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I did a year subscription of Duolingo to learn Czech. It kept repeating the most ridiculous phrases about sheep, donkeys and goats. One phrase was “We are looking for a big donkey and a large machine.” In what fricking situation would I ever need to know that sentence? I just wanted to learn how to get to the metro station or order at a restaurant and the damn thing kept talking about animals that I never even saw when I was last there.

Duolingo certainly does construct some absurd sentences. Absurd, but grammatically correct. The Welsh course includes a character named Owen who likes parsnips. It's a recurring meme. I passed my proficiency at UCSD in German by taking the SAT II in German and successfully passing an oral proficiency that started with reading an article in Der Stern and discussing it in German before shifting to free form conversation. I use Duolingo in German to reinforce and expand on that old skill set. The Welsh Duolingo was a follow-on to years of Teach Yourself Welsh and other materials. Welsh lacks the voice recognition found in the better supported languages (German, French, Spanish, Italian). The voice synthesis in Scot's Gaelic is an atrocious string of syllables spoken by male/female, young/old speakers. In spite of that, it does help recognize correct spoken Gaelic. If Mandarin is your interest, the Hello, Chinese app is far better than Duo.

“We are looking for a big donkey and a large machine.”

Its very close to a line I say when Im telling the story of my dad working on a weasel farm.

Were you frequenting mustelid ranches of any sort?