Now before anyone hates on Duolingo and other apps, I know, I get it. However I've still found them useful for building vocab alongside stuff like Anki. But I do have to say being British with these apps is actually quite frustrating. I know the majority of English speakers using Duolingo will be American so it's where the money is, I just wish there was the option for some small changes. Like for example I've just started learning about "discussing college life" and all of the language IN ENGLISH is completely foreign to me. First of all college is different here in how it works, we just call America's equivalent University and College is a separate thing, but that's easy to get past, but then I get slapped by stuff like the year system. In Japanese the years are super intuitive, literally being "1 year student" "2 year student" etc, which is essentially what we call them in the UK, just "year 1 student". But instead of having the option to call them that, which is WAY more intuitive, I have to wrap my head around whatever the hell freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior means and the nonsensical order of them. (What do you mean Junior is third year??) I basically end up having to translate 1 phrase twice because I don't have the option of just writing "first year". Throw in the extra small things like "trash can" instead of "bin" or "sidewalk" instead of "pavement" it's just a little frustrating. I know it seems small, but it's these tiny changes which just add up and add time to learning that kinda frustrate me. I don't see this changing though as Duolingo does seem determined to keep removing features instead of adding them which is a shame. Anyway sorry for the mini rant.
by BluetheNerd