I’ve been studying Russian, Swedish and Romanian with Duolingo for the past four months using the app on my phone. I knew you could also study online, but have only just discovered that the online version includes notes on grammar. These are very helpful, and I’ll be going through them all.
The notes don’t appear to be included in the app, as far as I can see, unless I’ve missed something. Sometimes it can be tricky to work out grammatical patterns from the examples. It will be easier now with the notes.
I’m doing an experiment to see how much of these languages I can learn just from Duolingo. I have learnt some Russian and Swedish from other courses, but so far Duolingo is the only course I’ve used for Romanian. If I continue studying every day, at my current rate of progress I should complete the courses in another year or so.
Have you learned any languages just from Duolingo?
Thanks! I was sure it’s impossible to learn just from Duolingo because of grammar, and that would be a pity.
Yes, the notes at the start of a lesson and the rich discussion sections are only accessible in the browser version.
Many of those who debate about how to use Duolingo most effectively tend to recommend the web version for its features and difficulty.
I started using it very early on and then completely gave up as it became too repetitive. In the last month I have returned to use it for Irish and Turkish, mostly to the app and I’ve found I am using it a lot.
While I am very conscious of both the language skills it doesn’t touch at all and the ways it can give an illusion of learning, I’m also becoming more convinced that the whizz bang gamification and competitive surface features do have real value, as they generate, for me at least, a serious volume of repeated exposures and retrieval tests of new words and structures.
This increased quantity of these encounters which occur spaced intervals seems to be pushing these structures deep, from ones I have to consciously think through to one’s I can almost process automatically. And, for me, that is real progress.