For me duolingo began to turn bad in 2018-2019 when they put the leaderboards. The pressure to be competitive in a "learning" app is counterproductive and I hated that I couldn't opt out.
@@kristenmoonrise No, making your profile private doesn't prevent you from being on leaderboards. But I believe that simply ignoring the leaderboards on Duolingo probably wouldn't harm your account.
@@CompasVC ignoring is good too but I literally privated my account at least a year ago and I don't see the leaderboards anywhere anymore. But I had to do it via web browser, not the app. You can't add friends anymore to it either when on private.
When I stopped using Duolingo my friends all acted like I was giving up on a dream. I felt more like I was stopping myself from continuing to do something that was completely ineffective.
@@ron4202 yeah, I don’t hang out with those people anymore. They were really judgmental and treated me like I was not as good as them. Now I have better friends who are way more supportive!
ever since they changed the pathways, the Japanese course absolutely sucks now. i can say two curry meals please and this temple is really pretty and im on the second page (??) 😐
@@curepinkie1637 Hello, I could give you tons of Japanese resources. I can't drop links on YT so if you have Instagram or Discord, I can send you the links there.
That is exactly my problem with duolingo. The past few years I tried to get back into it again to supplement my lg learning but it was just so boring and not engaging with the constant and unnecessary repeating that I never lasted more than two days in a row
Absolutely; a ramble ahead here. I've been learning Chinese (Mandarin) and at this point I just use it to keep track of how long I've been learning for. Their introduction to tones isn't particularly good and there's no proper introduction construction of characters which are two of the incredibly important things to understand for Chinese. It also ignores cultural context, some of my work books will tell me it's 'correct' to do one thing but culturally it might be ignored if it's not necessary (e.g. 的 can be dropped sometimes as context will already provide the needed information). It also has an awful habit of just introducing concepts without explaining them and then deducting points even though it never even gave you an option (e.g. Depending on context 2 can be 二 or 两, Duolingo never explains this and constantly loses you points unless you do your own research as to the differences). With the loss of the community discussion section unless my learning streak wasn't what it was I would probably just drop it all together.
Yeah i remember trying to do the lessons and not completing them because i couldn't get the grammar right even though i didn't know German grammar, i figured out the der die das thing okay but i didn't know that all plurals were die and i didn't understand how den worked when they started showing it to me, and i also remember getting mad with it because i thought i got it right but i didn't get verb conjugation right something that i was easily taught in a real German class and even learned the e st t en t en shortcut and stem changers and the alphabet and stuff that duo didn't even bother with, i learned vocab really well but i just can't recommend it without other resources which i don't think a good language learning app should skip importance things that would damage learning
@@NicrophorusVespI also learned Mandarin on my own as well as studied in Taiwan, and am fairly fluent. I tried DuoLingo recently just to brush up on vocabulary and I thought it sucked a lot. It doesn't cover grammar, tones or basic things (same for Japanese as I also gained some fluency through traditional studies). I view DuoLingo as a supplemental tool, but definitely not a good way to learn a language. They sure did a great job marketing themselves as a good way to learn a language.
As someone who is trying to learn Spanish, I don't get why duolingo doesn't teach you the alphabet of said language you're trying to learn. I find myself trying (and failing) to pronounce new Spanish words. Like alphabets are the basic of all languages, so why not teach us that?
Fluency takes many years even in a formal instructional environment. How much you learn on Duo depends on many factors: your previous knowledge of the language or similar languages, how much time you devote to the app, how many different types of lessons you do, if you supplement with outside resources, etc. Personally, I think it’s a great low-cost resource for basic vocabulary and grammar.
Duolingo is good for reading, comprehension and vocabulary. I've been at it for more 3 years and I can now follow the spanish subtitles while watching english language shows on netflix. What it fails at is developing conversational and listening skills because unfortunately nothing can replace good old fashion human interaction and immersion. I wouldn't pay for it though because honestly very few of us have time to spend hours on it daily to make it worth it. 15 min sessions in the morning and evening is enough to keep it fresh in your head. But you still need to supplement it with other activities if you want to be fluent.
I can read first grade level Spanish literature okay-ishly after a year with the app. Speaking and hearing? Totally do not understand, at all. But I think there is only so much an app can do.
We all want easy fixes to everything- money, weight loss, learning new skills. Duo lingo is a great tool which has helped me out tremendously, but I’m also committed to spending an hour on it most days, and I supplement with learning the language in movies music and on social media. This video just feels like a way to validate a lazy quick fix mentality. One I have been victim too most of my life but finally able to manage with adhd meds and prioritising my time better lol
It also depends on the course. If you try the Latin course for example, you will find that you are like a machine learning algorithm, in that you can recognise patterns, and get it right some of the time, but you fundamentally have no idea what is going on. You will get more use out of spending the same amount of time reading a textbook than using duolingo. If you are doing it just for fun than duolingo is fine, but if you actually want to learn a language you have to go back to good old fashioned, reading textbooks, and watching TV in a different language.
You're right! Duolingo shouldn't advertise itself as an all in one language learning program. I think of Duolingo as a supplemental tool, an introduction to a word, the context in which it is used, and establishing rules. Everything learned there has to be reinforces by outside resources like practice books, language immersion like movies, etc. There's no one place to learn anything completely.
Duolingo does not care about learning languages anymore and really only care about users using it for long periods of times and getting Super Duolingo so they can get more money. I still remember using Duolingo years back and it wasn’t perfect but there were forums where users helped each other and mini lesson things that introduced the grammar and a brief overview of where you’d use certain phrases. Now I learn languages from official resources and textbooks, it’s nowhere near perfect but at least nowadays I understand grammar in-depth which Duolingo doesn’t offer (which is a nightmare for highly inflected languages because Duolingo tells you nothing about the different cases, it’s so annoying)
Yeah… I tried it for Korean and I was like, “no one who isn’t already basically fluent could learn it this way??” It would be okay for me as a refresher tool, but no one who didn’t know Korean could learn that language in any meaningful way.
@@EroticInfernosame! they don't they you that hangeul is an alphabet so i was stuck trying to memorise whole syllables for a week before i realised that myself, with proper instruction it takes you like a day to learn hangeul
Yeah, the lack of reference pages that explain grammar and spelling rules is the main reason I no longer use DuoLingo. I also hate their lack of vocabulary lists. Plus, their artstyle is hideous and there are a lot of other annoying things about them.
@milenazrzr They originally claimed that they did NOT care about money! AND they promised everyone that they would be able to become fluent quickly by solely using their app!
I quit after that stupid leader board. I got Duolingo to learn, not to compete with others. I don't have the time to sit and complete repetitive lessons just so I don't demoted from an imaginary competition that will mount to nothing
@@jacobstevens7046 Thank you for saying it for me. Jeezus Christ, OP, you saw through The Matrix, but somehow still decided that you needed to participate in it? SMH OP, sorry to come off so negative, I really DO hope you that are making progress in your language goals; I hope you are able to see the learning potential available with even the free version of this Duolingo app.
thank you. it feels so overwhelming, and I'm not going to rush a language I'm genuinely learning over some stupid competition. I want to take this to heart and take my time
My favorite duolingo sentance it had me read was "ich habe keine tochter aber ich habe einen fisch". "Oh nein, er liebt deine freundin" was a runner up.
I like learning languages, and am currently using duolingo for arabic. The fact that it doesn't teach grammar, expecting the user to intuit the frammar from working examples is utterly absurd. Grammar is to language learning what going to the gym is to physical labour: Something initially difficult that gets easier over time, that peoole often haven't time for (speaking as a labourer that doesnt go to the gym), but that renders everything much easier in the long run
Tbh I can some interest in trying to infer the grammar from the context (it makes the learners think about sentence structure, etc.); some language learning books do it too. But they usually immediately follow it by a lesson/explanation of the rule, which Duo doesn’t really do Also agree with you on Arabic: I took the classes to derust my Arabic, but almost no grammar
Please don't judge Duo just on the Arabic. It does a bad job for Arabic but that's because the Duo system is a poor match for such a language. You can learn Spanish or Japanese where it's much betterly optimised.
I'm only using it to learn the Arabic characters NGL. After I have the characters down I'll switch to something else to learn structure, grammar, and vocabulary. I'm also doing Spanish on there and it's laughable how little it's taught me. I plan to switch to a different method soon..... I remember in 2021-2022 when Duolingo seemed to care a bit about your learning
I’d never recommend using Duolingo to learn a new language from scratch but I found it really useful for reigniting my passion for the languages I learned in my youth. When I had trips to Germany and Belgium planned I realised how little confidence I had in my one-sharp French and German skills after two decades of barely using them. A while with the app got my brain back into the groove of thinking in those languages like it used to. Years ago, probably before the AI thing I really enjoyed finding the weirdest phrases it came up with. The German course on religion was full of references to The Holy Potato and those who worship it.
I went to a nursery where I was taught French and I remember nothing from it, apart from the fact that the nursery was split in two one for the ones learning french and the others who's parents had just payed for a nursery. I can still remember staring out of the window at the kids playing while I was learning what is french for car, I can't even remember it, only the image on the card of a french car, which was for some reason a baby blue Reliant Robin.
I thought I forgot my French too until I recalled the French days of the week and it came rushing back 😊 You may recognize some things subconsciously, or you think "everyone knows this" (they don't)
Mango is AMAZING. I can’t rave enough about its effectiveness. It has lukewarm reviews from people who don’t realize pleasure and learning don’t always go hand in hand (even though they do for me in this case)
I just downloaded mango, you should have mentioned is needed to have a paid subscription to be used (unless you can access as part of a partner org, I'm not from the US so not options available for me). It's more expensive than the yearly duolingo subscription if I'm not mistaken
@@Gr95dcyup. If all these language learning apps have to paywall you for even attempting to try and learn a new language then what’s the point? I’d rather spend my already limited income on actual Spanish lessons.
You dont have to wait for the hearts to fill up again: You can do really easy lections to fill up hearts again, without having to pay. You have to click on the hearts in the corner and down there you can Start that Kind of lection. I learned french in School for five years and about 10 years later I started using duolingo for french and I really started remembering things I learned. It works for me to refresh a language. I Highly doubt that you can really learn a language from the ground up in duolingo .
It was a great tool for me. I live abroad part-time, and when I am at home, I never get to speak my second language. So you doulingo allows me to practice every day and helps expand my vocabulary. I only use the free version, though.
@@BooksAndShitButNotLiterallyhell yeah you're learning no doubt about it. You will have to incorporate other methods of language learning to become fluent though. Language transfer and dreaming Spanish are a great combination
Same. I think non-neurotypical folks especially may be helped by gamification, although I know gamification can be used nefariously if that is the intention. Just my experience as someone with documented executive functioning and other issues. I still do additional language study outside of Duolingo, of course.
@@BooksAndShitButNotLiterally It definitely is. Not as much as they claim but 15 minutes a day does add up over time to quite a lot of vocab. It's not useless.
DougDoug(a big streamer and youtuber) said that duolingo did not work for for him, and that reading, translating, and examining comments under Spanish youtube channels is way more fun and is way better for actually learning. Haven't done it myself but maybe try it out if you want to slowly learn a language online. Plus don't cost any money
"reading, translating, and examining comments under Spanish youtube channels is way more fun" I can't think of a more boring way to learn a language. To each their own I guess...
@@Acro_YT Not the point. I didn't say it was inefficient, I said it was boring. That being said, if you wanna argue watching youtube videos or movies in your target language is better, sure, but reading comments? That's definitely boring. Let's not even mention the fact they're probably full of mistakes...
@@FrankBrennosTheGreatest Don't forget Slang. Slang changes from country to country to region. Puerto Rican slang won't be the same as slang from Peru, or from Spain.
I’ve done French on duo every day for months now and I’ve never felt more confident in my accent, vocab and grammar. I like this set up much better than 10 years ago when I first tried duo. It really comes down to commitment imho. I’ll do an hour most days, or 15 minutes occasionally on busier days. this “issue” feels like people complaining that they can’t learn a language while doing the bare minimum lol it’s a tool. Watch movies in that language. Listen to music. Read articles. Change the language of your phone. It’s a tool, not everything. 🤷🏼♀️
thank you! duo lingo has been such a good basic tool but i never expected to become fluent by only using it. i watch french tiktoks, listen to songs & learn the lyrics, watch shows in french but duo lingo is helping me understand everything on a basic level which is why i love it
This. Although even without the extras Duo took me to B1 in Spanish (confirmed by a tutor i hired recently because i moved to Spain and want to learn faster)
Happened the same to me, and I m happy I did it, I bought it two years ago and if I hadnt get hooked I wouldnt have finished my french course. I really considered it has helped me a lot to be honest, maybe because its similar to my native language but I would totally say it has helped me a lot
It's a nice supplement to my language class to remind me to practice every day, even when I don't have class, and pick up a few new words here and there- but still nothing compared to more formal classes.
I used to use Duolingo for my Spanish class in 8th grade (it was also for extra credit) and I can say I learned far more from my Spanish class than I did duolingo. I didn’t like that they would reintroduce concepts that I already learned and never give tips on grammar
Duolingo alone got me to halfway through the Welsh course, but a couple of years later, I remember basically nothing despite a year of daily practice. Nowadays I use it to supplement my Mandarin learning (in person lessons and self-study), and it's genuinely helpful for new vocabulary my classes don't cover and practising grammar patterns. But the fact that it doesn’t explicitly teach grammar, only shows it to you in sentences, really makes me aware of the fact that it’s not really a good learning tool (alone) at all. I genuinely like Duolingo, but I think it’s a practice or boosting tool, not a learning tool
Yet it created this illusion that learning a language can be easy and effortless. As a teacher I have to justify myself regularly as to why language classes are hard and progress is slow. Because that's just how it is. You have to put in the work
You can gain more hearts by completing an extra lesson, which is pushing you to practice more… I definitely can’t see it leading to actual fluency, but I’ve been finding the gamification super helpful for my ADHD and great for learning enough language to travel! I don’t think (or at least, hope) that anyone goes into Duolingo thinking they genuinely will become fluent
so, technically a B2 is fluent enough. C1 and C2 require the highest knowledge of how the language works, not only fluency when speaking/writing it. C1 may be the most ideal, but C2 is much more than what is needed. and if duoling really goes up to B1, it’s not bad at all. i’m more inclined to believe it’s a A2 tops, tho. at least, generally.
@@A.H._ You won't be even close to finish an A1 level if you only use duolingo. Duolingo is only good for a practice side-tool that you sometimes use while following an actual study plan.
@A.H._ I've been on it very casually for 2 years and it has come in handy a few times in my community that has a lot of people who speak less English than I speak Spanish. I'm at least glad that sometimes I don't have to rely on Google to convey simple messages to others.
I've always found this grading scale super dumb. It's kinda like the IQ test. Okay, it's not as bad and useless as the IQ test, but in my experience it's not a good indicator of a person's real life language proficiency.
I did the app for 2 months as a security guard, so I did a lot of the Japanese lessons. It was just learning patterns over and over. I'm fluent in Spanish and tried it for fun. It was not great either.
@@MrNightpwner This is just one person's experience. But that's how you learned English or any language. You don't think about every word, you think in chunks, based on patterns
Maybe because learning patterns actually teaches you language... I also did 2 (almost 3) months of Japanese Duolingo, started from 0 knowledge, and now I can say a lot of things like explain what I'm doing most of the time, what I'm gonna do, plan things and explain what is happening around. I can also understand context in simple Japanese podcasts. I think when I was learning English at school it took me about 5 years to reach that level in a language. I don't know what you did wrong, but it's weird you learned nothing, maybe you weren't paying attention.
Oh damn i am the opposite. Duolingo helped me immensely more than years of classes... i practice outside of the app with movies and media etc in the languages i want to learn... you don’t have to wait for hearts you can just earn them through free practice rounds. I love it still❤
perfect ! same here, l do exactely the same, l enjoy my time spent on Duo, free, without any subscription, I also opted out from the leaderboard frenzy, other than that l watch movies, and chat with native speakers on Tandem app, or AI (not Duolingo max), or in real life when I have the opportunity
I've been using Duolingo for 3 months now. I did have some basic knowledge of the language and this is giving me more. I can ask some basic questions besides " where's the bathroom ". You get 5 hearts per exercise and if you make mistakes you run out of hearts and like this young man mentioned you can purchase hearts. I myself have never purchased hearts. There are practice exercises that you can do to earn hearts and not pay anything. That's what I do. By that I have retained some of what I have learned . I myself will stay with Duolingo for now.
I haven't used Duolingo in a long time. But back when I did, you could have unlimited hearts if you joined a classroom... which you can just make yourself.
Hearing about hearts blew my mind. Id been considering picking it up again as I found it fun at least but I guess not if there are hearts. I didnt make tons of mistakes so I probably wouldn't run out but even having that looming over me makes me second guess myself.
This is why, you as the student, needs multiple vignettes to study. NOT just one. IMO, DL, does provide a basic communication style, however they do need to upgrade their platform with more a conversational method.
Finally someone said it. I'm (kinda) fluent in English (not my first language) and for our English class our teacher made us download it as part of our grade. Everyone was saying they were learning but to me it was just soooo boring and made no sense. I'm so glad it wasn't just me
Good GOD I’m so glad you mentioned Lumosity, I remember being a middle schooler and being HOOKED on their promises. Doing the little games and stuff and truly thinking “yes this will fix me , cause my mind is already so spoiled.”
I find Duolingo when adding other methods help me learn languages pretty well. I'm constantly learning new words although I will admit you have to dive deeper to learn things like grammar and sentence structure
Been using duolingo for the past month to enrich my learning of Spanish (a language I've been learning for almost a decade and am semi-fluent in.) Overall it's helped me structure my sentences which as a person who sucks at grammer has helped greatly and combined with my daily 90 min class on the language it's pretty good. The worst part is getting started, I got all of their placement questions right but they only put me in A2 even though I'm a B1, meaning I had to skip over a section to get to the right place. My plan is to use all of the grammer stuff and then skip all the way to higher levels for a real challedge. Great vid!
I'm *this* close to getting a 365 day streak. I'm just gonna get that to feed my inner perfectionist, then watch with joy as my streak freezes run out.
I think it really depends. I remember stuff from duolingo pretty nicely in Italian, but it's true that I speak fairly okay French and Spanish so that helps. But I also learned a bit of German (which has similar logic to my native languuage) , but I can't imagine to only learn through the app once I need to do some grammar and stuff. For me the most annoying thing is that you can only make 3 mistakes per day, and the ads. My friend also learned whole language by doing just duo. I am glad it exists and it's free (but the ads are really annoying)..
I found it first quizzed me on the same couple of words for a long time, then threw me words I saw briefly and long ago during the quiz to move onto the next level. It then failed me, saying 'Oh dear, you're not ready to move on! We need to keep doing the same stuff over again. Unless... you pay...'
Personal anecdote, I've been on it to learn French for about a month and I now know a few French words that I did not know a month ago. Something is better than what I had before, nothing. Net gain.
I’ve used duolingo for languages such as French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, Indonesian, Romanian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Esperanto, danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Arabic, Russian, Vietnamese, Navajo, etc… I love languages and I agree with you about AI texts and translations. The world needs human translators and there are things that AI can’t translate accurately.
great video! i recently picked up using duolingo again after many years because i was desperate to get some basic vocabulary, grammar, and sentences i can repeat to ger used to speaking french again. i grew up bilingually speaking french but haven't spoken it since i was a tween about a decade ago, so i have advantages like already having the accent and being able to discern whether or not something sounds natural with pretty decent accuracy. but i'm determined not to fall prey to duolingo's tactics; i'm not maintaining a streak because i don't want to study 7 days a week, i'm not spending any money on them, i'm not going out of my way to get xp to top leaderboards. and when i do study, i do it for an hour at a time, sometimes two hours, because i don't think that ~few minutes a day~ model is beneficial for anything other than maintaining a language you already know. and once i finish all the sections (which probably won't take too long at my pace) i'll likely not use it again and instead maintain and continue to learn the language through conversations with actual people. duolingo really gives me the creeps, especially after hearing how many employees they laid off in favor of ai. yuck.
I use duolingo and have a 267 day streak today. I never really liked duolingo, but the reason I got back into it was because I wanted to learn Russian. My boyfriend at the time had parents who didn’t speak a lot of English, so I wanted to learn it so I could talk to them even in simple sentences. I was very into it, and I did learn quite a bit (my bf helped me with pronunciation). After we broke up, i no longer had the motivation to learn that language. I went to spanish because it was easy and I wanted something to do when I was bored. I still keep up with it since my Duo widget on my phone and the incessant notifications make me feel unaccomplished if I don’t do my lesson, but honestly I have been speedrunning them and don’t spend more than 2 minutes a day on duolingo
So, after doing some research (less than 2 hours with google), you can find out how the language fluency system works as well as the courses in duolingo that will place you in certain tiers if that system. Spanish and French are currently the only ones worth anything at the moment as they will bring your fluency levels to b2 (can find a job speaking that language). Other courses have wierd rules and stipulations. For example, Chinese on iOS will only bring you to tier a1, which is the most basic of the most basic level. In addition, android is about a few months behind this course, and the desktop app/web-gui is the most behind. Also, the chinese course only offers mandarin (will not tell you on the app) and not Cantonese because their website says Cantonese is too difficult to teach. That being said, duolingo is great to see and stew in the way the sounds are supposed to be made and the words are supposed to be made, as long as you also take one of the many free courses (not duolingo) that are available online.
if you live in the US, some public libraries have online language learning resources and if you have a library card, which is free, you can reap the benefits. my library has mango languages and it actually teaches you how to respond and understand information in a foreign language. i know i sound like an advertisement, but please!!!!! get a library card! see if your library has language learning available! it’s free, and the library has so many other resources you probably don’t know about
You just remembered me to start my daily class. Duo rocks! The only problem is that you have to add another way of learning, not only Duo. And sincerely, did you finish all Duo Spanish course? I doubt it.
9:06 I like Busuu. You can take a placement test, you can get your exercises corrected by other users who know the same language, and their premium isn’t necessary just worth it for all the extra stuff you get. And they ask you what your native language is too.
I don't know, I agree with a lot here, but there are some major flaws. The only way to become fluent in a language is regular use. Instructors teaching you are going to help expedite you learning, but you are never going to become fluent by just taking a course. You need real life and continuous experience with a skill like language. I took French for 13 years, and while I could definitely say and read a lot, I didn't become fluent until I connected with people who only spoke French. Then I had to learn how to actually converse in the language instead of structured phrases from class or from books. Duolingo did a solid job of teaching me the basics of language. I have used the free version for both Dutch and Japanese, and while I would never say I am fluent in them, I could absolutely find my way around Japan and Curacao. Would I be able to have extensive conversation, meet new people, and ultimately have new experiences as a result? Nope. But I also only spent about a year on each course and if/when my career takes me out that way, I won't be lost and I'll be able to ask for most of the things I need to without a translator app or book. I can call that a win.
Idk my dad has legit become pretty fluent in Spanish with the help of Duolingo when he moved to Spain. I even ask him for Spanish word help now. It worked for him
With doulingo I also find their courses for non-European languages frustrating. I happy there’s some access but a lot of them lack the same features that the European languages have.
very timely video, since i hit one year streak on duolingo today💀😂. i studied english and french in uni, but at duo i took spanish just because i was interested in it. i’d say that knowing french helped me a lot with learning spanish and duolingo actually helped me a lot with studying vocabulary. as for grammar, i just had to guess based on similarities between the languages i have previously learned. soo, duolingo definitely isn’t made for you to achieve fluency, but i still find it very useful in learning the basics
I learned a lot from it. I got way more comfortable speaking Spanish because of it (having started from nothing), and was able to communicate with students (who had ZERO English), my husband (bilingual, and another resource for my Spanish), and his family (especially a cousin who, again, spoke no English). I learned a lot from the stories because they were conversational. The lessons were also good, but the stories put things into context and I was able to pick up whole phrases, and then break apart those phrases for other needs. Maybe things have gone down hill, but I'm not for the extreme DL hate. If anything, it's a free way to dip your toes in a language and see if it's worth pursuing further.
I feel strongly about this. I grew up using different kinds of language learning apps to learn my mom’s language and I learned nothing! I couldn’t memorise anything with the apps’ mini games and the words I was practicing was basically useless (things like ocean and parrot instead of more common words in sentences 🙄). What I do now instead is taking a text (in my case fanfictions) and pasting it into Google translate so that the text is in the language I’m learning. Then I take the words I don’t know in the text and create a set on Quizlet. Since I’ve chosen my own words from fanfictions, I get to learn more common words like “instead” or “maybe” or “until”. Words that connect things in a sentence and words from common topics. Quizlet works much better for my memory. Quizlet test you on the words by letting you write them from memory, and if you spelled the word wrong because you didn’t remember it, it test you on it again until you won’t make mistakes. For the grammar I try to look at the translated sentences and figure out what patterns there are, but I’m sure you can also search up the grammar on the internet to see if someone has explained it.
I'm from the USA, and my native language is English. I've learned two languages on Duolingo (Spanish and Italian) to conversational levels. I later went to live in countries where people speak those languages (Argentina and Italy) and now I'm perfectly fluent in both. Duolingo is not going to get you to a level where you will be confused for a native, but it can get you to a level where you can then immerse yourself in the language enough to gain fluency. That has been my experience. Ultimately, it's exactly like everything else in life... you get out what you put in. If you just do a single lesson every day to keep your streak going, or just do the practice lessons because that's the fastest way to get on the leader boards, you're not really putting in the effort that it will take to get the results you want from it.
I know so many people who tell me they’re learning a language on duolingo but if I try to speak to them in that language they admit they have no idea how to have a conversation.
It makes it difficult to find the more comprehensive explanations and it doesn’t naturally tell you the information before you do the exercises like how a teacher would. It’s good for refreshing if you’ve already taken a course but not as the only teacher.
one thing i wasn't really a fan of on duolingo was the prioritising of being able to perfectly reproduce sentences rather than understand why you were saying things in a certain way, for example i tried to start learning korean on there but was frustrated because even though i could translate all their sentences, the lack of information about grammar rules/sentence structures essential to have even the most basic ability to create sentences meant i basically had no practical skills in the language. it wasn't until i went and took courses to learn the basics myself that i found duolingo useful, putting into practice things i had already learned. i will say however that the super repetitive nature of the vocab games were quite effective in getting me to remember the words it taught. did duolingo make me fluent? absolutely not, but at least i'll never forget the words it made me repeat 200 times over.
Don't use these kinds of for profit services for language learning. Free tools like Anki to learn words and just watching a lot of movies, TV, and RUclips in the language you want to learn is better for actually becoming fluent.
I use it as a tool. I combine traditional learning with it. Duolingo is good for me because I can practice the language while at work. I can practice the Japanese characters and there are no hearts so you can screw up as much as you want!
I can't help but agree and disagree at the same time. I've used duolingo as my primary language learning tool for French and was able to learn enough to pass two semesters worth of courses at my college. I think that while there are plenty of issues with it, it is certainly possible to learn a language using it. Maybe you'll only learn to A2 or B1 level, but at least with courses like French and Spanish you can learn enough to start reading books or watching tv/movies in the other language, or having basic conversations with natives, and that can help you develop more advanced skills and fluency. Though I do think that my main issue with Duolingo is that it doesn't focus enough on learning the grammar and tries to get you to learn it naturally, but there's been plenty of times where I've seen a really simple graphic explaining a grammatical concept that I was supposed to learn from duolingo months ago and thinking, oh, that's how that works. But tl;dr: the only thing that can teach you a language is yourself. Use whatever works for you, dedicate yourself to studying the language, and above all else find ways to apply that knowledge daily.
I learned more Japanese in 2 weeks of language school than 2 years of duolingo streaks. The only exception is memorizing hiragana and katakana. So use the app for that, and use everything else for everything else.
Man, this video was absolutely fantastic. I was about to write about how it reminds me of lumosity right when you brought it up. The framing of it as an illusion and calling it out as a game... I don't think I've agreed with a video essay this much ever before.
My friend failed her German exam, then she told me she realized she spent over 150 euros on Duolingo subs and wasted 700+ hours in like 2 years I think (?) and she could not even hold a basic conversation with me, and I almost only used topics/words from her Duolingo "classes". :D So she switched to actual learning mode from play mode. She went to a school that offered an intense 100 hour German class for 300 euros plus she had to buy books, and it was over in one moth. The exam was free if she passed, which of course she did, because she properly studied this time. :D I do not know a single person who got proper language skills with Duolingo. But I know many, many people who boast about their extreme streaks of wasting time.
I'm happy I learned English in school, college and now learning professional English in university, in additional English classes, also a bit in English RUclips and internet overall, and not a a single bit from Duolingo. At first I didn't like the theory part, but now I'm thankful because it is much easier to learn more complex topics when you subconsciously know what is what in sentence and how these parts are connected.
As someone who just finished the Swedish Skill Tree as of a week ago after 4 and a half years, if you just click your not going to get much out of it. So, I make notes, write, and speak. Also, doing bi-weekly reviews. Sure it takes longer but you get more out of it. However, no App alone or resource will get anyone to fluency. Note: I learn more than one language.
I've come to realize this about five months in. I couldn't hold a basic spanish conversations. I think Duolingo is best as a supplement to different and tradition methods of learning. Immersion is still the best.
Did you actually try to do more than JUST duolingo ? Like, did you actually think about the words being used? Did you learn how grammar works? Did you try materials outside duolingo? Did you read the documents in duolingo listing the key phrases? Did you even try thinking in Spanish or whatever language you were trying to learn for a few minutes a day? Or did you just do your dailies and expect to learn Spanish by the end of the year?
@@Darth_Bateman That last one. That's what Duolingo advertises, that it's a language learning app. For $80/mo., you shouldn't have to research basic grammar on your own outside the app.
@@Darth_Bateman “did you do all these things that duolingo doesn’t let you do in app? Oh wow you did what the app told you to do and only that? Imagine!!! I’m very intelligent”
@@Twistedsleep I mean, it's pretty normal if you are interested in learning a language, that you'd learn about it outside of only one app. This seems more a case of buying the advertising that you'd learn a whole language only using one app, that is obviously marketing bs.
@@Twistedsleep Well when you commit to learning a language, why not use all the free resources out there on the internet? Why does a company have to tell you to do that?
funny story, my account glitched for some reason and the first 3-day super duolingo bonus with a day 7 streak lasted forever, and it thinks i have super duolingo lmaooo
Duolingo is good for absolute beginners, but not great for those serious about getting proficient. The Japanese course was helpful for me to learn the Hiragana, Katakana and some basic vocab. However, as others said, it's pretty bad at teaching grammar. It barely covers particles, word forms and sentence structures, which are very important for one's language foundation. I grinded the app for about 3 months then started taking actual online beginner Japanese classes to learn more. Now I just do 1 lesson a day to keep my streak
I find this video a bit too critical. I don't think Duolingo ever advertised itself as a way to fluency-- at least, I never saw it that way. It's still pretty impressive that it can keep up with elementary language classes. I think it's obvious that Duolingo will never be a replacement for a formal education in language. I don't mind the hearts system. They've got to make money, somehow. I hate the use of AI, though.
False! False! False! (I Liked your video don't worry! ^^') I am an avid supporter of Duolingo although I quit after the Path update. I still supported Duolingo even when they disabled comments, forums and eventually deleted all of them. I still supported them despite their shitty leaderboards (despite I had to hack it to get a diamond) and other meaningless achievements.. and also after they reset all achievements after I earned all. I support Duolingo because this: the old system *worked*. It was brilliant. If your argument is ‘not enough’, then do you at least know this ‘not enough’? Take a professional course if that suits you. But I know someone who would support you despite your failures: Duo. Fast-paced crash courses only do one thing: cramming, finish with everything and give false certificates.
I took French as a kid and in college so already had a basic vocabulary and understanding of the language when I started Duolingo in 2015-16ish. I'd made it far enough in the original tree to unlock extra modules, like the goofy flirting that didn't feel accurate but was fun. Then they redid the whole system I think twice since then and knocked my progress back to the beginning and testing forward throws in enough words I can't pass the test. I've got a 400+ day streak, zooming through a lesson a day, barely putting in effort to get to anything remotely challenging
Duolingo isn't made to make you fluent. It's there to give you a jump start into learning a new language, and also with the repetitive exercises, it tries to help make what you've learnt stick. The rest is up to you. You don't need to pay for hearts, you can do exercises to gain hearts. The only real advantage Super Duolingo has is if you're interested in the ranking system and want to do the time challenges unlimited. or the correction exercises which honestly don't need. I would say it's effective for those who finish their course at gaining at least simple basic comprehension. Which is an amazing start and makes ACTUALLY studying easier. Fluency? no.
As a Brazilian who worked for two years in an English school in my home country and is on a + 6 year streak on Duolingo I have enough background to say: the success of learning a language relies mostly on the person who is trying to learn. I've seen students in the English school learning absolutely nothing after 2 years with professionals as they would get out of class and do absolutely nothing to continue learning At the same time, other students who watched movies, listened to songs and podcasts would become fluent in a few months. Duolingo is not going to teach you all, and also it depends on how different the language you are learning is from your mother tongue. I've basically became fluent in italian with Duolingo due to the fact that the course is extense and the language is not that different from Portuguese, my native language. I also completed the Finnish course, which is still a beta version and completely different from any other language I know. Therefore I am not fluent now but I can understand random words in a sentence to get the context of it and I feel confident to visit Finland one day and say a few things in Finnish. To conclude, in my opinion Duolingo is a great free tool to get the hang of languages and it made a huge difference in my life.
I've been using Duolingo for a few years. But I've also learnt Duolingo every day. But no way could I ever speak a language after using this. But it does help with speaking.
@@AlistairKiwi Then that means it works. No app or even language school would make you speak fluently. They help you build the basics and interest in a language. They help you have a starting point. To learn a language you must practice with native speakers. The issue is not Duolingo.
For me duolingo began to turn bad in 2018-2019 when they put the leaderboards. The pressure to be competitive in a "learning" app is counterproductive and I hated that I couldn't opt out.
Yeah, Duolingo has failed it's users by implementing this system
Yes! Been saying this.
I think you have to make your profile private to opt out of the leaderboard. But I get your point!
@@kristenmoonrise No, making your profile private doesn't prevent you from being on leaderboards. But I believe that simply ignoring the leaderboards on Duolingo probably wouldn't harm your account.
@@CompasVC ignoring is good too but I literally privated my account at least a year ago and I don't see the leaderboards anywhere anymore. But I had to do it via web browser, not the app. You can't add friends anymore to it either when on private.
When I stopped using Duolingo my friends all acted like I was giving up on a dream. I felt more like I was stopping myself from continuing to do something that was completely ineffective.
True and true, something better must replace them...
Bad friends. People learn in different ways and Duolingo isnt for you
@@ron4202 yeah, I don’t hang out with those people anymore. They were really judgmental and treated me like I was not as good as them. Now I have better friends who are way more supportive!
I feel the same way about Babbel.
Do people actually think Duolingo is the best language learning app
I started doing Japanese on Duolingo and it was dreadfully boring. It quizzes you on the same 4 words over and over again for about 20 lessons.
ever since they changed the pathways, the Japanese course absolutely sucks now. i can say two curry meals please and this temple is really pretty and im on the second page (??) 😐
@@curepinkie1637 Hello, I could give you tons of Japanese resources. I can't drop links on YT so if you have Instagram or Discord, I can send you the links there.
@@curepinkie1637what did you expect to say if you are in the second page?
That is exactly my problem with duolingo. The past few years I tried to get back into it again to supplement my lg learning but it was just so boring and not engaging with the constant and unnecessary repeating that I never lasted more than two days in a row
@@DroppedBass more than three sentences considering i have a 340 day streak.
I was just thinking about this after getting back on Duo, and I realized that they never taught the basics of the language
Absolutely; a ramble ahead here. I've been learning Chinese (Mandarin) and at this point I just use it to keep track of how long I've been learning for.
Their introduction to tones isn't particularly good and there's no proper introduction construction of characters which are two of the incredibly important things to understand for Chinese.
It also ignores cultural context, some of my work books will tell me it's 'correct' to do one thing but culturally it might be ignored if it's not necessary (e.g. 的 can be dropped sometimes as context will already provide the needed information).
It also has an awful habit of just introducing concepts without explaining them and then deducting points even though it never even gave you an option (e.g. Depending on context 2 can be 二 or 两, Duolingo never explains this and constantly loses you points unless you do your own research as to the differences).
With the loss of the community discussion section unless my learning streak wasn't what it was I would probably just drop it all together.
Duolingo is only useful for vocab memorization, but nothing more
Yeah i remember trying to do the lessons and not completing them because i couldn't get the grammar right even though i didn't know German grammar, i figured out the der die das thing okay but i didn't know that all plurals were die and i didn't understand how den worked when they started showing it to me, and i also remember getting mad with it because i thought i got it right but i didn't get verb conjugation right something that i was easily taught in a real German class and even learned the e st t en t en shortcut and stem changers and the alphabet and stuff that duo didn't even bother with, i learned vocab really well but i just can't recommend it without other resources which i don't think a good language learning app should skip importance things that would damage learning
@@NicrophorusVespI also learned Mandarin on my own as well as studied in Taiwan, and am fairly fluent. I tried DuoLingo recently just to brush up on vocabulary and I thought it sucked a lot. It doesn't cover grammar, tones or basic things (same for Japanese as I also gained some fluency through traditional studies). I view DuoLingo as a supplemental tool, but definitely not a good way to learn a language. They sure did a great job marketing themselves as a good way to learn a language.
As someone who is trying to learn Spanish, I don't get why duolingo doesn't teach you the alphabet of said language you're trying to learn. I find myself trying (and failing) to pronounce new Spanish words. Like alphabets are the basic of all languages, so why not teach us that?
Fluency takes many years even in a formal instructional environment. How much you learn on Duo depends on many factors: your previous knowledge of the language or similar languages, how much time you devote to the app, how many different types of lessons you do, if you supplement with outside resources, etc. Personally, I think it’s a great low-cost resource for basic vocabulary and grammar.
Duolingo is good for reading, comprehension and vocabulary. I've been at it for more 3 years and I can now follow the spanish subtitles while watching english language shows on netflix. What it fails at is developing conversational and listening skills because unfortunately nothing can replace good old fashion human interaction and immersion.
I wouldn't pay for it though because honestly very few of us have time to spend hours on it daily to make it worth it. 15 min sessions in the morning and evening is enough to keep it fresh in your head. But you still need to supplement it with other activities if you want to be fluent.
I can read first grade level Spanish literature okay-ishly after a year with the app.
Speaking and hearing? Totally do not understand, at all. But I think there is only so much an app can do.
We all want easy fixes to everything- money, weight loss, learning new skills.
Duo lingo is a great tool which has helped me out tremendously, but I’m also committed to spending an hour on it most days, and I supplement with learning the language in movies music and on social media.
This video just feels like a way to validate a lazy quick fix mentality. One I have been victim too most of my life but finally able to manage with adhd meds and prioritising my time better lol
It also depends on the course. If you try the Latin course for example, you will find that you are like a machine learning algorithm, in that you can recognise patterns, and get it right some of the time, but you fundamentally have no idea what is going on. You will get more use out of spending the same amount of time reading a textbook than using duolingo. If you are doing it just for fun than duolingo is fine, but if you actually want to learn a language you have to go back to good old fashioned, reading textbooks, and watching TV in a different language.
Exactly. I love it, but it's important to, as with everything else, never trust blindly.
You're right! Duolingo shouldn't advertise itself as an all in one language learning program. I think of Duolingo as a supplemental tool, an introduction to a word, the context in which it is used, and establishing rules. Everything learned there has to be reinforces by outside resources like practice books, language immersion like movies, etc. There's no one place to learn anything completely.
Duolingo does not care about learning languages anymore and really only care about users using it for long periods of times and getting Super Duolingo so they can get more money. I still remember using Duolingo years back and it wasn’t perfect but there were forums where users helped each other and mini lesson things that introduced the grammar and a brief overview of where you’d use certain phrases. Now I learn languages from official resources and textbooks, it’s nowhere near perfect but at least nowadays I understand grammar in-depth which Duolingo doesn’t offer (which is a nightmare for highly inflected languages because Duolingo tells you nothing about the different cases, it’s so annoying)
Yeah… I tried it for Korean and I was like, “no one who isn’t already basically fluent could learn it this way??” It would be okay for me as a refresher tool, but no one who didn’t know Korean could learn that language in any meaningful way.
They only care about making money. They’re literally a capitalist corporation
@@EroticInfernosame! they don't they you that hangeul is an alphabet so i was stuck trying to memorise whole syllables for a week before i realised that myself, with proper instruction it takes you like a day to learn hangeul
Yeah, the lack of reference pages that explain grammar and spelling rules is the main reason I no longer use DuoLingo. I also hate their lack of vocabulary lists. Plus, their artstyle is hideous and there are a lot of other annoying things about them.
@milenazrzr They originally claimed that they did NOT care about money! AND they promised everyone that they would be able to become fluent quickly by solely using their app!
I quit after that stupid leader board. I got Duolingo to learn, not to compete with others. I don't have the time to sit and complete repetitive lessons just so I don't demoted from an imaginary competition that will mount to nothing
Then why did it impact you at all? I just don't pay attention to it.
you can turn off in settings
@@jacobstevens7046 same. Duolingo isn’t the best way to learn but it’s better than nothing
@@jacobstevens7046 Thank you for saying it for me. Jeezus Christ, OP, you saw through The Matrix, but somehow still decided that you needed to participate in it? SMH
OP, sorry to come off so negative, I really DO hope you that are making progress in your language goals; I hope you are able to see the learning potential available with even the free version of this Duolingo app.
thank you. it feels so overwhelming, and I'm not going to rush a language I'm genuinely learning over some stupid competition. I want to take this to heart and take my time
My favorite duolingo sentance it had me read was "ich habe keine tochter aber ich habe einen fisch".
"Oh nein, er liebt deine freundin" was a runner up.
Tochter, Fisch and Freundin should be capitalized in German so Duolingo seems not to be all that great after all 😉
@@n900video nah, they do capitalize those words in their lessons. they don't force you to do that though in questions requiring manual keyboard input.
@@n900video and also i'm lazy so idk what to tell you 🤷🏼♀️
how about the classic "Die Katze spielt nie Klavier" 😂 fucking duolingo AI
a couple years ago i tried learning polish and it gave me a sentence along the lines of "The crab is eating the cookie."
I like learning languages, and am currently using duolingo for arabic.
The fact that it doesn't teach grammar, expecting the user to intuit the frammar from working examples is utterly absurd.
Grammar is to language learning what going to the gym is to physical labour:
Something initially difficult that gets easier over time, that peoole often haven't time for (speaking as a labourer that doesnt go to the gym), but that renders everything much easier in the long run
Tbh I can some interest in trying to infer the grammar from the context (it makes the learners think about sentence structure, etc.); some language learning books do it too. But they usually immediately follow it by a lesson/explanation of the rule, which Duo doesn’t really do
Also agree with you on Arabic: I took the classes to derust my Arabic, but almost no grammar
Please don't judge Duo just on the Arabic. It does a bad job for Arabic but that's because the Duo system is a poor match for such a language. You can learn Spanish or Japanese where it's much betterly optimised.
I'm only using it to learn the Arabic characters NGL. After I have the characters down I'll switch to something else to learn structure, grammar, and vocabulary.
I'm also doing Spanish on there and it's laughable how little it's taught me. I plan to switch to a different method soon..... I remember in 2021-2022 when Duolingo seemed to care a bit about your learning
I learned arabic with 8k but now I only remember لكن. Arabic Duolingo isn't, good, their best course is spanish
I’d never recommend using Duolingo to learn a new language from scratch but I found it really useful for reigniting my passion for the languages I learned in my youth. When I had trips to Germany and Belgium planned I realised how little confidence I had in my one-sharp French and German skills after two decades of barely using them. A while with the app got my brain back into the groove of thinking in those languages like it used to.
Years ago, probably before the AI thing I really enjoyed finding the weirdest phrases it came up with. The German course on religion was full of references to The Holy Potato and those who worship it.
I went to a nursery where I was taught French and I remember nothing from it, apart from the fact that the nursery was split in two one for the ones learning french and the others who's parents had just payed for a nursery. I can still remember staring out of the window at the kids playing while I was learning what is french for car, I can't even remember it, only the image on the card of a french car, which was for some reason a baby blue Reliant Robin.
Une voiture :)
@@kellyriddell5014 depending on the dialect "une auto" or "une automobile" also works.
Quebecois is the easiest though it's only "un char".
@@neoqwerty you can't use that outside of Quebec
I thought I forgot my French too until I recalled the French days of the week and it came rushing back 😊 You may recognize some things subconsciously, or you think "everyone knows this" (they don't)
That is so strange. I have never attempted to learn French but I know the French word for car just from visiting Canada a few times a decade ago.
Duolingo fumbled the bag so bad, I was a devotee back in 2016 and it’s been all downhill since. I switched to Mango and have learned so much more.
Mango is AMAZING. I can’t rave enough about its effectiveness. It has lukewarm reviews from people who don’t realize pleasure and learning don’t always go hand in hand (even though they do for me in this case)
I just downloaded mango, you should have mentioned is needed to have a paid subscription to be used (unless you can access as part of a partner org, I'm not from the US so not options available for me). It's more expensive than the yearly duolingo subscription if I'm not mistaken
@@Gr95dcyup. If all these language learning apps have to paywall you for even attempting to try and learn a new language then what’s the point? I’d rather spend my already limited income on actual Spanish lessons.
I recommend Mango Languages too. When I went to Quebec, the French I learned from Mango Languages really came in handy.
Oh I gotta try that
You dont have to wait for the hearts to fill up again: You can do really easy lections to fill up hearts again, without having to pay. You have to click on the hearts in the corner and down there you can Start that Kind of lection.
I learned french in School for five years and about 10 years later I started using duolingo for french and I really started remembering things I learned. It works for me to refresh a language. I Highly doubt that you can really learn a language from the ground up in duolingo .
It was a great tool for me. I live abroad part-time, and when I am at home, I never get to speak my second language. So you doulingo allows me to practice every day and helps expand my vocabulary. I only use the free version, though.
For me, the game part actually helps me because it forced me to do it every day to keep up my streak and reach the challenges.
But is it actually helping you learn..?
@@BooksAndShitButNotLiterallyhell yeah you're learning no doubt about it. You will have to incorporate other methods of language learning to become fluent though. Language transfer and dreaming Spanish are a great combination
Same. I think non-neurotypical folks especially may be helped by gamification, although I know gamification can be used nefariously if that is the intention. Just my experience as someone with documented executive functioning and other issues. I still do additional language study outside of Duolingo, of course.
@@BooksAndShitButNotLiterally It definitely is. Not as much as they claim but 15 minutes a day does add up over time to quite a lot of vocab. It's not useless.
@@FrankBrennosTheGreatest I find parallel text books a quintillion times more efficient, and more fun because the phrases actually mean something.
DougDoug(a big streamer and youtuber) said that duolingo did not work for for him, and that reading, translating, and examining comments under Spanish youtube channels is way more fun and is way better for actually learning. Haven't done it myself but maybe try it out if you want to slowly learn a language online. Plus don't cost any money
"reading, translating, and examining comments under Spanish youtube channels is way more fun"
I can't think of a more boring way to learn a language. To each their own I guess...
@@FrankBrennosTheGreatest taking input is 1000x better than Duo
@@Acro_YT Not the point. I didn't say it was inefficient, I said it was boring. That being said, if you wanna argue watching youtube videos or movies in your target language is better, sure, but reading comments? That's definitely boring. Let's not even mention the fact they're probably full of mistakes...
@@FrankBrennosTheGreatest Don't forget Slang. Slang changes from country to country to region. Puerto Rican slang won't be the same as slang from Peru, or from Spain.
Since when do RUclips comments care about grammar or spelling
I’ve done French on duo every day for months now and I’ve never felt more confident in my accent, vocab and grammar. I like this set up much better than 10 years ago when I first tried duo.
It really comes down to commitment imho. I’ll do an hour most days, or 15 minutes occasionally on busier days. this “issue” feels like people complaining that they can’t learn a language while doing the bare minimum lol it’s a tool. Watch movies in that language. Listen to music. Read articles. Change the language of your phone. It’s a tool, not everything. 🤷🏼♀️
thank you! duo lingo has been such a good basic tool but i never expected to become fluent by only using it. i watch french tiktoks, listen to songs & learn the lyrics, watch shows in french but duo lingo is helping me understand everything on a basic level which is why i love it
This. Although even without the extras Duo took me to B1 in Spanish (confirmed by a tutor i hired recently because i moved to Spain and want to learn faster)
I accidentally bought a year of super duo (i wanted a month to try) and im still mad about it. Textbook learning has been way better for me.
same thing happened to me. AND YOU CANT EVEN GET A REFUND
they let me get a refund when I forgot to cancel my free month :( rip
You should try comprehensible input in conjunction, trust.
Happened the same to me, and I m happy I did it, I bought it two years ago and if I hadnt get hooked I wouldnt have finished my french course. I really considered it has helped me a lot to be honest, maybe because its similar to my native language but I would totally say it has helped me a lot
It's a nice supplement to my language class to remind me to practice every day, even when I don't have class, and pick up a few new words here and there- but still nothing compared to more formal classes.
I used to use Duolingo for my Spanish class in 8th grade (it was also for extra credit) and I can say I learned far more from my Spanish class than I did duolingo. I didn’t like that they would reintroduce concepts that I already learned and never give tips on grammar
Duolingo alone got me to halfway through the Welsh course, but a couple of years later, I remember basically nothing despite a year of daily practice. Nowadays I use it to supplement my Mandarin learning (in person lessons and self-study), and it's genuinely helpful for new vocabulary my classes don't cover and practising grammar patterns. But the fact that it doesn’t explicitly teach grammar, only shows it to you in sentences, really makes me aware of the fact that it’s not really a good learning tool (alone) at all. I genuinely like Duolingo, but I think it’s a practice or boosting tool, not a learning tool
Is there any Welsh media ? To help one learn
Remember when people said Ai generation models wouldn’t replace workers.
Yet it created this illusion that learning a language can be easy and effortless. As a teacher I have to justify myself regularly as to why language classes are hard and progress is slow. Because that's just how it is. You have to put in the work
You can gain more hearts by completing an extra lesson, which is pushing you to practice more…
I definitely can’t see it leading to actual fluency, but I’ve been finding the gamification super helpful for my ADHD and great for learning enough language to travel! I don’t think (or at least, hope) that anyone goes into Duolingo thinking they genuinely will become fluent
Duolingo, from what I’ve seen, only goes up to B1. Fluency goes from A1, B1, C1, and C2-C2 being entirely fluent.
Actually there are A2 and B2 as well.
so, technically a B2 is fluent enough. C1 and C2 require the highest knowledge of how the language works, not only fluency when speaking/writing it.
C1 may be the most ideal, but C2 is much more than what is needed.
and if duoling really goes up to B1, it’s not bad at all. i’m more inclined to believe it’s a A2 tops, tho. at least, generally.
@@A.H._ You won't be even close to finish an A1 level if you only use duolingo. Duolingo is only good for a practice side-tool that you sometimes use while following an actual study plan.
@A.H._ I've been on it very casually for 2 years and it has come in handy a few times in my community that has a lot of people who speak less English than I speak Spanish. I'm at least glad that sometimes I don't have to rely on Google to convey simple messages to others.
I've always found this grading scale super dumb. It's kinda like the IQ test. Okay, it's not as bad and useless as the IQ test, but in my experience it's not a good indicator of a person's real life language proficiency.
Even as far back as 2016, I remember Dulling had all these nonsense sentences like "I have 40 blue ducks" and the AI thing makes so much sense now
Credit where it's due, their social media is admittedly brilliant and hilarious.
thats how they get ya!
I find it insufferable honestly
@@cutebloons i think it was funny until they went to making shorts
It was arguably funny up until a certain point and for me I'd say it was the owl bird thing at the barbie premiere
That's where all their money is going, instead of giving us free vocabulary lessons
I did the app for 2 months as a security guard, so I did a lot of the Japanese lessons. It was just learning patterns over and over. I'm fluent in Spanish and tried it for fun. It was not great either.
"Learning patterns" is what language learning is...
@@vulpixelful obviously not cus then this video wouldn't exist.
@@MrNightpwner This video is wrong in a lot of things.
@@MrNightpwner This is just one person's experience. But that's how you learned English or any language. You don't think about every word, you think in chunks, based on patterns
Maybe because learning patterns actually teaches you language... I also did 2 (almost 3) months of Japanese Duolingo, started from 0 knowledge, and now I can say a lot of things like explain what I'm doing most of the time, what I'm gonna do, plan things and explain what is happening around. I can also understand context in simple Japanese podcasts. I think when I was learning English at school it took me about 5 years to reach that level in a language. I don't know what you did wrong, but it's weird you learned nothing, maybe you weren't paying attention.
Oh damn i am the opposite. Duolingo helped me immensely more than years of classes... i practice outside of the app with movies and media etc in the languages i want to learn... you don’t have to wait for hearts you can just earn them through free practice rounds. I love it still❤
Good point! Agreed!
Can you say that again but in the language you are learning please?
perfect ! same here, l do exactely the same, l enjoy my time spent on Duo, free, without any subscription, I also opted out from the leaderboard frenzy, other than that l watch movies, and chat with native speakers on Tandem app, or AI (not Duolingo max), or in real life when I have the opportunity
I've been using Duolingo for 3 months now. I did have some basic knowledge of the language and this is giving me more. I can ask some basic questions besides " where's the bathroom ". You get 5 hearts per exercise and if you make mistakes you run out of hearts and like this young man mentioned you can purchase hearts. I myself have never purchased hearts. There are practice exercises that you can do to earn hearts and not pay anything. That's what I do. By that I have retained some of what I have learned . I myself will stay with Duolingo for now.
I haven't used Duolingo in a long time. But back when I did, you could have unlimited hearts if you joined a classroom... which you can just make yourself.
Hearing about hearts blew my mind. Id been considering picking it up again as I found it fun at least but I guess not if there are hearts. I didnt make tons of mistakes so I probably wouldn't run out but even having that looming over me makes me second guess myself.
This is why, you as the student, needs multiple vignettes to study. NOT just one. IMO, DL, does provide a basic communication style, however they do need to upgrade their platform with more a conversational method.
Finally someone said it. I'm (kinda) fluent in English (not my first language) and for our English class our teacher made us download it as part of our grade. Everyone was saying they were learning but to me it was just soooo boring and made no sense. I'm so glad it wasn't just me
After like 1 month its been getting boring for me. Guess ill go back to learning by watching spanish videos!
Good GOD I’m so glad you mentioned Lumosity, I remember being a middle schooler and being HOOKED on their promises. Doing the little games and stuff and truly thinking “yes this will fix me , cause my mind is already so spoiled.”
I have a 2232 day streak I can’t let go. I havent done more than 20xp a day in at least 2 years now.
you sound like an addict, you know that, right?
Do not kiss the spider sounds like it was written by Husk.
I find Duolingo when adding other methods help me learn languages pretty well. I'm constantly learning new words although I will admit you have to dive deeper to learn things like grammar and sentence structure
I hate duolingo!!! (I have it on my phone)
god you’re so real for this
Jokes on you, at least I now know how to say 'apple' in Russian!
и я сказать я ем молоко и хлеб ииииии…. wait im proud of this one bc im vegetarian я не ем мясо
yes they expect us to speak mandarin without even teaching the pinyin (Chinese's pronunciation system)
Watching this while doing my duolingo
Desktop Duolingo from like 10 years ago was decent and fun. It feels like a money grab now, increasingly so since 2019.
Been using duolingo for the past month to enrich my learning of Spanish (a language I've been learning for almost a decade and am semi-fluent in.) Overall it's helped me structure my sentences which as a person who sucks at grammer has helped greatly and combined with my daily 90 min class on the language it's pretty good. The worst part is getting started, I got all of their placement questions right but they only put me in A2 even though I'm a B1, meaning I had to skip over a section to get to the right place. My plan is to use all of the grammer stuff and then skip all the way to higher levels for a real challedge. Great vid!
oh my god!! another robert with a great video
I'm *this* close to getting a 365 day streak. I'm just gonna get that to feed my inner perfectionist, then watch with joy as my streak freezes run out.
Haha I'm on my longest streak ever at 257 days
Can you tell us about your experience with duolingo in the language you are learning?
Omg thats diabolical 😂
I think it really depends. I remember stuff from duolingo pretty nicely in Italian, but it's true that I speak fairly okay French and Spanish so that helps. But I also learned a bit of German (which has similar logic to my native languuage) , but I can't imagine to only learn through the app once I need to do some grammar and stuff. For me the most annoying thing is that you can only make 3 mistakes per day, and the ads. My friend also learned whole language by doing just duo. I am glad it exists and it's free (but the ads are really annoying)..
I found it first quizzed me on the same couple of words for a long time, then threw me words I saw briefly and long ago during the quiz to move onto the next level. It then failed me, saying 'Oh dear, you're not ready to move on! We need to keep doing the same stuff over again. Unless... you pay...'
Personal anecdote, I've been on it to learn French for about a month and I now know a few French words that I did not know a month ago. Something is better than what I had before, nothing. Net gain.
I’ve used duolingo for languages such as French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, Indonesian, Romanian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Esperanto, danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Arabic, Russian, Vietnamese, Navajo, etc… I love languages and I agree with you about AI texts and translations. The world needs human translators and there are things that AI can’t translate accurately.
great video! i recently picked up using duolingo again after many years because i was desperate to get some basic vocabulary, grammar, and sentences i can repeat to ger used to speaking french again. i grew up bilingually speaking french but haven't spoken it since i was a tween about a decade ago, so i have advantages like already having the accent and being able to discern whether or not something sounds natural with pretty decent accuracy. but i'm determined not to fall prey to duolingo's tactics; i'm not maintaining a streak because i don't want to study 7 days a week, i'm not spending any money on them, i'm not going out of my way to get xp to top leaderboards. and when i do study, i do it for an hour at a time, sometimes two hours, because i don't think that ~few minutes a day~ model is beneficial for anything other than maintaining a language you already know. and once i finish all the sections (which probably won't take too long at my pace) i'll likely not use it again and instead maintain and continue to learn the language through conversations with actual people. duolingo really gives me the creeps, especially after hearing how many employees they laid off in favor of ai. yuck.
Well, yeah. As long as you've learned vocabulary, it has done its job. Unrealistic expectations are the problem here.
I use duolingo and have a 267 day streak today. I never really liked duolingo, but the reason I got back into it was because I wanted to learn Russian. My boyfriend at the time had parents who didn’t speak a lot of English, so I wanted to learn it so I could talk to them even in simple sentences. I was very into it, and I did learn quite a bit (my bf helped me with pronunciation). After we broke up, i no longer had the motivation to learn that language. I went to spanish because it was easy and I wanted something to do when I was bored. I still keep up with it since my Duo widget on my phone and the incessant notifications make me feel unaccomplished if I don’t do my lesson, but honestly I have been speedrunning them and don’t spend more than 2 minutes a day on duolingo
So, after doing some research (less than 2 hours with google), you can find out how the language fluency system works as well as the courses in duolingo that will place you in certain tiers if that system. Spanish and French are currently the only ones worth anything at the moment as they will bring your fluency levels to b2 (can find a job speaking that language). Other courses have wierd rules and stipulations. For example, Chinese on iOS will only bring you to tier a1, which is the most basic of the most basic level. In addition, android is about a few months behind this course, and the desktop app/web-gui is the most behind. Also, the chinese course only offers mandarin (will not tell you on the app) and not Cantonese because their website says Cantonese is too difficult to teach. That being said, duolingo is great to see and stew in the way the sounds are supposed to be made and the words are supposed to be made, as long as you also take one of the many free courses (not duolingo) that are available online.
if you live in the US, some public libraries have online language learning resources and if you have a library card, which is free, you can reap the benefits. my library has mango languages and it actually teaches you how to respond and understand information in a foreign language. i know i sound like an advertisement, but please!!!!! get a library card! see if your library has language learning available! it’s free, and the library has so many other resources you probably don’t know about
how does that work? do you have to go to the library and use their computers in order to use mango?
I saw a duolingo sentence before in Japanese saying "Excuse me, i am apple".
clock that tea
You just remembered me to start my daily class. Duo rocks! The only problem is that you have to add another way of learning, not only Duo. And sincerely, did you finish all Duo Spanish course? I doubt it.
I've been studying Spanish on Duolingo for years and I've learned so much! It works if you apply yourself.
9:06 I like Busuu. You can take a placement test, you can get your exercises corrected by other users who know the same language, and their premium isn’t necessary just worth it for all the extra stuff you get. And they ask you what your native language is too.
I don't know, I agree with a lot here, but there are some major flaws. The only way to become fluent in a language is regular use. Instructors teaching you are going to help expedite you learning, but you are never going to become fluent by just taking a course. You need real life and continuous experience with a skill like language. I took French for 13 years, and while I could definitely say and read a lot, I didn't become fluent until I connected with people who only spoke French. Then I had to learn how to actually converse in the language instead of structured phrases from class or from books. Duolingo did a solid job of teaching me the basics of language. I have used the free version for both Dutch and Japanese, and while I would never say I am fluent in them, I could absolutely find my way around Japan and Curacao. Would I be able to have extensive conversation, meet new people, and ultimately have new experiences as a result? Nope. But I also only spent about a year on each course and if/when my career takes me out that way, I won't be lost and I'll be able to ask for most of the things I need to without a translator app or book. I can call that a win.
Idk my dad has legit become pretty fluent in Spanish with the help of Duolingo when he moved to Spain. I even ask him for Spanish word help now. It worked for him
Pour one out for Robert Tolppi.
The brave man willing to cross the Duolingo Owl.
With doulingo I also find their courses for non-European languages frustrating. I happy there’s some access but a lot of them lack the same features that the European languages have.
hey bro, just found ur youtube! huge fan from tiktok!!! deff subscribed, keep going!!!
very timely video, since i hit one year streak on duolingo today💀😂.
i studied english and french in uni, but at duo i took spanish just because i was interested in it. i’d say that knowing french helped me a lot with learning spanish and duolingo actually helped me a lot with studying vocabulary. as for grammar, i just had to guess based on similarities between the languages i have previously learned.
soo, duolingo definitely isn’t made for you to achieve fluency, but i still find it very useful in learning the basics
I learned a lot from it. I got way more comfortable speaking Spanish because of it (having started from nothing), and was able to communicate with students (who had ZERO English), my husband (bilingual, and another resource for my Spanish), and his family (especially a cousin who, again, spoke no English).
I learned a lot from the stories because they were conversational. The lessons were also good, but the stories put things into context and I was able to pick up whole phrases, and then break apart those phrases for other needs.
Maybe things have gone down hill, but I'm not for the extreme DL hate. If anything, it's a free way to dip your toes in a language and see if it's worth pursuing further.
so true robert tolppi
Unrelated to the video but I hope you've been doing well, Robert!
Thank god ur back on my recommended omg
I’m on day 1543 and I’m using what I have learned. I love duolingo!
Your timing with this video is perfect, I just started looking into learning Malayalam. Honestly was considering taking traditional classes
I feel strongly about this. I grew up using different kinds of language learning apps to learn my mom’s language and I learned nothing!
I couldn’t memorise anything with the apps’ mini games and the words I was practicing was basically useless (things like ocean and parrot instead of more common words in sentences 🙄).
What I do now instead is taking a text (in my case fanfictions) and pasting it into Google translate so that the text is in the language I’m learning. Then I take the words I don’t know in the text and create a set on Quizlet. Since I’ve chosen my own words from fanfictions, I get to learn more common words like “instead” or “maybe” or “until”. Words that connect things in a sentence and words from common topics.
Quizlet works much better for my memory. Quizlet test you on the words by letting you write them from memory, and if you spelled the word wrong because you didn’t remember it, it test you on it again until you won’t make mistakes.
For the grammar I try to look at the translated sentences and figure out what patterns there are, but I’m sure you can also search up the grammar on the internet to see if someone has explained it.
I'm from the USA, and my native language is English. I've learned two languages on Duolingo (Spanish and Italian) to conversational levels. I later went to live in countries where people speak those languages (Argentina and Italy) and now I'm perfectly fluent in both.
Duolingo is not going to get you to a level where you will be confused for a native, but it can get you to a level where you can then immerse yourself in the language enough to gain fluency. That has been my experience.
Ultimately, it's exactly like everything else in life... you get out what you put in. If you just do a single lesson every day to keep your streak going, or just do the practice lessons because that's the fastest way to get on the leader boards, you're not really putting in the effort that it will take to get the results you want from it.
I know so many people who tell me they’re learning a language on duolingo but if I try to speak to them in that language they admit they have no idea how to have a conversation.
It makes it difficult to find the more comprehensive explanations and it doesn’t naturally tell you the information before you do the exercises like how a teacher would. It’s good for refreshing if you’ve already taken a course but not as the only teacher.
one thing i wasn't really a fan of on duolingo was the prioritising of being able to perfectly reproduce sentences rather than understand why you were saying things in a certain way, for example i tried to start learning korean on there but was frustrated because even though i could translate all their sentences, the lack of information about grammar rules/sentence structures essential to have even the most basic ability to create sentences meant i basically had no practical skills in the language. it wasn't until i went and took courses to learn the basics myself that i found duolingo useful, putting into practice things i had already learned.
i will say however that the super repetitive nature of the vocab games were quite effective in getting me to remember the words it taught. did duolingo make me fluent? absolutely not, but at least i'll never forget the words it made me repeat 200 times over.
I prefer Talk to Me for korean.
What's your opinion on Babble? Is it better, worse, or about the same?
Don't use these kinds of for profit services for language learning. Free tools like Anki to learn words and just watching a lot of movies, TV, and RUclips in the language you want to learn is better for actually becoming fluent.
I use it as a tool. I combine traditional learning with it. Duolingo is good for me because I can practice the language while at work.
I can practice the Japanese characters and there are no hearts so you can screw up as much as you want!
It can also help to learn your target languages from each other if you have more than one.
I can't help but agree and disagree at the same time. I've used duolingo as my primary language learning tool for French and was able to learn enough to pass two semesters worth of courses at my college.
I think that while there are plenty of issues with it, it is certainly possible to learn a language using it. Maybe you'll only learn to A2 or B1 level, but at least with courses like French and Spanish you can learn enough to start reading books or watching tv/movies in the other language, or having basic conversations with natives, and that can help you develop more advanced skills and fluency.
Though I do think that my main issue with Duolingo is that it doesn't focus enough on learning the grammar and tries to get you to learn it naturally, but there's been plenty of times where I've seen a really simple graphic explaining a grammatical concept that I was supposed to learn from duolingo months ago and thinking, oh, that's how that works.
But tl;dr: the only thing that can teach you a language is yourself. Use whatever works for you, dedicate yourself to studying the language, and above all else find ways to apply that knowledge daily.
I'd be curious if someone's review of Rosetta Stone programs. I was always interested in trying them out.
I learned more Japanese in 2 weeks of language school than 2 years of duolingo streaks.
The only exception is memorizing hiragana and katakana. So use the app for that, and use everything else for everything else.
Man, this video was absolutely fantastic.
I was about to write about how it reminds me of lumosity right when you brought it up.
The framing of it as an illusion and calling it out as a game... I don't think I've agreed with a video essay this much ever before.
My friend failed her German exam, then she told me she realized she spent over 150 euros on Duolingo subs and wasted 700+ hours in like 2 years I think (?) and she could not even hold a basic conversation with me, and I almost only used topics/words from her Duolingo "classes". :D So she switched to actual learning mode from play mode. She went to a school that offered an intense 100 hour German class for 300 euros plus she had to buy books, and it was over in one moth. The exam was free if she passed, which of course she did, because she properly studied this time. :D I do not know a single person who got proper language skills with Duolingo. But I know many, many people who boast about their extreme streaks of wasting time.
I'm happy I learned English in school, college and now learning professional English in university, in additional English classes, also a bit in English RUclips and internet overall, and not a a single bit from Duolingo. At first I didn't like the theory part, but now I'm thankful because it is much easier to learn more complex topics when you subconsciously know what is what in sentence and how these parts are connected.
I have a friend that condemned me when I said I use Duo. She advised me to use Mango languages, and I'm happy I listened to her.
As someone who just finished the Swedish Skill Tree as of a week ago after 4 and a half years, if you just click your not going to get much out of it. So, I make notes, write, and speak. Also, doing bi-weekly reviews. Sure it takes longer but you get more out of it. However, no App alone or resource will get anyone to fluency.
Note: I learn more than one language.
I've come to realize this about five months in. I couldn't hold a basic spanish conversations. I think Duolingo is best as a supplement to different and tradition methods of learning. Immersion is still the best.
I learned nothing from it. It was confusing
Did you actually try to do more than JUST duolingo ? Like, did you actually think about the words being used?
Did you learn how grammar works?
Did you try materials outside duolingo?
Did you read the documents in duolingo listing the key phrases?
Did you even try thinking in Spanish or whatever language you were trying to learn for a few minutes a day?
Or did you just do your dailies and expect to learn Spanish by the end of the year?
@@Darth_Bateman That last one. That's what Duolingo advertises, that it's a language learning app. For $80/mo., you shouldn't have to research basic grammar on your own outside the app.
@@Darth_Bateman “did you do all these things that duolingo doesn’t let you do in app? Oh wow you did what the app told you to do and only that? Imagine!!! I’m very intelligent”
@@Twistedsleep I mean, it's pretty normal if you are interested in learning a language, that you'd learn about it outside of only one app. This seems more a case of buying the advertising that you'd learn a whole language only using one app, that is obviously marketing bs.
@@Twistedsleep Well when you commit to learning a language, why not use all the free resources out there on the internet? Why does a company have to tell you to do that?
When I use Duolingo I learn how to play Duolingo. Others may be different but I do not learn the language.
I learn from other apps and books.
funny story, my account glitched for some reason and the first 3-day super duolingo bonus with a day 7 streak lasted forever, and it thinks i have super duolingo lmaooo
Duolingo is good for absolute beginners, but not great for those serious about getting proficient. The Japanese course was helpful for me to learn the Hiragana, Katakana and some basic vocab. However, as others said, it's pretty bad at teaching grammar. It barely covers particles, word forms and sentence structures, which are very important for one's language foundation.
I grinded the app for about 3 months then started taking actual online beginner Japanese classes to learn more. Now I just do 1 lesson a day to keep my streak
Can't wait for the CoolMathsGames to push the microtransactions and dark patterns update.
Kids in IT class have never learnt maths as fast.
I find this video a bit too critical. I don't think Duolingo ever advertised itself as a way to fluency-- at least, I never saw it that way. It's still pretty impressive that it can keep up with elementary language classes. I think it's obvious that Duolingo will never be a replacement for a formal education in language. I don't mind the hearts system. They've got to make money, somehow. I hate the use of AI, though.
False! False! False! (I Liked your video don't worry! ^^')
I am an avid supporter of Duolingo although I quit after the Path update.
I still supported Duolingo even when they disabled comments, forums and eventually deleted all of them. I still supported them despite their shitty leaderboards (despite I had to hack it to get a diamond) and other meaningless achievements.. and also after they reset all achievements after I earned all.
I support Duolingo because this: the old system *worked*. It was brilliant. If your argument is ‘not enough’, then do you at least know this ‘not enough’? Take a professional course if that suits you. But I know someone who would support you despite your failures: Duo. Fast-paced crash courses only do one thing: cramming, finish with everything and give false certificates.
I took French as a kid and in college so already had a basic vocabulary and understanding of the language when I started Duolingo in 2015-16ish. I'd made it far enough in the original tree to unlock extra modules, like the goofy flirting that didn't feel accurate but was fun. Then they redid the whole system I think twice since then and knocked my progress back to the beginning and testing forward throws in enough words I can't pass the test. I've got a 400+ day streak, zooming through a lesson a day, barely putting in effort to get to anything remotely challenging
money money green green moneys all i need need🗣️
Duolingo isn't made to make you fluent. It's there to give you a jump start into learning a new language, and also with the repetitive exercises, it tries to help make what you've learnt stick. The rest is up to you.
You don't need to pay for hearts, you can do exercises to gain hearts.
The only real advantage Super Duolingo has is if you're interested in the ranking system and want to do the time challenges unlimited. or the correction exercises which honestly don't need.
I would say it's effective for those who finish their course at gaining at least simple basic comprehension. Which is an amazing start and makes ACTUALLY studying easier. Fluency? no.
As a Brazilian who worked for two years in an English school in my home country and is on a + 6 year streak on Duolingo I have enough background to say: the success of learning a language relies mostly on the person who is trying to learn.
I've seen students in the English school learning absolutely nothing after 2 years with professionals as they would get out of class and do absolutely nothing to continue learning
At the same time, other students who watched movies, listened to songs and podcasts would become fluent in a few months.
Duolingo is not going to teach you all, and also it depends on how different the language you are learning is from your mother tongue.
I've basically became fluent in italian with Duolingo due to the fact that the course is extense and the language is not that different from Portuguese, my native language.
I also completed the Finnish course, which is still a beta version and completely different from any other language I know. Therefore I am not fluent now but I can understand random words in a sentence to get the context of it and I feel confident to visit Finland one day and say a few things in Finnish.
To conclude, in my opinion Duolingo is a great free tool to get the hang of languages and it made a huge difference in my life.
2:38 they used to not have ads too. I don’t remember the hearts being a thing until I picked it up a third time.
I've been using Duolingo for a few years. But I've also learnt Duolingo every day. But no way could I ever speak a language after using this. But it does help with speaking.
By speaking I just mean speaking the language when you read it - not actually how to speak it.
@@AlistairKiwi Then that means it works. No app or even language school would make you speak fluently. They help you build the basics and interest in a language. They help you have a starting point. To learn a language you must practice with native speakers. The issue is not Duolingo.