Duolingo

[WashAsDelicates]

Is it worth paying for a subscription?

I want to pick up a bit of the language by the time I go on holiday in August. I don't expect to be able to have detailed conversations, but to be able to ask for and understand directions, read a menu, order food, pass the time of day politely etc. normal tourist stuff.

I've been using the free version for a couple of weeks and am enjoying it. The ads don't bother me too much. They provide a convenient screen break for my eyes.

Is the paid-for version worthwhile?

I pay for it because I hate waiting for the hearts to refill if I make too many mistakes. But I am impatient and generally have a problem waiting for anything! That's the only benefit for me.

I’m 3 years in and have never paid.

I pay for a family subscription. I think it’s well worth it, but the trip I’m learning for is not until Easter 2024 so I will use it for the whole year that I paid for. I hate being interrupted by ads and don’t have that much time to spend on the app each day, so I don’t want a big chunk of that time to be watching the same ads again and again.

@WashAsDelicates

yea it is. As you get lots of lives and then you can practise when you like.

If you do it on a computer/laptop you don't have to worry about the hearts. I have adblock on my laptop so just have the exercises, no ads and infinite chances.

I do it on my phone.

I did it for months on the free version but then paid last Christmas for a year’s subscription and wouldn’t go back to the free one. I tried for a couple of weeks when it expired and couldn’t cope with having to wait every time I made too many mistakes.

I felt like I didn’t make anywhere near as much progress on the free version but it might not be too bad if you just want to do a couple of lessons at a time or can dip in and out throughout the day rather than one 15-20 minute session like I do.

I have the free version and never noticed any ads? (Or hearts)
Or is it different for different languages? I do Latin for brain stimulation.
(I have no idea why I would need to talk about my husband visiting his parents grave everyday in Latin. )

Does anyone have an alternative? I find Duolingo does things jn a weird order starting with personal pronouns before you know the basic greetings even!
I’m interested in Japanese and Portuguese.

Personally I find having to earn the hearts helps reinforce the knowledge I already have and having to practice the same things over and over means I can be confident in what I have already learnt before jumping too far ahead of myself. For me if I'm making mistakes I'm not ready to whiz through more topics.

Only if you want to "win" the games/ earn more XP than your friends/ finish challenges first/ win the leagues; etc.

If you actually just want to learn a language, no need to pay.

If you run out of hearts, just click on the heart and choose Practice to Earn Hearts. I do lots of practice- as soon as I lose a heart, I do a practice. You can often earn a 2nd heart just by watching another ad.

Personally, I don't find it teaches you that well. If you're refreshing a language you learned at school, it's fantastic. But if you're learning a language from scratch, the actual explanations are brief and unsatisfactory. You learn most through Practice.

If you don't mind me asking, what language are you learning? Are you fluent as you say it has been 3 years?

Absolutely yes. I have been using it for over 130 days now, and the monthly payment is something I do because it's worth it and because it's something I enjoy doing.

@MissBlacksheep absolutely not fluent. I’m learning Welsh. I don’t think there’s any way that Duolingo will ever make me fluent, I’d need conversational classes for that. I have much more understanding than I had before though.

Quite often I get a week or two of the paid version free and I can’t honestly say there’s much difference in the Welsh course.

I don't pay because I'm rebellious and the hearts running out make me impatient to come back the next day! If I paid and it was unlimited I might lose interest 😅

I'm on free and have have unlimited hearts. No idea how though.

I’d have a look at coffeebreaklanguages.com/ as well as doing Duolingo. They have free & paid courses & YouTube videos, podcasts etc, including for general tourist stuff.

Yes, my ds uses it at home for Welsh, but he’s at a Welsh speaking school. As we are not fluent welsh speakers, it’s made a big difference. I’d say the main difference in subscribing is being able to do it when you want for the timescale you want that day.

He also uses it for French, but we add in CDs etc. I’m not aiming on him being fluent necessarily, just able to hold a basic conversation when needed and able to follow up on the language as a skill when older. I think it’s worth subscribing, but only if you’re a regular user already.

I pay as I like the freedom from ads and not faffing around with losing hearts

I’ve made substantially more progress since getting the subscription.

I also second coffee break podcasts. They’ve been fantastic for practising actual conversation. But again, I’m tempted to pay for the subscription as I noticed towards the end of season 1, they were building on things learned in the additional subscription lessons that were not translated in the free one and I had no idea how to even spell what they were saying to put into Google translate!

I should also say though that if you’re motivated by learning a bit of practical language I would use babbel app instead and coffeebreak podcasts.

I enjoy Duolingo and I have kept it up for nearly a year so far, but it approaches things in a funny order and often doesn’t cover useful phrases - think “The shark is in the bath” rather than “can I pay the bill?”

I've been using it for three years and haven't paid.
I have completed the Russian course, and I am absolutely not fluent in Russian. I can barely speak it. I am currently going through it again from the beginning but what I really need to do is 1. sit down with a proper grammar and really learn and understand the verb and noun endings and 2. Get a phrase book and learn some every day phrases instead of "my horse is neither an architect not an artist". I don't think the paid version will help with either of those things.

I didn't pay o think it's good too

I love doing Duolingo and think the paid version is worth its weight so that you don’t have to sit through adverts which I can never be bothered to do. I do find it frustrating though as often I’ll use a bit of context to try and translate something if i don’t know what one of the words is. But when they’re asking me to translate ‘Juan is my friend, he works in the hospital. He is a big important dog’ I can get confused somewhat 😳😂

I get the subscription for my birthday each year. I like it, but we travel a lot with husband's work so it is useful.