Here's a fact for you: Duolingo works great!

[Anonymous]

I've been using it for years and I'm 75 percent the way through the Spanish module and I can watch Spanish-language television, listen to Spanish language podcasts, read Spanish language books, carry out MOST conversations you would need to have with the vast majority of people you might interact with... I love it.

The only that sucks is that learning languages in school was SO miserable and made me think I was NOT a language person. I probably could've learned so much faster if I had this when I was a kid.

My kid started using it at 9 and he's two years in on french and far past anything they teach in MS language these days...

[Anonymous]

Agree!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree!

I did the free version for awhile, but the paid version is very reasonable for what you get and if your family uses it (or you gift some of your slots to friends) it super reasonable.

But god my MS and HS spanish teachers sucked. None of them liked children, most of them couldn't teach and some seemed to have only a slightly better grasp on the languages they were teaching than the students.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, I think I'm going to try, OP!

[Anonymous]

I’ll try it again!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, I think I'm going to try, OP!

Obviously it's not for everyone, but I totally get sucked into the gamifying aspect and if you can stick with it for awhile, you're going to wake up one day, hear or see something in Spanish (or whatever language) and all of a sudden go, "oh shit, it worked!" And then it starts snowballing.

[Anonymous]

Wow! I will have to try again. How often do you use it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been using it for years and I'm 75 percent the way through the Spanish module and I can watch Spanish-language television, listen to Spanish language podcasts, read Spanish language books, carry out MOST conversations you would need to have with the vast majority of people you might interact with... I love it.

The only that sucks is that learning languages in school was SO miserable and made me think I was NOT a language person. I probably could've learned so much faster if I had this when I was a kid.

My kid started using it at 9 and he's two years in on french and far past anything they teach in MS language these days...

How long have you used it to get to where you are now? How often?

[Anonymous]

I don’t know, DD has been trying to learn Russian on Duolingo and it’s pretty cr@ppy (I’m a native speaker). She’s very good with languages in general so I think it’s the app.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know, DD has been trying to learn Russian on Duolingo and it’s pretty cr@ppy (I’m a native speaker). She’s very good with languages in general so I think it’s the app.

I think it’s better for reading and listening than talking. I am using it to relearn French (I took in high school but am 50 now) and my ear and vocab recall are getting much better, but it does a crap job of correcting pronunciation. As a native speaker you are probably highly sensitive to that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been using it for years and I'm 75 percent the way through the Spanish module and I can watch Spanish-language television, listen to Spanish language podcasts, read Spanish language books, carry out MOST conversations you would need to have with the vast majority of people you might interact with... I love it.

The only that sucks is that learning languages in school was SO miserable and made me think I was NOT a language person. I probably could've learned so much faster if I had this when I was a kid.

My kid started using it at 9 and he's two years in on french and far past anything they teach in MS language these days...

How long have you used it to get to where you are now? How often?

I've had an account since 2014, and the first couple years were very off-and-on, the last five years has been everyday... some days 2 minutes, some days 30 minutes. I definitely could've found a quicker way, but for my schedule it's great, and I've learned a ton, on my schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know, DD has been trying to learn Russian on Duolingo and it’s pretty cr@ppy (I’m a native speaker). She’s very good with languages in general so I think it’s the app.

Well, i do know that not all languages have the same level of sophistication. I remember hearing an NPR piece about how after the war w/Ukraine started, they had to dramatically upgrade their lessons because of the interest. They said some of the languages were basically developed to the standards of a client, I think, in the case of Ukrainian, it was for the US State Department which had some basic requirements and weren't looking for lots of creative stories and jokey engagement tricks. French, Spanish and Italian definitely have the most resources.

But the "gamify" concept is effective in general, I found.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know, DD has been trying to learn Russian on Duolingo and it’s pretty cr@ppy (I’m a native speaker). She’s very good with languages in general so I think it’s the app.

I think it’s better for reading and listening than talking. I am using it to relearn French (I took in high school but am 50 now) and my ear and vocab recall are getting much better, but it does a crap job of correcting pronunciation. As a native speaker you are probably highly sensitive to that.

I had taken spanish in MS, HS and college—never learning much, but had learned about the basics of pronunciation, so knew what I was supposed to sound like... the test is when my son started with French. His pronunciation was appalling at first, but he's actually gotten quite good. It's not as good as immersing yourself with full-time french speakers, but for a free or nearly free app you can mess around with when you're on the toilet or waiting for the bus, it's great.

[Anonymous]

I tried it during covid to learn Spanish for something to do and was disappointed it didn't really work for me even though I did it everyday. I think it's me though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I tried it during covid to learn Spanish for something to do and was disappointed it didn't really work for me even though I did it everyday. I think it's me though.

For awhile it didn't seem that effective, but it was amusing enough to keep me doing it... and then, like I said, one day I realized I actually knew a lot. And those jumps in comprehension have continued... just this week, an ad came on in Spanish and my son asked me what they were saying and I had no problem telling him. Following along with Spanish television, where they speak quickly and frequently have accents, has always been a bit of a struggle... I think because it is so slow and incremental it's hard to spot improvements until you have one of those realizations. As long as it doesn't bother you, I'd suggest you keep trying...

You might also not be giving yourself enough credit—they have ways of showing you the number of vocab words you've learned and you might be surprised.