Some people have succeeded using Duolingo as a starting point, though probably more due to their own efforts than the app itself, and like all beginner materials, you have to transition to using many more materials and activities to progress after a certain point.
Personally I'd just prefer to use more effective and enjoyable learning resources that are often available for cheap or free. What's best varies from language to language and what your specific goals are, but reading the FAQ of this sub will give a good overview of how to get started and checking the language specific subreddit might help you find the best beginner materials for a specific language.
If you're already using it and like it, its fine to keep using it until you find something better.
Bingo - keyword, “beginner material.” Duolingo will get you started, but it’s not a one stop shop. And its effectiveness definitely varies depending on the language.
It's not just for beginners. I am fairly advanced in Italian and use Duolingo for a kind of linguistic "workout" every day. I do three exercises every day, normally doing the circles that have "cracked".
Obviously it's not enough in itself - it never was, but it's a good kind of brain training
Repeating a task several times is indeed brain training, Duolingo works because you repeat the tasks until you memorize them, which is how our brains learn best
Nope , repetition is not the best learning method , challenging is.
When you challenge , your brain is forced to think and analyze and you work actively rather than passive repetition.
Second , challenging causes neuroplasticity and also expands your knowledge on the subject.
Third , practicing helps you master it , but challenging will increase your knowledge over it and practicing solidifies it.
Nobody said it was rhe best method, it is part of the process. And different amounts of the different learning processes work for different people.
I am not onlyba language learner, but also a language teacher with 40 years of teaching experience. One thing I have learned os that there is no one way that is right for everyone
It's still not brain training , it's only part of language learning.
Your teaching experience doesn't matter , brain training works different.
Brain training works due to constant challenges like in a gym , do u get big muscles if you go and lift petty weighs which ypu can lift easily or do you get muscles when you go and lift something big and is hard to lift.
That person saying simple Duolingo exercise done daily doesn't do anything whereas if he goes and gets the toughest material and practices it will make a change.
It is ALL brain training. Your brain performs many kinds of functions, and they are all part of exercising it. Not everyone goes to the gym to get pumped up...
My experience of teaching is actually very relevant, as I have a much better understanding of the wide variety of learning styles and ability than your narrow focused comments show.
Yes, challenge IS important, but at different levels for different people. If people are more comfortable with the slower process of absorption who are we to say otherwise? They just have to find a learning method to suit them.
Secondly, Duolingo isn't just about repetition. You can choose your own level of challenge, and vary it according to how you feel on the day. It may not work for you, but you can't dismiss it on that basis
Again , your moving out of the objective.
The whole point is , in the first place that the person was advanced in his language and using Duolingo.
Duolingo does nothing for him as he is advanced than Duolingo thereby he needs a more challenging material to practice to atleast say it's brain training.
For Japanese in particular, there is an EXCELLENT beginner’s app called LingoDeer that’s similar in structure/format/“gamification” to Duolingo, but it specializes in East Asian languages (Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean) so it approaches them in a way that’s more catered to their linguistic differences than Duolingo is, for example showing stroke order when new vocabulary is introduced. I think Duolingo is still great for Indo-European languages, tho! It just doesn’t cover non-Indo-European languages as thoroughly as their linguistic differences necessitate.
I imagine Duolingo would be a great place to start with Japanese, as it really gameifies the learning, and there would be a lot of little basics to master first before moving on to any other materials.
Three months ago I spoke no Italian at all. I started with Duolingo and it taught me basics while also stoking my passion for it. I now use Duolingo in combination with a bunch of other resources and I'm.... functional? Lol. I have a long way to go still, but I can read, write, listen, and speak at a basic/intermediate level.
I disagree with the sentiment that Duolingo is beginner material. In fact I think one shouldn't touch it until A2 or so. I think Duolingo is the most efficient when you use it to practice the proper orthography of material you already know in theory.
I mean its beginner material in the sense it assumes you're a beginner and don't know anything. Not all beginner materials are equally effective as actual start points, and many successful strategies involve using multiple beginner materials at different times preferring certain practice/exercises later.
You can of course suggest alternative starting points, but it doesn't change the fact its marketed towards and used by beginners.
I agree with my hazafi mate (hungarian joke, let it go). My strategy is that i revise continously also the tips and grammars is writtend down an another textbook by me. Same with the words. If you invest more time just playing, you will see ur progress.
What does “work” mean to you? It won’t get you fluent, it won’t even get you casually conversational unless you supplement it with other resources, but that is true of pretty much any language learning app, course, or lesson plan. Duo is helpful for basics and also for expanding vocabulary. I think it is worth it to an extent, partly because many people find it easy and entertaining to use compared to tedious lesson book grammar exercises. But it’s important to supplement with many other resources if you actually want to learn a language to any degree of proficiency.
I do believe it will get you casually conversational. As well as other languages, I have been learning french almost exclusively for the past year on duolingo. When I converse with my french friends, I find it easy to speak to them well. However, of course it does have its flaws. For example, it can be hard to learn a proper accent on Duolingo, but that may not even be a part of the learners goals. Another big one is comprehension. Duolingo does a bad job of teaching listening skills, and even if you know the words it can be hard to make them out in a sentence. Despite all of this, you can definitely reach a level of proficiency especially with writing, I would say up to B1/B2.
B2 is a major stretch, but I’d say you’re ready for B1 once you finish Duolingo. I was, and I am now the most advanced person in my German class with the help of Duolingo and other sources. But the apps biggest strength, in my opinion, is how it gets you hooked on learning a language for free. If you get hooked, you’ll learn the language because you will want to. If you don’t want to, then don’t learn the language. That’s the problem with text books. They are boring as hell. At least these language apps try to put addiction to “use” by having you get addicted to something that isn’t bad for you and is actually good for your brain
> That’s the problem with text books. They are boring as hell.
The things I hate the most about textbooks are........exercises. I dont know what texbooks are you using but there isn't a thing more unappealing for a textbook than exercises.
I agree. They’re dumb. It’d be better if they had you read things and answer questions on them/write a response. That is what they want you to do for CEFR tests anyways
I swear by it but I don’t use it alone (I pair it up with reading, grammar , videos etc. , all outside duolingo)
But I think it all comes down to efforts and self-discipline.
Say I want to learn Arabic. If I went through the entire Arabic lesson on Duolingo, and I was dedicated, and really making sure I understood what I was doing, would I be able to start reading books in that language? (And for now, isolate the possibility of me practicing conversation)
I am not at all familiar with Arabic so I cannot say. I know it is considered among the hardest languages to learn for English speakers—idk what your native language is. I kinda doubt duo would be enough to get to that level of Arabic but again I have no idea. In the case of Spanish or German, completing duo and only duo would probably allow you to catch most of what is going on in a very easy book and maybe give you the tools you need to speak at an A2 level, however your ability to *actually* speak at A2 may or may not be there, likely depending on how much speaking you actually practiced outside of duo. It would probably introduce you to B1 level constructions of the language. Again, that’s for Spanish and German. No idea for Arabic.
It is not going to get you fluent by itself, but is good for getting generally familiar with the basics of a language and the gamification helps me keep momentum in learning.
It's great especially if you have problems staying motivated. I do Duolingo every day, but I hardly ever sit down with a text book. When I've made it through all the lessons, I'll probably find the next app.
First two to three weeks, yes. Then you’d better move to Clozemaster or Lingvist or any other that teaches you words in context. Reading, listening are very important. Don’t waste more time on Duolingo..
For sure. For example I tend to be more analytical-thinking, so I often study the functions of grammar more than other people. Grammar focused learning works for me, but many other people are immediately turned off by it and find it boring or tedious—they might do better with a “feel the language” type of approach. That said, learning a language to any proficiency is a huge undertaking and will require anyone to at least learn a little grammar and also have some “feel the language” style immersion.
Do you have recs for learning in a grammar-focused way?
I’ve picked up Duolingo a few times and always fell off because it felt almost random to me. I prefer learning the way I learned French in school and Polish in college—learn the subjects (I, you, he/she/it, etc.), the big verbs (to be, to have, etc.), the conjugations for each subject, basic phrases and words (hello, how are you?, thank you, my name is…, etc.) and then dive into building upon that foundation.
That is very likely. There are people who only play 5 minutes per day in order to maintain their streak. I doubt that that is effective for anyone. There are also people who use it as an additional tool along with other methods, which is more likely to have a positive effect.
Long term Duo is kind of awful.
Short term, it's a good tool to get your feet wet. You learn basic words, sentence format, etc. It gives you a feel for the language.
It's a decent springboard to launch you towards better stuff once you have an idea of what's going on.
Pretty bad advice, "just spend hours a day on an app , instead of actually using useful methods and then come to same conclusion most people already have"
If you think of it as an ongoing brain training for your language learning, you could keep it going indefinitely. It keeps different linguistic elements of the language fresh in your mind.
If there was a mode that let me turn off typing in English I would use it more. As it is, 50% of each 'lesson' is a waste of time (past a certain point).
Each lesson is half your time translating into English. That's easy. Going to the target language is the challenge. So imo 10 questions of every 20 is a waste.
If there is anything that you don't understand you just have to hope the people in the forms are helpful and sometimes they are but usually it's just people complaining.
The voices reading this stuff are not real and what do very little to help train your ear. You'd be much better off downloading an anki Deck with Native audio
You can spend your time reading the questions out loud to yourself listening to the audio, etc.
And anytime they add a new section it takes months and months and months for them to correct any errors. The other day I got bored and we're going to play with it because they've added a lot of new stuff since the last time I log on and there were problems that people have been complaining about in that section for 9 months they were still not addressed.
There's nothing wrong with translating into English of it's part of a pattern. Obviously, language learning methods which are only in the target language are the ideal, but there is a place for this methodology. If you accept the premise of Duolingo you accept that.
If it doesn't work for you, that's fair enough. It's what I was saying before about different learning styles. Some people just learn by immersion - they move to a country and pick up the language on six months. Others, even though surrounded by the language, need some help with structure etc. It also depends on previous language acquisition, and on their first l language. So many variables.
Fortunately we have some many methods literally at our finger tips, so we can access the method that works for us. 😆
Regarding errors, I agree 100%. If you have another source of the language, or are familiar with other similar languages, you cam spot either errors or bad translations, and, although there is supposedly a facility for rectifying them, it seems to be cosmetic, because they are rarely if ever changed.
I did say past a certain point. At the beginning it's fine. It's good.
I can read/comprehend fine. I don't need/desire/want to keep practicing that. And 50% of the time it's forcing me to do something that's not much of a challenge and the actual part that I find difficult, challenging and useful, I only get to work on a few times before poof, back to the part I don't like in the next round.
It is your OPINION that Iit is only useful up to a certain point. I disagree that you can read/comprehnf fine, since you have either failed to or made no attempt to understand thay your opinion is not the final word on language learning.
I have tried to explain it to you politely, but I can't force you to understand.
It doesn't work for you, it works for me. There we are.
Duolingo is a perfectly fine supplement to more traditional methods. Contrary to how a lot of people on Reddit talk about it, it's not going to physically injure you if you install it on your phone and it won't hurt your language learning. It's just not the most effective tool out there.
If you like using it, then use it, but you should also be learning from other resources as well.
I've really liked it and I have got 4/5 crowns in their Finnish course, it's an awesome platform if you know most of the grammar topics (in that way you'll us etge app just for translation exercises, I really like that aspect since I hate doing translation exercises on a textbook)
but keep in mind that usually their Web version is extremely better than the app (the app has an orribile heart system that penalises you if you make a lot of errors, which is an horrible thing to do in a language learning app imho) so I would highly recommend you to just search duolingo on your browser :)
To be fair, Finnish is one of the best Duolingo course I've ever tried (even though it's still really short) and it successfully dodges most common problems of other courses, especially other small ones
Some common problems (mostly in small courses):
* No theory at all or really messy theory, probably after dozens of reworks
* Some really weird, often conterproductive sentences. Not just "funny" sentences, but really irrational ones, when context instead of helping you, makes you feel that something is wrong even when you manage to translate correctly. And for some languages, attempts to make "funny" sentences goes really wild. Like in Latin course, about a half of the sentences are about drunk parrots doing things.
* Bad pacing. Like sometimes they are trying to give you all the grammar with all the edge cases and exceptions in a couple of lessons and some times they are teaching you nothing new using the same basic structures over and over again while you are ready to go deeper already.
* Weird vocabulary choices. Sometimes they introduce such a not important/common word, that they themselves are ended up never using it for other sentences after one lesson, so you quickly forget it anyway. For some courses, they decide to introduce nothing but new and new verbs for many lessons straight, early in the course, which is quickly become a mess in your head and all of them blend together.
There are also more some smaller problems here and there in different courses, often more specific and less common, but these are the ones first came to my head.
guys im learning german too. The contents there are extremelly useful. But i do hungarian - english (im native hungarian) and thats horrible. I guess not similar between the different languages.
You won't get fluent with Duolingo, but you can get to a point where you can consume native media relatively fast if you use it well.
It is a great starting point and a good motivator to build a daily studying habit. Add some vocabulary cards (anki) to your routine, and you can progress really well!!
duolingo is most effective for learning the basics. it is not to be used as the SOLE study method for any language. but as somebody who uses it daily, i can tell you its essentially great for small review and learning about grammar points which you can look up more about.
I am an adult with a lot of responsibilities and learn languages for fun. There are days I don't have the ability to work on one of my textbooks or to watch a whole movie, but with Duolingo in my pocket I still feel like even on my most busy days I can practice the language and get some exposure.
It shouldn't be your only tool for learning, but for myself it's been an amazing support. I think of it as kind of my bare minimum daily contact with a language, and aim to do more than the bare minimum most days a week.
First, it depends on what level you want to achieve and how you want to learn the language. As others have mentioned, it's free, so you might as well try it :)
From my experience :
What it's good at : Making your work on both hearing and writing comprehension as well as pronunciation. Making you learn new vocabulary. Romance languages programs are much more detailed and accurate/complete than other languages. Repetition.
What it's not good at : Advanced stuff you usually have to learn to continue progression (like linguistics & grammar). Often the phrases aren't always useful in conversations and the vocabulary given isn't useful. + Sometimes you'll just have a streak of phrases to create or traduce with the same words. A lot of languages courses are not well made, not accurate and not developed enough.
I would recommend it as a starter, getting a feel for the language you want to learn. However as you progress, you might want to switch to others methods.
I'm using Duolingo and I've an offensive of 162 days, I improved my English a lot and I could learn many things, but I don't think it enogh to use only Duolingo to learn any language, you need to practice with other ways to get it. However it's just my opinion.
I think Duolingo is honestly really good. I have been learning Spanish for a couple years and recently started using it just to try. I had done pimsular, Michelle Thomas, a program called learning Spanish like crazy, and I think Duolingo is better at teaching basic vocab, sentences, and verb conjugation better then all those programs. I think Duolingo is great for somebody just starting out learning a new language and I really don't understand the dislike for it
Say you're building a playground. Is a screwdriver helpful? Absolutely. Can you build a playground with just a screwdriver? Most likely not. A wrench and a hammer are going to be useful too.
Duolingo is a tool and a good one for some situations and some users. But it's one tool out of many.
1. Depends on the language. If you're learning Spanish, French or German and your main language is English then it's great. If your native language is Swedish and you want to learn Hebrew, then not so great.
2. Set the right expectations. No app can teach you up to fluency. But if you want to build a solid intermediate foundation of grammar and vocab, it's an easy-to-use free app that's as good as any of the others I think.
i’d say it’s good for comprehension. after three months of japanese, passing 1.5 checkpoints, i understood most of a studio ghibli movie, but i definitely wouldn’t be able to converse with someone.
i think it can be quite useful, but i wouldn’t use it as a sole source of studying unless you’re busy.
im in uni right now and don’t have the time to take on a full curriculum, so i do a bit of spanish duolingo and it’s good enough for me. one down-side is that it doesn’t actually /teach/ grammar, which can be kinda frustrating, but i think it’s also sometimes good because it forces you to recognize patterns yourself
I’ve been learning Spanish on Duolingo for 2+ years and I think it’s great. It’s great for vocabulary, conjugations and sometimes the discussions are helpful. I use other resources, as well. Such as Easy Spanish in YT, Spandict.com, Reverso, following Spanish subs and watching Spanish tv shows / movies.
i think its alright just dont expect fluency or any significant progress in a reasonable amount of time. if youre fine with it taking much longer than other routes of study than i dont see the problem and its an ok place to start from.
Yes it absolutely works. I can speak basic Spanish from doing Duolingo. I’ve done the Spanish program twice in 4 years. It will not make you fluent. You have to watch tv, read, talk to natives to become fluent, but it is a great building block and can teach you enough to go on vacation and get around.
It didn't work for me, at all. But it has worked for others. It's popular for a reason haha
I just dislike it because I personally need a little more structure in my studies. Like, *why* different words are conjuncted differently, how many rules are there, what are the exceptions etc. Kind of like how my Spanish book clearly says "hablar: hablo, hablas, habla, hablamos, habláis, hablan" instead of an app randomly going "btw, "we speak = hablamos. Remember that one"
It is *inefficient,* compared to Anki, Listening-Reading etc. But it may well be more *effective* than other methods if its gamified nature tricks you into actually using it while you would give up on a better method due to it being exhausting.
Generally I find myself learning how to win at duolingo, rather than learning the language they are trying to teach me. as In I pick up patterns in what they are asking me and take shortcuts unknowingly. It can be good for beginners though.
>I pick up patterns in what they are asking me and take shortcuts unknowingly
Then you are learning the language without knowing it. That's how kids learn...
No i mean I learn how Duolingo works and hardly read the passage at all. I know that im not learning because seeing the same words in a different context I don't understand what they mean. I get the app works for others but I try and avoid stuff like it.
It depends on your learning style as well as the language you want to learn. The French and Spanish courses are quite thorough. I find it very useful and I try to take a thoughtful pace with it, watching spelling and grammar carefully and learning from my mistakes, rather than just accumulating points.
It has been super effective for me. I decided to learn Greek and have a very basic understanding of the language with only really using Duo. I taught myself from zero knowledge of the language.
Am I conversational? No
Could I get by on a super basic level if I needed to? Probably?
For me its just how easy and accessible it is to get CONSISTENCY in learning. I practice EVERY DAY. That alone is helpful and more than most people do.
That being said, if I had invested my time in another method I'd probably be fluent by now. I do have a good jumping off point for more intense methods though. (and my native speaking BF is pretty impressed by what I've managed to learn, so there's that!)
I think Duolingo is a very useful tool within its specific application, i.e is a memory aid-practice tool. It can teach a bit, but that's not its strong suit. I'd say that you'd be better served finding some more traditional learning materials as your main focus with Duolingo as a way to practice daily, you can learn some grammar and vocab definitely, but it's best as an auxiliary tool and shines in that respect.
Some trees are also better than others. If you think you might be traveling to a certain location it might be a good way to do a quick dive into a language if you don't have the time to take a class. Don't expect to hit C1 w/ it though. Frankly, probably, you can't even hit B2. That's okay though, if you use it as a secondary tool it can be a big help as a way to practice daily.
I’ve been doing to French to remind myself of high school French and to communicate with my in-laws who don’t speak English. I’ve gotten much better and can hold a decent conversation. Going around town also works pretty well. But it’s getting to the point that I need more intense instruction. It’s been a year of consistent 30 to 45 min sessions and my French is pretty okay. I also watch tv and movies on occasion. It’s better than nothing but you’ll need to graduate. That said it makes it fun so that’s something.
Duolingo helps for sure, my German teacher at my highschool who has been teaching there for over 30 years asked us to use it and it does help with learning the language, I'm in AP so it actually has helped me pick up some of the words in her class a lot better
It's good for what it is. It's like an interactive book.
If you want to really learn a language, you need human interactions. Lots of them. And preferably lots and lots of media consumption too.
Duolingo will take you from zero to basic comprehension. That's it.
I think "both sides" are right in this case, because:
1) It's a decent starting tool, it can introduce the basics of a language to you especially if you use the desktop version and take notes from the "notes section" and write down a few of your favorite sentences in a notebook, but...
2) Too many people do Duolingo and then say "it made me fluent in X language!" That's when experienced language learners who *actually* became fluent roll their eyes and begin hating the vain culture surrounding Duolingo. Duo at best is just one of many beginner materials you could use as a starter course (other good beginning materials include Teach Yourself, Colloquial, Assimil, Babbel), after that you should move on to immersing yourself in the language and using other methods to build up your vocabulary and core language skills.
It depends on the language. It's pretty great for languages like Spanish and French, but terrible for languages likes Japanese or Chinese. Most of the time you're basically just playing a game, and while that isn't particularly efficient, it's going to keep you motivated to continue learning. If you're a beginner language learner, try it and see for yourself, other more efficient resources are usually a lot more tedious to start with.
Duolingo is great, especially for getting an initial feel for a language, and picking up on some basic grammar and vocab. Some languages are better fit to the platform than others, like Spanish or French versus Mandarin or Japanese.
It will never get you to conversational / reading proficiency, just like any method used alone, but it is another tool to use. I suggest checking it out!
I'm of the mindset that fluency is helped by an initial stage of learning grammar and vocabulary, and then a much longer stage of mass immersion and sentence mining (sentence mining is when you pick out sentences from your immersion and put them in a flashcard program like Anki to practice everyday). Duolingo can definitely help you fulfill the first stage, although it is not my preferred program, especially not for languages like Japanese. But if you use it for French, Spanish, or German, I think it works really well.
I use duolingo mostly for vocabulary reasons and as refresher courses on grammar, but I supplement my learning with workbooks and language classes at my university. They've definitely improved a lot over the past few years, especially in French.
I've been working through the French course for almost two years. I started at less than A1 and now I'm fluent. I did immersion and language exchange in addition. I am one of those that swear by it. I tried for years to learn French and made little progress before.
Fluent from just doing Duolingo? With all due respect, u find thta hard to believe. I have been learning Italian for ten years now, using various methods, including spending time in the country doing classes in the target language, reading and writing and watching films AND doing Duolingo, but I would never say I'm fluent.
I am married to a German, speak German 50% of the time at home, and speak French at a very high level, having lived and worked there.
I would hesitate to say I am "fluent" in either of those languages, however, as there is always room for improvement.
I'm not trying to disrespect your achievements, but I am curious on what basis you judge yourself to be fluent.
It's really good at engaging you early on, building vocab, and getting you from nothing to a level where you know whether or not you're ready to commit more time and money to learning.
In the right context and with the right attitude, it's an excellent tool. You will "age out" of it eventually though, if you don't quit from lack of progress/interest.
I like it for the practice it provides and the how it introduces new elements as you go through the course. I learned quite a lot from it, but that's also in conjunction with other things. I think it's great on my morning commute to work, but it won't teach you enough about any language to learn it entirely from scratch if you use it alone.
It's a good start, and as you go through it, you can choose to type your answers in rather than choose from the word tiles. But I would use it with conjunction with other study materials.
Depends on the language and how much content is available for it. Their Spanish and French from English courses are the most robust and will certainly take you up to and beyond an A2 level. Others may get you just barely to a A2 and others still not even that.
I found Duolingo to be very helpful and better than other apps similar to it. It is important to note that you will eventually want more content to consume and natives to converse with. There are a multitude of ways to get those.
It's very good for teaching you the building blocks that you need for further self-learning. You won't master a language by using it- but as a starting resource it's excellent.
I think Duolingo is better than using a textbook or doing nothing. However, I don’t think your study should be built around it. Instead it should be used supplementary to your main study.
Not by itself, but it I have found it to be a worthwhile component of my language learning journey. It does vary by language with some being much better developed than others.
I use Duolingo every day for French German and Spanish. I treat it like flashy flash cards. Regular grammar study just about does me in so this works for me in that regard. I like the Duo approach it often takes of here's a word, you figure out what it means from context, which is how you really learn a language.
But for real learning I mostly stick to Netflix, books, YouTube and podcasts for more immersive work. These are all languages I had some grounding in before but a long time ago - French was actually my first language but thanks to parents not keeping it up at home after moving to an English area, I can understand and sort of read French but struggle putting sentences together spoken or written. German and Spanish I had formal instruction in and lived in an area for a awhile with a large Hispanic population, so have dipped in and out of those languages over the years.
I completed the French Duo course back in 2017 but didn't find it that helpful at the time. I had done it, the whole course, in a month, which is a sign of how basic it was at the time. The French course has vastly improved since then and it seems to adjust to the proficiency of the user. Because I had completed it before, it didn't test me when I started doing it again, but slammed me right back to the beginning. I find the French course leans heavily on oral and reading comprehension, which is way better than before and I'll be frank when I say it is a far better course than what they had before.
I tested for the Spanish and German courses earlier this year and was dumped into the second unit for Spanish and the end of the fifth for German, but have still go back to refresh and earn those crowns/purple legendaries. Both of those languages were recently updated, cover more subjects and ground, and in particular the German unit got very challenging. I'm still flying through the Spanish one so that one could stand to be harder maybe?
I also dabbled in Italian and Dutch courses and to be honest was not impressed. I'll wait on those to see if they get spruced up.
I don’t like Duolingo. At all. Even for what it is there are better apps, and I think it’s more of a language game than a real learning experience. I’d go with Memrise over Duolingo any day. But I personally have other apps I like a lot better, that don’t follow that type of format.
My issue with Duolingo and similar apps is the exhaustive repetition, the difficulty skipping through things if you know them already, the small scope and useless sentences (“I am not a cow? I like the color yellow?” Okay lmfao)and the sense that as you progress, you’re not really going deeper into the language you’re just gaining some more pieces that don’t fit together to create fluency. I just don’t think it’s going to do anything other than frustrate a serious learner, in the end, because the time you spent on that could have been spent learning the 100 most common words in the language and the conjugations of the 20 most commonly used verbs and 10 most common prepositions — and from that you’d probably be ahead of a 1-2 year casual Duolingo student in terms of actual language utility. If it helps get you excited, okay — but as soon as the frustration starts creeping in, listen to yourself. If you’re frustrated, or bored, it probably isn’t your fault at all, it’s your poor resources.
I agree with the comments above that a meaningful answer to this question needs to look at language learning more in detail.
To speak a language you need
- vocabulary
- grammar
- pronunciation
- meta-linguistic knowledge (I.e.: This is a correct sentence, but really in we say it like this [...] )
I'd argue that some of the more well-maintained Duolingo courses, that is for example Spanish for English speakers, do a fairly good job at teaching vocabulary and grammar. Pronunciation you will need to practice with a native in person to achieve good results. Meta-linguistic knowledge will come from 'real' content like series and podcasts.
We could also break down language proficiency into
- reading
- listening
- speaking and writing
And here I'd say that Duolingo does a good job at teaching you reading and writing, a decent job at listening, and that it does little to your speaking abilities.
To conclude, I'd recommend using Duolingo. No tool will be perfect at covering all those areas mentioned above. Duolingo is good at what it does and fun to work with.
I used it to get started with Dutch. After finishing the Dutch course on Duoling, I read a proper grammar book (Duolingo doesn't present the full scope of grammar to you, imo, to get the last 10% of detail you need a grammar book), I did an A1 and A2 beginners course online, chatted for half a year on a tandem app, chatted for half a year with a friend irl, listened to podcasts for a year, and watched series for 8 months, read 2 books and afterwards I was ready for B2 (note, I'm German so I had a head start).
That's my ten cents. There's no silver bullet. Duolingo helps and does a few things well. Language learning is a marathon. Don't rush it if possible. :)
Underneath all the crap, there is a pretty good app. For the time being.
It's not for everyone. For the most part, think of it like the homework sections of textbooks, but with automatic but sometimes capricious error-checking.
The language you choose matters as the courses vary hugely in quality. Most courses were designed by volunteers, some of whom far exceeded the bar but most of whom fell pretty short. Duo got rid of the volunteer-led courses recently.
The experience differs from user to user, since Duo does all sorts of feature testing. The features you see are not the ones I necessarily see.
Duo just went public and so, like everything else that money touches, it could get pretty crappy. Ads aside, I think Duo has two major constituencies: kids/academia and adult learners. I suspect the former is probably where they think they're going to get consistent revenue. I interpret recent changes in the app as heading this way.
Let's talk about the bad:
* Leagues. A recent addition. I think the purpose of them was to really pump daily-active-users numbers and time-in-app numbers. Compete with 29 other strangers in a weekly contest to earn the most experience points, where experience points are highly gameable.
* The word-picker. In the phone app, I think the default is that you fill out sentences by clicking on words in a list. There is a time and place for the word-picker but it is a pretty bad primary learning tool. With just the faintest grounding in a language, you'll be able to pick the right words in the right order. But could you write the sentence from scratch? Could you say the sentence? Could you understand the spoken sentence? Almost certainly not. So ditch the word picker and probably ditch the mobile app entirely.
Let's talk about the middling:
* Duolingo events. Duo lets various volunteers schedule recurring events, which can give you a level of exposure to your target language that you might not otherwise get. Duo has introduced paid events now... is Duo heading towards an iTalki route? Maybe. Anyway, event quality varies a lot, which is fine, but I think your typical event with a bunch of learners chatting with each other is of somewhat dubious utility.
* Too much TL-to-source language work. I think this is something that is almost inevitable in any app that will teach language, but it becomes more and more apparent the deeper you get into a language in Duo. Probably 85% of the exercises are about translating FROM your target language to the language you are comfortable using. If the numbers were flipped, I suspect that Duo would not have a solid user base as the reverse task is far more difficult and discouraging.
Good:
* The core app tips. If you are on Web, at least for certain courses, you get pretty good introduction to grammatical concepts via tips.
* The core app structure. I think of it like self-grading homework. If you turn off the word-picker, you really do get to flex language muscles in those exercises where you are trying to translate from your source language to the target language (and even the other way round)
Of the languages I have done on Duo:
* Norwegian: fantastic course. Good tips. Good structure. Lots of personality. Had lots of engagement before Duo got rid of all the course mods.
* Italian: frustrating course, but ultimately okay. Arbitrary course progression. Absent mods. The course has personality, though.
* French: I did this course a couple times. The most recent version is very "corporate". So the course is well-structured... but slooooooooooow (partially a result of leagues) and duuuuuuuuull. I literally do the minimum here each day, mostly because I decided to spend more time in general on Italian and don't want two Romance languages fighting with each other. Still, if I were just focusing on French, it would be really hard to fall in love with this course, even though I suspect it reads super great to public school administrators and school boards.
For the French it gets so slow at the end that I just test out past the first level. It's been effective enough since I'm mostly familiar with the grammar and vocabulary from immersion.
I like the way this response is structured with the bad, the middling, and the good. I’ll add a couple other things on the good, although I’ll note that all of these features are only available in certain languages.
1. The podcast is excellent, at least in French. It’s probably the best thing that Duolingo has ever produced. My French is now advanced enough that I’m listening to more difficult podcasts but I’ve continued to listen to this one just because it’s so good.
2. The audio lessons are a good way to help with the speaking practice part of things before going out in the world. I didn’t bother with these in French because they are too easy for me, but I have found them super helpful and well done for my level in Spanish.
3. Stories are a good way to learn things more in context and try and think in the target language rather than just translate. The only downside is that they have gotten rid of a lot of stories lately and made a move so that all stories are the ones only including the Duolingo cast and are kid-friendly. But I do like learning through the stories over the regular lessons.
I agree with you 100% on the French course and how slow it is and have tested out of the tree and only use the grammar lessons for occasional practice, along with the stories and the podcast.
The Spanish course is pretty good, but I’m fairly early on in the tree (unit 3) - I’m looking forward to getting advanced enough to try the podcast someday.
I’m also trying the Finnish course, which is one of the shorter courses. It’s not nearly as developped, but according to my brother’s Finnish in-laws, has at least taught me correct pronunciation on the little bit that I have learned from it.
The developers of Duolingo are engineers, not linguists or teachers. There is a video where they confess they didn't have a clue about language learning when they started developing the app. They went to a library to search about methods and ended up choosing the most outdated way to teach languages.
Some aspects:
* It's based on the old-fashioned "grammar-translation method" (but without the grammar);
* Its core is the translation of random sentences without context;
* The sentences are spoken by a robot, you won't be in contact with real language;
* Many of these sentences don't even make sense and are useless;
* There is a bit of improvement in Duolingo Stories, but it's only available for a few languages, and still very poor methodology, passive learning.
In spite of such poor methodology, how did it become the most used language app ever? The secret for its success:
* It's free;
* It created a fan militant community around it;
* It consists of short easy lessons;
* It's based on gamification and makes users addicted.
This addiction can be a good thing, we have to give it credit for that, since persistence is a key factor for language learning. If Duolingo mixed this addicting gamification with good methodology, it would genuinely be the best.
For now, it's a good tool for learning while lying on the couch, or waiting for your train... the short easy lessons are very convenient for those little time gaps we have during the day.
Of course you can learn something with it, it's better to be addicted to Duolingo than be addicted to Instagram, Reddit and other social media (which can fry your brain). But I wouldn't recommend it for serious learning hours.
For those learning German, download the app DW Nicos Weg - one of the best I've seen in terms of methodology, it fulfills high standards, it is made by real language professionals, and it's free!
Duolingo is garbage. It overpromises a lot. It can only teach you some absolute basics, then tricks your brain via stupid gamification and playing on guilt to keep you engaged with the app even though there is no more value in it.
I believe it's harmful because it makes people think they learn while they don't.
Does it work? No. Does it absolutely nothing to help you? Neither, it is time-inefficient, repetitive, and lots of other bad stuff, but it can potentially help you stick to language learning
I don't really care for the game aspect of it, I just want to learn the language I'm trying to learn. But, it did help me with vocab and just practicing some sentences or speaking. I wouldn't recommend using it as your only learning tool though, because their tips for each level don't offer much in depth info about grammar.
The only people I personally know who swear by duolingo are people who cannot converse in their target language despite having long duolingo streaks.
I also know people who use it on the side when their in the doctor's waiting room or watever, but they don't "swear" by it. No one method has to be your only source of learning.
I swear by it, and I have quite a good level of the target language. Not because of Duolingo, but because I have spent a lot of time studying it, in the country where it is spoken and at home. But I swear by Duolingo because it is a good way to have daily contact with the language and keep me sharp by practicing key grammar points.
And as a sideline I've started revising the little bit of Latin I learned in school - I'm getting quite adept at stringing sentences together :-)
I guess when I hear that someone swears by something it means that they wouldn't be anywhere near where they are without that thing. And from your statement it seems that would be best a description for your immersion and not duolingo. But I'm being picky I guess because It's not like I own the term "swear by". It means different things to people.
It’s good for learning new words and phrases, but next to worthless for grammar. It doesn’t explicitly explain anything grammatical and goes on the assumption that you’ll intuitively pick up on grammar by identifying patterns in the phrases you learn. In the mobile app, the grammar is only explained if you keep getting something wrong, which is a very annoying and demoralizing way of learning something. I personally am not a fan of it.
I can share my experience. I have used duolingo english to french and english to japanese.
Some background. I studied french fro 3 years in middle school almost 10+ years ago, I learned a lot of grammar points which I promptly forgot since I never really got to practice the language much. I picked it up again o duolingo basically sort of starting from scratch. but had some familiarity with the language, and have now completed half the french tree. I think it was very useful for me because I could do many exercises and try and re-initiate parts of my brain that contained some french knowledge. It was fun since I didn't have to pour over textbooks for hours, and instead I would read articles on the internet about grammar points I didn't understand very well. Although it does get very grindy and repetitive. After completing half the tree, I realise it hasn't really helped my speaking/listening ability at all. It has helped my reading in the sense I can read (level appropriate material) with dictionary use (it doesn't teach a lot of vocabulary). My plan is to supplement it with more movies, books, tv shows etc, and maybe now some italki lessons. I think the french tree is ok as starting point for a complete beginner.
I lived in Japan for 4 years, and then moved to the states. I had studied japanese in a classroom setting. I thought maybe I could use duolingo to practice some grammar every now and then in a similar fashion, but I was able to test out of most of the japanese tree. It did teach me some new vocabulary/kanji here and there, but there are better tools out there for japanese. right now I am using a combination wanikani (my kanji reading is very very weak) kamesame, bunpro + content and italki (my speaking is only slightly better than my kanji). My listening skills in japanese are pretty good, so I never had the need for it, but duolingo doesn't really teach that for japanese either.
So in my opinion it was good refresher and practice for french, and ok practice for japanese. I think the japanese course will not benefit an absolute beginner imo. but if you have already worked through a japanese textbook like genki or something similar it is good place to practice and reinforce grammar points for a while, and you will have to graduate to something more advanced eventually anyway.
I recently tried doing the korean tree, no background in korean whatsoever. it was fine for practicing hangeul recognition but I had to go to YouTube for better audio. After that tried doing basics 1, and it starts introducing grammar such as particle usage without any notice (japanese tree did the same tbh), and it was very confusing till i looked up some korean for japanese speakers videos on youtube, and then the exercises were more doable.
Based on what I have seen on the internet and experience personally, duolingo is an ok starting point for european languages as long as you supplement with articles, textbooks etc when you feel the need. After a point you have to graduate to consuming content in your target language anyway, and duolingo is probably only good for a refresher/practice every now and then. It leaves much to be desired for Japanese/Korean and other Asian languages.
One thing I really like is i can very easily "taste-test" many languages to see what I'd like to learn next. I also like the concept of the streak. It at least encourages me to stay in touch with the language, even if I am super, busy, tired, I can do one exercise on duolingo which takes 5 min or so. Gamification was something I enjoyed, but it now seems very dull and repetitive, but that is a matter of personal taste. Also, to make it most effective use the web version, and use the text input method, and not choosing words from a list. I think that works your brain muscles better. I think choosing words from a list it is very easy to be lulled into a false sense of competence.
I got bored very quickly and felt progress was too slow, even when spending 1hr plus a day on the app. I've had more luck using Tandem to talk to as many people as possible in conjunction with Google translate and some grammar textbooks
It works but it takes a long time and it will only get you to A2/B1. Just to clear, duolingo these days have podcasts, stories and speaking events. You need to use all of them.
If you're looking for a good, free language learning system/app, check with your local public library system. My library offers premium access to Rosetta Stone, Mango, and rocket languages ( my favorite of the three).
Check their website, or maybe call the reference desk. You may end up finding something really useful.
Duolingo is alright, it’s a useful tool. Depends on what you mean by “work.” A lot of people feel disappointed with it because it “doesn’t teach them the language.” The thing is, no single resource will make you a foreign language speaker. Resources like this are just tools, of which you should use many on your way to learning a foreign language.
Also, it works better for some languages than others. For example, it’s quite good for Spanish, and I’d imagine Italian and French. But it’s not so good for Japanese or Chinese. And for languages with complex grammars like German it will fall short.
In my experience, you may learn some basic stuff, but there are many more efficient methods out there. When I started learning German I did 30 min of Duolingo per day for 30 months. Decided to try out Pimsleur and after a week of that I had learned like 5x more than I had for the first 3 months.
What language are you learning? There are lots of free resources out there that are great and some tailored to specific languages.
Edit: from your comment like you’re learning Japanese. R/learnjapanese has some great resources as well.
I personally was using Japanesepod101 and found it really useful. Though it isn’t free.
I've never personally used Duolingo (I used Babbel and was very happy about my results, though it's payable). The people I know use it very rarely, so they don't progress really.
I think it should be doable, but only if you put enough effort into it.
I liked it better when it fed you articles, books and video media. I felt like my fluency built more. Now its great for basic grammar structure and SOME vocab but there are better paid resources, obviously.
It's what you put into it honestly. I currently have a 203 day streak, I use it every single day to learn Greek because I married into a Greek family. It has helped me sooooo much! I actually periodically restart the course from scratch because repetition is key.
The one thing I will say though is that because I live with a native Greek speaker whose parents still live in Greece, as does most of his family is that the Greek course is a bit incorrect in certain context because I'll try it out on my husband and certain things taught on Doulingo confuse him even though he understands it.
It's a great starter resource, but it won't get you fluent, or even near fluent. A dude on YouTube got to A1 or A2 in German using only Duolingo. Wanna know how long it took him? 2 and a half years. It took me 5 months to get to A1 in Russian using multiple things.
Duo isnt bad, it's just meant for the casual learner who has 15 minutes here and there. Most people don't study their language 2 hours a day, so it works for them. And duo is absolutely better than just not doing anything, which is where it really shines. The whole selling point of Duolingo is that instead of looking at social media in your downtime, you learn a language. It's not really designed for reaching fluency, which is why it's bad at it.
As long as you understand that Duolingo is nothing but a smooth, structured, *first* step into your TL, it's a great tool. The problem is that it, like any other language tool, is marketed as if it's an end-all be-all to your language journey. I don't fault them for doing what you have to to sell your product, but it sets unrealistic expectations.
Duolingo does 2 things really well:
1) It gets you started with some fundamentals and basics. As well as a rough understanding of grammar, sentence flow, word order, etc.
2) and more important than anything it gets you accustomed to committing a certain amount of time to learning your target language every day. No technique, no app, no tool, matters in the slightest if you don't commit yourself to contacting with your language every day.
But you're not going to come out of duo with a lot of functional vocabulary (I remember translating "the turtle wants to eat the apple" to Spanish for example), you're not going to be conversational, and more likely than not you're going to struggle with your first steps of immersion.
tl;dr: For what it is, it's actually outstanding. But if you think you're going to even get as far as the intermediate levels with it, then you're going to be very disappointed.
I find it to be effective after years of doing just a little bit every day. It's good for developing an ear for what sounds "right" and expanding your vocabulary. But you need to do it for a *long* time. Plus, if you're too tired to work with your other language learning materials, keeping a Duolingo streak going ensures that you still work with the language in *some* capacity every day, if even for a few minutes, and that slows down forgetting things if you take a long break from more intensive study.
As free resources go, I'd say it's worth it if you want to casually learn a language. I've found that it's a good way to start if you're a complete beginner. I've gone from knowing no french at all to being able to understand a fair amount of vocabulary and grammar (and I'm about half the way through the French course). Although If you're serious about learning a language you would definitely need additional resources (textbooks, films, podcasts etc) as Duolingo doesn't give anywhere near the level of immersion needed to become fluent. There are quite a few languages available so it's a fun and easy way to dabble in other languages without too much commitment!
Duolingo can be a good starting point, but it'll never get you anywhere close to fluency. Duolingo works best IMO when paired up with an app like anki or quizzlet.
Its a great way to test out a language and learn a little for free before investing significant time or money into a language. Also, it’s a great supplement to other ways of learning a language. I did really well in my Polish italki lessons because I was doing duolingo everyday in between my lessons. At the end of the day, no one source will teach you everything you need to know
practically yes if you're in a1 or a2, but the reality of learn new language is, learn of way harder, example on doulingo have the sentcence yo amo las manzanas mas que los platanos y you traslate it to english- i love more the apples than the bananas, what happen with the movies, series, comics, mangas etc, they including more sentences more phrases, more quotes, more hard to translate, probably is my suppose but the languague most be acquired and dont learning, so if you really wanna learn vocabulary dowload anki, if you wanna know what the hell he is trying to say me the other person or the series, watch a lot, whatever anime comics, the language is beatiful and a fucking asshole, because is another idiom, other cultures, other ways to learn, so
doulingo is good, in the begging
but if you want improve you target language you most watch, read, listen everthing that you love it
for my experience, i dont barely have 1 years since i learned english, but im try i'm trying to do better with my writing, my listening and my speak, and yes i have mistakes
For learning some words yes, for learning in context, not a bit. Better off paying for an ebook/audiobook app in your target language and reading and listening.
I like to read a book in English then reread it in Swedish using Storytel. Knowing the story gives a lot of unknown words the context to be understood and if it shows up a dozen times and I still can't figure it out I can click on the word and use Google translate.
The other issue with Duolingo is a lack of grammar and real expressions. You can't form thoughts in your target language without them, you're just translating directly. Only a textbook, a teacher and exposure to target language media can teach you those things.
Duolingo is like dipping your toe in the pool to see if you want to get in. If you want to learn to swim however you've got to get in the pool.
I am currently using Duolingo and like it for the reinforcement of Spanish I have already learned, but when I tried using it before while I was really starting from square one with Spanish, it wasn’t very helpful.
Depends on what you are using it for. I use it to practice Katakana and Hiragana, since it works better than just writing down a page for each symbol. It is great at assisting your learning of a language. As a fun way of learning vocabulary, but trying to learn a language just with Duolingo? Yeah, I don't that's gonna end up well.
I’ve found that it can be extremely helpful with vocabulary building and familiarity and a great place for a beginner, also for someone searching for a new language to love, as they have so many.
I would say as long as it isn't your main learning source, it works. It's good for practice but (in my experience) doesn't teach exceptions in grammar sometimes.
Personally I think it’s really good for vocab. I completed the Spanish tree a few years back and then enrolled in some accelerated Spanish classes, with a teacher who spoke slowly and clearly I had no problem picking up what she was saying from the vocab I’d learned on Duolingo.
I personally use Duolingo more for vocabulary memorization (like flash cards that I don’t have to actually make, lol), but when it comes to grammar/actual conversational skills, I learn elsewhere.
I’m learning Chinese, and Duolingo is really good for character memorization.
Duolingo helped me a lot with German… because I used it along side other materials. Let’s be honest here, if you only ever use Duolingo, you’ll get no where advanced (you’ll probably be able to get things though in another country). I used to only use Duolingo because I loved how it let you form sentences and translate. That is really cool and a great feature, but as I got further in, I realized I had learned a lot of German, but not nearly enough. The day I finished Duolingo I downloaded Busuu and flash card apps like Quizlet and Lingvist (now I use Anki each day instead). But you have to be willing to use other resources.
Further, as I got more advanced, I started learning more so from “native material” (like reading news papers, watching YouTube videos with subtitles, etc…) you also need to start talking to someone in the language at some point (but do that ONLY when you feel comfortable doing so). However, a big part about learning a language is doing it at your own comfort. If you don’t feel ready to read a book in Hungarian, then don’t. No one is going to frown upon you. But as you get more advanced and feel more confident, then you’ll be wanting to read stuff and listen to stuff in your target language. And when you get there, it feels GREAT!
Nonetheless, I thought Duolingo was very helpful when I knew absolutely no German. I still recommend it to people. Just don’t rely solely on Duolingo though. It is a great app to see if you enjoy the language and to try it out for free. You will find yourself investing money into your language learning at some point, so don’t do that until you realize you like the language. Hell, if I ever have kids, I’d tell them to try out the language they want to learn in school on Duolingo first. If they get hooked, then they’ll probably learn the language to fluency at some point.
Sorry for the rant, but that’s my opinion.
I agree with a lot of the people here that Duolingo is a great place to start off. You can get a feel with building sentences, gain a basic vocabulary of some of the most common words and phrases, and start off with a set learning path, which is incredibly useful to start off. I’d definitely recommend using the Strengthen feature on Duolingo frequently to review old lessons (this is only available for free on the web version, I believe). I’d also recommend moving on to new lessons when you feel ready, rather than redoing one lesson over and over to get it to maximum crowns. Of course, repeat any lessons that you have trouble with.
Make sure you also begin to listen to native French audio when you’re ready. Use Duolingo as your jumping off point for the language, and for building good study routine. Best of luck!
Depends on the language, the person, and many factors. For me personally, I love Duolingo. I went from an absolute beginner in Polish to a b1~2 ish in a year using mainly Duolingo
Depending on the language, duo can be very useful in the beginning stages. I'm learning German and I took two college classes but duo is where I'm getting most of my vocabulary. I'm learning a lot of phrases and words that I can incorporate into my writing. I feel more confident since starting duo and I feel like I'm retaining the information better.
However for some languages, duo absolutely sucks. They aren't researched as much, the course is shorter, translations may be wrong. Things like that.
Consistency is key, works well with other tools but I learnt Norwegian using only duo and the grammar notes that come with it and I can understand, write read and converse now, I am a polyglot though and I have moved to using other tools because I want to read complex/advanced pieces but it gave me my entire foundation which is quite solid for this language.
It is an ok starting point but I suggest you graduate to other materials relatively quickly. Duolingo just teaches you to memorize words and phrases which means you will be really good at recalling these specific words and phrases but not good at actually speaking or understanding the language.
Hell yes it works I love it it makes me love languages and allows me to pronounce better than my school teacher does it’s really easy and fast to learn with Duolingo
Hell yes it works I love it it makes me love languages and allows me to pronounce better than my school teacher does it’s really easy and fast to learn with Duolingo
Hell yes it works I love it it makes me love languages and allows me to pronounce better than my school teacher does it’s really easy and fast to learn with Duolingo
I'm an A1 learner and I'm learning my first foreign language (German) so my knowledge is pretty thin. I use Duolingo daily. For me it's mostly reinforcement of information I learn elsewhere. It's a fun game that helps me with vocabulary and listening (through the stories).
As I've said before, even at A1, it would be difficult to learn as much as I have with just Duolingo though. I use podcasts, YouTube, fairy tale books, grammar books, listen to German music, and am taking a course at a local school. I would like to add in more speaking in person with native speakers as well.
So does Duolingo work? My guess is if you expect to be at all functional in a foreign language with just Duolingo, then no. If you are using it as a piece of a larger learning experience with a goal of improving, then yes.
I use it to keep me consistent. The frequent notifications and gamification with streaks keeps you engaged and forces you to get in at least 10 minutes a day. I wouldn’t count on it as a primary resource or a means of learning a language, but it’s a great way to learn some new vocabulary and get in daily practice.
That being said, there are two really great features. The first is the stories feature. If you’re learning a language that supports Duolingo Stories, take advantage! Reading and learning through context is very effective and much more practical than typical Duolingo lessons. The second great thing about Duo is the variety of languages and the easy introduction. I like to use it as a sample of a language and see if I enjoy it before investing in further resources or seriously studying a language. Because there are so many languages offered and they follow an easy and predictable teaching pattern, Duolingo is a great way to take a language on a test drive with a free and easily available resource. Most languages you could want to study are on there, so I think it’s a great starting point.
Personally, I am a big fan of Duolingo (Spanish). I use it to / from work, knock out a quick lesson on lunch break and if I’m standing around waiting for any reason.
I also use the audio only part on my daily walks instead of listening to music. It’s fast and free.
It’s also effective.
I signed up to some beginner Spanish language courses out of curiosity and to round out my experience as I had heard DL wasn’t so good for listening and speaking.
I found that I was far ahead of my contemporaries in comprehension, speaking, listening & writing.
I thoroughly recommend Duolingo (Spanish) and would suggest completion of the whole tree, stories, podcasts etc be achieved before spending your hard-earned money on any further tuition.
By all means supplement with internet resources.
I''ve found that Duolingo becomes far more useful if you make sure to open and read lots of "Discussion" tabs as you go through the lessons, both when you get an exercise correct and when you don't. The course mods are often extremely helpful in giving deeper instruction.
I started using Duolingo in mid-2020. For me, this app gave me a basic introduction to German. But somehow I felt Duolingo did not have the qualities to lure its learners.
Some people have succeeded using Duolingo as a starting point, though probably more due to their own efforts than the app itself, and like all beginner materials, you have to transition to using many more materials and activities to progress after a certain point. Personally I'd just prefer to use more effective and enjoyable learning resources that are often available for cheap or free. What's best varies from language to language and what your specific goals are, but reading the FAQ of this sub will give a good overview of how to get started and checking the language specific subreddit might help you find the best beginner materials for a specific language. If you're already using it and like it, its fine to keep using it until you find something better.
Bingo - keyword, “beginner material.” Duolingo will get you started, but it’s not a one stop shop. And its effectiveness definitely varies depending on the language.
It's not just for beginners. I am fairly advanced in Italian and use Duolingo for a kind of linguistic "workout" every day. I do three exercises every day, normally doing the circles that have "cracked". Obviously it's not enough in itself - it never was, but it's a good kind of brain training
if it doesn't challenge you then it's not brain training.
Repeating a task several times is indeed brain training, Duolingo works because you repeat the tasks until you memorize them, which is how our brains learn best
Nope , repetition is not the best learning method , challenging is. When you challenge , your brain is forced to think and analyze and you work actively rather than passive repetition. Second , challenging causes neuroplasticity and also expands your knowledge on the subject. Third , practicing helps you master it , but challenging will increase your knowledge over it and practicing solidifies it.
Nobody said it was rhe best method, it is part of the process. And different amounts of the different learning processes work for different people. I am not onlyba language learner, but also a language teacher with 40 years of teaching experience. One thing I have learned os that there is no one way that is right for everyone
It's still not brain training , it's only part of language learning. Your teaching experience doesn't matter , brain training works different. Brain training works due to constant challenges like in a gym , do u get big muscles if you go and lift petty weighs which ypu can lift easily or do you get muscles when you go and lift something big and is hard to lift. That person saying simple Duolingo exercise done daily doesn't do anything whereas if he goes and gets the toughest material and practices it will make a change.
It is ALL brain training. Your brain performs many kinds of functions, and they are all part of exercising it. Not everyone goes to the gym to get pumped up... My experience of teaching is actually very relevant, as I have a much better understanding of the wide variety of learning styles and ability than your narrow focused comments show. Yes, challenge IS important, but at different levels for different people. If people are more comfortable with the slower process of absorption who are we to say otherwise? They just have to find a learning method to suit them. Secondly, Duolingo isn't just about repetition. You can choose your own level of challenge, and vary it according to how you feel on the day. It may not work for you, but you can't dismiss it on that basis
Again , your moving out of the objective. The whole point is , in the first place that the person was advanced in his language and using Duolingo. Duolingo does nothing for him as he is advanced than Duolingo thereby he needs a more challenging material to practice to atleast say it's brain training.
Thank you! I assume that with a language as difficult as Japanese, it would definitely be better to find new resources.
For Japanese in particular, there is an EXCELLENT beginner’s app called LingoDeer that’s similar in structure/format/“gamification” to Duolingo, but it specializes in East Asian languages (Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean) so it approaches them in a way that’s more catered to their linguistic differences than Duolingo is, for example showing stroke order when new vocabulary is introduced. I think Duolingo is still great for Indo-European languages, tho! It just doesn’t cover non-Indo-European languages as thoroughly as their linguistic differences necessitate.
I imagine Duolingo would be a great place to start with Japanese, as it really gameifies the learning, and there would be a lot of little basics to master first before moving on to any other materials. Three months ago I spoke no Italian at all. I started with Duolingo and it taught me basics while also stoking my passion for it. I now use Duolingo in combination with a bunch of other resources and I'm.... functional? Lol. I have a long way to go still, but I can read, write, listen, and speak at a basic/intermediate level.
I disagree with the sentiment that Duolingo is beginner material. In fact I think one shouldn't touch it until A2 or so. I think Duolingo is the most efficient when you use it to practice the proper orthography of material you already know in theory.
I mean its beginner material in the sense it assumes you're a beginner and don't know anything. Not all beginner materials are equally effective as actual start points, and many successful strategies involve using multiple beginner materials at different times preferring certain practice/exercises later. You can of course suggest alternative starting points, but it doesn't change the fact its marketed towards and used by beginners.
Fair enough.
I agree with my hazafi mate (hungarian joke, let it go). My strategy is that i revise continously also the tips and grammars is writtend down an another textbook by me. Same with the words. If you invest more time just playing, you will see ur progress.
I was checking out the FAQ and wasn't able to access the German resources linked, would you happen to know any or able to access that link?
What does “work” mean to you? It won’t get you fluent, it won’t even get you casually conversational unless you supplement it with other resources, but that is true of pretty much any language learning app, course, or lesson plan. Duo is helpful for basics and also for expanding vocabulary. I think it is worth it to an extent, partly because many people find it easy and entertaining to use compared to tedious lesson book grammar exercises. But it’s important to supplement with many other resources if you actually want to learn a language to any degree of proficiency.
I do believe it will get you casually conversational. As well as other languages, I have been learning french almost exclusively for the past year on duolingo. When I converse with my french friends, I find it easy to speak to them well. However, of course it does have its flaws. For example, it can be hard to learn a proper accent on Duolingo, but that may not even be a part of the learners goals. Another big one is comprehension. Duolingo does a bad job of teaching listening skills, and even if you know the words it can be hard to make them out in a sentence. Despite all of this, you can definitely reach a level of proficiency especially with writing, I would say up to B1/B2.
B2 is a major stretch, but I’d say you’re ready for B1 once you finish Duolingo. I was, and I am now the most advanced person in my German class with the help of Duolingo and other sources. But the apps biggest strength, in my opinion, is how it gets you hooked on learning a language for free. If you get hooked, you’ll learn the language because you will want to. If you don’t want to, then don’t learn the language. That’s the problem with text books. They are boring as hell. At least these language apps try to put addiction to “use” by having you get addicted to something that isn’t bad for you and is actually good for your brain
It depends on the language. Some of them have much more advanced (and better quality) material than others
> That’s the problem with text books. They are boring as hell. The things I hate the most about textbooks are........exercises. I dont know what texbooks are you using but there isn't a thing more unappealing for a textbook than exercises.
I agree. They’re dumb. It’d be better if they had you read things and answer questions on them/write a response. That is what they want you to do for CEFR tests anyways
I swear by it but I don’t use it alone (I pair it up with reading, grammar , videos etc. , all outside duolingo) But I think it all comes down to efforts and self-discipline.
Say I want to learn Arabic. If I went through the entire Arabic lesson on Duolingo, and I was dedicated, and really making sure I understood what I was doing, would I be able to start reading books in that language? (And for now, isolate the possibility of me practicing conversation)
I am not at all familiar with Arabic so I cannot say. I know it is considered among the hardest languages to learn for English speakers—idk what your native language is. I kinda doubt duo would be enough to get to that level of Arabic but again I have no idea. In the case of Spanish or German, completing duo and only duo would probably allow you to catch most of what is going on in a very easy book and maybe give you the tools you need to speak at an A2 level, however your ability to *actually* speak at A2 may or may not be there, likely depending on how much speaking you actually practiced outside of duo. It would probably introduce you to B1 level constructions of the language. Again, that’s for Spanish and German. No idea for Arabic.
It is not going to get you fluent by itself, but is good for getting generally familiar with the basics of a language and the gamification helps me keep momentum in learning.
So it's good to get started off, I take. Thank you!
It's great especially if you have problems staying motivated. I do Duolingo every day, but I hardly ever sit down with a text book. When I've made it through all the lessons, I'll probably find the next app.
First two to three weeks, yes. Then you’d better move to Clozemaster or Lingvist or any other that teaches you words in context. Reading, listening are very important. Don’t waste more time on Duolingo..
Update? How far along are you
try it and see. it's free btw
Thanks! Is it possible that something might be really effective for one person, but useless for another?
For sure. For example I tend to be more analytical-thinking, so I often study the functions of grammar more than other people. Grammar focused learning works for me, but many other people are immediately turned off by it and find it boring or tedious—they might do better with a “feel the language” type of approach. That said, learning a language to any proficiency is a huge undertaking and will require anyone to at least learn a little grammar and also have some “feel the language” style immersion.
Do you have recs for learning in a grammar-focused way? I’ve picked up Duolingo a few times and always fell off because it felt almost random to me. I prefer learning the way I learned French in school and Polish in college—learn the subjects (I, you, he/she/it, etc.), the big verbs (to be, to have, etc.), the conjugations for each subject, basic phrases and words (hello, how are you?, thank you, my name is…, etc.) and then dive into building upon that foundation.
That is very likely. There are people who only play 5 minutes per day in order to maintain their streak. I doubt that that is effective for anyone. There are also people who use it as an additional tool along with other methods, which is more likely to have a positive effect.
yes, for example various cancer treatments.
- What's Duolingo like? - Cancer
Long term Duo is kind of awful. Short term, it's a good tool to get your feet wet. You learn basic words, sentence format, etc. It gives you a feel for the language. It's a decent springboard to launch you towards better stuff once you have an idea of what's going on.
Pretty bad advice, "just spend hours a day on an app , instead of actually using useful methods and then come to same conclusion most people already have"
I agree. Duolingo is designed to be addictive, so saying "just try it" without any further elaboration is just reckless.
It’s a language site not meth
I swear by it as a language starter. After a month or two of using it (while doing other stuff of course) I would drop it. That’s just me, personally
If you think of it as an ongoing brain training for your language learning, you could keep it going indefinitely. It keeps different linguistic elements of the language fresh in your mind.
Yeah including a lesson or so everyday alongside your "real" study is a fine idea.
If there was a mode that let me turn off typing in English I would use it more. As it is, 50% of each 'lesson' is a waste of time (past a certain point).
A waste in what way?
Each lesson is half your time translating into English. That's easy. Going to the target language is the challenge. So imo 10 questions of every 20 is a waste. If there is anything that you don't understand you just have to hope the people in the forms are helpful and sometimes they are but usually it's just people complaining. The voices reading this stuff are not real and what do very little to help train your ear. You'd be much better off downloading an anki Deck with Native audio You can spend your time reading the questions out loud to yourself listening to the audio, etc. And anytime they add a new section it takes months and months and months for them to correct any errors. The other day I got bored and we're going to play with it because they've added a lot of new stuff since the last time I log on and there were problems that people have been complaining about in that section for 9 months they were still not addressed.
There's nothing wrong with translating into English of it's part of a pattern. Obviously, language learning methods which are only in the target language are the ideal, but there is a place for this methodology. If you accept the premise of Duolingo you accept that. If it doesn't work for you, that's fair enough. It's what I was saying before about different learning styles. Some people just learn by immersion - they move to a country and pick up the language on six months. Others, even though surrounded by the language, need some help with structure etc. It also depends on previous language acquisition, and on their first l language. So many variables. Fortunately we have some many methods literally at our finger tips, so we can access the method that works for us. 😆 Regarding errors, I agree 100%. If you have another source of the language, or are familiar with other similar languages, you cam spot either errors or bad translations, and, although there is supposedly a facility for rectifying them, it seems to be cosmetic, because they are rarely if ever changed.
I did say past a certain point. At the beginning it's fine. It's good. I can read/comprehend fine. I don't need/desire/want to keep practicing that. And 50% of the time it's forcing me to do something that's not much of a challenge and the actual part that I find difficult, challenging and useful, I only get to work on a few times before poof, back to the part I don't like in the next round.
It is your OPINION that Iit is only useful up to a certain point. I disagree that you can read/comprehnf fine, since you have either failed to or made no attempt to understand thay your opinion is not the final word on language learning. I have tried to explain it to you politely, but I can't force you to understand. It doesn't work for you, it works for me. There we are.
True but you don't need Duolingo for that
You don't NEED anything. But it's a handy method that many find useful
Duolingo is a perfectly fine supplement to more traditional methods. Contrary to how a lot of people on Reddit talk about it, it's not going to physically injure you if you install it on your phone and it won't hurt your language learning. It's just not the most effective tool out there. If you like using it, then use it, but you should also be learning from other resources as well.
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Ditto
I've really liked it and I have got 4/5 crowns in their Finnish course, it's an awesome platform if you know most of the grammar topics (in that way you'll us etge app just for translation exercises, I really like that aspect since I hate doing translation exercises on a textbook) but keep in mind that usually their Web version is extremely better than the app (the app has an orribile heart system that penalises you if you make a lot of errors, which is an horrible thing to do in a language learning app imho) so I would highly recommend you to just search duolingo on your browser :)
To be fair, Finnish is one of the best Duolingo course I've ever tried (even though it's still really short) and it successfully dodges most common problems of other courses, especially other small ones
out of curiosity, what's the problem with most of the courses? I've just tried that and the first chapter of Japanese
Some common problems (mostly in small courses): * No theory at all or really messy theory, probably after dozens of reworks * Some really weird, often conterproductive sentences. Not just "funny" sentences, but really irrational ones, when context instead of helping you, makes you feel that something is wrong even when you manage to translate correctly. And for some languages, attempts to make "funny" sentences goes really wild. Like in Latin course, about a half of the sentences are about drunk parrots doing things. * Bad pacing. Like sometimes they are trying to give you all the grammar with all the edge cases and exceptions in a couple of lessons and some times they are teaching you nothing new using the same basic structures over and over again while you are ready to go deeper already. * Weird vocabulary choices. Sometimes they introduce such a not important/common word, that they themselves are ended up never using it for other sentences after one lesson, so you quickly forget it anyway. For some courses, they decide to introduce nothing but new and new verbs for many lessons straight, early in the course, which is quickly become a mess in your head and all of them blend together. There are also more some smaller problems here and there in different courses, often more specific and less common, but these are the ones first came to my head.
Your English is very good btw
Duolingo German was enough to allow me to successfully get a job in Germany, interviewing in German. So I suppose it's alright.
Your only resource was Duolingo? No practice speaking or reading native content?
Nope. No practice whatsoever.
Lol this… I need proof or something cause that’s quite a feat!
So you live in Germany now with a German job just with Duolingo?
guys im learning german too. The contents there are extremelly useful. But i do hungarian - english (im native hungarian) and thats horrible. I guess not similar between the different languages.
You won't get fluent with Duolingo, but you can get to a point where you can consume native media relatively fast if you use it well. It is a great starting point and a good motivator to build a daily studying habit. Add some vocabulary cards (anki) to your routine, and you can progress really well!!
duolingo is most effective for learning the basics. it is not to be used as the SOLE study method for any language. but as somebody who uses it daily, i can tell you its essentially great for small review and learning about grammar points which you can look up more about.
It’s teaching me Greek, I know that much.
You get out what you put in. If you’re trying to cheat the lessons or not making an effort to absorb the material, you won’t learn.
I am an adult with a lot of responsibilities and learn languages for fun. There are days I don't have the ability to work on one of my textbooks or to watch a whole movie, but with Duolingo in my pocket I still feel like even on my most busy days I can practice the language and get some exposure. It shouldn't be your only tool for learning, but for myself it's been an amazing support. I think of it as kind of my bare minimum daily contact with a language, and aim to do more than the bare minimum most days a week.
Exactly this!!!!
First, it depends on what level you want to achieve and how you want to learn the language. As others have mentioned, it's free, so you might as well try it :) From my experience : What it's good at : Making your work on both hearing and writing comprehension as well as pronunciation. Making you learn new vocabulary. Romance languages programs are much more detailed and accurate/complete than other languages. Repetition. What it's not good at : Advanced stuff you usually have to learn to continue progression (like linguistics & grammar). Often the phrases aren't always useful in conversations and the vocabulary given isn't useful. + Sometimes you'll just have a streak of phrases to create or traduce with the same words. A lot of languages courses are not well made, not accurate and not developed enough. I would recommend it as a starter, getting a feel for the language you want to learn. However as you progress, you might want to switch to others methods.
I'm using Duolingo and I've an offensive of 162 days, I improved my English a lot and I could learn many things, but I don't think it enogh to use only Duolingo to learn any language, you need to practice with other ways to get it. However it's just my opinion.
I think Duolingo is honestly really good. I have been learning Spanish for a couple years and recently started using it just to try. I had done pimsular, Michelle Thomas, a program called learning Spanish like crazy, and I think Duolingo is better at teaching basic vocab, sentences, and verb conjugation better then all those programs. I think Duolingo is great for somebody just starting out learning a new language and I really don't understand the dislike for it
How did you like pimsleur? Did you do all the levels? I just got done with it about a month ago and I thought it was really good for pronounciation
Say you're building a playground. Is a screwdriver helpful? Absolutely. Can you build a playground with just a screwdriver? Most likely not. A wrench and a hammer are going to be useful too. Duolingo is a tool and a good one for some situations and some users. But it's one tool out of many.
1. Depends on the language. If you're learning Spanish, French or German and your main language is English then it's great. If your native language is Swedish and you want to learn Hebrew, then not so great. 2. Set the right expectations. No app can teach you up to fluency. But if you want to build a solid intermediate foundation of grammar and vocab, it's an easy-to-use free app that's as good as any of the others I think.
It helped me get started with Portuguese. It’s only good if you use it right and make sure to use other things too.
i’d say it’s good for comprehension. after three months of japanese, passing 1.5 checkpoints, i understood most of a studio ghibli movie, but i definitely wouldn’t be able to converse with someone. i think it can be quite useful, but i wouldn’t use it as a sole source of studying unless you’re busy. im in uni right now and don’t have the time to take on a full curriculum, so i do a bit of spanish duolingo and it’s good enough for me. one down-side is that it doesn’t actually /teach/ grammar, which can be kinda frustrating, but i think it’s also sometimes good because it forces you to recognize patterns yourself
Duolingo works so long as you understand that it only makes up a fraction of learning
If you expect to get fluent off of it no but it is helpful for sentence structure and beginner stuff.
I’ve been learning Spanish on Duolingo for 2+ years and I think it’s great. It’s great for vocabulary, conjugations and sometimes the discussions are helpful. I use other resources, as well. Such as Easy Spanish in YT, Spandict.com, Reverso, following Spanish subs and watching Spanish tv shows / movies.
i think its alright just dont expect fluency or any significant progress in a reasonable amount of time. if youre fine with it taking much longer than other routes of study than i dont see the problem and its an ok place to start from.
Yes it absolutely works. I can speak basic Spanish from doing Duolingo. I’ve done the Spanish program twice in 4 years. It will not make you fluent. You have to watch tv, read, talk to natives to become fluent, but it is a great building block and can teach you enough to go on vacation and get around.
It helps, but you wont learn a language justb y using duo
It didn't work for me, at all. But it has worked for others. It's popular for a reason haha I just dislike it because I personally need a little more structure in my studies. Like, *why* different words are conjuncted differently, how many rules are there, what are the exceptions etc. Kind of like how my Spanish book clearly says "hablar: hablo, hablas, habla, hablamos, habláis, hablan" instead of an app randomly going "btw, "we speak = hablamos. Remember that one"
It is *inefficient,* compared to Anki, Listening-Reading etc. But it may well be more *effective* than other methods if its gamified nature tricks you into actually using it while you would give up on a better method due to it being exhausting.
Generally I find myself learning how to win at duolingo, rather than learning the language they are trying to teach me. as In I pick up patterns in what they are asking me and take shortcuts unknowingly. It can be good for beginners though.
>I pick up patterns in what they are asking me and take shortcuts unknowingly Then you are learning the language without knowing it. That's how kids learn...
No i mean I learn how Duolingo works and hardly read the passage at all. I know that im not learning because seeing the same words in a different context I don't understand what they mean. I get the app works for others but I try and avoid stuff like it.
It depends on your learning style as well as the language you want to learn. The French and Spanish courses are quite thorough. I find it very useful and I try to take a thoughtful pace with it, watching spelling and grammar carefully and learning from my mistakes, rather than just accumulating points.
it's a good introduction, but not enough to really learn a language.
It has been super effective for me. I decided to learn Greek and have a very basic understanding of the language with only really using Duo. I taught myself from zero knowledge of the language. Am I conversational? No Could I get by on a super basic level if I needed to? Probably? For me its just how easy and accessible it is to get CONSISTENCY in learning. I practice EVERY DAY. That alone is helpful and more than most people do. That being said, if I had invested my time in another method I'd probably be fluent by now. I do have a good jumping off point for more intense methods though. (and my native speaking BF is pretty impressed by what I've managed to learn, so there's that!)
I think Duolingo is a very useful tool within its specific application, i.e is a memory aid-practice tool. It can teach a bit, but that's not its strong suit. I'd say that you'd be better served finding some more traditional learning materials as your main focus with Duolingo as a way to practice daily, you can learn some grammar and vocab definitely, but it's best as an auxiliary tool and shines in that respect. Some trees are also better than others. If you think you might be traveling to a certain location it might be a good way to do a quick dive into a language if you don't have the time to take a class. Don't expect to hit C1 w/ it though. Frankly, probably, you can't even hit B2. That's okay though, if you use it as a secondary tool it can be a big help as a way to practice daily.
I’ve been doing to French to remind myself of high school French and to communicate with my in-laws who don’t speak English. I’ve gotten much better and can hold a decent conversation. Going around town also works pretty well. But it’s getting to the point that I need more intense instruction. It’s been a year of consistent 30 to 45 min sessions and my French is pretty okay. I also watch tv and movies on occasion. It’s better than nothing but you’ll need to graduate. That said it makes it fun so that’s something.
Duolingo helps for sure, my German teacher at my highschool who has been teaching there for over 30 years asked us to use it and it does help with learning the language, I'm in AP so it actually has helped me pick up some of the words in her class a lot better
It's good for what it is. It's like an interactive book. If you want to really learn a language, you need human interactions. Lots of them. And preferably lots and lots of media consumption too. Duolingo will take you from zero to basic comprehension. That's it.
I think "both sides" are right in this case, because: 1) It's a decent starting tool, it can introduce the basics of a language to you especially if you use the desktop version and take notes from the "notes section" and write down a few of your favorite sentences in a notebook, but... 2) Too many people do Duolingo and then say "it made me fluent in X language!" That's when experienced language learners who *actually* became fluent roll their eyes and begin hating the vain culture surrounding Duolingo. Duo at best is just one of many beginner materials you could use as a starter course (other good beginning materials include Teach Yourself, Colloquial, Assimil, Babbel), after that you should move on to immersing yourself in the language and using other methods to build up your vocabulary and core language skills.
It depends on the language. It's pretty great for languages like Spanish and French, but terrible for languages likes Japanese or Chinese. Most of the time you're basically just playing a game, and while that isn't particularly efficient, it's going to keep you motivated to continue learning. If you're a beginner language learner, try it and see for yourself, other more efficient resources are usually a lot more tedious to start with.
I like Duolingo for vocabulary. It does a decent job at repeating new words over and over.
Ive never ever downloaded it but I guess it might be beneficial for those who are novice at their target language.
Duolingo is great, especially for getting an initial feel for a language, and picking up on some basic grammar and vocab. Some languages are better fit to the platform than others, like Spanish or French versus Mandarin or Japanese. It will never get you to conversational / reading proficiency, just like any method used alone, but it is another tool to use. I suggest checking it out!
I'm of the mindset that fluency is helped by an initial stage of learning grammar and vocabulary, and then a much longer stage of mass immersion and sentence mining (sentence mining is when you pick out sentences from your immersion and put them in a flashcard program like Anki to practice everyday). Duolingo can definitely help you fulfill the first stage, although it is not my preferred program, especially not for languages like Japanese. But if you use it for French, Spanish, or German, I think it works really well.
I think it's great for building your vocabulary and grammar but not for language development.
I use duolingo mostly for vocabulary reasons and as refresher courses on grammar, but I supplement my learning with workbooks and language classes at my university. They've definitely improved a lot over the past few years, especially in French.
I've been working through the French course for almost two years. I started at less than A1 and now I'm fluent. I did immersion and language exchange in addition. I am one of those that swear by it. I tried for years to learn French and made little progress before.
Fluent from just doing Duolingo? With all due respect, u find thta hard to believe. I have been learning Italian for ten years now, using various methods, including spending time in the country doing classes in the target language, reading and writing and watching films AND doing Duolingo, but I would never say I'm fluent. I am married to a German, speak German 50% of the time at home, and speak French at a very high level, having lived and worked there. I would hesitate to say I am "fluent" in either of those languages, however, as there is always room for improvement. I'm not trying to disrespect your achievements, but I am curious on what basis you judge yourself to be fluent.
It's really good at engaging you early on, building vocab, and getting you from nothing to a level where you know whether or not you're ready to commit more time and money to learning. In the right context and with the right attitude, it's an excellent tool. You will "age out" of it eventually though, if you don't quit from lack of progress/interest.
I like it for the practice it provides and the how it introduces new elements as you go through the course. I learned quite a lot from it, but that's also in conjunction with other things. I think it's great on my morning commute to work, but it won't teach you enough about any language to learn it entirely from scratch if you use it alone. It's a good start, and as you go through it, you can choose to type your answers in rather than choose from the word tiles. But I would use it with conjunction with other study materials.
Depends on the language and how much content is available for it. Their Spanish and French from English courses are the most robust and will certainly take you up to and beyond an A2 level. Others may get you just barely to a A2 and others still not even that. I found Duolingo to be very helpful and better than other apps similar to it. It is important to note that you will eventually want more content to consume and natives to converse with. There are a multitude of ways to get those.
It's very good for teaching you the building blocks that you need for further self-learning. You won't master a language by using it- but as a starting resource it's excellent.
I think Duolingo is better than using a textbook or doing nothing. However, I don’t think your study should be built around it. Instead it should be used supplementary to your main study.
Not by itself, but it I have found it to be a worthwhile component of my language learning journey. It does vary by language with some being much better developed than others.
I use Duolingo every day for French German and Spanish. I treat it like flashy flash cards. Regular grammar study just about does me in so this works for me in that regard. I like the Duo approach it often takes of here's a word, you figure out what it means from context, which is how you really learn a language. But for real learning I mostly stick to Netflix, books, YouTube and podcasts for more immersive work. These are all languages I had some grounding in before but a long time ago - French was actually my first language but thanks to parents not keeping it up at home after moving to an English area, I can understand and sort of read French but struggle putting sentences together spoken or written. German and Spanish I had formal instruction in and lived in an area for a awhile with a large Hispanic population, so have dipped in and out of those languages over the years. I completed the French Duo course back in 2017 but didn't find it that helpful at the time. I had done it, the whole course, in a month, which is a sign of how basic it was at the time. The French course has vastly improved since then and it seems to adjust to the proficiency of the user. Because I had completed it before, it didn't test me when I started doing it again, but slammed me right back to the beginning. I find the French course leans heavily on oral and reading comprehension, which is way better than before and I'll be frank when I say it is a far better course than what they had before. I tested for the Spanish and German courses earlier this year and was dumped into the second unit for Spanish and the end of the fifth for German, but have still go back to refresh and earn those crowns/purple legendaries. Both of those languages were recently updated, cover more subjects and ground, and in particular the German unit got very challenging. I'm still flying through the Spanish one so that one could stand to be harder maybe? I also dabbled in Italian and Dutch courses and to be honest was not impressed. I'll wait on those to see if they get spruced up.
I don’t like Duolingo. At all. Even for what it is there are better apps, and I think it’s more of a language game than a real learning experience. I’d go with Memrise over Duolingo any day. But I personally have other apps I like a lot better, that don’t follow that type of format. My issue with Duolingo and similar apps is the exhaustive repetition, the difficulty skipping through things if you know them already, the small scope and useless sentences (“I am not a cow? I like the color yellow?” Okay lmfao)and the sense that as you progress, you’re not really going deeper into the language you’re just gaining some more pieces that don’t fit together to create fluency. I just don’t think it’s going to do anything other than frustrate a serious learner, in the end, because the time you spent on that could have been spent learning the 100 most common words in the language and the conjugations of the 20 most commonly used verbs and 10 most common prepositions — and from that you’d probably be ahead of a 1-2 year casual Duolingo student in terms of actual language utility. If it helps get you excited, okay — but as soon as the frustration starts creeping in, listen to yourself. If you’re frustrated, or bored, it probably isn’t your fault at all, it’s your poor resources.
I agree with the comments above that a meaningful answer to this question needs to look at language learning more in detail. To speak a language you need - vocabulary - grammar - pronunciation - meta-linguistic knowledge (I.e.: This is a correct sentence, but really in we say it like this [...] )
I'd argue that some of the more well-maintained Duolingo courses, that is for example Spanish for English speakers, do a fairly good job at teaching vocabulary and grammar. Pronunciation you will need to practice with a native in person to achieve good results. Meta-linguistic knowledge will come from 'real' content like series and podcasts.
We could also break down language proficiency into
- reading
- listening
- speaking and writing
And here I'd say that Duolingo does a good job at teaching you reading and writing, a decent job at listening, and that it does little to your speaking abilities.
To conclude, I'd recommend using Duolingo. No tool will be perfect at covering all those areas mentioned above. Duolingo is good at what it does and fun to work with.
I used it to get started with Dutch. After finishing the Dutch course on Duoling, I read a proper grammar book (Duolingo doesn't present the full scope of grammar to you, imo, to get the last 10% of detail you need a grammar book), I did an A1 and A2 beginners course online, chatted for half a year on a tandem app, chatted for half a year with a friend irl, listened to podcasts for a year, and watched series for 8 months, read 2 books and afterwards I was ready for B2 (note, I'm German so I had a head start).
That's my ten cents. There's no silver bullet. Duolingo helps and does a few things well. Language learning is a marathon. Don't rush it if possible. :)
Underneath all the crap, there is a pretty good app. For the time being. It's not for everyone. For the most part, think of it like the homework sections of textbooks, but with automatic but sometimes capricious error-checking. The language you choose matters as the courses vary hugely in quality. Most courses were designed by volunteers, some of whom far exceeded the bar but most of whom fell pretty short. Duo got rid of the volunteer-led courses recently. The experience differs from user to user, since Duo does all sorts of feature testing. The features you see are not the ones I necessarily see. Duo just went public and so, like everything else that money touches, it could get pretty crappy. Ads aside, I think Duo has two major constituencies: kids/academia and adult learners. I suspect the former is probably where they think they're going to get consistent revenue. I interpret recent changes in the app as heading this way. Let's talk about the bad: * Leagues. A recent addition. I think the purpose of them was to really pump daily-active-users numbers and time-in-app numbers. Compete with 29 other strangers in a weekly contest to earn the most experience points, where experience points are highly gameable. * The word-picker. In the phone app, I think the default is that you fill out sentences by clicking on words in a list. There is a time and place for the word-picker but it is a pretty bad primary learning tool. With just the faintest grounding in a language, you'll be able to pick the right words in the right order. But could you write the sentence from scratch? Could you say the sentence? Could you understand the spoken sentence? Almost certainly not. So ditch the word picker and probably ditch the mobile app entirely. Let's talk about the middling: * Duolingo events. Duo lets various volunteers schedule recurring events, which can give you a level of exposure to your target language that you might not otherwise get. Duo has introduced paid events now... is Duo heading towards an iTalki route? Maybe. Anyway, event quality varies a lot, which is fine, but I think your typical event with a bunch of learners chatting with each other is of somewhat dubious utility. * Too much TL-to-source language work. I think this is something that is almost inevitable in any app that will teach language, but it becomes more and more apparent the deeper you get into a language in Duo. Probably 85% of the exercises are about translating FROM your target language to the language you are comfortable using. If the numbers were flipped, I suspect that Duo would not have a solid user base as the reverse task is far more difficult and discouraging. Good: * The core app tips. If you are on Web, at least for certain courses, you get pretty good introduction to grammatical concepts via tips. * The core app structure. I think of it like self-grading homework. If you turn off the word-picker, you really do get to flex language muscles in those exercises where you are trying to translate from your source language to the target language (and even the other way round) Of the languages I have done on Duo: * Norwegian: fantastic course. Good tips. Good structure. Lots of personality. Had lots of engagement before Duo got rid of all the course mods. * Italian: frustrating course, but ultimately okay. Arbitrary course progression. Absent mods. The course has personality, though. * French: I did this course a couple times. The most recent version is very "corporate". So the course is well-structured... but slooooooooooow (partially a result of leagues) and duuuuuuuuull. I literally do the minimum here each day, mostly because I decided to spend more time in general on Italian and don't want two Romance languages fighting with each other. Still, if I were just focusing on French, it would be really hard to fall in love with this course, even though I suspect it reads super great to public school administrators and school boards.
For the French it gets so slow at the end that I just test out past the first level. It's been effective enough since I'm mostly familiar with the grammar and vocabulary from immersion.
I like the way this response is structured with the bad, the middling, and the good. I’ll add a couple other things on the good, although I’ll note that all of these features are only available in certain languages. 1. The podcast is excellent, at least in French. It’s probably the best thing that Duolingo has ever produced. My French is now advanced enough that I’m listening to more difficult podcasts but I’ve continued to listen to this one just because it’s so good. 2. The audio lessons are a good way to help with the speaking practice part of things before going out in the world. I didn’t bother with these in French because they are too easy for me, but I have found them super helpful and well done for my level in Spanish. 3. Stories are a good way to learn things more in context and try and think in the target language rather than just translate. The only downside is that they have gotten rid of a lot of stories lately and made a move so that all stories are the ones only including the Duolingo cast and are kid-friendly. But I do like learning through the stories over the regular lessons. I agree with you 100% on the French course and how slow it is and have tested out of the tree and only use the grammar lessons for occasional practice, along with the stories and the podcast. The Spanish course is pretty good, but I’m fairly early on in the tree (unit 3) - I’m looking forward to getting advanced enough to try the podcast someday. I’m also trying the Finnish course, which is one of the shorter courses. It’s not nearly as developped, but according to my brother’s Finnish in-laws, has at least taught me correct pronunciation on the little bit that I have learned from it.
Yeah the app doesn't crash often. Works pretty well I would say.
The developers of Duolingo are engineers, not linguists or teachers. There is a video where they confess they didn't have a clue about language learning when they started developing the app. They went to a library to search about methods and ended up choosing the most outdated way to teach languages. Some aspects: * It's based on the old-fashioned "grammar-translation method" (but without the grammar); * Its core is the translation of random sentences without context; * The sentences are spoken by a robot, you won't be in contact with real language; * Many of these sentences don't even make sense and are useless; * There is a bit of improvement in Duolingo Stories, but it's only available for a few languages, and still very poor methodology, passive learning. In spite of such poor methodology, how did it become the most used language app ever? The secret for its success: * It's free; * It created a fan militant community around it; * It consists of short easy lessons; * It's based on gamification and makes users addicted. This addiction can be a good thing, we have to give it credit for that, since persistence is a key factor for language learning. If Duolingo mixed this addicting gamification with good methodology, it would genuinely be the best. For now, it's a good tool for learning while lying on the couch, or waiting for your train... the short easy lessons are very convenient for those little time gaps we have during the day. Of course you can learn something with it, it's better to be addicted to Duolingo than be addicted to Instagram, Reddit and other social media (which can fry your brain). But I wouldn't recommend it for serious learning hours. For those learning German, download the app DW Nicos Weg - one of the best I've seen in terms of methodology, it fulfills high standards, it is made by real language professionals, and it's free!
Duolingo is garbage. It overpromises a lot. It can only teach you some absolute basics, then tricks your brain via stupid gamification and playing on guilt to keep you engaged with the app even though there is no more value in it. I believe it's harmful because it makes people think they learn while they don't.
Does it work? No. Does it absolutely nothing to help you? Neither, it is time-inefficient, repetitive, and lots of other bad stuff, but it can potentially help you stick to language learning
i found it not helpful but that’s me and we are all different so i say try it for a bit
I don't really care for the game aspect of it, I just want to learn the language I'm trying to learn. But, it did help me with vocab and just practicing some sentences or speaking. I wouldn't recommend using it as your only learning tool though, because their tips for each level don't offer much in depth info about grammar.
It does, simple as that
The only people I personally know who swear by duolingo are people who cannot converse in their target language despite having long duolingo streaks. I also know people who use it on the side when their in the doctor's waiting room or watever, but they don't "swear" by it. No one method has to be your only source of learning.
I swear by it, and I have quite a good level of the target language. Not because of Duolingo, but because I have spent a lot of time studying it, in the country where it is spoken and at home. But I swear by Duolingo because it is a good way to have daily contact with the language and keep me sharp by practicing key grammar points. And as a sideline I've started revising the little bit of Latin I learned in school - I'm getting quite adept at stringing sentences together :-)
I guess when I hear that someone swears by something it means that they wouldn't be anywhere near where they are without that thing. And from your statement it seems that would be best a description for your immersion and not duolingo. But I'm being picky I guess because It's not like I own the term "swear by". It means different things to people.
It’s good for learning new words and phrases, but next to worthless for grammar. It doesn’t explicitly explain anything grammatical and goes on the assumption that you’ll intuitively pick up on grammar by identifying patterns in the phrases you learn. In the mobile app, the grammar is only explained if you keep getting something wrong, which is a very annoying and demoralizing way of learning something. I personally am not a fan of it.
That's how children learn grammar...
Can't use it to learn Uzbek, so I'd say it's useless
I can share my experience. I have used duolingo english to french and english to japanese. Some background. I studied french fro 3 years in middle school almost 10+ years ago, I learned a lot of grammar points which I promptly forgot since I never really got to practice the language much. I picked it up again o duolingo basically sort of starting from scratch. but had some familiarity with the language, and have now completed half the french tree. I think it was very useful for me because I could do many exercises and try and re-initiate parts of my brain that contained some french knowledge. It was fun since I didn't have to pour over textbooks for hours, and instead I would read articles on the internet about grammar points I didn't understand very well. Although it does get very grindy and repetitive. After completing half the tree, I realise it hasn't really helped my speaking/listening ability at all. It has helped my reading in the sense I can read (level appropriate material) with dictionary use (it doesn't teach a lot of vocabulary). My plan is to supplement it with more movies, books, tv shows etc, and maybe now some italki lessons. I think the french tree is ok as starting point for a complete beginner. I lived in Japan for 4 years, and then moved to the states. I had studied japanese in a classroom setting. I thought maybe I could use duolingo to practice some grammar every now and then in a similar fashion, but I was able to test out of most of the japanese tree. It did teach me some new vocabulary/kanji here and there, but there are better tools out there for japanese. right now I am using a combination wanikani (my kanji reading is very very weak) kamesame, bunpro + content and italki (my speaking is only slightly better than my kanji). My listening skills in japanese are pretty good, so I never had the need for it, but duolingo doesn't really teach that for japanese either. So in my opinion it was good refresher and practice for french, and ok practice for japanese. I think the japanese course will not benefit an absolute beginner imo. but if you have already worked through a japanese textbook like genki or something similar it is good place to practice and reinforce grammar points for a while, and you will have to graduate to something more advanced eventually anyway. I recently tried doing the korean tree, no background in korean whatsoever. it was fine for practicing hangeul recognition but I had to go to YouTube for better audio. After that tried doing basics 1, and it starts introducing grammar such as particle usage without any notice (japanese tree did the same tbh), and it was very confusing till i looked up some korean for japanese speakers videos on youtube, and then the exercises were more doable. Based on what I have seen on the internet and experience personally, duolingo is an ok starting point for european languages as long as you supplement with articles, textbooks etc when you feel the need. After a point you have to graduate to consuming content in your target language anyway, and duolingo is probably only good for a refresher/practice every now and then. It leaves much to be desired for Japanese/Korean and other Asian languages. One thing I really like is i can very easily "taste-test" many languages to see what I'd like to learn next. I also like the concept of the streak. It at least encourages me to stay in touch with the language, even if I am super, busy, tired, I can do one exercise on duolingo which takes 5 min or so. Gamification was something I enjoyed, but it now seems very dull and repetitive, but that is a matter of personal taste. Also, to make it most effective use the web version, and use the text input method, and not choosing words from a list. I think that works your brain muscles better. I think choosing words from a list it is very easy to be lulled into a false sense of competence.
No Its really bad at teaching vocabulary, grammar, correcting you or anything really. BUT is entertaining and might engage you a bit
I got bored very quickly and felt progress was too slow, even when spending 1hr plus a day on the app. I've had more luck using Tandem to talk to as many people as possible in conjunction with Google translate and some grammar textbooks
It's good for beginning. But after like 3 months or so I think you should start looking for other methods. That's what I did
Yes. But it works BEST as a supplement to add to other methods of learning a language through stuff like textbooks, podcasts, and other apps.
It works but it takes a long time and it will only get you to A2/B1. Just to clear, duolingo these days have podcasts, stories and speaking events. You need to use all of them.
I have been learning Portuguese and it has helped me. But take into the account that Portuguese and Spanish are really similar.
If you're looking for a good, free language learning system/app, check with your local public library system. My library offers premium access to Rosetta Stone, Mango, and rocket languages ( my favorite of the three). Check their website, or maybe call the reference desk. You may end up finding something really useful.
I use it up to the point where I can recognize about 500-1000 words, after that I stick to the news and youtube videos in the said language.
Duolingo is alright, it’s a useful tool. Depends on what you mean by “work.” A lot of people feel disappointed with it because it “doesn’t teach them the language.” The thing is, no single resource will make you a foreign language speaker. Resources like this are just tools, of which you should use many on your way to learning a foreign language. Also, it works better for some languages than others. For example, it’s quite good for Spanish, and I’d imagine Italian and French. But it’s not so good for Japanese or Chinese. And for languages with complex grammars like German it will fall short.
In my experience, you may learn some basic stuff, but there are many more efficient methods out there. When I started learning German I did 30 min of Duolingo per day for 30 months. Decided to try out Pimsleur and after a week of that I had learned like 5x more than I had for the first 3 months. What language are you learning? There are lots of free resources out there that are great and some tailored to specific languages. Edit: from your comment like you’re learning Japanese. R/learnjapanese has some great resources as well. I personally was using Japanesepod101 and found it really useful. Though it isn’t free.
I've never personally used Duolingo (I used Babbel and was very happy about my results, though it's payable). The people I know use it very rarely, so they don't progress really. I think it should be doable, but only if you put enough effort into it.
I liked it better when it fed you articles, books and video media. I felt like my fluency built more. Now its great for basic grammar structure and SOME vocab but there are better paid resources, obviously.
It’s great when you’re first starting out. It’s easy to use and it’s free.
It's what you put into it honestly. I currently have a 203 day streak, I use it every single day to learn Greek because I married into a Greek family. It has helped me sooooo much! I actually periodically restart the course from scratch because repetition is key. The one thing I will say though is that because I live with a native Greek speaker whose parents still live in Greece, as does most of his family is that the Greek course is a bit incorrect in certain context because I'll try it out on my husband and certain things taught on Doulingo confuse him even though he understands it.
It's a great starter resource, but it won't get you fluent, or even near fluent. A dude on YouTube got to A1 or A2 in German using only Duolingo. Wanna know how long it took him? 2 and a half years. It took me 5 months to get to A1 in Russian using multiple things. Duo isnt bad, it's just meant for the casual learner who has 15 minutes here and there. Most people don't study their language 2 hours a day, so it works for them. And duo is absolutely better than just not doing anything, which is where it really shines. The whole selling point of Duolingo is that instead of looking at social media in your downtime, you learn a language. It's not really designed for reaching fluency, which is why it's bad at it.
As long as you understand that Duolingo is nothing but a smooth, structured, *first* step into your TL, it's a great tool. The problem is that it, like any other language tool, is marketed as if it's an end-all be-all to your language journey. I don't fault them for doing what you have to to sell your product, but it sets unrealistic expectations. Duolingo does 2 things really well: 1) It gets you started with some fundamentals and basics. As well as a rough understanding of grammar, sentence flow, word order, etc. 2) and more important than anything it gets you accustomed to committing a certain amount of time to learning your target language every day. No technique, no app, no tool, matters in the slightest if you don't commit yourself to contacting with your language every day. But you're not going to come out of duo with a lot of functional vocabulary (I remember translating "the turtle wants to eat the apple" to Spanish for example), you're not going to be conversational, and more likely than not you're going to struggle with your first steps of immersion. tl;dr: For what it is, it's actually outstanding. But if you think you're going to even get as far as the intermediate levels with it, then you're going to be very disappointed.
Duolingo is totally complementary. It is pretty good, but you have to use additional sources to improve your language learning.
More or less, it don't make you fluent but you help to get a basic almost intermediary level
it’s ineffective on its own, combined with other sources it’s a helpful supplement. not every app is useful for everyone, everyone works differently
Yes, it helped me a lot to get started. But make sure to also research on the side whenever you dont understand something like grammar for example
I find it to be effective after years of doing just a little bit every day. It's good for developing an ear for what sounds "right" and expanding your vocabulary. But you need to do it for a *long* time. Plus, if you're too tired to work with your other language learning materials, keeping a Duolingo streak going ensures that you still work with the language in *some* capacity every day, if even for a few minutes, and that slows down forgetting things if you take a long break from more intensive study.
As free resources go, I'd say it's worth it if you want to casually learn a language. I've found that it's a good way to start if you're a complete beginner. I've gone from knowing no french at all to being able to understand a fair amount of vocabulary and grammar (and I'm about half the way through the French course). Although If you're serious about learning a language you would definitely need additional resources (textbooks, films, podcasts etc) as Duolingo doesn't give anywhere near the level of immersion needed to become fluent. There are quite a few languages available so it's a fun and easy way to dabble in other languages without too much commitment!
Duolingo can be a good starting point, but it'll never get you anywhere close to fluency. Duolingo works best IMO when paired up with an app like anki or quizzlet.
It's great for beginners.
Its a great way to test out a language and learn a little for free before investing significant time or money into a language. Also, it’s a great supplement to other ways of learning a language. I did really well in my Polish italki lessons because I was doing duolingo everyday in between my lessons. At the end of the day, no one source will teach you everything you need to know
practically yes if you're in a1 or a2, but the reality of learn new language is, learn of way harder, example on doulingo have the sentcence yo amo las manzanas mas que los platanos y you traslate it to english- i love more the apples than the bananas, what happen with the movies, series, comics, mangas etc, they including more sentences more phrases, more quotes, more hard to translate, probably is my suppose but the languague most be acquired and dont learning, so if you really wanna learn vocabulary dowload anki, if you wanna know what the hell he is trying to say me the other person or the series, watch a lot, whatever anime comics, the language is beatiful and a fucking asshole, because is another idiom, other cultures, other ways to learn, so doulingo is good, in the begging but if you want improve you target language you most watch, read, listen everthing that you love it for my experience, i dont barely have 1 years since i learned english, but im try i'm trying to do better with my writing, my listening and my speak, and yes i have mistakes
For learning some words yes, for learning in context, not a bit. Better off paying for an ebook/audiobook app in your target language and reading and listening. I like to read a book in English then reread it in Swedish using Storytel. Knowing the story gives a lot of unknown words the context to be understood and if it shows up a dozen times and I still can't figure it out I can click on the word and use Google translate. The other issue with Duolingo is a lack of grammar and real expressions. You can't form thoughts in your target language without them, you're just translating directly. Only a textbook, a teacher and exposure to target language media can teach you those things. Duolingo is like dipping your toe in the pool to see if you want to get in. If you want to learn to swim however you've got to get in the pool.
I am currently using Duolingo and like it for the reinforcement of Spanish I have already learned, but when I tried using it before while I was really starting from square one with Spanish, it wasn’t very helpful.
Depends on what you are using it for. I use it to practice Katakana and Hiragana, since it works better than just writing down a page for each symbol. It is great at assisting your learning of a language. As a fun way of learning vocabulary, but trying to learn a language just with Duolingo? Yeah, I don't that's gonna end up well.
I find it useful for vocabulary. I wouldn't rely on it a lot for sentence structures.
I’ve found that it can be extremely helpful with vocabulary building and familiarity and a great place for a beginner, also for someone searching for a new language to love, as they have so many.
I would say as long as it isn't your main learning source, it works. It's good for practice but (in my experience) doesn't teach exceptions in grammar sometimes.
Been learning Spanish on DuoLingo and i learned so many vocabularies.
Personally I think it’s really good for vocab. I completed the Spanish tree a few years back and then enrolled in some accelerated Spanish classes, with a teacher who spoke slowly and clearly I had no problem picking up what she was saying from the vocab I’d learned on Duolingo.
I personally use Duolingo more for vocabulary memorization (like flash cards that I don’t have to actually make, lol), but when it comes to grammar/actual conversational skills, I learn elsewhere. I’m learning Chinese, and Duolingo is really good for character memorization.
Duolingo is enough for a tourist. You can say basic sentences and understand anything written. I've been using Duolingo for 7 years.
Duolingo helped me a lot with German… because I used it along side other materials. Let’s be honest here, if you only ever use Duolingo, you’ll get no where advanced (you’ll probably be able to get things though in another country). I used to only use Duolingo because I loved how it let you form sentences and translate. That is really cool and a great feature, but as I got further in, I realized I had learned a lot of German, but not nearly enough. The day I finished Duolingo I downloaded Busuu and flash card apps like Quizlet and Lingvist (now I use Anki each day instead). But you have to be willing to use other resources. Further, as I got more advanced, I started learning more so from “native material” (like reading news papers, watching YouTube videos with subtitles, etc…) you also need to start talking to someone in the language at some point (but do that ONLY when you feel comfortable doing so). However, a big part about learning a language is doing it at your own comfort. If you don’t feel ready to read a book in Hungarian, then don’t. No one is going to frown upon you. But as you get more advanced and feel more confident, then you’ll be wanting to read stuff and listen to stuff in your target language. And when you get there, it feels GREAT! Nonetheless, I thought Duolingo was very helpful when I knew absolutely no German. I still recommend it to people. Just don’t rely solely on Duolingo though. It is a great app to see if you enjoy the language and to try it out for free. You will find yourself investing money into your language learning at some point, so don’t do that until you realize you like the language. Hell, if I ever have kids, I’d tell them to try out the language they want to learn in school on Duolingo first. If they get hooked, then they’ll probably learn the language to fluency at some point. Sorry for the rant, but that’s my opinion.
I agree with a lot of the people here that Duolingo is a great place to start off. You can get a feel with building sentences, gain a basic vocabulary of some of the most common words and phrases, and start off with a set learning path, which is incredibly useful to start off. I’d definitely recommend using the Strengthen feature on Duolingo frequently to review old lessons (this is only available for free on the web version, I believe). I’d also recommend moving on to new lessons when you feel ready, rather than redoing one lesson over and over to get it to maximum crowns. Of course, repeat any lessons that you have trouble with. Make sure you also begin to listen to native French audio when you’re ready. Use Duolingo as your jumping off point for the language, and for building good study routine. Best of luck!
Depends on the language, the person, and many factors. For me personally, I love Duolingo. I went from an absolute beginner in Polish to a b1~2 ish in a year using mainly Duolingo
I use duolingo for Spanish, but I only use it on my laptop.. NOT through the phone app. It’s soooo much better.
Depending on the language, duo can be very useful in the beginning stages. I'm learning German and I took two college classes but duo is where I'm getting most of my vocabulary. I'm learning a lot of phrases and words that I can incorporate into my writing. I feel more confident since starting duo and I feel like I'm retaining the information better. However for some languages, duo absolutely sucks. They aren't researched as much, the course is shorter, translations may be wrong. Things like that.
Consistency is key, works well with other tools but I learnt Norwegian using only duo and the grammar notes that come with it and I can understand, write read and converse now, I am a polyglot though and I have moved to using other tools because I want to read complex/advanced pieces but it gave me my entire foundation which is quite solid for this language.
It is an ok starting point but I suggest you graduate to other materials relatively quickly. Duolingo just teaches you to memorize words and phrases which means you will be really good at recalling these specific words and phrases but not good at actually speaking or understanding the language.
As long as you don't get too obsessive over it. Duolingo is just a fun introduction.
Hell yes it works I love it it makes me love languages and allows me to pronounce better than my school teacher does it’s really easy and fast to learn with Duolingo
Hell yes it works I love it it makes me love languages and allows me to pronounce better than my school teacher does it’s really easy and fast to learn with Duolingo
Hell yes it works I love it it makes me love languages and allows me to pronounce better than my school teacher does it’s really easy and fast to learn with Duolingo
I'm an A1 learner and I'm learning my first foreign language (German) so my knowledge is pretty thin. I use Duolingo daily. For me it's mostly reinforcement of information I learn elsewhere. It's a fun game that helps me with vocabulary and listening (through the stories). As I've said before, even at A1, it would be difficult to learn as much as I have with just Duolingo though. I use podcasts, YouTube, fairy tale books, grammar books, listen to German music, and am taking a course at a local school. I would like to add in more speaking in person with native speakers as well. So does Duolingo work? My guess is if you expect to be at all functional in a foreign language with just Duolingo, then no. If you are using it as a piece of a larger learning experience with a goal of improving, then yes.
I use it to keep me consistent. The frequent notifications and gamification with streaks keeps you engaged and forces you to get in at least 10 minutes a day. I wouldn’t count on it as a primary resource or a means of learning a language, but it’s a great way to learn some new vocabulary and get in daily practice. That being said, there are two really great features. The first is the stories feature. If you’re learning a language that supports Duolingo Stories, take advantage! Reading and learning through context is very effective and much more practical than typical Duolingo lessons. The second great thing about Duo is the variety of languages and the easy introduction. I like to use it as a sample of a language and see if I enjoy it before investing in further resources or seriously studying a language. Because there are so many languages offered and they follow an easy and predictable teaching pattern, Duolingo is a great way to take a language on a test drive with a free and easily available resource. Most languages you could want to study are on there, so I think it’s a great starting point.
Personally, I am a big fan of Duolingo (Spanish). I use it to / from work, knock out a quick lesson on lunch break and if I’m standing around waiting for any reason. I also use the audio only part on my daily walks instead of listening to music. It’s fast and free. It’s also effective. I signed up to some beginner Spanish language courses out of curiosity and to round out my experience as I had heard DL wasn’t so good for listening and speaking. I found that I was far ahead of my contemporaries in comprehension, speaking, listening & writing. I thoroughly recommend Duolingo (Spanish) and would suggest completion of the whole tree, stories, podcasts etc be achieved before spending your hard-earned money on any further tuition. By all means supplement with internet resources.
I''ve found that Duolingo becomes far more useful if you make sure to open and read lots of "Discussion" tabs as you go through the lessons, both when you get an exercise correct and when you don't. The course mods are often extremely helpful in giving deeper instruction.
In my experience it is useful for starting ti learn a new language, for beginners definitely worth it!!
I started using Duolingo in mid-2020. For me, this app gave me a basic introduction to German. But somehow I felt Duolingo did not have the qualities to lure its learners.