12 messages over 2 pages: 1 2
daegga Tetraglot Senior Member Austria lang-8.com/553301 Joined 4526 days ago 1076 posts - 1792 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic
| Message 9 of 12 11 June 2014 at 11:34pm | IP Logged |
It's so boring, at least the web version. Translating here, typing sentences there,
listening to a TTS...
1 person has voted this message useful
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6602 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish
| Message 10 of 12 17 June 2014 at 12:09pm | IP Logged |
I don't use it because I don't like translating. For practising the spelling I use(d) lyricstraining.
2 persons have voted this message useful
| PianoFish Newbie United Kingdom Joined 3814 days ago 11 posts - 28 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Mandarin, Japanese
| Message 11 of 12 01 July 2014 at 12:43am | IP Logged |
I like Duolingo and have fun using it. The audio could be better as it uses TTS but it's functional, if you're also using other natural audio sources it's not a problem. The sentences can be very weird (there are threads on the Duolingo forum and a Twitter acount devoted to this) but I see it as more focused on the structure of the sentences, once you have the framework you can slot your own more sensible words in. The weirdness also helps you remember them. The grammar explanations aren't always very clear but again if you supplement it with other materials it will help to reinforce them.
I don't know yet exactly how far it takes you but it's primarily a beginner resource, the crowdsourcing translation projects are good for more advanced practice but if you're not a text-focused person like me then you probably won't enjoy that.
I enjoy the gamification aspects and while it can be frustrating when it bumps you back to the beginning if you run out of lives I believe it's modelled on the 8 and 16 bit video game era (hence the 3 lives) which is how those games worked, and as a big retro gaming nerd that appeals to me. I'm currently at level 8 with a 42 day streak in Italian, this week I've had between 3 and 82 XP per day (one lesson is 10 XP plus 1 bonus for each life left) with an average around 40.
I wouldn't use it on its own as others have said, I'm also using Pimsleur and Italian Demystified at the moment as well as Memrise for vocabulary. I rely quite heavily on text because I have hearing and auditory processing problems so I often need subtitles or transcripts in English, for a language I can barely speak I've got no chance. Pimsleur is manageable because they break the words down into syllables and speak very clearly but even then a TL transcript would be nice.
If you're curious then give it a try, it's free so if you decide you don't like it then you haven't wasted any money. Like any language learning system you won't want to use it if it's boring but if it works for you then I think it's a valuable resource.
Edited by PianoFish on 01 July 2014 at 12:45am
3 persons have voted this message useful
| embici Triglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4615 days ago 263 posts - 370 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Greek
| Message 12 of 12 01 July 2014 at 2:40pm | IP Logged |
If you like Duolingo, you might like
https://twitter.com/shitduosays
5 persons have voted this message useful
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