Duolingo and how its "rewards" work

I use Duolingo to practice my Portuguese and Chinese knowledge. I am always intrigued by their reward/point mechanism which uses multiple combinations to reward and motivate the users to continue with the lessons. I find them quite interesting. Especially when you do not have a premium account, maintaining all the rewards are not easy. One day you take a break and you may lose some of those rewards. Duolingo's reward mechanisms are good for motivating us not to give up. But at the same time, they also have the risk of us focusing on not losing the rewards and gaming the system, rather than genuinely focusing on learning the language properly at our own pace. As such, these rewards have received a fair share of criticism.

1. League

It is a 10-level series. Diamond level is the final. I have reached the diamond. To reach a higher level, you must be among the top-10 among your bunch, consisting of 50 learners who learn different language at different phases. On the other hand, the last 5 among the 50 will be demoted to a lower level. The remaining 35, stay wherever they are. Since Diamond league is the last, the top-45 stay wherever they are whereas the last 5 are demoted. So there will always be a competition not to be in the last 5 during the last minutes when these numbers are tallied.

 

2. Streak

This counts how many days you have managed to continue to practice a lesson.

3. Lingots

If you did not touch Duolingo for a week, you do not enter the week's competition. As such, your league will be preserved wherever you are. But you will lose your streak. This is where lingots come to help you. Lingots are virtual currency of Duolingo. You can earn them by completing the lessons or participating in competitions such as "Double or Nothing." If you are going to be away from Duolingo for a week, you can buy "Streak freeze" to keep your location for a day or two, and keep buying the streak freeze as your previous streak is used. However, once you run out of the lingots, you will come to the difficult decision making. Should you not touch the lessons for a week to protect the league, or protect the streak by doing the sessions but not to the expected speed and lose your league. Since I am in the diamond league, I try to protect my league.

4. Crowns

Each skill gives you a crown. Unlike the first 3, crowns are language-specific. That means, if you study 2 languages, each will have their own crown numbers. Crowns will never deplete unlike the other 3.

5. XP Ranks

How you rank among the 50 in a weekly basis as well as among your friends by measuring the all-time XP (Duolingo points). We can earn XP by completing new lessons, stories, or repeating an old lesson.

Pandemic Atlanta Lockdown - Week 9

Turmeric milk

Busy days with work. There were some sleepless nights last week. If I want to, I could use the weekends to finish some work. But as a policy, I try to avoid working during the weekends, except for reviewing some papers. Weekends are still home, cooking, and practicing some Portuguese and Chinese in Duolingo.

Canceled orders

Nothing exciting this week. I have this 5$ monthly subscription from CVS, which gives me 10$ free coupons every month with free deliveries. So I ordered some chocolates from CV on the 2nd of May for 13.08$ - I had to pay only 3.08$, after deducting that 10$ coupon. The delivery was scheduled in 2 parts - May 8th and May 14th. But I did not receive my chocolates on May 8th or May 14th. Instead, CVS canceled the order on May 14th and refunded my 3.08$, citing product unavailability. However, my 10$ coupon was not refunded. That means I cannot use the coupon this month, although this cancelation was not my fault. Literally, this makes me lose 10$ for their own cancelation. I sent an email asking for clarification. Waiting for a reply. Let's see how this goes. It is interesting how the economic losses due to flight cancelations and order cancelations are coming back to individual customers, even when the cancelations are not something we customers initiated.

Memories of a Romantic Lisboa

My lunchbox

7 years ago when we started dating, my wife and I went to Café Império, a bar-restaurant close to Alameda, Lisboa. She instantly ordered 9 shots from the menu after confirming with the bartender the shot glass size. I told the bartender I need more time to decide as I was still reading the menu. I guessed she was an expert in drinking shots. I was new to cocktails and shots, but I didn't want to go with beer or wine. Her shots arrived, and I was still analyzing the menu. After tasting her first shot, she realized that shots are alcoholic drinks! Whaat? I ended up drinking all her shots. Even today I am yet not sure whether she really didn't know that shots are strong liquors or she was pranking me to drink 9 shots. I have a feeling that that was the latter. Recalling those sweet memories, as the pandemic continues to keep us on different continents.

Black Russian topped with Ice cream

And now, me with my overproof rum in a shot glass. Home alone, a lazy weekend. The background music is from INNA. When you drink ~140 proof liquors, you are drinking fire. You instantly receive the blessings of the Fire God, as the overproof rum burns your throat as it goes down. oh yes, as long as you don't mix anything; no stupid nonsense into my majestic rum.

Reopening the city?!

It seems that our university will open June 22nd onwards, considering we are reaching Phase 3 by then. This is not the end of the pandemic of course. But a decision that we cannot go on an endless lockdown. However, I have a feeling that the rest of the year will be ruined by this pandemic. At least I had some interesting first 2 months. So looking back, hopefully, I won't claim 2020 is an entirely boring year.

 

 

And DuoLingo gets heartbroken.

Revising Portuguese with Duolingo

Since I successfully defended my PhD thesis this year and left Portugal, I started to miss Portugal and hearing Portuguese. I also do not want to forget Portuguese, the language of the country that I love most. Therefore, I started practicing Portuguese with Duolingo 10 days ago. So far, good progress. Duolingo is funny with its interesting lessons and stories.

Some interesting events from Duolingo.

1. Luis is single-handedly responsible for the pineapple shortage in the world.

 

2.  and this woman who can eat eighteen! sandwiches.

 

3.  Proud to live in a world where even the cats read books.

 

4. and it gets creepier..

5. Tell me about these unfair expectations..

 
6. A vegan tiger.

7. The mythical armadillo strikes again.. :D
Well, duolingo has a thing with this tatu.