Monday, January 11, 2021

On DuoLingo and the Usual Tired, Leftist Narrative

Don't know if you've ever used DuoLingo, but I have quite a bit, and I find it nice for learning languages. The thing is, like so many large companies lately, it's gone quite left, politically. Here's how it plays out at DuoLingo:

Certain language courses, like Latin-from-English and German-from-English (and probably quite a few more, though I have not noticed it in Hebrew-from-English) introduce obnoxious sentences like these:

Livia uxorem habet. (Livia has a wife; note that Livia is a female name.)

Julia hat eine Frau. (Julia has a wife.)

In the Latin-from-English course, this would be a comical anachronistic error if it wasn't so deadly serious. Of course, it's extremely preachy, self-important, not to mention outright sinful.

The problem is, the presence of these sentences makes DuoLingo inappropriate for children. I can grit my teeth and bear it, because I want to learn and DuoLingo is a great platform in many ways. There is NO WAY I would let my children learn a language from DuoLingo if it has sentences like that. 

So, just a heads-up: be discerning in your use of DuoLingo.


 
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