February 5, 2022 2 hours ago, Red Dove said: Thank you for all the advice. I’ll check it all out. Also, thank you Brittany for informing me that my issue will likely continue to come up if I stick with Duolingo. You're welcome. My son had happily plugged along for a while and I would usually listen to his lessons. There was nothing concerning for a very long time. Then one day he told me he wanted to stop, and my suspicions were confirmed when he told me about the recent lessons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Dove Posted February 5, 2022 Author Share Posted February 5, 2022 1 hour ago, Lawyer&Mom said: What languages are you looking for? The ULAT teaches French and Spanish and its founder is a conservative Christian. I haven’t seen any objectionable content. It’s also just better than Duolingo for actually teaching too. Spanish. I’ll check out ULAT. I’ve never heard of that before. Thank you. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elle Tee Posted February 27, 2022 Share Posted February 27, 2022 Just wondering, were you using the regular version or the Duolingo Kids app? I think it's only available for iPhone and iPad so I haven't used it, but am curious how it differs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathmarm Posted February 28, 2022 Share Posted February 28, 2022 Now I have to know what's in these Duo Lingo stories? Is it sex? Gambling? Drugs? 👂 Crude humor? Violence? Please do tell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted February 28, 2022 Share Posted February 28, 2022 12 minutes ago, mathmarm said: Now I have to know what's in these Duo Lingo stories? Is it sex? Gambling? Drugs? 👂 Crude humor? Violence? Please do tell. Stuff about dating, including flirting, mostly. Other topics that are not edgy but perhaps not interesting to a kid - like having your car break down, having to call the plumber. There's a ghost story. Also the new ones with Junior, he can be a disobedient/naughty child and have his dad be the butt of jokes. No sex or drugs or violence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbollin Posted February 28, 2022 Share Posted February 28, 2022 18 minutes ago, mathmarm said: Now I have to know what's in these Duo Lingo stories? Is it sex? Gambling? Drugs? 👂 Crude humor? Violence? Please do tell. adding to above..... dating/flirting and sometimes lying while on a first date (mix up of people meeting wrong person and lying to stay with same person), some parents may not be ready to discuss gay couples/parents. and some stuff will be dull to kids like talking to boss and job change. or other questionable things stealing pizza slices while in an office pretending to work there. (that one was supposed to be funny. person darts in building during rain storm and pretends to work there so she can have a slice of pizza at party and gets caught. You are not my secretary!). I use duolingo as an adult and none of it bothers me, but I can see that it would have bothered me with my children under a certain age - especially when the characters are lying to impress someone (yes i am a doctor and i have expensive pants. oh good, someone is very sick and needs help. oh, i am not a doctor). as an adult I thought the story was funny/stupid but made sense with vocab taught. But yeah, I can see that would have bothered me enough to not want to use it with my younger children back in the day (depending on their age of course). and I can see where some parents wouldn't be bothered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendyroo Posted February 28, 2022 Share Posted February 28, 2022 51 minutes ago, mathmarm said: Now I have to know what's in these Duo Lingo stories? Is it sex? Gambling? Drugs? 👂 Crude humor? Violence? Please do tell. Maybe I am a pessimist, but with a new user phrasing the question how they did, the first thing that came to my mind was the stories about same sex relationships. Duolingo makes a point of having translation sentences like "Her wife is an attorney", etc. And some of their stories casually feature LGBTQ characters. My first impression was further reinforced by the OP's follow up comment: "I am not sure I want to continue supporting a company that I am not in line with." It seems a tad bit extreme to "not be in line with" a company because they write fictional stories about flirting or lying. To me, not being in line with something hints at deep religious or philosophical disagreements. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted February 28, 2022 Share Posted February 28, 2022 Same sex relationships in the stories are an issue for me as a parent; I prefer presenting heterosexual relationships as the norm when teaching young children. For Spanish, I've heard positive reviews of Homeschool Spanish Academy. You can also check and see if your library has a subscription to Mango Languages or Rosetta Stone. We've also found individual tutors for various languages and subjects through Preply. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirstenhill Posted February 28, 2022 Share Posted February 28, 2022 1 hour ago, mathmarm said: Now I have to know what's in these Duo Lingo stories? Is it sex? Gambling? Drugs? 👂 Crude humor? Violence? Please do tell. There are also sentences about alcohol... I let my then-11-year-old continue but it made me slightly uncomfortable to see that some sentences were about beer or whiskey. He thought the sentences about dating were funny, but I could see how that would bother some parents. There are also sentences that are just kind of morbid...something like "Everyone has to die." Eventually it got a bit more difficult for him than he was really enjoying, and he stopped doing it. If you google "Weird duolingo sentences" you will see humorous/odd examples. There are a lot of things that are just funny and maybe don't really make sense. I think it is on purpose to make it more memorable, but it could be confusing to some kids in general. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 That stuff continues through Duo though it only pops up occasionally. I’m happy enough to handle it as ‘these don’t line up with our values’ and leave it at that. I’m generally not a fan of curating a world for my kids so much as explaining stuff that they come across though, having grown up the other way and had to figure out how to navigate it. (Okay within reason. Obviously not exposing them to explicit stuff etc, but they are going to come across all kinds of relationships unless they literally go nowhere). As an adult learner I haven’t found anything that works as well as Duo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Dove Posted March 12, 2022 Author Share Posted March 12, 2022 On 2/26/2022 at 6:13 PM, Elle Tee said: Just wondering, were you using the regular version or the Duolingo Kids app? I think it's only available for iPhone and iPad so I haven't used it, but am curious how it differs. I was using the regular version. I did not know there was a Kids version. Also, I used the website version, not the app. I don’t know if that makes a difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted March 12, 2022 Share Posted March 12, 2022 I've noticed some of the things the OP has mentioned when using Duolingo. I agree with @Matryoshka though. Duolingo is by itself a very imperfect tool for learning a language. I feel like sometimes (even with "tips") they sort of throw you in and expect you to figure out grammatical concepts by trial and error. I know this would really frustrate my kids. It's okay for me, because I have at least a decent foundation in Spanish grammar, and I am using it mainly to "bring back" my Spanish and add new vocabulary. I would try another tool if I was going to have my kids learn Spanish from scratch. I have heard good things about ULAT, Homeschool Spanish Academy, mango languages, etc. Some libraries have services like mango languages for free. Ours has something called Transparent Languages but I know very little about it. I was pretty far along with Duolingo when I found it and didn't want to start over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Dove Posted March 12, 2022 Author Share Posted March 12, 2022 On 2/28/2022 at 10:45 AM, mathmarm said: Now I have to know what's in these Duo Lingo stories? Is it sex? Gambling? Drugs? 👂 Crude humor? Violence? Please do tell. One example is a child who thinks his dad is a lion tamer because the child finds whips and leather in his dad’s closet. And for Wendyroo’s benefit, yes, I do have an issue with normalizing same-sex relationships. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbollin Posted March 13, 2022 Share Posted March 13, 2022 oh wow. in my journey so far, I have not encountered the lion tamer story. yikes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendyroo Posted March 13, 2022 Share Posted March 13, 2022 7 minutes ago, cbollin said: oh wow. in my journey so far, I have not encountered the lion tamer story. yikes! I did not find this story nearly as dubious as some did. Junior announces that he wants to be a lion tamer. He talks about all the things he will do, and his Dad, Eddy, says he will be excited to see it when it happens...exactly what you say to a small child who announces they want to be a lion tamer. Eddy asks why Junior wants to be a lion tamer, and Junior says because Eddy is a lion tamer (Eddy is actually a gym teacher) and he wants to take after his dad. Eddy asks why Junior thinks he is a lion tamer, and Junior says because of the leather pants and whips in his closet. The story then ends with Eddy saying something along the lines of "Ah, yes, I forgot, I am a lion tamer." The story has no sexual innuendo at all unless you already have that context for leather pants and whips. All of my kids read it as a story of a dad who actually is/was a lion tamer and was trying to hide it from his son. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbollin Posted March 13, 2022 Share Posted March 13, 2022 (edited) That's fine that it doesn't bother others. As an adult learner using duolingo, I do have the context of whips and leather. I'll be skipping over that story. I googled and found title and glad to have the warning. Given the group of adults I use duolingo with for learning Spanish, HR would probably tell one of us it was inappropriate and definitely awkward for our workplace setting to practice that story together. But we are adults with the content so the innuendo is there. NSFW therefore I appreciate the OP sharing. edit to add: and in today's group learning time with other adults, we found out the word that duolingo uses in Spanish for "jacket" is not to be used according to the native speakers who mentor us. It's morphed into a vulgar expression in many Latin American cultures. so yeah, even we're thinking of finding something other than duolingo to use. Edited April 7, 2022 by cbollin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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