AFP 51 – Chuck Smith: Duolingo and The Polyglot Gathering

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In this episode we hear from Chuck Smith about the upcoming Polyglot Berlin Gathering, but we also get a rare behind the scenes look into Duolingo and the people volunteering to create the language courses. We also couldn't resist talking a bit about Esperanto.

Season Premiere!

Welcome back! It's been a quiet few weeks here in the Actual Fluency Office (my bedroom) but now the show is back and greatly improved. I'm looking forward to bringing you the best language learning podcast out there.

We're kicking off with Chuck Smith, Chuck was on in Season 1 as well talking a lot about Esperanto. If you have an interest in Esperanto and conlanguages in general, be sure to check out that episode.

In this episode he shares what will be different about the 2015 Polyglot Gathering Berlin compared to the last year's one and we also talk about his involvement on the Duolingo Esperanto Course. Chuck is one of the volunteers who are building the course from scratch, and during our conversation we address some of the criticism Duolingo has been getting as of late as well as how it works behind the scenes.

The Episode

Show Notes

In this episode you will hear about:

  • Reflecting on Polyglot Berlin 2014
  • Looking ahead to Polyglot Berlin 2015: What will be different?
  • Their current high quality video crowd-fund
  • Why you should go to the Gathering this year
  • How Chuck got involved with Duolingo on creating the Esperanto course
  • What goes into creating a Duolingo course
  • Some of the challenges with integrating Esperanto into the system
  • Some of the common criticisms of Duolingo
  • The Esperanto community
  • And much more!

Episode Resources

This lists the resources relevant to the episode. For other language learning resources please go to the resource page for more information.