How to Make Learning as Addictive as Social Media | Duolingo's Luis Von Ahn | TED

譯者: LI YISI 審譯者: 麗玲 辛

So, I'm from Guatemala.

我來自瓜地馬拉。

This is a public service announcement,

這是一則公益廣告：

that is where Guatemala is.

瓜地馬拉就在那裡。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

Also, that is not where they keep the prisoners.

另外，那裡不是關押囚犯的地方，

That is called Guantanamo.

那叫關塔那摩。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

Not the same place.

這兩個地方不一樣。

So Guatemala's right below Mexico.

瓜地馬拉就在墨西哥下方，

And for the Americans in the audience,

對於觀眾中的美國人來說——

and let this sink in, because it really applies in most ways,

請仔細體會一下， 因為這適用於大部分情況——

對於觀眾中的美國人，

for the Americans in the audience,

瓜地馬拉可說是墨西哥的墨西哥。

you can think of it as Mexico's Mexico.

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

Just like the US doesn't want illegal immigration from Mexico,

就像美國不想要墨西哥的非法移民，

Mexico doesn't want illegal immigration from Guatemala.

墨西哥也不想要瓜地馬拉的非法移民。

It's a smaller country.

瓜地馬拉更小，也窮。

It's a poor country.

And well, what can I tell you,

那它有什麼呢？

it has much better Mexican food.

它有更好吃的墨西哥美食。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

Guatemala is a very poor country.

瓜地馬拉是個非常貧窮的國家。

And a lot of people talk about education

很多人認為教育可以 為不同的社會階級帶來平等。

as something that brings equality to different social classes.

但我的想法正相反： 教育會帶來不平等。

But I always saw it as the opposite, as something that brings inequality.

Because what happens in practice

因為在現實中，

富裕的人可以接受非常好的教育，

is that people who have a lot of money can buy themselves a really good education

and therefore continue having a lot of money.

並因此繼續富裕下去。

而窮困的人很少能 學到如何閱讀與寫作，

Whereas people who don't have very much money

barely learn how to read and write

因此他們無從提高收入。

and therefore never make a lot of money.

在貧窮國家尤其如此。

And this is especially true in poor countries.

Now, I was fortunate that I received a rich person's education

我很幸運，

儘管我的家庭並不富裕， 但我得到了很好的教育。

even though I didn't grow up rich.

And it’s because I’m an only child.

我是獨生子，

And my mother, who was a single mother,

而我的母親是個單親媽媽，

spent all of her resources on my education.

她把所有資源都花在我的教育上。

And this allowed me to come to college to the US

於是我能夠去美國讀大學，

and eventually get a PhD in computer science.

最終獲得計算機科學博士學位。

Now because of all of this

正因為我所經歷的這一切，

about 10 years ago,

十年前，我決定要做一些事，

I decided I wanted to do something

that would give equal access to education to everyone.

讓每個人都能獲得平等的教育機會。

這就是我今天想和你們談談的，

Oh, by the way, this is what I want to talk to you about today,

為每個人提供平等的教育機會。

giving equal access to education to everyone.

At the time, I was a professor of computer science

當我在卡內基梅隆大學 擔任計算機科學教授，

at Carnegie Mellon University,

and I decided to work on this with my PhD student, Severin.

我決定與我的博士生塞弗林 (Severin) 一起研究這個問題。

The way my brain works,

我一向認為

all of education is just too general of a problem.

教育是個太籠統的議題，

So I decided, let's start by teaching one thing.

所以我決定， 從教一件事開始。

And then I started thinking, OK, well, what should we teach first?

於是我開始思考，我們應該先教什麼？

應該教數學嗎？

Should we teach math?

我和我的共同創始人 都很喜歡數學。

I mean, we both love math.

Me and my cofounder, we both love math.

And, you know, we didn't decide to do math.

但是我們沒有選擇數學。

Then we started thinking, well, maybe we should teach computer science.

也許該教計算機科學嗎？

最終的決定也許會讓 北美洲的人有點驚訝：

But eventually, and this is maybe surprising to people in North America,

eventually, we decided that the best subject to start with

最好的第一個課程是外語。

was teaching foreign languages.

And let me tell you why.

讓我告訴你為什麼。

There's a number of reasons.

有很多原因，

One of them is that there's a huge audience for it.

其中之一是有很多人想學外語。

There’s about two billion people in the world learning a foreign language,

世界上有大約 20 億人在學外語，

無論在學校裡，還是在學校外。

both in school and outside of schools.

Most of these people, by the way, are learning English.

而這些人，大多數人都在學英文。

About 80 percent of them are learning English.

大約佔比 80%。

In this weird map right here,

在這個奇怪的地圖中， 所有標為綠色的國家

all the countries in green

都是人們主要學習英語的國家，

are countries in which people are predominantly learning English.

And the reason for that

因為學習英語可以真正改變人們的生活。

is because English can truly transform your life.

In most countries in the world,

在世界上大多數國家，

knowledge of English can significantly increase your income potential.

擁有英語能力可以顯著提高收入潛力，

So this is another reason why we decided to start with foreign languages.

這是我們決定教外語的另一個原因。

學習另一種語言，尤其是英語，

And it's because you can directly make more money

人們可以直接提高收入。

if you learn another language, in particular English.

這與許多其他科目相當不同。

And see, this is pretty different than many other subjects.

以數學為例，如果你學數學，

For example, take math.

In the case of math,

純粹數學的知識 不會提高你的收入潛力，

just knowledge of math does not increase your income potential

因為通常你必須學數學，接著學物理，

because usually you have to learn math to then learn physics

然後成為土木工程師， 你才能提高收入。

to then become a civil engineer, that's how you make more money.

但有語言能力，例如， 你是服務生，又會說英文，

Whereas with languages, if you are a waiter and you learn English,

now you can be a waiter at a hotel and make more money.

你就可以在飯店擔任服務生， 賺更多的錢。

So we decided, well, let's get started by teaching languages.

所以我們決定從語言教學開始。

Now, we also convinced ourselves

我們還認為

that the only way to really reach a lot of people

想要讓更多人受益，

was by using a mobile phone, or a smartphone in particular.

就必須使用智慧手機。

See, building schools all over the world is simply too expensive.

一方面，在世界各地 設立學校非常昂貴。

On the other hand,

另一方面，

most of the world's population already has access to a smartphone,

世界上大部分人口都已經有智慧手機，

而這一比例只會不斷增加。

and the trend is that that fraction is only going to increase.

因此我們那時候就決定

So we decided at the time

that we would make a way to learn foreign languages on a mobile phone

要設計一個程式，讓每個人 在手機上就可以學習外語。

that was accessible to everyone.

And then we called it Duolingo.

我們稱它為「多鄰國」。

Thank you.

謝謝。

(Applause)

（掌聲）

Now in order to truly be accessible to everyone, rich and poor,

為了讓每個人都能學習，無論貧富，

Duolingo uses a freemium model to support itself.

多鄰國用免費增值的模式來維持運作。

What that means is that you can learn as much as you want

這意味著你可以隨心所欲地學習，

without ever having to pay.

而無需支付費用。

But if you don't pay,

但如果你沒有付費，

you may have to see an ad at the end of a lesson.

課程結束時，你可能需要看段廣告。

Now, if you don't like ads,

如果不喜歡廣告，

you can also pay to subscribe to turn off the ads.

你也可以付費訂閱，以關閉廣告。

And it turns out that the vast majority of the revenue for Duolingo

事實證明，多鄰國的絕大多數收入

comes from people who pay to subscribe to turn off the ads.

來自付費訂閱、關閉廣告的用戶。

Now, who are these people who pay to subscribe to turn off the ads?

這些付費訂閱的人是誰？

Well, they're usually well-off people in rich countries like the US and Canada.

他們通常是美國和加拿大等 富裕國家的有錢人。

Who are the people who don't pay to subscribe?

哪些人沒有付費訂閱？

他們通常來自巴西、越南 或瓜地馬拉等貧窮國家。

They usually come from poorer countries like Brazil or Vietnam or Guatemala.

So what I like about this model

我喜歡這種模式，因為

is that it is a small form of wealth redistribution

這是個小型的財富再分配方式：

because we're basically getting the rich people

我們讓富人為所有人的教育掏腰包。

to pay for the education of everyone.

這我喜歡。

So I like that.

（掌聲）

(Applause)

So with smartphones, we can reach a lot of people

透過手機，我們可以連結到更多人，

and we can even get the rich people to pay for the whole thing,

甚至讓富人為整件事出錢，

這太棒了。

which is great.

但想利用手機進行教學活動，

However, if you're trying to deliver education with a smartphone,

you run into a humongous problem.

我們還會踫到一個很大的問題：

And it is that smartphones come equipped

智慧手機配備了有史以來 最容易讓人上癮的東西：

with some of the most addictive drugs that humanity has ever engineered.

TikTok, Instagram, mobile games.

抖音，IG，手機遊戲。

See, delivering education over a smartphone

通過智慧手機提供教學

is like hoping that people will eat their broccoli,

就像你鼓吹人們吃花椰菜， 卻在旁邊放了超美味的甜點。

but right next to it, you put the most delicious dessert ever made.

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

If you really want to deliver education to everyone,

如果你真的想為每個人提供教育，

not only do you have to make it accessible,

你不僅要讓教育方便取得，

but also you have to make it so that people want to actually learn.

還必須讓人們真正想學習。

And with Duolingo, we've been able to do this.

多鄰國能夠做到這一點。

And at the highest level, the way we've done this

在最高層次上，我們的方式是

讓花椰菜吃起像甜點一樣。

is by making the broccoli taste like dessert.

I'll say it another way.

換句話說，

What we've done is that we've used the same psychological techniques

我們使用了與 IG、抖音或手遊等 應用程式相同的心理學技巧

that apps like Instagram, TikTok or mobile games use

來吸引人們使用多鄰國。

to keep people engaged,

but in this case, we use them to keep people engaged

但在此，這些技巧是 為了促進使用者學習。

but with education.

Let me give you some examples of these techniques.

舉個例子，

One of the most powerful ones is the notion of a streak.

其中一個強而有力的機制是「連勝」。

What a streak is, is it’s just a counter

它很簡單，

只是一個計數器，計算 你連續使用多鄰國的天數。

that measures the number of days

that you've used the product consecutively.

You just take that number,

你只要把這個連勝數字

you put it very prominently in your product

放在應用程式中最顯眼的位置，

and then people come back every day.

用戶就會每天都回來。

And the reason people come back every day is because, well,

原因也很簡單，

if they don't come back, that number resets to zero

如果用戶中斷使用，這個數字會歸零，

而人們不想失去自己的連勝。

and people don't want to lose their streak.

It works.

這種機制非常有效。

Now, on the one side,

通常情况下，

streaks have been criticized for, for example,

連勝機制飽受批評，

因為它易導致青少年沈迷 Snapchat 等社群媒體；

getting teens addicted to Snapchat.

But in the case of an educational app,

但在用教育應用程式上，

streaks get people to come back to study every day.

連勝機制敦促人們每天學習。

Now, to give you an idea of the power of streaks,

連勝機制有多強大？ 一個數字給你參考，

in the case of Duolingo,

在多鄰國，超過三百萬活躍用戶 連勝超過 365 天。

we have over three million daily active users

that have a streak longer than 365.

(Applause)

（掌聲）

That means they haven't missed a day in the last year or longer.

這表示過去一年或更長時間裏， 他們沒有錯過任何一天。

Now, fun fact about streaks.

還有一些關於連勝的有趣數據。

What country do you think has the longest average streaks

你認為哪個國家擁有 多鄰國平均最久的連勝？

for an educational app?

It's Japan.

日本。

Of course.

理所當然。

Shortest-ever streaks?

最少的多鄰國連勝？

Latin America, baby.

拉丁美洲。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

But we're fun, hey, we're fun.

但我們很快樂。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

Another important mechanism to get people to come back to your product

提高應用程式使用率的另一個重要機制

是通知。

are notifications.

On the one side, notifications can be really spammy and annoying,

通常，通知可能像垃圾郵件一樣煩人，

but in the case of an educational product,

但多鄰國的情況不同，

人們實際上希望被提醒：該學習了。

people actually want to be reminded to learn.

In the case of Duolingo, we have a very sophisticated AI system

多鄰國有一個非常精密的 AI 系統，

that basically chooses when to send the notification

選定何時發送通知

and also what to say in each notification

以及每個通知的內容，

to maximize the probability that people come back.

以最大限度地提高用戶回歸的可能性。

Now, interestingly,

有趣的是，

even after all this sophistication,

即使這個系統非常複雜，

it turns out that the algorithm for choosing what time

事實上，向用戶發送通知 時機的演算法非常簡單。

to send you a notification is pretty simple.

Do you know what is the best time to send people a notification?

你知道向人們發送通知的 最佳時機是什麼時候嗎？

告訴你，

I'll tell you.

上次使用產品後的 24 小時。

It's 24 hours after they used the product last.

There's an easy explanation.

原因很簡單，

If you were free yesterday at 3pm,

如果你昨天下午三點有空，

you’re probably free today at 3pm as well.

那你今天下午三點很可能也有空。

這是一個非常複雜、 價值數百萬美元 AI 系統發現的。

So this is what a very sophisticated millions of dollars of AI found.

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

It's funny.

很有趣。

Now with notifications you shouldn't be spamming.

有了通知功能，就不該亂發垃圾郵件。

And we're not spamming, with Duolingo,

多鄰國的確不會亂發垃圾消息。

we actually stop sending notifications after seven days of inactivity.

如果多鄰國用戶連續七天沒有上線，

So if you don't use Duolingo for seven days,

我們會停止發送通知。

we stop sending you notifications.

當然，我們也曾想到，

Now, at some point it occurred to us,

如果我們要停止發送通知，

if we're stopping to send people notifications,

我們應該告知用戶。

we should let them know.

最後一條通知內容是這樣的：

So we started sending this notification to people saying,

「嘿，這些提醒似乎不起作用，

"Hey, these reminders don't seem to be working.

We'll stop sending them for now."

所以我們不會再發送提醒了。」

你知道人們這時會做什麼嗎？

You know what people do when they get this notification?

他們回來了。

They come back.

（笑聲）

(Laughter)

Passive aggressive.

被動式攻擊。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

Works for my mother, works for Duolingo.

對我媽媽和多鄰國都有效。

(Laughter and applause)

（笑聲和掌聲）

These passive aggressive notifications

這種被動式攻擊的通知 確實讓很多用戶回歸了。

are really good at getting people to come back

他們以為我們的吉祥物綠貓頭鷹 已經放棄他們，但又收到通知，

back because they feel like our green owl mascot has given up on them,

因此他們回來了。

so they come back.

說起我們的綠貓頭鷹，

And speaking of our green owl mascot, by the way,

我們所有的通知都由這隻吉祥物發送，

because all our notifications come from our green owl mascot

他特別擅長被動式攻擊，也很強勢，

and well, he's passive aggressive and also pretty pushy,

因此網路上有許多迷因

this has given rise to a lot of memes on the internet

取笑這隻貓頭鷹是如何長篇大論、 想方設法地讓你回來學習語言。

that make fun of the great lengths that he will go through

to get you back to learn a language.

Here's one of my favorite ones.

這是我最喜歡的一個。

This is it's a meme, it’s one of my favorite ones.

（笑聲）

(Laughter)

Basically looks like you forgot your Spanish lessons.

「你好像忘記上你的西班牙語課程了。」

And then there's an intruder alert,

下面是一個入侵者警報，

presumably the owl broke into your house to get you to learn language.

大概是這隻貓頭鷹闖入家裏 來催你學西班牙語。

Now, Duolingo has entered the zeitgeist.

現在，多鄰國已經成為一種潮流。

And there's thousands of memes, there's SNL skits about it.

有成千上萬有關多鄰國的迷因和短劇。

And it's because we've managed to get people to want to learn a language

這是因為我們成功地借鑑 遊戲和社群媒體所使用的機制

by using the same techniques

來促進人們的參與， 激發人們學習語言的熱情。

that mobile games and social media use to get people engaged.

And this is a really important point,

這很重要。

let me say this.

我不得不說，

I don't actually believe that there's a way to make an educational app

我其實不相信有方法 能讓教育型應用程式

be as engaging as something like TikTok or Instagram or mobile games.

像抖音、IG 或遊戲一樣引人入勝。

But the good news is that --

但好消息是——

And by the way, the reason I don't believe that

順便一提，我不相信這個說法的原因是

is because ultimately you have to teach people something.

你終究得教人們一些有用的東西，

再說我們很難跟貓咪、明星拼場——

And it's hard to compete with, like, cats and celebrities.

但好消息是，我們不必這麼做。

But the good news is that I don't think you have to.

See, here's the thing.

是這樣的，

When you're learning something, you get meaning out of it.

當你在學習時， 你會感到這是有意義的。

Whereas when you're scrolling for two hours on Instagram,

當你在 IG 上滑了兩個小時後，

a lot of times afterwards, you feel like you just wasted your time.

你會覺得自己在浪費時間。

So I think it's actually OK if your educational product

所以我認為與抖音之類的東西相比，

教育產品的吸引力 只有八、九成也沒關係。

is only 80 or 90 percent as engaging as something like TikTok,

because the other 10 or 20 percent

因為剩下的一成或二成，

will be provided by people's internal motivation,

可以由人們的內驅力來填補。

當然，這部份也不能太多。

though of course, not much more than that.

This is really a key point.

這真的非常關鍵。

If we want to get people to do something meaningful,

如果我們想讓人們做一些有意義的事情，

you can use the same techniques that apps like social media use

我們可以使用與社群媒體等 應用程式相同的機制

to get people to do it.

來敦促人們完成這些事情。

And even if you're not as engaging as those apps are,

即使不像那些應用程式那麼吸引人，

you can still get hundreds of millions of people to use your product.

我們仍然可以讓數百萬人 使用我們的產品。

In the case of Duolingo, for example,

舉多鄰國的例子，

there are more people learning languages on Duolingo in the United States

在多鄰國上學習語言的人，

比在美國高中學習語言 的學生總額，數量更多。

than there are people learning languages across all US high schools combined.

（掌聲）

(Applause)

And this is true in most countries in the world.

在世界上大多數國家都是如此。

My hope is that -- I know we can do this, but, you know,

我希望，我知道我們做得到的，

my hope is that as humanity,

we can do what Duolingo has done for learning languages

能讓全球的人們像在多鄰國 學習語言那樣，學習所有其他科目。

but for all other subjects.

Where we can get people to learn math with mobile phones,

我們可以讓人們用手機學習數學。

like millions of people to learn math with mobile phones

數百萬人用手機學物理或數學。

or physics or whatever.

I hope for a future in which screen time is not a bad thing,

我希望在未來， 使用手機不再是件壞事，

in which we can deliver high-quality education to everyone, rich or poor,

我們可以利用手機，提供高品質教育 給所有人，不論貧富。

using a mobile phone.

But the single most important thing that I can end this talk with,

我想以一件非常重要的事 為這次講座作結：

is a reminder to please, pretty please, I beg you,

請你今天務必記得

do your language lessons today.

完成你的多鄰國語言課程。

Thank you very much.

非常感謝。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

Thank you.

謝謝。

(Applause)

（掌聲）

Helen Walters: Luis, thank you so much.

海倫·沃爾特斯： 路易斯，非常感謝你。

I wonder if you can just say a little bit more about that last point,

你是否可以多說明一下最後一點，

how do you think you can apply this type of thinking

你認為要如何將多鄰國的模式 應用於其他科目？

to other subjects?

So you mentioned math, and things like that.

你提到了數學之類的學科。

How do you do that?

你打算怎麼做？

Luis von Ahn: I think in particular,

路易斯·馮·安：我想，特別是 一些需要重複練習的科目。

subjects that are learned through repetition

and it turns out most things that are kind of really meaningful

事實證明，大多數真正有意義的東西 都來自數千次的重複練習。

are learned through thousands of repetitions.

你從重複中學習閱讀，

You learn to read through repetition,

從重複中學習小學數學。

you learn elementary school math through repetition.

大多數透過重複學習的東西， 實際上都可以遊戲化，

Most things that you can learn through repetition,

you can actually gamify and turn into something like Duolingo,

變成像多鄰國這樣的應用，

讓人們可以在重複練習中獲得樂趣。

where people just do it a lot and do it fun.

對於需要解釋的科目則有些困難，

It's a little harder for things like explanations.

可能還需要一些很好的影片。

That probably is going to require some really good videos.

薩爾曼·可汗在這方面做得非常好。

Sal Khan is doing a really good job with that.

但對於需要大量重複練習的科目， 我認為我們可以使用相同的方法。

But for things that require a lot of repetition,

海倫·沃爾特斯：真了不起。 謝謝您的分享。

I think we can use the same methods.

路易斯·馮·安：謝謝。

(Applause)

（掌聲）