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Learning Languages: Why I Use Duolingo

"Duo" the owl: Duolingo's mascot

I started using Duolingo in 2014 when I decided to develop my interest in learning foreign languages. Recommended to me by a friend, I found it to be a handy tool for picking up the basics of German, which was the language I was focusing on at that time. Back then, Duolingo was not as expansive as it is today and had only five language courses available for English speakers: French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and German. The fact that the website and the app kept me on board for so long was that the organization of the courses were simple, fun, and most importantly, free. For sure, it beat learning on my own with a mundane textbook. 

Duolingo uses a game system to teach new concepts. There is a "tree" of skills that you have to complete chronologically to move forward, beginning with the basics of the language. For example, the first skill in the German tree is called "Basics 1" and teaches you words such as Mann, Frau, ich, Brot, and Wasser {man, woman, I, bread, water}. What I like about the Duolingo technique is that they use different activities within each skills lesson to present their material. These include matching pictures with words, listening, speaking, and using simple sentences. All in all, the foundation of these techniques is based on translation. A lot of material is repeated, so the more you practice, the more "fluent" you'd feel with using certain sentences.

On the note of translation, Duolingo has a feature called Immersion (only available on the website), where you can practice your target language by translating articles. Essentially, you work together with the rest of the Duolingo community to produce the best translation for articles in foreign languages. I find this feature to be helpful since you can challenge your newly learned knowledge from the tree by using them in the "real world".

Duolingo is very interactive in the sense that not only does it work like a game, there is a large and supportive community of members who are also learning the same language(s) as you. Within the Discussion area of the site, you can find forums dedicated to specific languages, where members post questions and tips that you can benefit from. Aside from the forums, there is a discussion section following each problem you complete in the lessons, where you can ask for clarification on that one sentence alone. This allows you to get quick feedback from various people.

Now, the main reason that I use Duolingo is that it's a great way to get exposed to a new language and learn its basics. Aside from the original five languages, there are now also: Dutch, Swedish, Irish, Russian, Turkish, Danish, Norwegian, Esperanto, Polish, Ukrainian, Welsh, and Vietnamese. That's a huge expansion, especially considering that the creators of the courses are just regular folks who volunteer to be on the teams. I love how I can try out languages before committing to learning them. It's so much easier to get a feel for the language and see whether you like it or not if you're actually using them (by doing the activities within the lessons), than simply reading a sample text of that language. What I also like is that each language tree follows a template, meaning that they all teach the same skill topics (e.g. food, animals, family, etc.) in relatively the same order. This way, I can link together what I've learned from different languages to make my learning and understanding of each language easier. And lastly, I personally find it quite easy to grasp onto new grammatical concepts with the lessons. I was able to grasp the fundamentals of German grammar within four or so months, whereas I still struggle with French grammar after nine years of learning it in school.

A summary of my Duolingo language levels:
German (22), French (11), Arabic-->English (11), Danish (9), Dutch (8), Swedish (6), Spanish (6), BrazilianPortuguese (5), Turkish, (4), Irish Gaelic (4), Norwegian (3), Russian (2)

However, Duolingo is not without limitations, which is probably one of the reasons why I haven't been on it lately. First of all, you cannot skip skills in the tree. This becomes discouraging because you're required to learn something that you may not care for at all (for me, this would be the animal skill) but would be necessary for you to know since the words will pop up in lessons from that point onwards in the tree. Secondly, the type of sentences that you are exposed to are quite simple. For example, a sentence from one of the last skills of the German tree is Du musst Schritt für Schritt lernen {You must learn step by step}. In reality, sentences are longer and much more complicated. Naturally, the Immersion section will expose you to different types of sentences, as the content within it from real life articles (many are from Wikipedia), but you wouldn't be able to find an article targeted specifically to the skill you are working on. And lastly, the simple fact of Duolingo being a digital form of learning languages requires the learner to create their own notes. Even just recording vocabulary words will take some extra time, since you'll have to make note of them while completing the lessons. Not too long ago, Duolingo released a Words section on the website that tracks the words you've learned and creates flashcards for you review from, but this feature is still only available for the original five languages. Also, you will have to find external sources to supplement your Duolingo experience if you intent on becoming proficient at your target language.

Despite those limitations, Duolingo still remains as my primary source for learning languages since it is practical and fun. As someone who learns well alone, I found that the amount of German I had learned in four month's time in 2014 was far more intensive than my Beginner German course in university. There are so many smaller details that I have not mentioned about what they offer, and I definitely think that it is worth the time to try out the site or app. I certainly do intend to continue my journey of foreign languages soon!

You can find me on Duolingo here.

New Beginnings

After multitudes of neglected blogs and diaries, I've decided to pick up the hobby of writing again. It's been a while since I've written about myself, but as Socrates has said, the unexamined life is not worth living.

You may or may not know who I am, so allow me to introduce myself: I'm Crystal, a city girl from Canada who has been around for nearly two decades. I've spent a lot of my life travelling and moving around, which let me become more open-minded towards learning and gaining new experiences.

I had just finished a year of a general arts program but will be attending another school this upcoming fall for nursing. I just can't seem to make up my mind about how I want to get where I want to be!

I love learning foreign languages, playing and creating music, and watching history and crime documentaries. I'm also a fan of '80s movies, rock music, and classic novels. There's simply too much I want to do in such little time I have, but...I'm getting there. :)

Hopefully through this blog I'll be able to connect with people that have the same interests or are on the same journey as me. But anyhow, I hope that something about my life interests you!