4 ms·

The Spanish course is one of the best courses on Duolingo. I took a slightly less-developed course -- the Portuguese course and completed it. At the end of the

The Spanish course is one of the best courses on Duolingo. I took a slightly less-developed course -- the Portuguese course and completed it. At the end of the course, I was able to have basic conversations in Portuguese. I had one half hour conversation where I talked only in Portuguese to an Uber driver and we talked about what he was doing, what he did in his spare time, etc. It was a little rough going at times but basically it brings you to the basic conversation level. That's all you can really expect from it because it's rather short (took me about 6 months to complete). Of course, I practised regularly outside of Duolingo especially with writing and looking stuff up on Wiktionary. No online course can ever teach you to become fluent. But Duolingo will give you the starting point so that you'll know where to go next if you really complete all the lessons. After finishing Duolingo, if you spend another year studying, practising, and consuming material in that language, you should be able to get to a reasonable working level in it. With the length of the Spanish course, I am guessing you can progress even further.

adriand 4y ago
I had a similar experience, although it's going back a few years now. I'd always wanted to learn Spanish and one year my wife and I were going to Spain in the fall, and then three or four months later we were going to a country in Latin America, and I decided that was the year I'd do it. I started with Duolingo and did it for three or four months before my trip to Spain, and after successfully managing a few basic interactions in Spanish and also being able to easily read signage and simple phrases, I was hooked. When we got back I continued with Duolingo but also got an online teacher and did a pile of other stuff and by the time we went south I was somewhat conversational. You can't truly learn a language with Duolingo (you especially need practice speaking with someone) but it gave me a great start.
lake-view 4y ago
> No online course can ever teach you to become fluent. I get your point, but with the pace of AI, there's a good chance this statement is not true in 5 years!
- remarkEon 4y ago
  I don’t think so. Some people can pick up languages relatively easily, and some people can’t. I don’t really know how AI could solve this, unless you mean that the AI can ferret out your gaps and tune the program to your learning needs. Isn’t this what Duolingo tries to do? Genuinely asking. I pay for the “super” Duolingo for no ads and unlimited learning because I’m kind of addicted to it, but I plan trips to Germany every year because you really do need immersion to get to even basic fluency.
  - eliasbagley 4y ago
    I'm guessing he's suggesting the AI can be a conversation buddy anytime you want, and also point out your mistakes so you can learn from them. imo this would be awesome and a game changer
    - remarkEon 4y ago
      Ah, okay yeah that would be really good. It’s hard to find time to hang out with a native speaker if you aren’t already in that country. Maybe this is already possible with ChatGPT?
    - ekianjo 4y ago
      spell checkers cant even get things right half of the time, not too confident AI will be able to change that
  - ejolto 4y ago
    > I plan trips to Germany every year because you really do need immersion to get to even basic fluency. That's not necessarily true, unless consuming lots of media in the target language counts as immersion. I became fluent in English without ever traveling to an English speaking country.
    - remarkEon 4y ago
      What is your native language?
colordrops 4y ago
I've had a similar experience with Spanish. But I learned another language, Mandarin, in a more formal way, so I alread had experience throwing myself out there and immersing without fear for years. That experience made it much easier to try speaking broken Spanish without hesitation when I finally had the opportunity. In other words, if you already know how to learn languages, Duolingo is a great way to build grammar, vocab, and pronunciation for when you do get a chance to practice, but may not be great for first timers. If I was younger and without a family I'd still consider in-person courses full time instead though.

adriand 4y ago

I had a similar experience, although it's going back a few years now. I'd always wanted to learn Spanish and one year my wife and I were going to Spain in the fall, and then three or four months later we were going to a country in Latin America, and I decided that was the year I'd do it. I started with Duolingo and did it for three or four months before my trip to Spain, and after successfully managing a few basic interactions in Spanish and also being able to easily read signage and simple phrases, I was hooked. When we got back I continued with Duolingo but also got an online teacher and did a pile of other stuff and by the time we went south I was somewhat conversational. You can't truly learn a language with Duolingo (you especially need practice speaking with someone) but it gave me a great start.

lake-view 4y ago

> No online course can ever teach you to become fluent. I get your point, but with the pace of AI, there's a good chance this statement is not true in 5 years!

remarkEon 4y ago
I don’t think so. Some people can pick up languages relatively easily, and some people can’t. I don’t really know how AI could solve this, unless you mean that the AI can ferret out your gaps and tune the program to your learning needs. Isn’t this what Duolingo tries to do? Genuinely asking. I pay for the “super” Duolingo for no ads and unlimited learning because I’m kind of addicted to it, but I plan trips to Germany every year because you really do need immersion to get to even basic fluency.
- eliasbagley 4y ago
  I'm guessing he's suggesting the AI can be a conversation buddy anytime you want, and also point out your mistakes so you can learn from them. imo this would be awesome and a game changer
  - remarkEon 4y ago
    Ah, okay yeah that would be really good. It’s hard to find time to hang out with a native speaker if you aren’t already in that country. Maybe this is already possible with ChatGPT?
  - ekianjo 4y ago
    spell checkers cant even get things right half of the time, not too confident AI will be able to change that
- ejolto 4y ago
  > I plan trips to Germany every year because you really do need immersion to get to even basic fluency. That's not necessarily true, unless consuming lots of media in the target language counts as immersion. I became fluent in English without ever traveling to an English speaking country.
  - remarkEon 4y ago
    What is your native language?

colordrops 4y ago

I've had a similar experience with Spanish. But I learned another language, Mandarin, in a more formal way, so I alread had experience throwing myself out there and immersing without fear for years. That experience made it much easier to try speaking broken Spanish without hesitation when I finally had the opportunity. In other words, if you already know how to learn languages, Duolingo is a great way to build grammar, vocab, and pronunciation for when you do get a chance to practice, but may not be great for first timers. If I was younger and without a family I'd still consider in-person courses full time instead though.