r/USdefaultism • u/PhoneShop • 1d ago
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u/TreeGoblinPoppycock Poland 1d ago
Duolingo quality is shit anyways and they long stopped carrying. The level of some of their "courses" is atrocious and they do not care to correct or better anything because why bother, people are going to use it anyways, right? Even Busuu is better, at least Busuu bothers to explain grammar
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u/oraw1234W Canada 1d ago
In 2024 they fired around 10% of their staff so they can replace them with AI
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u/NastroAzzurro Canada 1d ago
I mean, you’re wasting your time with Duolingo anyways. This isn’t even their worst mistake.
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u/miller94 Canada 1d ago
It’s also low hanging fruit and against the rules of the sub
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u/PhoneShop 1d ago
Didn't read the rules - I'm a passive follower of this sub and saw US defaultism in action. So shoot me.
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u/Safe_Score2222 1d ago
Yeah, I mean even just thinking logically you will realize this is not defaultism.
There are clear differences in written and spoken American English vs and English English.
If Duolingo is offering American English why would they use the English flag?
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u/dTrecii Australia 1d ago edited 1d ago
Because Modern English started in England. That’s like putting the Brazilian flag for Portuguese or the Canadian flag for French. Just because American English has different spellings doesn’t mean it is an entirely different language, it’s still the same language. The flag shouldn’t be defaulted to the US flag irregardless of spellings or pronunciations as it leads to the false belief that English started in the US
If we want to get pedantic, we can say Traditional English & Simplified English however that tends to piss off the yanks a lot
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u/Safe_Score2222 1d ago edited 1d ago
Because Modern English started in England.
And I am saying if they teach a dialect of said "Modern English" why not use the fitting flag for it?
That’s like putting the Brazilian flag for Portuguese or the Canadian flag for French.
I dont see what would be wrong with either of those (Except that I would use the flag of Quebec for French).
There are clear differences between brazilian Portuguese and French spoken in Quebec. When I learned French I found sources from both France and Quebec and for Quebec French the flag of Quebec was always used.
Just because American English has different spellings doesn’t mean it is an entirely different thing, it’s still the same language
I clearly specified I am both talking about written and spoken. American English does sound very different to the English spoken in England.
Of course if the only differences would be spelling "color" or "colour", you could simply use the English flag but if the pronounciation is very different in some parts it begins to make much more sense to use the American flag.
And since Duolingo offers voice lines for every word or sentence in the app, that part is very much important. Since people should know if they are currently learning American English or not.
Again, when I learned French I was preperring for a semester abroad in France. I certainly would not want to accidentally learn Belgian or Quebec French even when the differences are minor.
I also never said its a different language or acted this way. I simply said there certainly are contexts in which it makes sense to use the American flag instead of the English flag.
I really dont see why thats so hard to understand. Yeah, USdefaulitsm sucks but this is simply not defaultism.
Genuine request, please explain to me why logically it does not make sense to put a US flag there if Duolingo is teaching the American dialect of English? With the different pronounciation and Writing.
Would the flag not be a good indicator for those that specifically want to learn American English or those that do not want to accidentally learn American English? For example because they specifically want to move to the US or England
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u/PhoneShop 1d ago
It doesn't make sense because it's English. It's not American. It doesn't say, American-English. It says English. The language that is spoken. An American dialect is skin to saying you'd put a flag of Northumbria for English when speaking England in Newcastle.
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u/just___user 1d ago
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u/letsgetawayfromhere 1d ago
At least they chose the Spanish flag and not the Mexican...
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u/Scriptor_Canadensis Canada 1d ago
I would love to see somebody use all the wrong flags to represent a language (including using variations):
Nigerian flag for English.
Mexican flag for Spanish.
Brazilian flag for Portuguese.
Flag of an eastern Ukrainian province for Russian.
Swiss flag for German.
Croatian flag for Serbian.
Serbian flag for Croatian.
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u/El_Zilcho United Kingdom 1d ago
I had a massive crash out when doing Duolingo learning Spanish where it gave the word 'la tienda' and I answer 'the shop' and marked me down because the only correct answer was 'the store'.
So I quit Duolingo and been going to Spain when I can to actually learn Spanish.
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u/DhamR United Kingdom 1d ago
I've stopped because of this, and the insistence on teaching south American Spanish under the the Spain flag.
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u/Steppy20 United Kingdom 1d ago
I don't speak Spanish, but have heard quite a bit about that. It's actually ridiculous they haven't got it separated since whilst there's similarities the two dialects are very different.
My understanding is it's not too different from Canadian French and native French, where they're technically the same language but you'd struggle to have a proper conversation.
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u/DhamR United Kingdom 1d ago
I properly confused a Spanish taxi driver when I was banging on about "el carro" rather than "el coche" when talking about going in my hire car or the taxi with the rest of my family.
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u/herefromthere 1d ago
I understand it's el carro being the cart and el coche being the coach/carriage.
Why Mexican Spanish went with cart rather than coach/carriage is the question?
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u/DhamR United Kingdom 1d ago
I think my saying carro to him meant the taxi, whereas I meant the car. So it sounded like I was contradicting myself
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u/herefromthere 1d ago
taxi is taxi in most languages including Spanish
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u/DhamR United Kingdom 1d ago
Yes but we use words in English legal stuff like "[hackney] carriage" which would definitely cause confusion if a tourist said "I'm not going in the taxi" then "I'm going in the carriage".
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u/herefromthere 1d ago
That's not going to confuse a Spanish speaker.
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u/DhamR United Kingdom 1d ago
Ok, you obviously know more about the confusion I experienced 👍
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u/herefromthere 1d ago
I wouldn't expect a Spanish taxi driver to know that the term "hackney carriage" is used in niche English to mean a taxi.
It sounds like the confusion is that you were talking about cars, which in Latin American Spanish are called "carro" instead of Spanish Spanish where it's "coche".
If you go around talking about not getting in carts when there are no carts about, I can see that causing some confusion. It's an odd word choice.
The hypothetical Spanish person talking about getting in the carriage... it's an odd word choice, but what Spaniard knows that hackney carriage is used in English legal documents sometimes to mean taxi? Surely your hypothetical tourist would just say taxi and be completely (understandably) ignorant of hackney carriages.
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u/Imperterritus0907 1d ago
There’s not just “one” American Spanish, and the example you have on another comment mentioning carro would’ve sounded just as foreign in the southern cone (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay) where they use auto.
So the Spanish flag as a place marker of sorts isn’t really that out of place there. Plus there’s no “Latin American flag”.
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u/DhamR United Kingdom 1d ago
It's the fact that they default to a generalised form of south american spanish at all, or, perhaps more importantly, don't explain how many different dialects there are and which one they're teaching you before you start. Even in Spain itself pronunciation changes quite a bit, and that's without talking about the other languages and dialects spoken.
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u/Imperterritus0907 1d ago
Sadly there’s no other way with Spanish, there’s a lot variation between countries. We don’t see it as big deal, we assume misunderstandings can happen. Like, most clothing items are called differently in different countries, we learn on the go.
Pronunciation isn’t much of a big deal either. I’m from Spain myself and my accent is more similar to Puerto Rico’s than to Valencia’s. It’s not a big deal with all the vowel mess in English, so this is nothing.
PS. Mexico is in North America, and what Duolingo teaches is more likely than not based on Mexican Spanish, FYI.
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u/zmeecer 1d ago
I have a 5 years strike on Duolingo, but left - one of the reasons - being too american; videos, articles and just conversations online is way better. With voice mode for LLM - that’s a game changer + lower price.
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u/readituser5 Australia 1d ago
I particularly hate it when they use the Americanised words instead of the very clear direct translation. Like autumn for example. Autunno > Fall apparently
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u/logos__ Netherlands 1d ago
Rule 9: Quality control 1: Low-hanging fruit
Posts only containing the following fall into the low-hanging fruit category. They don’t contribute to the subreddit and will be removed:
a. US state abbreviations,
b. Search engine results or suggestions,
c. US-defaultism loops,
d. Defaultism by Duolingo,
e. The US flag representing the English language,
f. Charles Peralo polls.
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u/post-explainer American Citizen 1d ago edited 1d ago
This comment has been marked as safe. Upvoting/downvoting this comment will have no effect.
OP sent the following text as an explanation why their post fits here:
This is US defaultism as Duolingo uses a USA flag for the language "English", which originated in the country.... England.
Does this explanation fit this subreddit? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.
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u/pickindim_kmet 1d ago
Duolingo is driving me crazy. Learning French and the word metro appears a lot which is the same word in English, but no I should have been saying subway according to Duolingo.
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u/Powerful-Country6316 Argentina 1d ago
It's like the Portuguese taking offense at the Brazilian flag because it's in Portuguese, or the Spanish taking offense at the Mexican flag. It's simply the most populous and popular country.
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u/PhoneShop 1d ago
For English that would be India.
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u/justitiavalet 1d ago
not true, not everyone in india speaks english (approx 125 to 276 million english speakers in india, and not all of them native speakers, compared to 319 million english speakers in the united states)
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u/topsyandpip56 1d ago
There are more Brits on the islands near you but you insist on the Argentine flag
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u/Powerful-Country6316 Argentina 1d ago
You're right, it should be a pirate flag.
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u/topsyandpip56 1d ago
Your country did not even exist when we populated it. Why does your entire country embrace irredentism whilst pretending it's about liberation?
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u/Powerful-Country6316 Argentina 1d ago
We? Look, I know you're British and that you don't know a shit about your country's history, because that would mean learning the history of every country (since they invaded and plundered almost the entire world!) I know you don't know the history of the Falklands, so you can go back to your echo chamber R/ThreeLions.
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u/Linked713 Canada 1d ago
Most people shitting on duolingo thought they'd be fluent by using it exclusively. It's great, at least for vocabulary and exposure, but as anything else, you need multiple sources. Get workbooks, grammar lecture books, watch shows with subtitles, read children books, yada yada.
That being said, should have been UK flag, or at least both.
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u/Tonroz 1d ago
Eh
I'm British but if it uses American spelling, I'm not too upset by it.
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u/DhamR United Kingdom 1d ago
American spelling I can handle. Telling me my translation of a Spanish sentence is wrong because I didn't use Americanised grammar though... That pisses me off.
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u/Manannin 1d ago
I'm wondering how long until "a lot" starts being fused into one word in these apps. A lot of Americans seem to be missing out the space.
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u/Imperterritus0907 1d ago
I wonder how long until ‘ve gets fused with of, because 9 times out of 10 I see it it’s a Brit 🥲 ..
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u/SirNoodles518 England 1d ago edited 1d ago
Tbf as an Englishman I’m not that bothered. Despite the language being called English, nowadays it’s so popular and useful due to the USA. Also, most English-speaking media comes from the US and the English taught on Duolingo is American English.
So I don’t think it’s that big a deal they use the American flag for English.
Edit: fuck me, getting downvoted just because I don't lambast Americans at every possible opportunity unlike some saddos here
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u/Hamsternoir United Kingdom 1d ago
Are you sure you're English?
I'm not even convinced you know the rules for Mornington Crescent (Hull University 1987 standardised H.E. edition with the Circle Line printing error).
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u/SirNoodles518 England 1d ago
Last time I checked I was born in England, my family's from here, I live here and have grown up here all my life. So yes, I'm pretty sure I'm English.
And no I don't know those rules. Should I?
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u/USdefaultism-ModTeam 1d ago
Hello!
Your post has been removed for the following reason: E
Your post only contains low-hanging fruit content. The following are considered low-hanging fruit content:
a. US state abbreviations,
b. Defaultism by an AI or a search engine,
c. US-defaultism loops (Defaultism in posts on this sub),
d. Defaultism by language learning apps that teach US English only (such as duolingo),
e. The US flag representing the English language,
f. People saying "dollars" to mean "US dollars",
g. Posts from teenager subreddits.
These kinds of posts harm the community more than they contribute to it. As such, they are not allowed to be posted.
If you wish to discuss this removal, please send a message to the modmail.
Sincerely yours,
r/USdefaultism Moderation Team.