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Can Duolingo actually teach you Spanish?

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Re: Can Duolingo actually teach you Spanish?

#21

Post by tinyplanet49 »

nitrixion wrote: post #11
digitalsushi wrote: post #7

I, like half of us, took a ton of Spanish in high school, enough to generally stick even without continuing to build it afterwards. I tried Duolingo back before the pandemic was trendy, for maybe a year or so, to keep that streak going. While I don't really feel that it was teaching me very well, I can relay this single anecdote. Duolingo has these stories that it figures you can read, based on the level of your scor…

> I, like half of us, took a ton of Spanish in high school, enough to generally stick even without continuing to build it afterwards. Can confirm. My wife and I both took 4+ years of spanish in high school and college, over 15 years ago. We can almost get by on just that knowledge alone in spanish speaking countries, but it is difficult and we always have a translator around. That said, we took a vacation last summer…

Interestingly, I had a very similar situation recently, but had the opposite experience. Took 4+ years of Spanish in high school and undergrad, ~20 years ago. Had a trip to Costa Rica and I spent about 2 to 3 months using Duolingo, and I felt it didn't help much at all, other than as a refresher for very basic vocabulary.

I ended using Google translate towards the end of the trip, which was disappointing for me.

Re: Can Duolingo actually teach you Spanish?

#22

Post by poulsbohemian »

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 next step or lesson. They want you to absolutely get it right or else you find yourself in a cycle of trying again, to the point of frustration.

My German was probably pretty bad for a long time. It took a decade+ to get any kind of accent and comfort with the language (especially since I wasn't living there for most of that time). But I was up and running with the language, having conversations, reading the news, listening to podcasts, etc even if I wasn't "perfect." That, to my thinking, is at the core of what I need a language learning app to do - get me to the point where I'm making progress with it and forming my own thoughts and statements, don't hold me back because I mispronounced an accent or missed the gender on a word, etc.

My own experience with Duolingo is that it is ok as a way to memorize some grammar, but the lack of context is a problem. Random sentences just designed to mix in vocabulary don't seem to be as useful as contextualized learning, IE: at the train station, at the bank, etc.

Re: Can Duolingo actually teach you Spanish?

#23

Post by bnralt »

to1y wrote: post #18

As a bilingual I tend to believe unless you're living in the country trying to learn a language(using any method) is probably a waste of time.

I'm not even sure living in the country helps that much on its own. The issue is that the vast majority of your language intake comes from your immediate surroundings - the media you consume, the friends you have, the books you read, the place you work, etc. I've seen a lot of language learners move to a country, take classes, but get stuck in an expat bubble. The worst part is, when you take classes, you're surrounding yourself with other non-natives.

For most major languages, a heavy immersion is possible in your home country, especially with the amount of media that's now easily available. Heavy immersion is very effective, but it's also extremely difficult to pull off. The AJATT guy[1] was a big advocate for it and was extremely successful with it when it came to Japanese, but even he couldn't replicate it for Chinese from what I recall.

If you're not going the heavy immersion route, I guess the best thing would be to just have fun with the language, pick up what you can, and accept that you'll never be great at it.

[1] http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/

Re: Can Duolingo actually teach you Spanish?

#25

Post by poulsbohemian »

to1y wrote: post #18

As a bilingual I tend to believe unless you're living in the country trying to learn a language(using any method) is probably a waste of time.

I've come to a very similar conclusion. The absolute only way to learn a language is to have an incentive to learn it, IE: to be exposed to it constantly by work, daily life, romance, friendship, IE: whatever it is that is providing the regular need for the use of the language. People who say they are bad at languages might be surprised how fast they would learn if they were suddenly forced to learn by necessity.

Re: Can Duolingo actually teach you Spanish?

#26

Post by buildfocus »

I have spent a lot of effort in Duolingo in multiple languages, that I now use daily. Imo it's a mediocre but _extremely_ convenient way to build a base of vocabulary, but it is completely different to seriously learning a language (unfortunately). As far as I'm aware this applies to all the apps - real human conversation is very hard to usefully simulate.

That doesn't mean Duolingo isn't useful, it's definitely helpful, even if you're living in a full immersion environment, but the map is not the territory. If you really want to learn to talk to people, you have to talk to real people. It is a completely different thing to just learning all the words and grammar, far more than I realised before seriously getting into languages.

Re: Can Duolingo actually teach you Spanish?

#27

Post by lkbm »

twosdai wrote: post #12
TooSmugToFail wrote: post #3

What would be your best app for learning a language?

I don't remember the name, but I've had some friends do remote teaching for foreign languages through an app, where you'd get scheduled 1 on 1 video time with a person who knows the language. I think that's an interesting approach I would look into over the self directed learning

I used Livemocha a bit in ~2008, and it does this.

Re: Can Duolingo actually teach you Spanish?

#28

Post by pigtailgirl »

whacked_new wrote: post #10

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…

-- don't worry - 한국어는 어려운 언어입니다 (Korean is hard) --

Re: Can Duolingo actually teach you Spanish?

#29

Post by antiterra »

to1y wrote: post #18

As a bilingual I tend to believe unless you're living in the country trying to learn a language(using any method) is probably a waste of time.

I think learning a language at a young age likely sets up some brain development for language learning in the future. Brains remain plastic even through adulthood, but I definitely feel like whatever language I am studying tends to fill “Language Slot 2,” if you will, which exists because of an atrocious 12 year long present-tense-only public school Spanish program.

Results from learning a language in an immersive environment are going to be greater and more justify the time spent. However, it can definitely be rewarding otherwise if cramming before a vacation or even just to remember how to clumsily pronounce “l'esprit d'escalier.”

Re: Can Duolingo actually teach you Spanish?

#30

Post by Aromasin »

From my experience, yes. I did about an hour a day total - 20 minutes on waking, 20 minutes at lunch, and 20 minutes before I go to sleep. 3 years ago, I didn't know a lick of Spanish. Now when I go, I can be a translator for my friends. It's not great, and I trip over my pronunciation a lot, but it's functional.

As to the context of article, I'm also in the group that thinks the latest Duolingo updates are the worst to come to the platform since it's inception. It's beyond awful and I honestly despise it. I frequently went back to areas I felt myself getting rusty at, and practiced those. The new "pathway" has broke that method completely. It's impossible to see previous course content clearly, essentially forcing you through poor UX design to take the next step on the pathway instead, like you're playing Candy Crush. The update spurned me to give up on my 500+ day streak and cancel my subscription over the Summer. I haven't used the app in the last 5 months.

I'm lucky enough to live in Oxford, which is renowned so having some great evening language classes. I've signed up to my first semester starting in January which I'm very much looking forward to. If it wasn't for Duolingo, any interest in furthering my language skills would not exist. I guess it's a silver lining that an awful update to my favorite app by incompetent product management and executive decisions forced me to finally peruse a formal education in Spanish. I just wish it was a amenable break-up.

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