It’s a free app that says it can teach you to speak a language
I’m playing around with Welsh and Scots Gaelic.it’s fun, in a logic cum recognition way, but I’m not sure if I’m really learning anything.
I’ve been doing the Spanish course for far longer than I want to admit. I’m not convinced that their teaching methods are the best approach for a beginner (I could occasionally use some explanation of why in addition to the demonstration of when certain words are used), but after - let’s see - 2082 days of it, I find I’m actually understanding the language better “in the wild” and I’m getting a little more confident in speaking, which has always been my stumbling block.
I’ve done some of the German, but not in a while. You’re not going to learn the language with just the app. I think it’s a reasonable additional study aid, but if you’re not having studying or using the language outside I think you’ll likely just pick up a small # of words without being able to use them much.
@Allthegood is doing duolingo. She says it is entertaining and she’s definitely acquiring a lot of vocabulary, but she also says despite an unbroken streak of 926 days, and doing enough lessons to stay in the diamond league and usually in the top 15, she’s a long way off from being able to hold a conversation with someone in any of those languages (she’s doing Spanish, French, and Dutch). Well, one of them (Spanish) she picked up as a kid living temporarily on Tenerife, and she comes closest to being able to converse in Spanish, but that’s not all from duolingo.
I have a 1379 day French streak, but I treat it more like “an exercise a day to keep the lessons from school in my head” rather than really learning it that way. I don’t think I could have learned from scratch, just with Duolingo.
I’ll second what others have said. You won’t learn a language from it, but it’s a useful practice/drilling/reinforcement tool to supplement actual lessons.
To echo what’s been said - it’s best used as one tool among many. It can’t teach you everything about a language. Neither, that matter, can a formal language class, which is why so many people who took a language in high school or college can’t really make use of that knowledge, either.
Unfortunately, when I first learned French video wasn’t as accessible. As a result, I spent most of my life able to read French but with little ability to understand spoken French, or speak it myself. Between Duolingo and on-line videos I can now comfortably follow something like a newcast cast in French (and try to get some of my news in audiovisual French every week). Unfortunately, I have no real way to practice conversational French, but Duolingo has probably improved my pronunciation.
I’ve played around with other languages a bit in Duolingo and can now recognize some words “in the wild” if I overhear them, but it’s clear that if I want to really learn those other languages I’ll have to exert some effort beyond just Duolingo.
The truth is that there is NO app or class that can “teach you a language”. They can get you started, but you learn a language by using it.
I use Duolingo daily and I enjoy it, and I do feel I learn something but you have to understand the learning is slow and incremental, and it’s not the only thing I do to study language.
If this isn’t a hijack… Are there other online language learning apps that people would recommend? Or how about the apps where you can read a well-known book in another language (e.g. Sherlock Holmes, etc.).
I tried it for Russian and Greek and quit out of frustration. I didn’t like it because I don’t feel they actually teach you basic technical aspects of the language in the notes (or I couldn’t find it elsewhere). For example, I couldn’t get the verbs right in Russian and then I found online how to conjugate Russian verbs (very simple) and then I was able to conjugate the verbs. Imagine that. Maybe I would use it as secondary or tertiary practice, but not as the main way to learn a language.
Ages ago I tried Pimsleur for Russian (on cassette) and thought it was pretty good. Not sure what they do nowadays.
Pimsleur works best for me. Audible has blocks of Pimsleur lessons.
If conjugating Russian verbs is simple to you then what might be hard to you is too awful to contemplate.
I’m 235 days into French, but that complements 5 years at school, a lot of reading (as a teenager I went through Astérix, Tintin and a lot of Jules Verne, courtesy of our well stocked town town library) and the occasional holiday in France (we’ll return to St. Malo this year). The gamification is really compelling, to the point of my wife complaining when I desert her for a spot of learning.
The speech detection is a bit iffy - sometimes it takes five tries with no discernible changes in my pronounciation, and sometimes Duolingo accepts my speech when I have not yet finished the sentence.
The best language app is the one you’ll use on a regular basis. I cannot emphasize that enough.
A lot of libraries have copies of various apps/methods you can borrow, so you can try them out before buying. Some of them are quite expensive. That is one of the appeals of Duolingo - it has a free option. (I eventually, after a couple years, opted for the upgrade, but that was based on the fact I actually WAS using it consistently)
I tried Pimsleur courtesy of my local library and I think it can do a lot for listening comprehension, but the version I had did not give feedback on your own pronunciation so I could be making all sorts of mistakes and not realizing it. That can lead to bad habits. Even so, learning to comprehend what you’re hearing is also important.
Again, if you actually want to learn a language you need to work on all aspects of it, and with a variety of approaches.
Absolutely make use of on-line resources, including grammar instruction and word look-ups.
I agree with the others that it is not a good tool on its own to really learn a language. I do find it good for drilling basic vocabulary, which is not something to underestimate. Most language learning methods seem to lean heavily on grammar. Making yourself drill vocabulary is hard but necessary for reading/listening (let alone speaking/writing). The gamification of Duolingo works to make you spend at least a few minutes every day, and this steady practice does help.
I’m doing Chinese without putting in any real effort, but still find that by now I actually can recognise quite a few characters due to the continuous practice that Duolingo gives you, which I would have never been able to do with normal rote learning. I’d given up long before I remembered anything.
I’m using it for German. I took German in high school and a little in college. I can’t imagine using it without that background, because I still remember enough to figure out what I got wrong.
I like using it – I like gamifying things with badges and streaks, because it keeps me motivated. I wish they always included the article with the word in German, because it would make it much easier to remember the gender later, but otherwise, it’s fun and distracting.
Been using Duolingo for quite a while now: 1263-day streak of learning Japanese. You do learn, but you shouldn’t harbor illusions about how fast you’ll learn. If you’re only doing it 15 minutes a day, well, imagine you attended one 105-minute class per week and did zero homework. Except Duolingo is probably not as good as that 105-minute class because you don’t have an instructor clearly explaining the grammar/pronunciation rules and their exceptions - you have to piece it together by trial-and-error on your own.
Having said that, I’m not likely to attend even one 105-minute class per week for years on end, but I don’t mind poking away at an entertaining app for a few minutes each evening. I am learning, even if only slowly. My Japanese-born wife is helpful here because she can explain confusing things that come up, or provide valid alternative ways of expressing something, and sometimes can confirm that I’ve answered correctly even if Duolingo doesn’t recognize my answer as correct. I was in Japan last Fall for the first time in three years, and while I still can’t speak enough to carry on a conversation, I’m definitely catching more words and phrases than I ever used to.
Yeah, this is a critical omission. I had a German teacher years ago who said, “don’t memorize ‘city’ = ‘Stadt,’ memorize ‘the city’ = ‘die Stadt.’ Put that in your brain as a single unit from the start, because trying to go back and add the article later will suck.” It was a very smart suggestion.
Especially when Duolingo will ding you if you use the wrong version of “ein” in a sentence.
I have been using Duolingo and I am learning some things - specifically vocabulary. I have a 262 day streak in Italian, a language I studied in high school over 40 years ago. I’ve had limited exposure since high school and as far as learning the grammar, etc with Duolingo, I’m not learning it exactly. It’s more like I’m being reminded of it but I’m learning a fair amount of vocabulary for the first time. I never learned how to say “pull up your pants” in high school - “pants” , I learned but not “pull”.
My sister, who is a high-school Spanish teacher and multi-lingual, recommends Duolingo for three types of people:
- Those who will be taking formal classes in the language and want a head start.
- Those who are currently taking formal classes in the language and want extra exposure and practice.
- Those who have completed formal classes in the language and want to maintain a level of fluency.
That is, Duolingo does not replace formal classes at all, but it certainly works well with them. Of course, she is a teacher, so she’d say that. 
I’ll note that she has a minor in Russian, but has been taking the Ukrainian Duolingo with some success.