They are ESPECIALLY annoying when you link to the blog from your PAID SUBSCRIPTION account, and still get THIS popping up in your face every couple of minutes:
Try Clozemaster – over 50 languages and thousands of sentences to help you take your language learning to the next level.
Yes, kinda got that; you know, paid member and all?
I would GUESS that the blog does not recognise our login credentials, even when we link to it from our dashboard.
“Clozemaster is THE best app to learn a language after Duolingo.”
The pop up itself is annoying enough, but to include that last sentence is infuriating. Whoever wrote that had not the first clue what they were talking about, IMHO. Duolingo is a pathetic joke which will not help you to learn a language beyond learning to repeat “the penguin ate the sugar”, “the woman drank the water” and “the animals are dying of starvation” 335 times. Duolingo is “all translation, all the time” and that is NOT how to learn a language. To learn a language you need to become comfortable thinking in that language, which you cannot do if you are continually running back to your native tongue. It will teach people some basic vocabulary and that’s IT. I do not know a single language teacher who has a high opinion of Duolingo, and I dumped it as soon as I realised how much it was holding me back. At Clozemaster you have the option of not even seeing a single word of English if you don’t want to. AFTER Duolingo?? Clozemaster is light years AHEAD of Duolingo in learning, REALLY LEARNING a language.
Except for the pop-ups, but there are plenty of those on Duolingo as well.
Agreed on the popups! Thanks for letting us know. They were meant to only pop up once and then not again once closed. We may end up just getting rid of them altogether for now like you suggested.
Clozemaster is light years AHEAD of Duolingo in learning, REALLY LEARNING a language.
I haven’t encountered the pop-ups the OP mentioned, but I am not a fan of pop-ups in the middle of a study session, as I just had when I reached a new level in the middle of my session. Please just let us study and get any “rewards” at the end like before.
The sentence is ambiguous. It can be interpreted as either “the next best after Duolingo” or “the best after you’ve graduated from Duolingo”. I think the second meaning is what was intended. I suggest using the “graduated from” wording.
I think it’s does make sense to encourage people to start with Duolingo and then graduate to Clozemaster if they want to make more progress, rather than to simply tell people that Clozemaster is better. Yes, Clozemaster is better for those who really want to make progress in a language beyond the beginning stages, but many or most of the language learners I know need Duolingo’s multimedia entertainment value to encourage them to keep going. Those who can handle Clozemaster will appreciate it more once they have seen the limits of the progress they can make with Duolingo.
I agree with this 100%. For a complete beginner, Duolingo is useful to complete once only (and as quickly as possible) but unfortunately I know people who have got themselves stuck in the rut of repeating Duolingo over and over.
Personally, I didn’t start making real progress until I switched to Clozemaster. I find CM is very useful, not just as a language game for racking up points (although I do enjoy the game element), but also as a foundation for further study of the whole sentence material in the app, not just the cloze word.
I actually have another query though regarding the blog:
What can we do about any blog posts which present gravely incorrect information?
At first glance it looks very informative and authoritative, but it actually provides incorrect information in a number of places, and with incorrect motivation/justification behind it. And it being the only one for that language, it will be viewed by all people who do go looking for posts for that language.
I don’t see any way of reporting it, and someone else had already pointed some of it out in a comment on the blog post a couple years back, but neither the original author, nor anyone at Clozemaster, seems to have taken that comment aboard.
In my opinion at minimum the incorrect parts should be removed from the blog post. People who don’t know the language and are wanting to learn might take it at face value and learn something incorrect, which is already complicated enough when explained correctly (which I’d be very happy to do - even if it just ends up being posted as a revamped version of the original one under the original poster’s credentials).
Otherwise am wholeheartedly agreed with Lucius about Clozemaster, and also with alanf about the ambiguity of the “(next best) after” phrasing but also can imagine like a & A that some people might not be able to appreciate Clozemaster yet when starting out and feel better about easing their way into the language with jolly owls and whatnot.
Couldn’t agree more! I was stuck in that Duo rut until a mindless shadowban encouraged me to move on, and I’m so glad I did. I haven’t really thought about Cloze’s “phrasing” etc but know that I’ve learnt so much more here and I feel welcome which has helped me regain confidence. The encouragement from others here is amazing, I enjoy the challenging Listening exercises too, and sorry guys, but I love the Pop-ups - a touch of lightheartedness while ploughing through my Reviews. Happy learning!
Thanks for letting us know! Which posts / information / language are you referring to? Leaving comments on the post is the best way to report issues - we do our best to address as many as we can as they come in, though it sounds like we missed the comment you’re referring to. We’d be happy to incorporate any corrections, and can attribute you of course if you’d like
Ahh I saw the pop-up discussion about the green tie guy I’m not sure I’ve had the pleasure of making his acquaintance yet. But this is about the pop-ups on the blog to “go pro”, though it seems to be just upon first visit only indeed, so nothing too annoying imo.
Thanks for getting back to me! It’s the Dutch one. I’d need to go through the whole post in detail to check the rest, though most of it seems correct and nicely presented, but the “possessive pronouns” section is misleading and incorrect. I’ll try to have a look at the weekend and see if I can write up a corrected version and check the rest of the post too. In all fairness the comment only pointed out one of the mistakes in the examples, and in an uncertain fashion, without properly going into the underlying reason it’s incorrect, and how this affects the rest of the section too, so I can see why it might not have been taken forward.
Hi sindaco. I stood up to a bullying Mod, unacceptable, beginning of the end after 1500+ days service. Six further accounts, same fate, for no reason. But hey, I benefitted by moving on and finding Busuu (great) and then Clozemaster (even greater). Love it here. Hope I haven’t been indiscreet. I wonder why you asked. Anyway, stay well .
That’s crazy, sorry to hear about it! Though, like you say, at least there’s a silver lining in that it has resulted in you discovering Busuu and Clozemaster
Sorry if I was being too forward in asking, I thought I might have seen you around on a lot of the Italian Duo sentence discussions (similar picture/name), with always very helpful and considerate comments, thus I couldn’t imagine why they would have banned you (nor had I realised there was even any official Duo presence there, since most feedback just seemed to disappear in the void).
Definitely glad to have discovered Clozemaster too, and that was even before discovering the extra amazing features like Cloze Listening, where you can just immerse yourself completely in hearing and reading the language, without any kind of distractions (points/rounds/…), or the Collections, which I’ll have to look more into, but seem an absolute inspiration as well from what LuciusVorenusX has been able to do with those too.
Hi. Glad to chat, I was always helpful on the forum but sinned by advising a naive newbie that a Mod was in fact a she and not a he. Naughty eh;-)
There’s so much learning here, the variety is amazing. I love the new listening feature with real voices, I celebrate loudly when I get it right. I also appreciate the people here, so supportive and encouraging, that means a lot.
I was going to wait for my Duo 2000 streak (not far off) but may just let it go. My smaller one here means so much more. Cheers to you then and stay awesome (Duoism!)
Ah, that is very naughty indeed especially on the internet, where you can never really know these things anyway. Reminds me also of the Italian male names that often make people elsewhere think they are dealing with a female, like Andrea, Nicola, Michele, Simone, etc.
Exactly, I love it all, and feel like even after years I will still be able to learn and discover things here! And I’ve been so happy too, when getting the real voices ones correct, definitely some giphy celebration moments occur. I’m so happy too to have found such a friendly and supportive place to learn in such a fun and stimulating way!
Wow, that’s amazing! I only ever used Duo on and off (in preparation before actually traveling and during traveling), so never went for the streak, until they introduced those evil badges and all, then got sucked in, but lost the streak due to being offline just before completing one year and then just gave up on Duo altogether. I wasn’t learning anything anymore there, I was never going to reach the fabled level 25, since I’d tested out of the tree, for which they didn’t give proportional XP anymore, so I’d’ve just had to have kept regurgitating everything endlessly, for no other purpose than to actually get there, or to get the streak in another year’s time, so I decided to call it quits there and then.
I lost my streak at the same time here (though it was only a couple months long max.), but even without it, I’m actually motivated to keep returning here to learn more and more So cheers and happy learning with all of the pop-ups and celebrations!
Read your post with glee and much satisfaction in knowing how much pleasure someone else has discovered with Clozemaster. The Tom saga is fascinating and some of the Cloze phrases shock me into guffaws of laughter as I learn what to say to undesirables! Anyway, must dash, Kevin Bacon and Miguel Herrere (green tie guy) are popping by to push me up a level:-) Happy learning!
but also can imagine like a & A that some people might not be able to appreciate Clozemaster yet when starting out and feel better about easing their way into the language with jolly owls and whatnot.