For me, I’m learning three new languages on Duolingo for the sake of my family and close ones, and most importantly, for my own personal interest. I’m learning Arabic and Spanish.
Duolingo honestly isn’t that great tbh… it doesn’t show a lot of culture or grammar but it’s definitely the first of it’s kind. Duolingo should be used in a companion to lessons or self-studying but not on it’s own imho
I kind of stopped using it because it’s getting annoying, but generally it’s a good app but not the most helpful, at least not in the beginning because it teaches you mostly things you really don’t need to know like how to say stuff like “excuse me I am not an apple” like wtf
I found that learning french on there, it didn’t really telll you grammar things it was just like this verb goes with this word but like not the rules for grammar things if that makes senseee
It has some cool features tho so I’d agree with Ani in that it should be used as a companion to studying the lesson elsewhere
wow i’m really late but
duolingo is an okay app for learning vocabulary, but honestly… as snobby as this sounds, a free app cannot replace grammar books or even a proper dictionary, as duolingo presents words with a 1:1 translation and doesn’t delve into the nuance some words can have in other languages
So many people hate on Duo and I don’t get why! I love it! It turns language learning into a game and gives you the experience in quick and easy chunks. The fact that Duo is a meme is just hilarious to me xD
But I have to say that you can’t just rely on Duolingo if you want to go far with your language learning. You have to take the initiative both inside the app and in your real life. In the app, I make an effort to read all of the tips and make sure that I focus on accents in French if I miss them once or twice. In real life, I have other books to learn with. I also have people to speak to (and if I don’t, I use the Forums or HelloTalk to find them) and TV shows to watch etc.
You can’t learn a language solely by doing a few levels of the old 'lingo a day, but it can help you to formulate grammatically correct sentences using words so that you can see how all of the language-learning pieces fit together.
Anyone who uses Duolingo – or any language learning resource – as a definitive way to learn a language is missing the point, in my opinion. It’s best to get your info from as many sources as possible: books, apps, TV, films, people…
For Japanese, I also used Genki I and Genki II. Then I moved onto some easy manga and N3 resources. For French, I have a boyfriend xD Also, I have loads of Netflix shows, podcasts and the news. I even try reading Wikipedia in French when I want information, when I can!
