15 ms·

Show HN: Lingvist – learn a language in 200 hours

18 points by jitnut 11y ago

ColinWright 11y ago
If it had Norwegian I'd sign up and pay real money.
- luxpir 11y ago
  Suppose you saw they had Swedish coming soon. Lots of mutual intelligibility there. Or is Norwegian a hard requirement? I say this as an English speaker who learned Swedish and now does OK with Norwegian after a little tuning.
  - ColinWright 11y ago
    Thanks for the reply ... Norwegian is a hard requirement, and as it happens, quite difficult to satisfy. I'm doing the best I can with an odd mixture of techniques, and the time-line is short. Had Norsk been there it might have tipped the scales as to whether I succeed or not, hence my comment. And I say this as someone who had rudimentary conversational Danish many years ago, and about 1000 words of Swedish about 10 years ago.
    - luxpir 11y ago
      Now I'm curious! Although really just any chance to have a quick language discussion... If that's the case it sounds like a good grammar book or two, plenty of daily audio exposure and flashcards ought to get you somewhere approaching what this service offers. I'd imagine you're well up on decent resources by now, though[0]. And I can only guess as to what your end goal is. Presenting to a tough crowd in Norwegian is all I can come up with. A northern-Norwegian friend let on a little about the massive regional variations there, too, which makes it fun when someone from a 'non-standard' region replies in their own special, often ancient, brand of Norwegian. -- [0] - If you're stuck for new material, you can always try Lars Monsen's shows on nrk.no - a tough but kind outdoorsman - with the subs on.
      - ColinWright 11y ago
        Long story. It's inessential, but I'd really like to have enough for a particular event. Details by email if you are interested. I have references with grammar, and I have some vocab, but the problem is getting simple enough language in sufficiently good audio, given my time constraints. It's complicated.
    - j_s 11y ago
      Was reviewing the commercial Pimsleur and Michael Thomas options and stumbled across this very-intro-level freebie which may be of slight help: http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11542&PN=16&TPN=6 http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T... Good luck!
      - ColinWright 11y ago
        Downloaded and I'll check up on it later - thanks. EDIT: Getting started - at first glance it's a useful addition to what I already have - thank you.
  - tacone 11y ago
    IIRC, those languages have been "coming soon" for quite a bit.
- tacone 11y ago
  Norwegian seems to be featured here https://www.duolingo.com/ https://www.duolingo.com/ (no clue about how good it that site btw)
  - ColinWright 11y ago
    I've tried DuoLingo and hated it. Really hated it. I should go back and try to document why - perhaps 20 minutes of my life is worth it if it gives the opportunity of breaking through and seeing why others think it's useful. Thanks for the reference.
    - tacone 11y ago
      I've actually tried Duolingo after suggesting it to you. I got hooked playing with it for many hours. The speech synthesis for the course I'm taking (German) is pretty bad, and while using it I find myself spending an awful lot of time writing in English rather than German. Also it is messy in many ways (example: after the "Seasons" lesson I know how to spell Autumn and Summer, but not Winter or Spring). Nevertheless I like it, the amount of material available is outstanding, so I guess I'll keep on using it for a long time.
      - ColinWright 11y ago
        Interesting that you like it. I really will have to give it another go. Thanks for the feedback.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
MartinMcGirk 11y ago
This is great. I keep telling myself that I'll learn Spanish. Something rapid fire like this but for Spanish would be so damned useful.
wodenokoto 11y ago
"Lingvist was founded by people who helped discover the Higgs boson at CERN as well as the people who built the core technology at Skype" Neither of which are skills that have anything to do with language. Not a single word about scientific testing of this audacious claim that you can learn a language in 200 hours. At least Duolingo actually tested people against a regular college course and came out on top, so you have that to go on as a user. They do specify what learn means - learn 3000 words. Is that recall? Recognition? Use in sentence? Actually understand in a sentence? In 200 hours? I call bullshit. If you look at the features page (how it works) you'll see that they claim to be the first electronic spaced repetition system ever in the entire world ever. What about SuperMemo, Anki, Duolingo, Memrise, and hundreds of other SRS services and software? Save your money, build an Anki deck or get in on Duolingo. Talk with a native speaker. Work your ass of. This is no silver bullet.
- dpark 11y ago
  Tangential, but... > build an Anki deck This is a giant pain in the ass and the public decks generally seem to be low quality (and painfully out of sync with whatever else I'm studying). I'd happily pay Duolingo for an Anki (or equivalent) deck they match to their lessons.
  - wodenokoto 11y ago
    Can't you export your wordlists from duolingo to anki? Also, decks such as core2000 + dictionary of basic grammar + remember the kanji or kanji damage, will give all the highest quality content I've seen to learn Japanese. You will still need some guidance from a teacher, especially to get started, but no matter what you do for language learning, you will need more than one avenue. The spoon fed Chinese deck is way better than Rosetta Stone. But yes, there is room for curated content in this space, I just got really annoyed with the tone of the marketing text and went of on a bit of a rant. At least they didn't claim to make you learn like a baby :) Your point is valid.
    - dpark 11y ago
      I couldn't find a way to export the word list from duolingo. I may have overlooked something, but the best I found was to manually type up the vocabulary. (Copy-paste from the vocab page isn't very useful because it doesn't capture conjugations or articles.)

18 points by jitnut 11y ago

ColinWright 11y ago

If it had Norwegian I'd sign up and pay real money.

luxpir 11y ago
Suppose you saw they had Swedish coming soon. Lots of mutual intelligibility there. Or is Norwegian a hard requirement? I say this as an English speaker who learned Swedish and now does OK with Norwegian after a little tuning.
- ColinWright 11y ago
  Thanks for the reply ... Norwegian is a hard requirement, and as it happens, quite difficult to satisfy. I'm doing the best I can with an odd mixture of techniques, and the time-line is short. Had Norsk been there it might have tipped the scales as to whether I succeed or not, hence my comment. And I say this as someone who had rudimentary conversational Danish many years ago, and about 1000 words of Swedish about 10 years ago.
  - luxpir 11y ago
    Now I'm curious! Although really just any chance to have a quick language discussion... If that's the case it sounds like a good grammar book or two, plenty of daily audio exposure and flashcards ought to get you somewhere approaching what this service offers. I'd imagine you're well up on decent resources by now, though[0]. And I can only guess as to what your end goal is. Presenting to a tough crowd in Norwegian is all I can come up with. A northern-Norwegian friend let on a little about the massive regional variations there, too, which makes it fun when someone from a 'non-standard' region replies in their own special, often ancient, brand of Norwegian. -- [0] - If you're stuck for new material, you can always try Lars Monsen's shows on nrk.no - a tough but kind outdoorsman - with the subs on.
    - ColinWright 11y ago
      Long story. It's inessential, but I'd really like to have enough for a particular event. Details by email if you are interested. I have references with grammar, and I have some vocab, but the problem is getting simple enough language in sufficiently good audio, given my time constraints. It's complicated.
  - j_s 11y ago
    Was reviewing the commercial Pimsleur and Michael Thomas options and stumbled across this very-intro-level freebie which may be of slight help: http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11542&PN=16&TPN=6 http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T... Good luck!
    - ColinWright 11y ago
      Downloaded and I'll check up on it later - thanks. EDIT: Getting started - at first glance it's a useful addition to what I already have - thank you.
- tacone 11y ago
  IIRC, those languages have been "coming soon" for quite a bit.
tacone 11y ago
Norwegian seems to be featured here https://www.duolingo.com/ https://www.duolingo.com/ (no clue about how good it that site btw)
- ColinWright 11y ago
  I've tried DuoLingo and hated it. Really hated it. I should go back and try to document why - perhaps 20 minutes of my life is worth it if it gives the opportunity of breaking through and seeing why others think it's useful. Thanks for the reference.
  - tacone 11y ago
    I've actually tried Duolingo after suggesting it to you. I got hooked playing with it for many hours. The speech synthesis for the course I'm taking (German) is pretty bad, and while using it I find myself spending an awful lot of time writing in English rather than German. Also it is messy in many ways (example: after the "Seasons" lesson I know how to spell Autumn and Summer, but not Winter or Spring). Nevertheless I like it, the amount of material available is outstanding, so I guess I'll keep on using it for a long time.
    - ColinWright 11y ago
      Interesting that you like it. I really will have to give it another go. Thanks for the feedback.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

MartinMcGirk 11y ago

This is great. I keep telling myself that I'll learn Spanish. Something rapid fire like this but for Spanish would be so damned useful.

wodenokoto 11y ago

"Lingvist was founded by people who helped discover the Higgs boson at CERN as well as the people who built the core technology at Skype" Neither of which are skills that have anything to do with language. Not a single word about scientific testing of this audacious claim that you can learn a language in 200 hours. At least Duolingo actually tested people against a regular college course and came out on top, so you have that to go on as a user. They do specify what learn means - learn 3000 words. Is that recall? Recognition? Use in sentence? Actually understand in a sentence? In 200 hours? I call bullshit. If you look at the features page (how it works) you'll see that they claim to be the first electronic spaced repetition system ever in the entire world ever. What about SuperMemo, Anki, Duolingo, Memrise, and hundreds of other SRS services and software? Save your money, build an Anki deck or get in on Duolingo. Talk with a native speaker. Work your ass of. This is no silver bullet.

dpark 11y ago
Tangential, but... > build an Anki deck This is a giant pain in the ass and the public decks generally seem to be low quality (and painfully out of sync with whatever else I'm studying). I'd happily pay Duolingo for an Anki (or equivalent) deck they match to their lessons.
- wodenokoto 11y ago
  Can't you export your wordlists from duolingo to anki? Also, decks such as core2000 + dictionary of basic grammar + remember the kanji or kanji damage, will give all the highest quality content I've seen to learn Japanese. You will still need some guidance from a teacher, especially to get started, but no matter what you do for language learning, you will need more than one avenue. The spoon fed Chinese deck is way better than Rosetta Stone. But yes, there is room for curated content in this space, I just got really annoyed with the tone of the marketing text and went of on a bit of a rant. At least they didn't claim to make you learn like a baby :) Your point is valid.
  - dpark 11y ago
    I couldn't find a way to export the word list from duolingo. I may have overlooked something, but the best I found was to manually type up the vocabulary. (Copy-paste from the vocab page isn't very useful because it doesn't capture conjugations or articles.)