Lost my 250+ streak due to illness and just 2 days away from devices... support just saying "sorry"

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Agree, comparison to games is very accurate I think. It is like playing a game in hell mode without ability to savegame . Worrying about streak is like a game of house of card that we keep building and we don’t want it to fall, we worry constantly that it could fall, just one mistake and it all collapse back to zero, There is no auto savegame, no quicksave so we have to start all over.

If we can complete a whole game without dying it does show mad skill in the game but like other have mentioned the Streaks system for language learning app does not indicate any type of proficiency in the language. Its purpose is just to force/motivate us to come back everyday and use the app in some random way, enslaved to the streak.

On the other hand, language specific metrics/goals just keep adding, They don’t collapse. They have built in auto-save, They will never go to zero. These goal/metric also mean something in term of language learning that even my 300 years old great great grandmother can understand.

Goals like number of books read, chapters read, words read, known words, trilogies completed, movies/series watched, podcast, Games completed in target language, conversation with natives, language exam passed. They keep accumulating. When I tell someone about these achievement they can relate to it and understand exactly what these goals mean.

Those gamer types who like to boast can boast to anyone when they achieve these language goals, But… for Streaks… only our friend in the app understand our streak, For the rest of the world we need to spend a bit of time explaining the streaks and why we are smiling ear to ear for no reason.

For the dopamine junkies, just like Streaks, Language Goal/metrics also give a dopamine hit when we achieve each goal. It can also be a very motivating challenge to try and hit those goals. With the other language metrics/goals we can take short weekend breaks without any worry of the “score” going back to zero.

For those of use who like a games approach, We can start with a clear.. very specific big goal/main quest (like getting CEFR C1/2 equivalent in an exam) which can be overwhelming, so we can break it down into its 4 skills, break it down further into smaller goals/quest and break those down to even smaller easy to achieve goals, until we can’t break them down any further. As we achieve those tiny language goals the main Language goals becomes more and more achievable. Eventually we meet the final boss at the exam center. Get your result… Game complete.

After that just enjoy using your new superpower, go out and shock the natives in their language. No one will dare to ask you about your streaks, They might ask you about books you have read or movies you have watched.

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43

I agree. The above achievements tell us nothing concrete about how much progress you have made, but they indicate how much work you have done, and should correlate loosely with progress.

These language apps create statistics to give us the illusion that we are progressing, but the real purpose is to fuel the addiction.

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44

Yea even books read, movies watched, words read can very alot in difficulty and so is not 100% accurate in term of progress. Someone who have only read 100s of A1 graded reader will still be A1, a fluent A1 reader perhaps, if they are honest with their reading.

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45

That’s a good point.

Ice skating coaches make their students do things that are too difficult for them, but not way above their level. Research has shown that the skaters who get to the highest level fail a lot in practice more often, because they push themselves by doing hard moves, those who get to a mid level fail less often, whereas those who make the least progress make the least number of errors, and take less risks.

This makes me wonder if a similar rule applies to language. Should the student spend some of their time listening to barely intelligence input in contrast to the comprehensible input ideology? That is what I did in French, and it worked, but French is in many respects close to English.

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I like the ice skating example, it is a good mindset. I noticed that when I pushed myself to complete reading higher graded or native books all the easier level stuff became super easy. So there is definitely value in trying harder stuff above your level. It is a good mental workout.

In my early days, I realized my goal which was to learn the language was too big, not specific. Eventually I decided on a simpler goal. Read a native book. It was a simple, clear and testable goal.

At that time I was using Duolingo for a few months but there was no improvement in my ability to read the book when I tested every month so I ditched Duo and looked into other methods,

Eventually after much experimentation and changes to approach and learning the basic, I think was about 2 month later I was able to read the book comfortably.

So yea basically try something difficult and fail, evaluate why you failed, adjust method, change strategy, try again… fail again… evaluate adjust and etc until success is achieved.

One advantage we have over ice skating is that for language learner we don’t have to worry about injuries we can go ahead and try and read stuff way above our level.

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47

A rule wouldn´t be a rule if it can be broken under certain circumstances, unless there is a rule for such. It ain´t that important, I am sure you will get other motivation than just streak days. Maybe starting a new streak with a new language?

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There is even a Steve video talking about that, actually!

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49

@DJTembo @martin_romangette Might be related to something called Post Practice Improvement. Description from AI below.

“Post Practice Improvement” (PPI) is a term used in skill acquisition (such as in music or sports) to describe the physiological and neurological gains that occur during rest after practice, rather than during the practice session itself.

In Skill Acquisition

Post Practice Improvement refers to the slow, physical process of acquiring new technique, which results from the growth of nerve and muscle cells and occurs over a period of time (days, weeks, or months) while the individual is not practicing. This is distinct from immediate improvement seen during a practice session, which comes from simply learning motions or notes.

Key aspects include:

  • Occurrence during rest: The actual physical improvement and consolidation of new skills primarily happens during periods of rest and especially during sleep, not during the activity itself.
  • Conditioning over instant change: Practice serves to condition the body and brain for change, but the change itself happens later.
  • Avoiding over-practice: Overworking a skill can lead to stress or bad habits, which would then be counter-productively “improved” during the post-practice period.
  • The “hundred repetitions” rule: A certain minimum amount of correct repetitions (around a hundred for some musical practices) is needed for the PPI effect to activate.

That hundred repetition rule seems interesting to me, repeated listening/reading and techniques like shadowing is seems similar to this.

All goes back to practicing a lot and resting well. Knowing that rest/sleep is important for learning and even during longer breaks the mind is preparing itself for that next practice session.

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