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Duolingo

  • Today, I began on Unit 21 in Duolingo. This is day 523 learning Korean 한국어 😅 This Unit’s subject is Express Necessity. Cute and useful.

    줄 서야 합니다.

    You have to stand in line.

    죄송하지만 지금 퇴근해야 해요.

    I’m sorry but I have to leave work now.

    저는 퇴근해서 집에 가야 해요.

    I have to leave work and go home.

    민지는 숙제를 오늘 해야 해요.

    Minji has to do the homework today.

    오늘 저녁에 출근해야 해요.

    I have to go to work this evening.

    의사는 빨리 준비해야 해요.

    The doctor needs to prepare quickly.

  • 2022 in Review

    Every subsequent year feels like it’s worse than the previous year. That’s not the reality of course. It just feels that way. Due to the connected nature of life now (thanks to Twitter and the Trinet). Each of us are saddled with an incalculable weight of the year’s past. We sulk around with so much in our little heads. The inane, the devastating, the memes, the news, the crosswords, the work, the emails, the to-dos, the payments, the notifications and yes — even your parents social status updates from Facebook.

    Naturally, we’re all very tired. I guess we live for this, right? We are after all, members of the human race. Despite what the madness every year brings us, we’re also graced with some good things too. When the years brings good tidings more so than bad tidings, I’d call it a good year.

    2022 was mostly a good year, I’d say.

    Let’s look over a few things from this past year. I even threw in a couple of things from 2021 I was dying to get caught up with.

    TV & Film

    There was a lot of content to watch this year. Ever since the pandemic became an endemic, I’ve found myself in theaters more than ever before. Alamo Drafthouse, I love you so ❤️ But the fact remains that streaming is now the de facto means to consume America’s greatest export, film and TV programming. Here’s some of my favorites from this past year (in no particular order or grouping).

    There’s so much more that belongs on this list 🥲

    Music

    There’s so much more I listened to, but I’m my favorite artist I discovered in 2022 is probably Sugar Candy Mountain. If you enjoy Tame Impala, you’re going to love them.

    Art

    Didn’t see much art this year. But, thankfully I had a friend who came to visit, and had a big list of exhibitions and galleries to see. We hopped around all day seeing art. I’ll need to see more art in 2023, that’s for sure.

    The Diane Arbus exhibition at David Zwirner was a once-in-a-lifetime exhibit.

    Games

    I played a lot of games this year. Or maybe I should say, I played a lot of Modern Warfare II this year. Activision/Blizzard really knocked it out of the park. But there were a few games that really outshined others.

    Apps

    I have become a person who regularly relies on apps on my iPhone and Mac now. Wether or not I enjoy that admission is another thing.

    • TickTick – I don’t know where I’d be without this app
    • Duolingo – learning Korean, Finnish and Spanish!
    • Citymapper – old trusty, my daily carry for getting about NYC
    • Letterboxd – the original film diary
    • iA Writer – literally nothing compares

    Places

    Every year, my goal is to travel somewhere new. This year, I flew to Las Vegas twice. I traveled by Amtrak once in the summer. I hope to do more train trips in the future. It’s a luxurious and chill way to travel.

    • Las Vegas, Nevada
    • Saratoga Springs, New York
    • Great Sacandaga Lake, New York
    • Fort Worth, Texas

    Books

    I’m notoriously slow at reading. I have a Kindle that I swear by, but alas — like you, I am a mere mortal and only have so many hours in the day (and night). These books I really enjoyed (a few on this list, I have yet to finish, oops).

    Looking Ahead

    A lot happened in 2022. Personally, and globally. Not a lot of good things happened globally honestly. But, personally I feel like I’ve grown a bit. Things are looking up, I’m feeling positive about myself, and where I’m headed.

    Looking at my calendar for 2023, I really hope to travel more. Wait, why does that sound familiar? In 2022, I went back to the gym, and rode the ol Peloton quite a bit. Next year, will hopefully be no different. Another goal I have in mind is to speed up my reading habit, because I’m not getting any younger. Looking ahead, feeling’ rad. See y’all around✌️

  • Duolingo’s Premium subscription offering, which launched in 2017, has contributed to a meteoric increase in annual bookings. It continues to invest more and more R&D into AI and machine learning to power its tutoring software and growth. Duolingo raised some serious money from Alphabet bringing the total valuation of the charming Pittsburgh startup, to roughly $9 billion:

    Popular language learning app Duolingo has raised $30 million in a series F round of funding from Alphabet’s investment arm CapitalG. […]

    Duolingo claims 30 million users are actively learning languages on its platform, and it has emerged as one of the most downloaded educational apps globally. Since its last funding round more than two years ago, it has more than doubled its employees from 95 to 200 and has opened additional offices in Seattle, New York, and Beijing. It also now claims annual bookings of $100 million after it launched its premium plan in 2017, a significant increase from the $33 million it drew in last year.

    (via VentureBeat)

  • Something Like Home

    From the description:

    Something Like Home is a Duolingo documentary about the impact of language and education on the lives of Syrian refugees in Turkey and Jordan. Over the years, thousands of people have written to us with stories of learning a new language in order to find a sense of identity, of safety, of home. So we traveled to meet them.

    In doing so, we uncovered some common themes: survival, perseverance, humility, grit. These people defy stereotypes, and their stories have the power to forever alter the lens through which we see the world.

    The UN Refugee Agency petition asks governments to ensure that refugees from all countries get access to education. Sign the UN petition:

    http://www.unhcr.org/withrefugees/petition/

    This is a quick half-hour documentary Duolingo produced. I don’t think it’s an especially groundbreaking piece of film, but it’s definitely worth a watch . Especially in these tiresome and fatiguing times.