To be clear, these statements aren't necessarily problematic. It's correct to be skeptical when someone says something doesn't work, but their product does. However to show it's an issue you need to show that either 1) the product they find issue with is actually fine, or 2) their product has the same issues or more. His definition of fluency doesn't include Duolingo as it won't get you to c2~. However I do not believe his product will either. (Also, I'm generally against duo as I started in JP 5+ years ago, but supposedly modern Spanish duo gets you to b2 which is unironically pretty impressive!)
Nate, I didn't even have to watch the entire video to know that you're giving Duolingo a fair and accurate assessment. I just started (again) with Duo French. I think all of these language apps are a GREAT tool for getting started in any language, but to be truly fluent- being able to think in the target language without having to translate the conversation into one's native language (my definition of fluency)- you have to be conversing regularly with native speakers. I mean, isn't that the goal of language learning anyway? The fantasy of becoming fluent in a language without speaking it in real situations is like dreaming that you'll become a great fighter without having to do any sparring.
I know people that have used Duolingo for 700 and 1000 days straight and still have problems making basic sentences but they're addicted to it because they don't want to ruin their streak.
And some have no qualms about cheating. One person is ahead of me by 5000 points, though I was doing a ton more lessons and also getting lots of points for reviewing, she was doing something, to score easily 3000 points in less than an hour. I told Duolingo. They didn't care. However, they have at least improved the website, and you can learn a lot. My Spanish has improved a lot, but I could already speak in Spanish, though broken Spanish.
You mentioned that confidence is a big part of it and people like that you are trying to learn their language, but I feel like as a hispanic myself who does not speak Spanish this makes it much harder when they expect you to already know how to speak it.
dont let shit like that hold you back bro. im hispanic and i just started learning spanish and if you let yourself be afraid to try and fail you will never succeed. Its okay to not know that much spanish know. Put in the work and you can you will be fluent in no time.
Great points Nate! It's true; Duolingo is not an one size fits all solution to language learning (just like any other app because they focus on one or two facets of learning). It's a supplement to your language learning. Especially for me, I use it just to warm myself up for my daily language routine. Anki and SpanishDict are great resources as I agree with you Nate. They're great ways to keep expanding your vocabulary because the more vocabulary you acquire, the more sentences you can form. You hit the nail when it comes to going out and speaking with people in real time because it is a different ball game. When I went to Puerto Rico and Costa Rica the past few years, I ended up struggling a bit to understand a lot of what natives were saying and it was because I didn't put enough practice into speaking with natives in real time. I think at best I only understood 20-30% of what natives were saying, but being able to visit Latin American countries or places gave me that chance to practice in real time. Muchas gracias por tus videos como siempre hermano! Cuídate!
I remember being shy as heck when I newly started learning Spanish but now I'm not as shy. Sure, I sweat a bit when speaking to natives but at least I can speak Spanish 😀
My biggest problem with Duolingo is that it takes ages before you learn anything but the present (indicative) tense. It will teach you: "I am really interested in European art", but not: "I told you that.", "She had to work yesterday", "They arrived two days ago", "Could you help us?" or "I want you to know that". As you would understand, these sentences all use different tenses and moods. So instead of slowly letting you get used to a few past tenses early on it just hooks you with an addictive interface. My work around is that I use a lot of phrases from Duolingo and use DeepL translator to change it to a different tense because there are so many to learn.
Thanks for the video and your thoughts. I made a video about Duolingo too when I hit 1000 days and my thoughts are similar. I think it’s a great tool to expose people to the language but needs to be used along with other resources as people get out there and practice what they’re learning.
As someone who has just reached 365 days on duolingo (but around 15 months learning without streak freezes) i can say that it helps knowing the language but still listening to spanish speakers and speaking is difficult. I'm in a small UK town so don't know any spanish speakers irl that are local, my comprehension for music and reading is fine but that's done at my own pace and leisure, but i've found for the times when i'm either listening to spanish conversation through videos or in person, and sometimes need to reply that's where all my knowledge kinda just leaves me as i'm not used to actually conversing in it. I'm not one for doing online classes, so it's rare that i verbally speak spanish and after a year+ of learning i still feel like my spanish isn't the best, but my spanish speaking friends tell me that i'm doing good and to keep it up! i go away to spain in june for 2 weeks so i'm putting extra work into this test of seeing how my spanish actually fairs when i'm actually conversing
I think you have based your review on the old DuoLingo and from what you are saying, you are missing some very important features in the newest (since about 2/2023) version of the app. I was using the old DuoLingo (for Spanish) for a few months, then I was forced to take a break. When I came back, the new version had just launched. A lot has changed. The biggest change for me is the switch to dynamic lesson content. DuoLingo now adjusts your lessons to fit your needs and it works surprisingly well. I am a software engineer and I can "see" the algorithm running the system. If I am having trouble with a new word, DuoLingo can tell and adjusts my lessons on the fly giving more emphasis to the word or concept I am struggling with. If I am "getting it", DuoLingo also adjusts and does not burden me with continually asking me to spell "aqui" for example. I am very pleased with the new version, and I feel I have a better assessment because I have used it BEFORE AND AFTER the upgrade. It might be helpful to explore these new features and tell people about it. Thanks for the VID...
Solid advice! Ive been practicing a lot on Tandem lately. I really like it. Its good practice to hear real spanish speakers. I still do my daily Duo, though!
No creo que puedas aprender un idioma y hablarlo con fluidez solo con Duolingo, pero es una aplicación muy fácil de usar y puede mantenerte motivado para aprender.
I've been using it for 60 days non-stop, it's just about ok. It doesn't immerse you in the language enough. I think none of these apps do. Duo lingo gets you started. I talk to friends in Italy on hellotalk and WhatsApp and that is still a long way behind being in the actual country. Still, if you are young with a good memory you can easily reach a very good conversational level from your own country as long as you put in the time. With a good memory {mine is atrocious} 40 minutes to an hour a day within 9 to 12 months, you will be conversationally fluent in the target language. I was in Montenegro speaking to 13-year-old boys in a supermarket. Their conversational English was fantastic and they had never been outside Montenegro plus a very few people in Montenegro spoke English when I was there.
I used to be fluent in Spanish but I lost it. I've been using Duolingo to get it back and I've been starting to speak in full sentences again. I'm also now at a point in Duolingo where after the stories, for bonus XP, they have me talk about something about the story in Spanish and though it's typed, that's still expressive language practice and I'm impressed by it.
i've tried a lot of spanish learning methods but Duolingo is the one that really seems to be working for me. I'm only on fifth day and i'm fully away i can't be fluent without practicing with real people but the multiple approaches on duo is excellent and makes me think of the words in the different ways... writing, speaking, choosing, seeing...
I’m learning Spanish too, I’m still a beginner, but even though I’m putting in a few hours of learning everyday I kind of feel like I’m not learning anything because I forget words or I don’t know how to construct them into a sentence
write the words you learn with the english translations on a paper, it helped me so much with german!
6 месяцев назад
Listen to Spanish podcasts. It will sound gibberish at first but as you progress, you will start to understand a few words. You have to give your brain time to figure out the language structure and grammar. Don't give up. Once your brain figures it out, things will become easier. It's getting to the top of the hill that is the hardest part.
Yehh the thing that people forget is you can’t JUST rely on duolingo to become fully fluent or gain fluency. Duolingo is supposed to be used next to other things, like immersing yourself with foreign media e.g news articles, videos, films or even books etc etc. of course speaking with natives is the biggest thing too!!
But also, you can never really fully learn a language because there are so many things like regional dialects, accents, and phrases which aren't translatable or have double meanings. (for example in English you would learn that chicken is an animal or food but not that it also means coward or a dangerous game people play, or a phrase like "saving for a rainy day" which might not make sense if you don't also understand English sayings, of which there are thousands)
@@jwuk11345 By only using Duolingo you mean? Because you can totally become fluent in a language and learn all that stuff elsewhere. I, for example, know those things and my mother tongue isn't English.
No, I mean that you can't learn all the regional dialects, phrases etc. It's impossible. I've lived in the UK all my life and there are words and phrases from other parts of the country I don't know or don't understand. You don't learn phrases like "six and two threes" or "he's no spring chicken" or "gannin to get me bait like" when you learn English. @@halosaft
Gosh Nate I just bumped into this vid, I'm an early subscriber, you look so much different than I remember. Great vid, you seem to be doing great. Happy for you.
Great opportunity for an AI language learning app! Or Duolingo or others to implement AI to address users' individual questions as they come up in each lesson.
Fluidly Fluent: C1 functionally fluent:B2 Choppy functionality having a brief conversation B1. A levels ordering food, asking for directions study till you're at least B to be any real level of fluency.
Fluency is fluency. People do this “varying thing” but the reality is most of us aren’t trying to be college Spanish professors. Hell most of us ain’t trying to be English professors. At B2 and above (up to C2) you’re essentially going to be learning Spanish even more than you learned English.
Duolingo won't help you become fluent (i.e. say anything accurately) but will help you learn a lot of building blocks to help you communicate with native speakers. It will teach reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. From there you're going to have to do things like watch films and tv in a foreign language or begin basic conversation with native speakers. The thing people get scared about is saying something and then the response is spoken to quickly they can't understand and freeze. I used to do it, now I listen for key words and responding.
The quick answer is not. You can't learn a lengauge if you don't practice it. You can do it if you for example watch videos like this listen to music and read in the language you want to lear and talk to people
So, I started learning Spanish today; I had bought some textbooks on it (and Italian, too) some time ago and finally have some time to try, but the problem is, I have no one to speak with (I live in Bulgaria), so my only help is the pieces of advice in the textbooks (listening to songs, movies, writing down the words from scrips, etc). Duolingo helped me with Russian, but I did develop it more with actually speaking to Russian speaking people (my job is such, that I often have to speak with Russian speaking people, especially if they don't speak English). Duolingo is likely to help me with pronunciation to an extent, but is Duolingo alone enough to be fluent? Absolutely not, yet it is a valuable source, especially given that it's free and more accessible. So - wish me luck, people.
I agree that more than anything, putting yourself out there really helps after you take the time to learn it from the learning tool. It has helped that I work around Hispanics, joining a Mexican ballet (Folklorico), and occasionally eating or shopping in Hispanic owned stores.
Duolingo works for me so far. After learning some Spanish and watching some Mexican TV: I can actually understand what they are saying. Learned French in classroom: nothing. Good is that I can start at my level. When I enrolled in proper university course, there were students form different levels. Some lived in France or were on holidays there before. I was just a student who wants to exercise brain, so I was always behind.
You can learn a lot with just computer programs. But there is seriously NO substitute for communicating with a real person about real topics in real situations.
After using Duolingo for over a year, I would say no. It's great beginners tool to get you used to the grammar and syntax, and to help you learn vocabulary, but it doesn't provided enough audio input to give you good listening comprehension, nor does it have good tools to help you to learn to speak the language well.
I hate Duolingo, but every method needs supplementation. I was raised with English and Spanish, but I still needed formal education to shape up my grammar in both. I learned French in school, but had to make online friends to really get fluent - well, as fluent as I am.
It’s better just to talk to an AI (like me) and practice talking/listening in real time. AI don’t judge your pronunciation or laugh at you. You’ll be confident when you talk with a real person
I'm using Duolingo as a supplement to textbook learning + weekly Italki lessons + try to consume podcasts/stories on spotify/music + try to use spanish in my work / acquaintances.
With the amount of content on Duolingo Spanish, I feel like even a native speaker couldn't do all the lessons in one lifetime. It's insane, it takes like a year+ to get through a section if you actually take the time to do it thoroughly.
Hey nate. When learning spanish with a native, how do I start? What tools or resources can I use with them for them to help me learn spanish by speaking fluently and remembering words ?
A friend of mine picked up Spanish so quickly using Duolingo and Fluenti for speaking. He said the secret is to practice whenever you have time, even when you're in bathroom ; )
Thanks for sharing, I've been studying for 955 Days on Duolingo, and I can follow this video and understand your comment, I'm not fluent because I only studied 21 minutes a day, now I started studying 3 hours a day on Duolingo and I use Elsa speak To improve your pronunciation
I started with Pimsluer and then went to duolingo. I watch many netflix shows in Spanish and listen to the local hispanic radio station. Unfortunately I live in the north and there aren't very many actual Spanish speaking people around me.
Thank u for sharing! Besides Duolingo, you can consider using some effective tools to assist you on your solitary learning journey, such as DeepL, Immersive Translate, and so on.
Me: **watching this video being a native spanish speaker to learn English** Also me: this video is good 4:13 i agree with him, I'm someone who lacks of confidence and I can't start a conversation in english because I'm too shy or i don't trust my own abilities in speaking english
Duolingo is geared more towards Central/South American Spanish, and not European spanish. Sometimes the differences are slight, but other times the differences are MAJOR.
I think people need to stop using "fluent" so loosely. Now, "fluent" in the dictionary has two definitions: 1.smoothly graceful and effortless. 2. able to express oneself easily and articulately. What this MEANS is that there IS a general benchmark for the threshold to fluency. It's in the name: FLUent. As in fluidly. You MUST, to consider yourself fluent, be fully able to express yourself smoothly, effortlessly, easily and articulately in that language - and this is relative to your native language - in order to even qualify for BASIC fluency status. But what is "easily, effortlessly, smoothly, and articulately"? Well...think of it this way: In that second language, if you have to revert to English - or whatever your mother tongue is - in order to communicate, that ISN'T qualifying. It's not easy - if it were, you wouldn't HAVE to resort to english at ALL. It's also not smooth, to have to do that. It's not effortless, certainly, if you have to reach for words, go "uhhh", and resort to English. It's not especially articulate. So in order to BE truly fluent, you MUST be able to speak the language effortlessly, easily, smoothly (as in, no "uhhhh" looking for words, no switching to english, no "how do you say....uh....") - and articulately (you must be 100% comprehensible to native speakers as much as a fellow English speaker is to you). That might seem like it's unfair or meant to make you feel like your progress in the language is less profound, but the thing is, language isn't about your feelings, it doesn't care how hard you studied or for how many years - it just IS. You either ARE fluent - in that you can truthfully say you ca smoothly, easily, effortlessly articulate yourself ENTIRELY in that language all day long without resorting to english (again, if you have to resort to it, you AREN'T smooth and effortless- there IS difficulty there if you have to do that) ....or you're simply not fluent. And the thing is, it's OK to ADMIT that you're not fluent! It's not a shameful thing. Fluency is INCREDIBLY HARD to accomplish. It's something that takes years, sometimes decades to achieve. It doesn't mean you need to know EVERY word in that language to be fluent, but a basic rule of thumb is, go to an environment where only that language is generally spoken. Put yourself in various situations where you need to speak with people at length about various things. Live daily life. Have as many conversations as possible with locals. Read, watch videos or films, basically exist 100% IN THAT LANGUAGE - preferably in a scenario where you need to react quickly and don't have time to "uhhh" - live in THAT setting, thinking, reading, speaking ONLY in that language for at least ONE WEEK - and be honest with yourself. At the end of that week - keep in mind you can't be thinking in English, no youtube in english, nothing - JUST that language 24/7 and put yourself in social situations where you NEED to talk - no staying home and hiding and waiting it out - ask yourself the following: 1. Was I truly able to fully, easily articulate myself ONLY in that language for the entire week, including talking, reading, having proper conversations, etc, without once resorting to English? 2. Did I find that I had to strain to follow what people were saying? 3. Did I feel it was more mentally taxing and draining on mental energy to exist in the language than I do with English? i.e. do I feel EXHAUSTED from it? 4. Could I easily keep going like this and feel fully comfortable and at-ease? IF the answer is yes, congratulations, you are ACTUALLY fluent. If not, you're not. No big deal, because again, fluency is something many strive for for a VERY long time, and language learning is a life-long journey - you never get off at a stop and you're "done" - you keep improving, always. It's 100% OK to not be fluent. It DOES NOT MEAN that you don't have a very, very good LEVEL inn the language, even if you have to struggle sometimes - it does not mean it was all for nothing - it's just...look. Fluency is not something where you just wake up one day and learn 5 last words and you cross that threshold, boom, fluent. It's something you won't NOTICE has happened. It occurs very, very gradually over a long time, and you REALIZE you are fluent when you one day think about it and suddenly realize you haven't been studying actively for a long time but you can't remember the last time you had to resort to English. It happens when you AREN'T obsessed with BEING fluent, and it can be a very grey area between "almost fluent" and "flluent", with a lot of overlap depending on the situations you encounter. Like my wife. She started learning English as a teenager. She is decades older now, and I'd call her fluent - because she can very easily exist for months on end with only english and doesn't have to revert to her native language to express anything. I fully understand her 99.9% of the time. She DOES make mistakes with words here or there on rare occasions, but not to the point it gets in the way or slows down our conversations about any range of topics from metaphysics to politics, alien civilizations, philosophy and beyond. She can do ALL of that in English, even if she pronounces "towel" like "tower" sometimes. Her pronunciation is not 100% native, but she doesn't have to STRUGGLE to exist in English. So, she's FLUENT. But that occurred gradually, from living in the west for many years, without her FEELING it happen. If you've stopped finding words you need to look up all the time and it's no longer a struggle to fully express yourself entirely in that language, then even if you have an accent or make a few word mistakes on RARE occasions, you can fairy call yourself fluent. Me, I prefer to stay AWAY from calling myself fluent. I have learned Chinese for 15 years - and I find that while I have come a long way and can have conversations, there are still too many times when I have to stop and think of what to say or how to say it, or struggle to follow some regional accents, and admittedly I never focused very much on the reading and character writing side of things, so I would not call myself "fluent". I've reached a fairly advanced level, yes, I can SPEAK it, yes, but I hesitate to say fluent because I don't feel 100% confident in myself being able to entirely comfortably exist in the language in a broad range of scenarios. If it's just me and my wife, sure, I can do that - but with strangers with thick regional accents who speak quickly and take a lot of verbal shortcuts, I can't. It's hard, still, and it SUCKS to realize that, but it is.
All that is required to learn a language to fluency is input, particularly listening for the first several hundred hours of studying. Speaking can help you get an idea of where you're at in terms of acquiring a language, but speaking will not improve your vocabulary or help you learn anything. Speaking before having a good concept of all of the sounds (not by consciously studying the alphabet, but by large amounts of exposure) can create bad habits and hinder your ability to develop a native-like accent. It takes a long time to ACQUIRE (NOT learn) a language. How do babies begin to pick up a language? They don't boot up duolingo and study grammar and vocabulary. They simply acquire the meaning of words through context and mass exposure. This is the only way to ACQUIRE a language so you don't have to do mental gymnastics trying to translate from one language to another in your head. The problem with duolingo is it makes you FEEL like you're acquiring the language, when you're only consciously LEARNING the language, and learning will do practically nothing when it comes to holding a conversation with a native speaker. What's the point of being able to say hundreds of unique sentences if you can't understand the response to them because you're lacking auditory input? I have no affiliation with any language learning website, but after using dreamingspanish's website and method of comprehensible input for roughly 300 hours now, I've noticed a HUGE improvement in my listening comprehension and can follow many conversations fairly comfortably. Learning a language takes a lot of persistence and dedication. Duolingo is a quick and dirty shot of language-LEARNING (not ACQUIRING) dopamine that gets people so distracted by the cute sounds and interface, they often don't realize they're not truly acquiring the language until they try to have a conversation and notice they're immediately lost. Duolingo's only real use case is when you want to learn just enough phrases to get by in a Spanish-speaking country and don't care about actually being able to have a conversation with anyone in the language.
First, never write long things because nobody will read it. Second, I got to the first part and that was wrong so I'll comment on that alone. In order to learn a language you have to speak a language.
@@krane15 First, some things can only be condensed so much. Second, wrong. A growing number of people have learned a non-native language to the point of conversational fluency exclusively through comprehensible input. All speaking does is help you benchmark your current level. With just over 300 hours of listening practice and practically 0 hours practicing conversation, I'm able to communicate in a decent range of daily topics like weather, food, and daily activities. I know I'm able to because the phrases just come naturally to me after receiving the input that I have.
I too am struggling with comprehension of the spoken word. DuoLingo does help me with comprehension. Nearly every sentence has a "listen to this phrase" button and I always close my eyes and I listen several times until I can "decode" the spoken word fluently. This has done wonders. Just because you don't use the listening feature doesn't mean it does not exist. And speaking too! I am regularly required to "speak the phrase" and if I fail to enunciate properly (roll the rr's and end a question with a rise in tone) DuoLingo will make me repeat it until I get it right. I don't know how any automated system could do better.
I know someone from Romania. So I tried to learn Romanian on Duo. It sounds like the person speaking on the app has a heavy Chinese accent. The app definitely does not sound like my friend. I let her hear it and she had a good laugh. I love learning Spanish with Duo I am definitely not an advanced student.
I would like to hear your opinion now that Duolingo offers an AI option that seems to give you a conversation partner and the ability to ask about your mistakes like a traditional teacher.
What if the environment is not conducive enough for us to learn the language of our choice. What i mean is no one around me speaks the language i am learning. This provides many blockways to testing out our language skills. Movies, songs and dramas are other great sources to up our language dictionary but the point i made above still makes me skeptical whether i should continue. Oh well, the main purpose i started was for sheer enjoyment.
You have to create that environment for yourself... if you have the internet, some speakers and a microphone of some kind, you can directly chat with people who know your target language on various sites, apps or chat community.
I completed the German tree ii4 years never ever missing a day and I am far from fluent as a matter of fact I cant even understand conversation unless it is very basic
Duolingo doesn’t teach you the Spanish used in SPAIN it teaches the Spanish spoken in South America … which I’m told by my Spanish friends is not the same. So be aware if you want to learn Spanish.
I use it at home and with mi familia not only on Duolingo cuzz mama’s from España. But she never officially taught me Spanish. I learned espanol fluently 😮💨.
Yeah, but I feel like it’s teaching me how to say stuff like “I like to drink coffee behind my apartment building together with my friends. “Nothing useful.
Thank you so much for watching!!! If you’d like to find out what your actual Spanish level is, click here 🎉 spanishwithnate.com/p/free-training
"You cant learn Spanish using duo lingo" also "buy my course"
To be clear, these statements aren't necessarily problematic.
It's correct to be skeptical when someone says something doesn't work, but their product does.
However to show it's an issue you need to show that either 1) the product they find issue with is actually fine, or 2) their product has the same issues or more.
His definition of fluency doesn't include Duolingo as it won't get you to c2~.
However I do not believe his product will either.
(Also, I'm generally against duo as I started in JP 5+ years ago, but supposedly modern Spanish duo gets you to b2 which is unironically pretty impressive!)
Nate, I didn't even have to watch the entire video to know that you're giving Duolingo a fair and accurate assessment. I just started (again) with Duo French. I think all of these language apps are a GREAT tool for getting started in any language, but to be truly fluent- being able to think in the target language without having to translate the conversation into one's native language (my definition of fluency)- you have to be conversing regularly with native speakers. I mean, isn't that the goal of language learning anyway? The fantasy of becoming fluent in a language without speaking it in real situations is like dreaming that you'll become a great fighter without having to do any sparring.
Exactly!! Keep up the great work
Romans 10:9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Same with any class or textbook. You need application to be truly fluent
Beautiful analogy
This helps so much my Spanish has improved in just days by watching these videos gracias por todo🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽
I know people that have used Duolingo for 700 and 1000 days straight and still have problems making basic sentences but they're addicted to it because they don't want to ruin their streak.
And some have no qualms about cheating. One person is ahead of me by 5000 points, though I was doing a ton more lessons and also getting lots of points for reviewing, she was doing something, to score easily 3000 points in less than an hour. I told Duolingo. They didn't care. However, they have at least improved the website, and you can learn a lot. My Spanish has improved a lot, but I could already speak in Spanish, though broken Spanish.
@@QUINTUSMAXIMUS They were probably getting 2x bonus points and doing the gold lessons. They also probably paid for the app.
I am fluent in italian and I only used duolingo
Thanks, I'll also be fluent in Spanish just using Duolingo
@@chintu4179 Same
Cap
@@claysoggyfriesdude thinks everything is a lie
That is amazing, how long did it take you? Also how long was you practising
You mentioned that confidence is a big part of it and people like that you are trying to learn their language, but I feel like as a hispanic myself who does not speak Spanish this makes it much harder when they expect you to already know how to speak it.
dont let shit like that hold you back bro. im hispanic and i just started learning spanish and if you let yourself be afraid to try and fail you will never succeed. Its okay to not know that much spanish know. Put in the work and you can you will be fluent in no time.
Homie I’m in the same boat as you but I simply just don’t give af about my choppy Spanish lol there’s no other way to improve
Confidence is a huge factor. I majored in French but my confidence increased when I went to France and navigated the nontourist aspects.
Great points Nate! It's true; Duolingo is not an one size fits all solution to language learning (just like any other app because they focus on one or two facets of learning). It's a supplement to your language learning. Especially for me, I use it just to warm myself up for my daily language routine. Anki and SpanishDict are great resources as I agree with you Nate. They're great ways to keep expanding your vocabulary because the more vocabulary you acquire, the more sentences you can form.
You hit the nail when it comes to going out and speaking with people in real time because it is a different ball game. When I went to Puerto Rico and Costa Rica the past few years, I ended up struggling a bit to understand a lot of what natives were saying and it was because I didn't put enough practice into speaking with natives in real time. I think at best I only understood 20-30% of what natives were saying, but being able to visit Latin American countries or places gave me that chance to practice in real time.
Muchas gracias por tus videos como siempre hermano! Cuídate!
I remember being shy as heck when I newly started learning Spanish but now I'm not as shy. Sure, I sweat a bit when speaking to natives but at least I can speak Spanish 😀
My biggest problem with Duolingo is that it takes ages before you learn anything but the present (indicative) tense. It will teach you: "I am really interested in European art", but not: "I told you that.", "She had to work yesterday", "They arrived two days ago", "Could you help us?" or "I want you to know that". As you would understand, these sentences all use different tenses and moods.
So instead of slowly letting you get used to a few past tenses early on it just hooks you with an addictive interface. My work around is that I use a lot of phrases from Duolingo and use DeepL translator to change it to a different tense because there are so many to learn.
Hey, thanks. I will use Deeply too
I learned spanish with Duolingo a few years ago (for 1 month), it really gave me a knowledge boost before starting to learn spanish in class
Thanks for the video and your thoughts. I made a video about Duolingo too when I hit 1000 days and my thoughts are similar. I think it’s a great tool to expose people to the language but needs to be used along with other resources as people get out there and practice what they’re learning.
As someone who has just reached 365 days on duolingo (but around 15 months learning without streak freezes) i can say that it helps knowing the language but still listening to spanish speakers and speaking is difficult. I'm in a small UK town so don't know any spanish speakers irl that are local, my comprehension for music and reading is fine but that's done at my own pace and leisure, but i've found for the times when i'm either listening to spanish conversation through videos or in person, and sometimes need to reply that's where all my knowledge kinda just leaves me as i'm not used to actually conversing in it. I'm not one for doing online classes, so it's rare that i verbally speak spanish and after a year+ of learning i still feel like my spanish isn't the best, but my spanish speaking friends tell me that i'm doing good and to keep it up! i go away to spain in june for 2 weeks so i'm putting extra work into this test of seeing how my spanish actually fairs when i'm actually conversing
How has it been in spain so far
how was your trip!
Romans 10:9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Was it fun?
I think you have based your review on the old DuoLingo and from what you are saying, you are missing some very important features in the newest (since about 2/2023) version of the app.
I was using the old DuoLingo (for Spanish) for a few months, then I was forced to take a break. When I came back, the new version had just launched. A lot has changed.
The biggest change for me is the switch to dynamic lesson content. DuoLingo now adjusts your lessons to fit your needs and it works surprisingly well.
I am a software engineer and I can "see" the algorithm running the system. If I am having trouble with a new word, DuoLingo can tell and adjusts my lessons on the fly giving more emphasis to the word or concept I am struggling with. If I am "getting it", DuoLingo also adjusts and does not burden me with continually asking me to spell "aqui" for example.
I am very pleased with the new version, and I feel I have a better assessment because I have used it BEFORE AND AFTER the upgrade.
It might be helpful to explore these new features and tell people about it.
Thanks for the VID...
Solid advice! Ive been practicing a lot on Tandem lately. I really like it. Its good practice to hear real spanish speakers. I still do my daily Duo, though!
No creo que puedas aprender un idioma y hablarlo con fluidez solo con Duolingo, pero es una aplicación muy fácil de usar y puede mantenerte motivado para aprender.
Comprendo su mensaje. Yo solo uso duolingo para 26 días . Yo siempre aprendo pero estoy necesito estudiar todos días
@@OceanMud Tu progreso es asombroso! keep it up!
Si bien no me he vuelto tan fluido, me ayudó a recordar mucho español que perdí. Tiene sus puntos más finos en ese asunto.
@@OceanMudtambién
I've been using it for 60 days non-stop, it's just about ok. It doesn't immerse you in the language enough. I think none of these apps do. Duo lingo gets you started.
I talk to friends in Italy on hellotalk and WhatsApp and that is still a long way behind being in the actual country.
Still, if you are young with a good memory you can easily reach a very good conversational level from your own country as long as you put in the time.
With a good memory {mine is atrocious} 40 minutes to an hour a day within 9 to 12 months, you will be conversationally fluent in the target language.
I was in Montenegro speaking to 13-year-old boys in a supermarket.
Their conversational English was fantastic and they had never been outside Montenegro plus a very few people in Montenegro spoke English when I was there.
Mustache game strong
Af 😂
LMAO 😂
I used to be fluent in Spanish but I lost it. I've been using Duolingo to get it back and I've been starting to speak in full sentences again. I'm also now at a point in Duolingo where after the stories, for bonus XP, they have me talk about something about the story in Spanish and though it's typed, that's still expressive language practice and I'm impressed by it.
i've tried a lot of spanish learning methods but Duolingo is the one that really seems to be working for me. I'm only on fifth day and i'm fully away i can't be fluent without practicing with real people but the multiple approaches on duo is excellent and makes me think of the words in the different ways... writing, speaking, choosing, seeing...
I’m learning Spanish too, I’m still a beginner, but even though I’m putting in a few hours of learning everyday I kind of feel like I’m not learning anything because I forget words or I don’t know how to construct them into a sentence
Having the same issue 😣
saaame
write the words you learn with the english translations on a paper, it helped me so much with german!
Listen to Spanish podcasts. It will sound gibberish at first but as you progress, you will start to understand a few words. You have to give your brain time to figure out the language structure and grammar. Don't give up. Once your brain figures it out, things will become easier. It's getting to the top of the hill that is the hardest part.
Yehh the thing that people forget is you can’t JUST rely on duolingo to become fully fluent or gain fluency. Duolingo is supposed to be used next to other things, like immersing yourself with foreign media e.g news articles, videos, films or even books etc etc. of course speaking with natives is the biggest thing too!!
But also, you can never really fully learn a language because there are so many things like regional dialects, accents, and phrases which aren't translatable or have double meanings. (for example in English you would learn that chicken is an animal or food but not that it also means coward or a dangerous game people play, or a phrase like "saving for a rainy day" which might not make sense if you don't also understand English sayings, of which there are thousands)
@@jwuk11345 By only using Duolingo you mean? Because you can totally become fluent in a language and learn all that stuff elsewhere. I, for example, know those things and my mother tongue isn't English.
No, I mean that you can't learn all the regional dialects, phrases etc. It's impossible. I've lived in the UK all my life and there are words and phrases from other parts of the country I don't know or don't understand. You don't learn phrases like "six and two threes" or "he's no spring chicken" or "gannin to get me bait like" when you learn English. @@halosaft
I love duolingo. I am able to help customer with the little i know
Gosh Nate I just bumped into this vid, I'm an early subscriber, you look so much different than I remember. Great vid, you seem to be doing great. Happy for you.
Great opportunity for an AI language learning app! Or Duolingo or others to implement AI to address users' individual questions as they come up in each lesson.
Fluidly Fluent: C1 functionally fluent:B2 Choppy functionality having a brief conversation B1. A levels ordering food, asking for directions study till you're at least B to be any real level of fluency.
Don't over complicate things. You're either fluent or you're not.
Fluency is fluency. People do this “varying thing” but the reality is most of us aren’t trying to be college Spanish professors. Hell most of us ain’t trying to be English professors.
At B2 and above (up to C2) you’re essentially going to be learning Spanish even more than you learned English.
Duolingo won't help you become fluent (i.e. say anything accurately) but will help you learn a lot of building blocks to help you communicate with native speakers. It will teach reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. From there you're going to have to do things like watch films and tv in a foreign language or begin basic conversation with native speakers. The thing people get scared about is saying something and then the response is spoken to quickly they can't understand and freeze. I used to do it, now I listen for key words and responding.
The quick answer is not. You can't learn a lengauge if you don't practice it. You can do it if you for example watch videos like this listen to music and read in the language you want to lear and talk to people
¡Espero hagas más vídeos hablando inglés! Asombroso.
"I haven't used Doulingo in a long time"
**Has a 503 day streak**
So, I started learning Spanish today; I had bought some textbooks on it (and Italian, too) some time ago and finally have some time to try, but the problem is, I have no one to speak with (I live in Bulgaria), so my only help is the pieces of advice in the textbooks (listening to songs, movies, writing down the words from scrips, etc). Duolingo helped me with Russian, but I did develop it more with actually speaking to Russian speaking people (my job is such, that I often have to speak with Russian speaking people, especially if they don't speak English). Duolingo is likely to help me with pronunciation to an extent, but is Duolingo alone enough to be fluent? Absolutely not, yet it is a valuable source, especially given that it's free and more accessible. So - wish me luck, people.
I agree that more than anything, putting yourself out there really helps after you take the time to learn it from the learning tool. It has helped that I work around Hispanics, joining a Mexican ballet (Folklorico), and occasionally eating or shopping in Hispanic owned stores.
Y yo que veo tus videos para aprender ingles y me ah funcionado hahaha
🤣🤣🤣
Fluency is a high level efficiency of both, understanding and capabilty to use a language!
I love the guayabera!
Duolingo works for me so far. After learning some Spanish and watching some Mexican TV: I can actually understand what they are saying. Learned French in classroom: nothing. Good is that I can start at my level. When I enrolled in proper university course, there were students form different levels. Some lived in France or were on holidays there before. I was just a student who wants to exercise brain, so I was always behind.
Im useing duolingo & i think its broading my Spanish vocabulary.
The guitar on the back... So Mexican 😊
You can learn a lot with just computer programs.
But there is seriously NO substitute for communicating with a real person about real topics in real situations.
Haven’t watched the video yet but with that being said the new DuoLingo is WAY better , after the update the things you learn are way more useful . 😂
After using Duolingo for over a year, I would say no. It's great beginners tool to get you used to the grammar and syntax, and to help you learn vocabulary, but it doesn't provided enough audio input to give you good listening comprehension, nor does it have good tools to help you to learn to speak the language well.
I hate Duolingo, but every method needs supplementation. I was raised with English and Spanish, but I still needed formal education to shape up my grammar in both. I learned French in school, but had to make online friends to really get fluent - well, as fluent as I am.
It’s better just to talk to an AI (like me) and practice talking/listening in real time. AI don’t judge your pronunciation or laugh at you. You’ll be confident when you talk with a real person
I'm using Duolingo as a supplement to textbook learning + weekly Italki lessons + try to consume podcasts/stories on spotify/music + try to use spanish in my work / acquaintances.
I just got duolingo because I have Spanish classes in school
i have the same mexican skull you have there in the background :D
im learning english with duolingo since six months and is quiet good.
My girlfriend speaks spanish and is from Peru. I am learning on Duolingo and will also learn through speaking with her and her mom.
With the amount of content on Duolingo Spanish, I feel like even a native speaker couldn't do all the lessons in one lifetime. It's insane, it takes like a year+ to get through a section if you actually take the time to do it thoroughly.
Great information, I learned some great tips thank you!
Hey nate. When learning spanish with a native, how do I start? What tools or resources can I use with them for them to help me learn spanish by speaking fluently and remembering words ?
Nate rocking the stache! I love it! 😂
A friend of mine picked up Spanish so quickly using Duolingo and Fluenti for speaking. He said the secret is to practice whenever you have time, even when you're in bathroom ; )
Thanks for sharing, I've been studying for 955 Days on Duolingo, and I can follow this video and understand your comment, I'm not fluent because I only studied 21 minutes a day, now I started studying 3 hours a day on Duolingo and I use Elsa speak To improve your pronunciation
Loved this video and gonna add Anki.
My husband and I use duo and I also listen to the podcast. We have been at it 159 days and I clair I can't speak it 😂 I can read ok though.
I started with Pimsluer and then went to duolingo. I watch many netflix shows in Spanish and listen to the local hispanic radio station. Unfortunately I live in the north and there aren't very many actual Spanish speaking people around me.
I think I'll die of old age before I become fluent in another language in Doulingo.
Not the "así que" sounding like the Romanian "așa că" 😭😭😭
I'm using duolingo for learning two languages at same time. I hope i don't confuse the words and phrases. 🙏🏽
ChatGPT enters the arena
What language are you studying on duolingo if you say you havent used it for Spanish, yet you have a 508 day streak?
Mandarín!!
@@SpanishWithNate. awesome! Best of luck as always
Dios te bendiga 🙏🏻
@Spanish With Nate wow! How is that coming along?
Thank u for sharing! Besides Duolingo, you can consider using some effective tools to assist you on your solitary learning journey, such as DeepL, Immersive Translate, and so on.
I'm looking for an exchange language, I'm from Colombia in case anyone is interested
Me: **watching this video being a native spanish speaker to learn English**
Also me: this video is good
4:13 i agree with him, I'm someone who lacks of confidence and I can't start a conversation in english because I'm too shy or i don't trust my own abilities in speaking english
Really cool shirt, saludos desde México!
Conversant is the term I use with an elementary level.
This was a great video. I ❤DuoLingo.
You even got Mercedes Sosa on your playlist. My favorite song of hers is Todo Cambia. I def do not cry while listening tho.
I had some Spanish customers at my job once and I heard them speaking in Spanish and I understood some of what they were saying
Duolingo is geared more towards Central/South American Spanish, and not European spanish. Sometimes the differences are slight, but other times the differences are MAJOR.
When in the west speak western Spanish.
That’s a really good mustache for a fourteen year old !
I think people need to stop using "fluent" so loosely. Now, "fluent" in the dictionary has two definitions:
1.smoothly graceful and effortless.
2. able to express oneself easily and articulately.
What this MEANS is that there IS a general benchmark for the threshold to fluency. It's in the name: FLUent. As in fluidly. You MUST, to consider yourself fluent, be fully able to express yourself smoothly, effortlessly, easily and articulately in that language - and this is relative to your native language - in order to even qualify for BASIC fluency status.
But what is "easily, effortlessly, smoothly, and articulately"?
Well...think of it this way: In that second language, if you have to revert to English - or whatever your mother tongue is - in order to communicate, that ISN'T qualifying. It's not easy - if it were, you wouldn't HAVE to resort to english at ALL. It's also not smooth, to have to do that. It's not effortless, certainly, if you have to reach for words, go "uhhh", and resort to English. It's not especially articulate.
So in order to BE truly fluent, you MUST be able to speak the language effortlessly, easily, smoothly (as in, no "uhhhh" looking for words, no switching to english, no "how do you say....uh....") - and articulately (you must be 100% comprehensible to native speakers as much as a fellow English speaker is to you).
That might seem like it's unfair or meant to make you feel like your progress in the language is less profound, but the thing is, language isn't about your feelings, it doesn't care how hard you studied or for how many years - it just IS. You either ARE fluent - in that you can truthfully say you ca smoothly, easily, effortlessly articulate yourself ENTIRELY in that language all day long without resorting to english (again, if you have to resort to it, you AREN'T smooth and effortless- there IS difficulty there if you have to do that) ....or you're simply not fluent.
And the thing is, it's OK to ADMIT that you're not fluent! It's not a shameful thing. Fluency is INCREDIBLY HARD to accomplish. It's something that takes years, sometimes decades to achieve. It doesn't mean you need to know EVERY word in that language to be fluent, but a basic rule of thumb is, go to an environment where only that language is generally spoken. Put yourself in various situations where you need to speak with people at length about various things. Live daily life. Have as many conversations as possible with locals. Read, watch videos or films, basically exist 100% IN THAT LANGUAGE - preferably in a scenario where you need to react quickly and don't have time to "uhhh" - live in THAT setting, thinking, reading, speaking ONLY in that language for at least ONE WEEK - and be honest with yourself. At the end of that week - keep in mind you can't be thinking in English, no youtube in english, nothing - JUST that language 24/7 and put yourself in social situations where you NEED to talk - no staying home and hiding and waiting it out - ask yourself the following:
1. Was I truly able to fully, easily articulate myself ONLY in that language for the entire week, including talking, reading, having proper conversations, etc, without once resorting to English?
2. Did I find that I had to strain to follow what people were saying?
3. Did I feel it was more mentally taxing and draining on mental energy to exist in the language than I do with English? i.e. do I feel EXHAUSTED from it?
4. Could I easily keep going like this and feel fully comfortable and at-ease?
IF the answer is yes, congratulations, you are ACTUALLY fluent. If not, you're not. No big deal, because again, fluency is something many strive for for a VERY long time, and language learning is a life-long journey - you never get off at a stop and you're "done" - you keep improving, always. It's 100% OK to not be fluent. It DOES NOT MEAN that you don't have a very, very good LEVEL inn the language, even if you have to struggle sometimes - it does not mean it was all for nothing - it's just...look. Fluency is not something where you just wake up one day and learn 5 last words and you cross that threshold, boom, fluent. It's something you won't NOTICE has happened. It occurs very, very gradually over a long time, and you REALIZE you are fluent when you one day think about it and suddenly realize you haven't been studying actively for a long time but you can't remember the last time you had to resort to English. It happens when you AREN'T obsessed with BEING fluent, and it can be a very grey area between "almost fluent" and "flluent", with a lot of overlap depending on the situations you encounter.
Like my wife. She started learning English as a teenager. She is decades older now, and I'd call her fluent - because she can very easily exist for months on end with only english and doesn't have to revert to her native language to express anything. I fully understand her 99.9% of the time. She DOES make mistakes with words here or there on rare occasions, but not to the point it gets in the way or slows down our conversations about any range of topics from metaphysics to politics, alien civilizations, philosophy and beyond. She can do ALL of that in English, even if she pronounces "towel" like "tower" sometimes. Her pronunciation is not 100% native, but she doesn't have to STRUGGLE to exist in English. So, she's FLUENT. But that occurred gradually, from living in the west for many years, without her FEELING it happen. If you've stopped finding words you need to look up all the time and it's no longer a struggle to fully express yourself entirely in that language, then even if you have an accent or make a few word mistakes on RARE occasions, you can fairy call yourself fluent.
Me, I prefer to stay AWAY from calling myself fluent. I have learned Chinese for 15 years - and I find that while I have come a long way and can have conversations, there are still too many times when I have to stop and think of what to say or how to say it, or struggle to follow some regional accents, and admittedly I never focused very much on the reading and character writing side of things, so I would not call myself "fluent". I've reached a fairly advanced level, yes, I can SPEAK it, yes, but I hesitate to say fluent because I don't feel 100% confident in myself being able to entirely comfortably exist in the language in a broad range of scenarios. If it's just me and my wife, sure, I can do that - but with strangers with thick regional accents who speak quickly and take a lot of verbal shortcuts, I can't. It's hard, still, and it SUCKS to realize that, but it is.
All that is required to learn a language to fluency is input, particularly listening for the first several hundred hours of studying. Speaking can help you get an idea of where you're at in terms of acquiring a language, but speaking will not improve your vocabulary or help you learn anything. Speaking before having a good concept of all of the sounds (not by consciously studying the alphabet, but by large amounts of exposure) can create bad habits and hinder your ability to develop a native-like accent. It takes a long time to ACQUIRE (NOT learn) a language. How do babies begin to pick up a language? They don't boot up duolingo and study grammar and vocabulary. They simply acquire the meaning of words through context and mass exposure. This is the only way to ACQUIRE a language so you don't have to do mental gymnastics trying to translate from one language to another in your head.
The problem with duolingo is it makes you FEEL like you're acquiring the language, when you're only consciously LEARNING the language, and learning will do practically nothing when it comes to holding a conversation with a native speaker. What's the point of being able to say hundreds of unique sentences if you can't understand the response to them because you're lacking auditory input? I have no affiliation with any language learning website, but after using dreamingspanish's website and method of comprehensible input for roughly 300 hours now, I've noticed a HUGE improvement in my listening comprehension and can follow many conversations fairly comfortably.
Learning a language takes a lot of persistence and dedication. Duolingo is a quick and dirty shot of language-LEARNING (not ACQUIRING) dopamine that gets people so distracted by the cute sounds and interface, they often don't realize they're not truly acquiring the language until they try to have a conversation and notice they're immediately lost. Duolingo's only real use case is when you want to learn just enough phrases to get by in a Spanish-speaking country and don't care about actually being able to have a conversation with anyone in the language.
First, never write long things because nobody will read it. Second, I got to the first part and that was wrong so I'll comment on that alone. In order to learn a language you have to speak a language.
@@krane15 First, some things can only be condensed so much.
Second, wrong. A growing number of people have learned a non-native language to the point of conversational fluency exclusively through comprehensible input. All speaking does is help you benchmark your current level. With just over 300 hours of listening practice and practically 0 hours practicing conversation, I'm able to communicate in a decent range of daily topics like weather, food, and daily activities. I know I'm able to because the phrases just come naturally to me after receiving the input that I have.
I too am struggling with comprehension of the spoken word. DuoLingo does help me with comprehension. Nearly every sentence has a "listen to this phrase" button and I always close my eyes and I listen several times until I can "decode" the spoken word fluently. This has done wonders.
Just because you don't use the listening feature doesn't mean it does not exist.
And speaking too! I am regularly required to "speak the phrase" and if I fail to enunciate properly (roll the rr's and end a question with a rise in tone) DuoLingo will make me repeat it until I get it right.
I don't know how any automated system could do better.
2:53 i'm from spain
personally im just learning spanish for fun so i dont really care about being fluent but thanks for these tips :)
I know someone from Romania. So I tried to learn Romanian on Duo.
It sounds like the person speaking on the app has a heavy Chinese accent. The app definitely does not sound like my friend. I let her hear it and she had a good laugh.
I love learning Spanish with Duo I am definitely not an advanced student.
Fluency is when I can curse and talk without thinking and arguing dramatically 🙂🙂🙂
When you said así que you blow my mind and I speak Spanish but listening in English was so much 😊
I would like to hear your opinion now that Duolingo offers an AI option that seems to give you a conversation partner and the ability to ask about your mistakes like a traditional teacher.
My wife is a native Spanish speaker, so I guess that helps a lot lol. She’s making me learn it, id like to be able to talk to my in laws
What if the environment is not conducive enough for us to learn the language of our choice. What i mean is no one around me speaks the language i am learning. This provides many blockways to testing out our language skills. Movies, songs and dramas are other great sources to up our language dictionary but the point i made above still makes me skeptical whether i should continue. Oh well, the main purpose i started was for sheer enjoyment.
You have to create that environment for yourself... if you have the internet, some speakers and a microphone of some kind, you can directly chat with people who know your target language on various sites, apps or chat community.
I completed the German tree ii4 years never ever missing a day and I am far from fluent as a matter of fact I cant even understand conversation unless it is very basic
Chat with these AI girlfriends in Spanish it worked out great for me
my Spanish teacher TELLS me to use duolingo
Thoughts on Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone? Just beginning the process of learning spanish at 47 years old. failed spanish 2 in high school.
I need your help on unit4 session 1 I'm not CND answer or the words to press the fill in the blank on filling the blankno
I think fluency is when you can tell and get jokes in a foreign language :)
Agree. It's a great supplement.
Adoro ver a los gringos practicandonos xd
Hey Nate, what kind of camera do you use for your videos?
Sony ZV1 :)
0:45 sec
I don’t know if this video is going to help me through anything I need more info how do each fluency
Duolingo doesn’t teach you the Spanish used in SPAIN it teaches the Spanish spoken in South America … which I’m told by my Spanish friends is not the same. So be aware if you want to learn Spanish.
I’m learning Spanish because I’m travel to South America and north
i have no problem from reading but speaking is hard
I use it at home and with mi familia not only on Duolingo cuzz mama’s from España. But she never officially taught me Spanish. I learned espanol fluently 😮💨.
有同感，多邻国是学西班牙语书面知识，很适合初学者，但是不善于教怎么使用语言，搭配hello talk app可以与母语者交流更好
Can anyone help with how to get any Spanish speakers as friends to speak with if you’re not close to any Spanish speaking country?
Yeah, but I feel like it’s teaching me how to say stuff like “I like to drink coffee behind my apartment building together with my friends. “Nothing useful.
El español es sencillo, bueno, yo soy nativo, pero igualmente, es sencillo aprenderlo, tengo un amigo aleman que aprendio en 5 meses
Cual es el truco??
@@RonalRomeroVergel el truco es praticarlo con alguien nativo y escuchar musica y ver peliculas en español
Why did his voice change when he switched to speeking Spanish?😂
This man looks like super Mario is talking to the people