Has anyone tried Duolingo (free online foreign language lessons)?

Parent Cafe
1

I’ve been using it for three weeks to study Spanish. I was amazed at how much of the basics I remembered from four years of high school Spanish. But now I’ve gotten to the harder part, and the lessons are not as fun and easy any more. There are a few bad habits that I’ve developed that I need to take care of by taking notes and doing some practice on the side on my own.

I don’t have any particular goal in mind, other than to stop wasting so much time on Facebook when I could be accomplishing something better like learning a language.

Has anyone had success with the program?

2

started french with H- do like it - could not get our microphone to coordinate with their system. needs to do more on it.

3

I have used it for review of German and French and as a 1st time learner of Spanish. I didn’t think it was adequate by itself, but in conjunction with Pimsleur - an audio based course that I can get through our library - I thought it was a great way to practice the written and reading language components not covered by Pimsleur. I didn’t find it particularly challenging and did find some random mistakes. I wasn’t the only one who noticed these errors/ambiguous usages and corrections were made. Kind of fun to see learners from throughout the world working through the courses. Can’t complain about the cost - free!

4

I use it for Swedish and I enjoy it, Be forewarned that if you don’t use it often the program requires you to pay catch up before u can advance.

5

I think it’s great especially if you have a source to hear the language around you. That’s easy for Spanish: turn on the TV (or in many places the radio) and listen. The more you get attuned, the faster it comes. The lessons help you with vocab and structure but they make much more sense in context.

6

I used it for Portuguese before we went to the World Cup last year, and it was very helpful!

7

I use it for Spanish, and find it helpful

8

Along with whatever else you’re doing, check out this hilarious series. My language-loving daughter showed it to me. I’ve only seen 2 episodes so far.http://www.celebratelanguages.com/esextra.html

9

I tried Duolingo spanish but didn’t stick with it. S’s friend taught himself Portuguese by starting with Duolingo and has become quite good at it.

10

My D and I used it to motivate us to learn/brush up on a a little French for a trip to France this past summer. We were pretty good at doing a little everyday - for awhile. No harm done. My D who knew basically no French at least learned some words and some of the structure of the language. It was a good and handy tool - I’d do a few rounds while waiting to pick her up at school, or when I had a few minutes to waste anywhere.

11

Ruthie, I love that series!

12

I’m glad to hear about everyone’s success! If I can get most of the basics down I’ll be pretty happy.