# Has anybody tried Duolingo?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-tried-duolingo/980389>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 26, 2023, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-tried-duolingo/980389 "2023-02-26T03:48:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2023, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-tried-duolingo/980389/21 "2023-02-28T00:31:58Z")

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I’ve heard Duolingo is useful if you are travelling to a new country and want to learn some phrases. You will not be conversational but it’ll help you get by.

I was told (long ago now) that the US State Department has some of the best language courses for their diplomats. A very fast Google found this which says it is for diplomats. Might be worth a look (I think it is free).

- [https://www.fsi-language-courses.org/](https://www.fsi-language-courses.org/)

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**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2023, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-tried-duolingo/980389/22 "2023-02-28T04:08:16Z")

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I’m in my 3rd year of studying French with only Duolingo. I knew nothing in French except the most common phrases: “Oui!” “Non.” “S’il vous plaît!” and so on when I started.

I don’t devote a lot of time to it, maybe 20-30 minutes a day.

As others have noted, it hasn’t done much to teach me how to speak French fluently. But I can read it much better now and even get the gist of spoken conversations. I’m about ready to seek out a conversational French meet-up group to practice speaking.

I feel like I’ve gotten quite a lot out of sticking with it.

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**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2023, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-tried-duolingo/980389/23 "2023-03-06T01:57:42Z")

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> [@Aspenglow](#):
>
> I’m about ready to seek out a conversational French meet-up group to practice speaking.

This is a good way to learn to understand and speak the language you are studying (and if there are other non-native speakers in the group, it’s great because they tend to speak a lot slower than native speakers!)

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