Useful phrases Duolingo has taught me this week

[booboo57]

Trying Duolingo for the first for our upcoming Italian trip. This week I have learnt to say :
They are not forks
The horses drink the milk.

I wanted to learn how to order a g&t and teach my husband how to ask for the bill.

😂

what I find bizarre is towards the end of a lesson or quiz it says ‘let’s make this harder’ and then it’s always super easy. I’m doing Spanish and apparently making it harder just now was writing the word for China (China) and the word for Water (agua). Anyone else find this

I’m going to get haters, who will tell me lighten up, but I am going to say it anyway.
The British attitude towards learning languages stinks, and shown by the OP thinking the only important thing is ordering drinks.
About 16% of British people speak a modern foreign language.
The number of Swedes who are fluent in English is close to 100% (and they knock out some classic English language pop songs too)
Don't even get me started the entitled English immigrants in their Costa Del Sol ghettos.
Learning any skill is hard, but the satisfaction when you hear yourself think in the language you are learning is amazing.
Try watching classic Italian films like ‘Life Is Beautiful’ or ‘Bicycle Thieves’ without dubbing.
oh, and before you ask, German, enough Spanish to cross South America and taught myself basic Turkish. And a smattering of other langages.

Swedes learn English because nobody else speaks Swedish. English is a universal language for many countries.

Are you suggesting you’re a heathen unless you can speak the language of the country you’re in? In that case I should be speaking around 25 languages by now….ridiculous

You’re not special because you learnt a few words in a ‘smattering of languages’

Italian many years ago " the duck is still dead" It never came up in my exam for Italian citizenship thank goodness!

BTW in Italian for a G&T we usually say "un gin tonic", for a pint sized beer "una birra media" or for a coffee "un caffé" ( this by default gives you a espresso) if you want anything other than an espresso, you need to name it such as Americano, Latte Macchiato ( just saying 'latte' you get a glass of milk) Cappuccino etc.

In bocca al lupo!

and “Eilidh is not wearing any underpants”

Hmmm. Read the room, this is a thread full of people learning a new (or more) language, probably the wrong audience to go on a rant about

Also what difference does it make why someone is learning a new language, people in other countries tend to learn English because its a business and work opportunity language, that isnt really why people who speak English learn other languages, it tends to be more for leisure.

So you're right, you need to lighten up

Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to asking complete strangers whether they can see my aura.

😁

Mi favourite Italian one was i cugini sono idraulici- the cousins are plumbers.

Crepi! Questo filo mi piace molto.

I’m doing a combination of Duolingo & the Coffee Break Italian podcasts.

coffeebreaklanguages.com/coffeebreakitalian/

The CoffeeBreak guys are great. I listen to the French ones.

Japanese Duo has taught me "You should not borrow money from that man" and "My handkerchief has turned into a pigeon".
I love it! I sometimes find the inconsistent pace and lack of grammar explanations frustrating, but as a way of getting into a language, it's very good.

I’m 70 days into learning Italian on Duolingo and am in two minds about it. I feel like all I am getting any good at is completing Duolingo lessons, none of what I have learnt feels translatable to the real world and I struggle to form phrases from scratch (but I can translate a phrase from Italian to English ok)

We’re going on holiday to Italy in summer and I think if had invested the same amount of time learning a different way I would have a reasonable grounding in basic holiday Italian by now. I recently started using Babbel which has a more traditional format and I’ve learned more useful conversational phrases (my name is…what time is it? etc) from the off.

I think Duolingo would be useful if you intend to stick with it and use it as a basic scaffolding for learning a language in more depth. Or just treat it like a game that actually teaches you something.

But there are better ways of learning the basics for holidays etc.

I think Duolingo would be useful if you intend to stick with it and use it as a basic scaffolding for learning a language in more depth. Or just treat it like a game that actually teaches you something. But there are better ways of learning the basics for holidays etc.

Yes. Spanish Duolingo wasn't much help when I needed basic holiday vocab.
I've been doing Italian on Duolingo for about four years now, along with the Coffee Break podcasts (I recommend having a look at those if you're after holiday phrases) and the point for me is to learn it in depth.
It's definitely not enough by itself & I think once I've completed the course the next step will be classes. I can read novels in Italian now though.

I’ve been learning Spanish for 2 months and am off there this summer. I think I can get by better now - ask for drinks, to pay, tickets for places etc. it’s been useful

After several trips to Spanish-speaking countries usually preceded by feeble attempts to learn the language from books, I discovered Duolingo. Although it can be irritating at times, it's a really good solution for me because I now have a wide but patchy passive vocabulary so that I get bored and give up very quickly if I go back to the beginning and try to follow a course. With Duolingo I can dip in to lessons here and there when I notice a deficit and I'm gradually learning the grammar too. With the premium version you can test out of lessons to avoid seemingly endless repetition of stuff you already know.

There’s a huge amount of value for many non-English speakers to learn English, but for most British people, there’s limited value in becoming fluent in another language - realistically most people, unless they have strong ties to another country, won’t benefit substantially from fluency in another language.

I try to learn basic phrases at least if I travel to a country where English isn’t the first language, but generally this is largely a courtesy as it is an essential means of communication. But as a PP says, I’ve travelled to many countries so I’m at the ‘smattering of words in many languages’ phases. If I were to attempt fluency in a language it would primarily be as a hobby.

Two sheep work in this store

*a courtesy more than an essential means of communication, that should say.

Years ago I learnt Greek from a few sources including a couple of textbooks. I dug the books out again before a holiday, to be confronted with such gems as:

"Do you see that woman on the motorbike? She is too fat."

"That dress is too expensive. Show me another."

It turned out the Greeks were indeed more blunt than the British, but it's amazing I made any friends there!

I think I might love you a bit.

Amazing thread. Also I didn't know you could learn Latin so I'm adding that!

I'm learning Spanish and it's generally not too eccentric, but there is more about owls cleaning the kitchen floor than I'd expected.

For more bonkers Duo content: twitter.com/shitduosays

The lack of grammar descriptions and explanations as you go along are part of what's known as 'deductive learning' in which you work stuff out for yourself as you go bit by bit (and don't get bogged down by endless boring grammar rules and exceptions to rules).

It's this approach which apparently makes you remember it more as your brain has taken an active role in the learning and assimilation process instead of just being presented with a bunch of words. This also explains the random sentences: they stick in the brain better.

Am a language teacher myself and can confirm that it's a great approach!