Duolingo for a foreign language

[marinyork]

I can't make my mind up about Duolingo. It's kind of good for certain bits of vocab but does take up a lot of time. As for another user I thought memrise was more useful for me.

For a humourous view of Duolingo see

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbmXSR_QiP8

 

[Shut Up Legs]

I work for a French company, and a lot of the corporate emails that get sent to a large group of employees are in both French and English, so they're like mini French lessons.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

I found Duolingo boringly repetitive, it's a very slow way to learn a language.

I doubt that Duolingo could get a student beyond A1 -A2 level on its own. It's just a basic tool that ought to be supplemented with other input and study.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

Learn Italian with Lucrezia https://www.youtube.com/user/lucreziaoddone (this will be too hard, but useful a few months in).

Yep, she's good. A nice, clear speaker too. 👍

 

[DRM]

I doubt that Duolingo could get a student beyond A1 -A2 level on its own. It's just a basic tool that ought to be supplemented with other input and study.

I agree, I think it's ideal for preventing Englishman abroad syndrome for your visits abroad, however a serious educational tool it ain't.
However more serious courses are expensive, it's good that I can order food & drink, ask for things etc, but i find that by being in some of the less popular areas of France for British tourists brings my language skills on far quicker, unfortunately just as I get going, it's time to come home again but at least Duolingo keeps things ticking over.

 

[smith4188]

I like Duolingo, but the Michel Thomas audio courses are good too. They are all about the building blocks of language you need to create simple but useful sentences. Within the first hour you already feel you've learnt something you could use in the wild.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

I like Duolingo, but the Michel Thomas audio courses are good too. They are all about the building blocks of language you need to create simple but useful sentences. Within the first hour you already feel you've learnt something you could use in the wild.

I think his was the very first language learning method I used, he was really good. I did find that by the end of the course the sound of his false teeth clacking around was driving me nuts. I’d still recommend him though.

 

[robing]

I love languages. I am fair!y proficient in Spanish, German and French. I have a smattering of Italian, Greek and recently started to learn Russian 😀

I like Duolingo for topping up the languages I know well, but for trying to learn a language from scratch I have found it poor. It doesn't teach you grammar or structure.

 

[HobbesOnTour]

I like Duolingo for topping up the languages I know well, but for trying to learn a language from scratch I have found it poor. It doesn't teach you grammar or structure.

Well, to be fair, this is the Touring forum and not the languages forum, and as a way to build up a bit of confidence and proficiency for a tour in a foreign country it's not bad.
On the point of grammar & structure I agree, but (and this may vary depending on the language) there are often interesting discussions, and more importantly links, to online resources that explain grammar & structure better.

At the end of the day for something that you can dip in and out of for a few minutes at a time it's pretty good.

 

[delb0y]

I've been using this for French - primarily because I have a number of guitar books in French and I'd like to read the text as well as the music. There are also a fair few French music documentaries on YT that I'd enjoy more if I could understand the narrator.

So far so good, although most of what I've come across so far I already knew from school - I'm amazed at how much I've remembered from 40 years ago (I didn't know I'd remembered it - guess I've never needed it before now).

I struggle a little - well, a lot - with the listening versus the reading. I think this is where I'm going to need to do something different. Duolingo may well teach me to read and write French, but I'm not convinced it's going to help me hear / speak it. That may just be me and my ears, of course.

 

[robing]

Well, to be fair, this is the Touring forum and not the languages forum, and as a way to build up a bit of confidence and proficiency for a tour in a foreign country it's not bad.
On the point of grammar & structure I agree, but (and this may vary depending on the language) there are often interesting discussions, and more importantly links, to online resources that explain grammar & structure better.

At the end of the day for something that you can dip in and out of for a few minutes at a time it's pretty good.

Maybe not,but you posted about languages so I am giving you my opinion
Don't get me wrong, i like Duolingo. It's fun and I have found it the best of the free language apps, but as I say I struggled with it for starting a language from scratch.

 

[Once a Wheeler]

Books that suggest "Become fluent in [language] in 30 days" or whatever are lying, that's just not possible.

Great post, Glasgowcyclist, and I agree with your observations. Just to expand a bit on your comments on fluency: it does depend on what you want to say. My fluency in English is zero when it comes to lecturing on quantum mechanics but I am pretty sure I could be fluent in Basque in one day if all I wanted to do was order a cup of coffee. Really just a further illustration of your principle that the more you tailor the subject matter to your perceived needs, the quicker you will get on — and the more enjoyable it will be. Avanti!

 

[glasgowcyclist]

I struggle a little - well, a lot - with the listening versus the reading. I think this is where I'm going to need to do something different. Duolingo may well teach me to read and write French, but I'm not convinced it's going to help me hear / speak it. That may just be me and my ears, of course.

I'm going to recommend something I listen to a lot and which has been of enormous help in my listening comprehension: SBS Radio from Australia.

Yes, Australian radio! It broadcasts in 68 different languages from Amharic to Vietnamese, covering news, current affairs, sport, culture and community. The presenters are native speakers of your target language and I find they speak very clearly. In the Italian version there is a section called Slow Italian where you get the podcast spoken at a more sedate pace while being able to view a transcript. I'd be surprised if this wasn't a feature across all their languages.

There's no cost, no subscription, nothing, just tune in or use their app and it's all free.

Choose your language at https://www.sbs.com.au/language/

 

[DRM]

One other thing I’ve noticed is if Duolingo gives you the basics to ask for a coffee ,bun,or whatever then do it, the locals appreciate even a bungled attempt at asking & will help, just speaking English understandably gets their back up

 

[DaveReading]

I am pretty sure I could be fluent in Basque in one day if all I wanted to do was order a cup of coffee.

I used to work with someone who could say "two beers please, my friend will pay" in 20 different languages.