In our previous lives we were foreign language teachers (among other things!), and between us we have some facility with half a dozen languages and can get around, haltingly, in about another half a dozen. One or both of us is usually trying to improve our language skills at any given time. And if you know us, you know that we are superfans of proper English grammar. So we consider ourselves to be experts, both as consumers and as purveyors of language instruction. Here’s the short version: we love Duolingo!
This is not a paid advertisement, and we do not know the good people at Duolingo. But we want to draw your attention to the excellent work they do. We have personally tried out their very robust courses in French and Spanish and their slightly less robust but still impressive courses in Chinese, German, Modern Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, and Turkish (hints about future destinations there!).
What makes them so good?
Lots of things, but here’s a short list of what especially pleases us:
- the insistence on writing, speaking, and reading and oral comprehension, even for non-Roman alphabets
- the ability to take diagnostic tests if you have some experience with a language
- the use of multiple speakers, so that you can hear how different people say the same phrase
- the length of the lessons, which you can complete in three to five minutes
- the ways the vocabulary is geared to the particular language: tons in Italian about food, tons in Chinese about families, and tons in Norwegian about bears and moose, to give just one example
And the science behind what they do is spot on, with revision on a scheduled and decreasing basis, as things become more firmly solidified in your mind.
One thing we don’t know is how well Duolingo works for people who are learning their first foreign language; the more popular languages have grammar notes attached to particular lessons, but the less common ones do not (this is not a criticism). We find these really useful because we are grammar nerds; you can of course google things that puzzle you but most people probably wouldn’t.
So even if you are not able to travel the world right now, give Duolingo a shot: dust off that high school Spanish or give a new language a try. (Let us know how it goes!) It makes a huge difference to your experience if you can speak even a dozen words of the language of the place you are visiting. We’re working hard on Norwegian for our next destination…
Note: The image above, You’re welcomed in many languages” by fatherspoon is copyrighted through Creative Commons through CC BY-ND 2.0.
I spent a summer working on Russian with Duolingo. I learned to say such things as “My horse is not an artist but an architect.” This was mostly good for a laugh but just yesterday I heard someone on NPR speaking about Russian artists who have fled to Armenia. And the word “chudozhnik” jumped out at me! So satisfying.
Thanks Deborah! We find that languages work that way too! (Except when they don’t and you are there in Germany trying to think of the word for butterfly and you can come up with Italian, French, Spanish…) In the pre-Duolingo days, Laurel spent a summer listening to Russian tapes in a desultory fashion and discovered that it all came back in Moscow where she was magically able to ask ‘Gde krasnaya ploshchad’ and order tea ‘s limonom’. Hooray!
Dear John and Laurel,
I am using Duolingo to learn German. But I still can’t write that sentence in German!
Warm regards,
Grant
Herzliche Grüße Grant!
Sicher kannst du diesen Satz schreiben. Aber Duolingo ist nicht so toll für schriftliche Kompositionen.
J’aime beaucoup de DuoLingo Français. Toute les jours, j’étudie le français car DuoLingo est accessible.
Salut Peggy et merci d’avoir écrit! En effet, c’est très accessible. Et des dessins animés si mignons. Bonne chance!
Super helpful post and fun to read post! Duolingo, here I come! Away with Pimsleur!
Hi Annette and thanks for writing! We’ve listened to the Pimsleur too in our day, and it did the trick. But this is so much easier! What language(s) are you working on?