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Can Duolingo actually teach you Spanish?

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101–110 of 252 posts

Re: Can Duolingo actually teach you Spanish?

#101

deleto

Sounds great. Anyone who wants something more structured but wants similar swift progress could check out baselang.

https://baselang.com/

> Unlimited 1-on-1 Spanish Tutoring

All-you-can-eat Spanish classes with native teachers, online via Zoom.

> $149 a month

Re: Can Duolingo actually teach you Spanish?

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No online course can ever teach you to become fluent. I get your point, but with the pace of AI, there's a good chance this statement is not true in 5 years!

I don’t think so. Some people can pick up languages relatively easily, and some people can’t. I don’t really know how AI could solve this, unless you mean that the AI can ferret out your gaps and tune the program to your learning needs. Isn’t this what Duolingo tries to do? Genuinely asking. I pay for the “super” Duolingo for no ads and unlimited learning because I’m kind of addicted to it, but I plan trips to German…

> I plan trips to Germany every year because you really do need immersion to get to even basic fluency.

That's not necessarily true, unless consuming lots of media in the target language counts as immersion. I became fluent in English without ever traveling to an English speaking country.

Re: Can Duolingo actually teach you Spanish?

#103

Recently I encountered a tourist who didn't understand anything I said, but said he's from Korea. Recalling that I have been studying Korean on Duolingo for over a year, I excitedly probed my memory for a few seconds, then finally exclaimed, "annyeonghaseyo!" (hello), then blurted in English, "sorry, I don't speak Korean" Later I encountered a fellow who spoke English. He told me he's from Germany. Recalling that I h…

Okay, my true story:

I set my phone's language to French, so I get constant practice with the UI. That means the Google Assistant talks to me in French. I've had decent luck making requests and getting information in my target language.

One night, as I was getting ready for bed, I said « okay google, reglez une alarme pour 6h du matin ». My phone responded, "Sorry, I didn't catch that?"

So I said it again, and it responded the same way. I enunciated, I changed the conjugation, I sped up, I slowed down. Couldn't figure it out. Just wanted to set my damn alarm, I looked at my wife and said, exasperated, "I don't get it. It thinks I'm speaking English." That's when the light bulb went off in my head: I speak English. It's my native language. "Okay google, set an alarm for 6am." "Okay, setting alarm for 6am."

I had actually forgotten that I spoke English and couldn't communicate with my phone.

Re: Can Duolingo actually teach you Spanish?

#104
post #83

Over the past few years I have tried every language learning app I could find. The most success I have had is with LingoDeer. The formatting and I instructions really give that feeling of a classroom lesson. Learning Korean as an English speaker has been very challenging. I feel that LingoDeer has gotten me further in a few weeks compared to what I learned with a months of Duolingo or Rosetta. Duolingo if not paying…

that doesn't even launch on device without gapps, while Duolingo, Drops, Memrise and others have no problem with that, seems like extremely lazy devs

Re: Can Duolingo actually teach you Spanish?

#105
post #32

I have a roughly 600 day streak in Spanish, having started with no background, and I am quite pleased with the progress given how little time I dedicate to it each day. My only issue with Duolingo is that I wish there was somewhere to get much more formal information on the grammatical rules. Their inclusion currently is really poorly executed, haphazardly located in certain lessons as if random. I’d love if I could…

Re: grammar

You can find the excellent tips that cover grammar that used to be on the DuoLingo website at https://duome.eu/tips

Re: Can Duolingo actually teach you Spanish?

#106

I was a long time duo user (1000+ day streak) learning german. I wanted to be able to read german (books etc) rather than being able to converse in german. The streak system and the gold->diamond tier system kept me going but after a while I realized I had plateaued and I felt like I was forgetting more than I was learning. Then I realized, I had got to the point where I was good at answering what duo wanted to get t…

same here, after while it felt like daily chore than something I wanted to do in the beginning

btw you could disable leagues by stop sharing your progress, but they hide this in web settings, not possible to switch it off in the app, that makes learning less stressful

now after they introduced path UI I uninstalled it after more than 1000+ streak and keeping in phone Drops and FunEasyLearn, second one looks very childish and amateurish, but I actually like it, seems less pushy with dark patterns than Duolingo where whole new Path UI is dark pattern to make you cough up money

Re: Can Duolingo actually teach you Spanish?

#107
Didn't read the article as I'm out on the streets, however, I used Duolingo but it was very basic and it never became difficult. My biggest issues were with conjugations and I found another app called ConjuGato which helped me with that. What taught me to speak and understand was moving to a Spanish speaking country, meet a girl, found friends through her. Learned a lot of slang from listening to reggaeton and asking my friends what the lyrics mean...

Re: Can Duolingo actually teach you Spanish?

#108

Something that bothers me both about Duolingo and Rosetta Stone (and similar apps...) is that they don't let you fail enough. What I mean is - when you were first learning your native language, you probably mispronounced lots of things and didn't understand the grammar. But you kept going, learning as you went. Duolingo et al. want you to get the pronunciation of things correct before they will let you go on to the n…

I agree. I’m trying to learn German now and I keep failing lessons because I screw up gender and conjugation stuff.

I wish there was a way to tell the app that I don’t give a shit. Even if I learn all the genders perfectly, I’m still going to be fumbling over words in an American accent. A few incorrect “der”s are not going to make me unable to be understood. And I can correct that later.

Re: Can Duolingo actually teach you Spanish?

#109

No, it can’t. However, it does have a value as an interest generator. The vast majority of people who start a language on DL, will stop doing DL pretty quickly. Of those who stay, there’ll be a percentage who continue using it for absurd streak lengths while never progressing past the point of basic comprehension or speaking ability. The remaining group will be a group who goes on to use real resources to learn a lan…

>I do think Duolingo has great value but I do think the second group I described is seriously wasting their time.

which is why I stopped using Duolingo after they introduced new Path UI with 1000+ day streak, but by the end it was just daily chore to not break streak instead learning anything new, now I have two different apps in my phone which I use only when I want without trying to fulfill some streak, will probably keep just one to refresh vocabulary

Re: Can Duolingo actually teach you Spanish?

#110

Something that bothers me both about Duolingo and Rosetta Stone (and similar apps...) is that they don't let you fail enough. What I mean is - when you were first learning your native language, you probably mispronounced lots of things and didn't understand the grammar. But you kept going, learning as you went. Duolingo et al. want you to get the pronunciation of things correct before they will let you go on to the n…

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