Today, I completed my 365th day in a row with Duo the owl. I haven’t had to use the streak freeze purchased in those early days; it’s still equipped. I suppose being stuck at home during the pandemic and not traveling anywhere helped the streak.
Lately Duo has started sending my weekly statistics. It looks like I spend just shy of two hours per week. That translates to approximately a hundred hours for the year. If this was equivalent to a three-credit-hour class, I might have completed the equivalent of first-quarter Spanish, or two-thirds of first-semester Spanish – but it took me a whole year rather than ten or fifteen weeks. All this is to say that I’m not particularly proficient.
My reading isn’t bad, and I can read a sign or a notice in Spanish should I encounter one somewhere around town. These are almost always accompanied by English translations. But my listening comprehension is poor. If it’s a short single sentence and I know the vocabulary, no problem. But if it’s a longer sentence, or multiple sentences are spoken, I have trouble because while I’m still translating the first part in my head and my brain shuts off listening to the rest.
After my first 150 days with Duo, I attempted to listen to the first episode of the Duolingo podcast. I failed miserably, because even though the narrative was at a leisurely pace, there were typically several sentences in a stretch. Now with 365 days under my belt, I tried again. Better this time around, but still not great, when my eyes are closed. I found myself regularly opening my eyes to read the text, which allowed me to follow along fine. My reading comprehension is indeed better than my listening.
I’m sure my chemistry students have the same experience. In introductory chemistry (especially for non-majors), it must seem like I’m speaking in a different language. Now I’m trying not to be jargon-y and I’d like to think I’m watchful about my pace, for all I know it could seem like Uncleftish Beholding to some students. Especially if they’ve never had a chemistry class in high school. Most of my students have heard the basic terms so it’s usually not too bad for them, until we get into organic chemistry and naming functional groups.
In physical chemistry, the problem is math. While all the students have taken the pre-requisite math courses, at least half of them are not fluent enough in it. Decoding is slow when they see an equation, or worse, a derivation. That’s like me trying to decode the first part of a sentence while the speaker has moved on. I always write on the board because it helps slow things down and also allows the students to follow more closely step-by-step what’s going on, but it’s still a challenge. Not that my math is particularly strong. I experience the same novice-ness when reading math-dense papers for research. All this is to say that it’s good to be reminded what it’s like to struggle learning something new. We teachers should experience it regularly to be reminded how it feels to be a novice.
Unlike mid-year where my motivation for Duolingo plummeted, I’ve been catching my second wind. I’m now doing around 70 XP per day, a slight uptick, but not as high as when I first started and was much more motivated (doing 100 XP per day). Here are my current stats. I have 2397 lingots and there’s nothing much to spend them on. I have no plans to upgrade to Duolingo Plus. I have 369 crowns, i.e., I’ve averaged more than a crown per day, so not too bad overall.
No reason to stop now. I’m not sure how far I’ll go, or whether my motivation will plummet again. I’m glad that Spanish has Stories. And I might try a few more of their Podcasts. We’ll see if I get to the two-year mark!
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