Duolingo?

[BadAlice]

Has anyone actually got beyond a few levels on Duolingo and actually learned a language? Or at least gotten to a stage where they found it useful? I used to dip in and out of the Spanish and French ones but learned both of those at school so can already ‘get by’ with them.

I’d love to learn Arabic but don’t have the time to get to an evening class right now (not that there are any running). Do you reckon I could get to any kind of useful standard?

Short answer- No.

I would prefer the option of picking a topic, say 'ordering food', 'buying drinks', 'names of fruit/veg'. Instead, you have to go through the duolingo stages with random topics- 'The penguin likes to sunbake' and such useless phrases.

Hmm yeah that’s my worry. I seem to remember doing a lot of random shit about mice making bread or something in Spanish.

I guess at least if I can get to grips with the alphabet and how the language works it’s a good starting point.

Before translation apps on smartphones, I used to get those little berlitz type language guides. Once you got your ear into the language, it was easier to work out the pronunciations.

Some community collages (during non-covid times) sometimes run language classes. You could also ask on 'nextdoor'. I've often seen people asking for language classes on there. Either for payment, or a swap such as a language classes for cooking lessons etc.

Throughout lockdown I’ve learnt a new language on Duolingo, just doing about 15 minutes a day on it.
I am far from fluent but I can now recognise a fair bit and have a pretty decent grasp of the basics. But yes, I am learning some odd phrases.
Do you like the tiger in office?
Useful .

I have been learning french during lockdown. I think it's useful up to a point but used alongside other resources is worthwhile. like others have said phrases like "there is a horse in my house" is unlikely to be used! but it's free and my french is getting better.

I did A-level French 20+years ago, and a few years of German and a bit of Spanish.

It's great for revision and with some foundation, I can expand it further, but there isn't the big picture and explanation to facilitate it as a solo learning tool from scratch. Its strength is practice for reading, listening and closed writing.

I use it daily, but the American English can be irritating when you're forced to use terminology such as "rest room" instead of toilet and get marked incorrectly for Bristish English.

You can't properly learn a language just by using Duolingo, but it's ok as an intro. It doesn't explain grammar, and it doesn't seem ever to get beyond a disjointed, random, one-sentence-at-a-time level.

I'd whizz through it as dast as you can, then move on to reading and listening to as much authentic language as you can, as often as you can manage. Simple books, magazines and audio (podcasts, beginners' audiobooks etc).

*fast

I studied French from primary school up to Advanced Higher so I have the basics down but I can read and understand a lot more than I can say. I find it difficult to string a sentence together off the top of my head and Duolingo doesn’t help with that.

Though I’ve recently discovered that they do podcasts in French with some English parts to add context. They are easy to follow and it’s much more immersive than just translating random sentences. I’m not sure how many languages they do the podcasts in though.

I find that it really does help with sentence building, but then I am learning Mandarin and the word order is very unintuitive for an English speaker. I like the weird sentences. They stick in your head and then you can swap word items. So if you know 'the penguin likes to sunbathe' then you also know how to structure 'my Dad likes to swim' and 'that man doesn't like to drink coffee'.

I just lost a 70 day streak in learning a language. I enjoyed the first few weeks, but got put off by the random phrases.

I'd prefer it if you could pick topics which you could work through rather then having to follow the set programme. For example we did half the alphabet, whereas I would have proffered to focus on the whole alphabet before moving into another random topic.

^My children are doing it as part of home school and have learned loads. Make sure you do all five crown before moving on Nd read the tips.

The youngest is six and has been translating his books. I'm very happy. 10 mins a day won't do much of course same as anything you got to work at it

I think the random phases teach you to learn the individual words rather than memorize phrases

I don't like how you can't go back and see what you've already done on Duolingo. But I think it's good for basics.

I'm learning Portuguese and really enjoying it.

I do a combination of duolingo, babbel and memrise (memrise has the vocab of duolingo, so you can arrange it differently). Duolingo is great for building a basic vocabulary and to learn grammar because of the crazy sentences. (My turtle eats the fresh strawberries - has no practical value, but teaches you to get the endings right and the word order.)
I finished Dutch and Italian - but those are languages I already 'knew'.
For practical knowledge I use Babbel. Babbel works more like a traditional language course based on situations.

I used the Michel Thomas method for learning Egyptian Arabic and would highly recommend it. It's a proper language course - carefully structured so each new thing adds on to something you've already learnt, and the vocabulary and structures are constantly recycled. It’s mentally challenging though never difficult and you really make progress. It’s a spoken language course so you learning the alphabet and beginning to read and write would be a separate project. Good luck!