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Betteridge's law of headlines be damned, the answer is "yes". I've basically only used Duolingo for learning a particular new language. I started from nothing,

Betteridge's law of headlines be damned, the answer is "yes". I've basically only used Duolingo for learning a particular new language. I started from nothing, and just did a little every day during the pandemic. Then I travelled to the country in question, and was able to tell stories in the language. Not easily, and with bad grammar and my vocabulary sucked, but this is more than being able to order at a restaurant. My stories could be understood, and if they spoke slowly and gave me time to think then I could mostly understand them too. But surprisingly many people will not make any adjustments at all when you say "Please, if you speak more slowly I can understand", and instead will go maybe even faster. Like… do you think this will help us communicate?

wccrawford 4y ago
I would say the answer is "Yes, but..." It won't teach it on its own, but it can help you along with other methods of practice. I think even classes at school aren't enough on their own to teach you a language. You need other things to help you really learn the language.
alister 4y ago
> surprisingly many people will not make any adjustments at all when you say "Please, if you speak more slowly I can understand" I've seen this too, so many times. If I'm speaking to someone who has trouble with English, I can automatically speak slower, enunciate better, and use simpler words and shorter sentences. But some people cannot adapt the way they speak. I don't think it's because they are unaccommodating or impatient. For some puzzling reason, they just can't speaker slower and simpler. Ironically they might instead speak a bit faster as you observed, or louder.
- jltsiren 4y ago
  Communicating with people who don't know the language well is a skill you have to learn and practice. It's not something people can do by default. Especially in their native language. When you speak in your native language, the words may just come out automatically, without any effort. If you need to speak slowly, you have to be more deliberate and maybe even consider each word separately. If you don't remember that and just start speaking, you may end up speaking normally without even realizing that until it's too late.
- Izkata 4y ago
  Not sure about faster, but louder is what a lot of people do when they're trying to enunciate better, they just don't know how to do it right / what exactly they need to do. Basically they think they were mumbling.
  - knorker 4y ago
    Louder can certainly help too. Especially when people have masks on. But slower helps more than louder.
- watwut 4y ago
  Native speakers have usually zero idea about what is simple word for foreigner. They go by what feels simple for them. But simple for foreigner means "the variant I found in my textbook" and natives have no idea.
Markoff 4y ago
>But surprisingly many people will not make any adjustments at all when you say "Please, if you speak more slowly I can understand", and instead will go maybe even faster. by my experience when these people see you don't understand, they think speaking louder will make you understand
- knorker 4y ago
  That would make sense if I'd not just asked them to speak slower.

wccrawford 4y ago

I would say the answer is "Yes, but..." It won't teach it on its own, but it can help you along with other methods of practice. I think even classes at school aren't enough on their own to teach you a language. You need other things to help you really learn the language.

alister 4y ago

> surprisingly many people will not make any adjustments at all when you say "Please, if you speak more slowly I can understand" I've seen this too, so many times. If I'm speaking to someone who has trouble with English, I can automatically speak slower, enunciate better, and use simpler words and shorter sentences. But some people cannot adapt the way they speak. I don't think it's because they are unaccommodating or impatient. For some puzzling reason, they just can't speaker slower and simpler. Ironically they might instead speak a bit faster as you observed, or louder.

jltsiren 4y ago
Communicating with people who don't know the language well is a skill you have to learn and practice. It's not something people can do by default. Especially in their native language. When you speak in your native language, the words may just come out automatically, without any effort. If you need to speak slowly, you have to be more deliberate and maybe even consider each word separately. If you don't remember that and just start speaking, you may end up speaking normally without even realizing that until it's too late.
Izkata 4y ago
Not sure about faster, but louder is what a lot of people do when they're trying to enunciate better, they just don't know how to do it right / what exactly they need to do. Basically they think they were mumbling.
- knorker 4y ago
  Louder can certainly help too. Especially when people have masks on. But slower helps more than louder.
watwut 4y ago
Native speakers have usually zero idea about what is simple word for foreigner. They go by what feels simple for them. But simple for foreigner means "the variant I found in my textbook" and natives have no idea.

Markoff 4y ago

>But surprisingly many people will not make any adjustments at all when you say "Please, if you speak more slowly I can understand", and instead will go maybe even faster. by my experience when these people see you don't understand, they think speaking louder will make you understand

knorker 4y ago
That would make sense if I'd not just asked them to speak slower.