I like Duolingo, but does it work?

[@EduardoEnMusica1]

I read people in other languages videos saying: "I learned more in this video than my 100 days Duolingo's streak" and I think that's a point. As a user of Duolingo, I can say it's a fun, competitive, simple, effective introduction to a language or complement to the study, as you say, but in the end I think it mostly depends on the time and dedication you give everyday to the learning/using of the app. Of course, the learning is diverse and we don't know how someone will use Duolingo, but if you do just one or two lessons for day, maybe it will take longer to see the expected results and finally saying that Duolingo doesn't work. In my case, I'm learning Japanese, French, Chinese, English and German and I'm already needing more material and different medias to appreciate the beauty and complexity behind every language (that's why I suscribed to your channel 👍). For me Duolingo works, first as an introduction and then as a complement, but yes, also because I dedicate time to it. Muchas gracias por tu contenido! ☺️

[@MaxEnglishCoach]

Glad to hear you're finding value in Duolingo and exploring multiple languages! Consistency and dedication definitely play a big role in language learning. Keep up the great work!

[@CouchPolyglot]

Thanks a lot for your comment and I am glad you like my content! I think using Duolingo first as an introductory tool and then as a complement is the best way to go, it's how I use it too anyways! Muchas gracias, nos vemos por aquí :)

[@joreneelanguages]

I agree, I like it for dabbling (and only really for dabbling). A fitting coincidence, I’m currently using Duolingo & your podcast to dabble in Catalan 😆 love the podcast btw!

[@CouchPolyglot]

Awesome, moltes gràcies! :)

[@Bernard-Shakey]

Good to see a talented polyglot has a good opinion on Duo for a change! I think it gets a poor reputation because of the game aspects of it (like leagues) and XP points but I think it is still good for drilling new words and I learn new words & phrases from it all the time. I see a lot of students online with bad spelling, missing accent marks, wrong verb tenses and wonder if they might help themselves by losing a few hearts in Duolingo ;-) The app alone will not make you fluent - no app or KZbin video or podcast will do that but it is useful to me. I would only NOT recommend it for learners who are above B2 as this is above Duolingo level.

[@CouchPolyglot]

Great points 👍👍👍

[@ingriddelamo2471]

I like Duolingo because It is like a Game, It get my vocabulary increased

[@CouchPolyglot]

Yeah, I think it is one of the big pros of Duolingo: it feels like a game and it is fun :)

[@ginabee1212]

@CouchPolyglot I'm up to 228 days of Russian on Duolingo and I'm currently on Unit 7. I love that you can click on the words to get translation, plus I love the word bank at the bottom to help with selecting the words to transcribe into Russian (from the audio)or translate into English! I want to switch to Polish on Duolingo, but I am afraid that I will lose my progress in Russian. I did a search asking about this on Google and it said that we can switch between different languages without losing progress, but I'm not convinced.

[@bangboombam]

@@ginabee1212 Sure you can, I'm on my 300-ish days of learning Spanish and 100-ish days of learning Italian.

[@ginabee1212]

@@bangboombam Thank you! I was SO afraid to lose my progress in Russian! I wonder if there is a limit to how many languages can learn at one time on DuoLingo. I'll have to look into that.

[@Eternal_Foreigner]

It's nice to hear that you have good taste in video games. I've been playing Tales of Symphonia in French lately, it's a game with a lot of dialogue so it's been great.

[@CouchPolyglot]

I will have to look that game up, thanks for the tip :)

[@steveb851]

I totally agree. I really like it as well but it certainly wont make you fluent on its own. I would choose Duolingo over boring flashcards any day of the week.

[@CouchPolyglot]

Oh yeah, I do not like flash cards either. Now that is boring 😬

[@DaveZula]

One thing you touched on I feel is very significant in regards to Duolingo: each language course is a little different, and some are better than others. I believe it's also different depending on your native language. If I understand correctly, every item in every course has to be manually created for each language. It's actually amazing when you realize how much information is contained in the app. There are definitely some features that could be added or improved, but overall I like it. It encourages users to engage daily with their target language, even if it's only a little. Like you said, you definitely have to have other resources too. Great video, thank you! ✌️❤️

[@CouchPolyglot]

I never thought about that, the app has tons of information indeed 😯😯😯

[@sebastiaanvanwater]

I've used Dualingo for Catalan learning (only available for Spanish speakers so far, so i get to practice Spanish indirectly). It works, gets you in a routine, but a third of the way in, it still hasn't taught me to count for some reason. Go figure. Though for some other languages, it would help if Duolingo would explain some grammar. It throws at you some phrases with a new grammatical feature, but sometimes it is not clear what is the rules at play there.

[@CouchPolyglot]

It's true, you can use it for Catalan too if you know some Spanish. Not many apps have Catalan, so that is indeed a pro for the Catalan learners out there :)

[@MaxEnglishCoach]

I found your perspective on Duolingo really interesting! It's true, different methods work for different people. While some might have reservations about its effectiveness, it's great to hear that it's working well for you. Keep having fun with your language learning!

[@CouchPolyglot]

I think Duolingo can be really good as an introduction to certain languages and as a complement, but I do not think using it exclusively will be very effective. So it is not a perfect tool, but if used in a certain way, it can definetly have a positive impact :D

[@MaxEnglishCoach]

@@CouchPolyglot Totally

[@nicogutyfranco]

I basically learnt Catalan mainly using Duolingo, but as you say, it's better when you also use other things to complement your learning such as videos, podcast etc. For me personally it lacks a bit of grammar explanation (I know not everyone likes or even needs to understand grammar) but I can always go and look for other resources to learn about it.

[@CouchPolyglot]

Ah, molt bé! I forgot to mention that Duolingo actually has Catalan, which is not a language many apps have (even if it is only in the Spanish-Catalan combination). Glad it helped you :)

[@LordVeloce7]

@@CouchPolyglot Well, to be fair, I also started to learn Catalan via Duolingo, did the course in 4 months, then joined some classes at my university, and after a year of learning I was able to pass Llull B2 certificate, so if you're smart enough, Duolingo can definetely help in language learning, especially in Spanish->Catalan, because you quickly learn translating patterns, but requires more practice outside of the app :) Now I started doing Japanese, we'll see ;)

[@grubu4131]

Same here. As English speaker in the US, not many Catalán resources. Luckily my Spanish is pretty good. Still learning and mainly switched over to LingQ but without Duolingo I likely would not have found a resource to get me started sufficiently.

[@IvoVolt]

Welcome to the club! :-)

[@CouchPolyglot]

Hehehe thanks

[@johnczech7074]

I agree with you. Good on some aspects but in and of itself won't lead to fluency.

[@CouchPolyglot]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about it :) Yeah, reaching fluently only using Duolingo is not really possible in my opinion

[@ninjanerdstudent6937]

Most language learning apps are too serious like school work. There is no humor, sarcasm, or jokes, but Duolingo gives a bit of attitude, most notably, the purple haired teenage girl with the "not caring" affectation.

[@CouchPolyglot]

Exactly, I like its silliness

[@loregentlokidor6156]

It is important to make pleasure in the language learning

[@CouchPolyglot]

Yesss

[@Alltagundso]

Duolingo is good for learning a few words and practising your reading skills. Besides, it really is a game I like to play and keeps my motivation up. 😊

[@CouchPolyglot]

Sounds great :)

[@JustAnotherNameYo]

I like Duolingo a lot. I started learning Russian a year ago and a few months later added Korean from zero knowledge beginner. It has its pros and cons but i think it works for what it is. The repetition really helps me as well as the crazy sentences. That being said it is not my only resource. I will use grammar books and workbooks after my Duolingo session which usually line up well with what i learned in the app. I also watch KZbin videos and consume different sorts media. Last week I read a beginner book in Russian and understood 80% of it having most of the vocabulary that i learned from Duolingo. Are there things they could do better? Absolutely. Like have literal translations of sentences with the regular sentences. With Rusian and Korean I feel really is needed if you want to be able to form your own sentences and understand what is being said to you in other contexts. But thats why i use Yandex and Papago translators religiously. I think Duolingo is a good start for a beginner to ease into a new language. But of course at a certain point you will out grow it and move on to other forms of learning.

[@CouchPolyglot]

Wow, that does sound like it worked for you, even if it might have some limitations. That sounds really cool, thanks for sharing! :)

[@marcosbernardo6789]

Thank you very much! An excellent, practical and friendly approach! Straight to the point and very productive and interesting! Just go ahead! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽

[@CouchPolyglot]

Thanks 😊👍

[@thomasfleck6552]

i have been doing duolingo for almost 5 years and i absolutely hate it💁‍♂️("learning" 39 courses, 3 finished courses, 380.000 xp, 1700 day streak). it's a great=approachable introduction to a new language but that's about it. you are supposed to achieve b1 if you complete a course. without additional material that's impossible. and the quality of the courses varies. a lot. some are without any explanations. and since duolingo has a habit to establish a pattern and then break it there is zero chance to understand what they want from you and why. also, you will often stumble upon some really bad english (or whatever "your" language is) and some really weird sentences in the language you are trying to learn - makes you wonder if the creators of the course actually speak either language or if they feed you complete bullshit. if you communicate only with other duolinguists you'll probably never know... jk, but you need to use something else if you actually want to learn something💪

[@CouchPolyglot]

hehehe I guess it can be a love-hate relationship sometimes :D I felt it when I wanted to keep my strike, I once had an almost 80 day strike and then I would get some repetitive stuff or weird translations and would be like "oh, come on!". But most of the times, I enjoy it and think it is cute 😂

[@thomasfleck6552]

probably works like real relationships - in the beginning you're awed and you ignore the parts you don't like. but, over time, the hate part of the relationship grows until you just can't stand it any longer. so i'm treading water rn (3 lessons / day) until i see the 5+ years next to my name, then i'll save a screenshot and quit✅

[@LizziLoffy2024]

That's because it helps the neccesary things to helo you when you go to some countries you can be accepted, its not complete at all but is has neccesary things I accept your opinion , and i love duolingo ❤

[@CouchPolyglot]

Duolingo does have good things, I am planning on doing a video about the most effective way to use it to take the most out of it, stay tuned 😊

[@LizziLoffy2024]

@@CouchPolyglot that sounds greaat!!! I'll suscribe your Channel, thanks you 💕

[@vonPeterhof]

One argument in favor of absurd sentences, often made in the context of the traditional grammar-translation method, is that such sentences are harder to figure out from contextual clues, which forces the student to actually think about the grammar how the individual words interact. Of course, a hardline supporter of comprehensible input will probably object that in actual language use context is everything and over-relying on sentences no native speaker would ever utter naturally is counter-productive to internalizing the grammar in the long run. But yeah if you treat Duolingo as a game and not a primary learning material it's probably fine.

[@CouchPolyglot]

That is a good point, I hadn't thought about it!

[@hcm9999]

Duolingo CEO came to Japan recently and gave an interview. kzbin.info/www/bejne/l3iulax-hpqcn5Y Even though I have never used Duolingo, the CEO seems to be a well-intentioned guy.

[@CouchPolyglot]

I wish I spoke some Japanese! :D

[@hcm9999]

@@CouchPolyglot He speaks in English kzbin.info/www/bejne/l3iulax-hpqcn5Ysi=unsvbVyYaw7SwB73&t=174

[@loregentlokidor6156]

Agratis for a few weeks. I am like a child with this application 😅

[@CouchPolyglot]

That means it is fun 😊

[@simonbrampton]

Laura, As I say in my new book, HOW TO LEARN A LANGUAGE: The 7 Strategies of highly successful language learners, they are useful to get you started, but you can't learn a language with them. Also, they give you random, mostly irrelevant topics that you can't choose. Use if at the beginning, but then move on to more meaningful, useful content. 😉 By the way, an ad for Duolingo came up at the beginning of your video 😅

[@MaxEnglishCoach]

Nice, the Stephen Covey of English Teaching :D! Cheers!

[@CouchPolyglot]

The fact that they put a Duolingo ad in there is quite genius 😂

[@loregentlokidor6156]

And I have just won 🏆 superlingo

[@CouchPolyglot]

What does that mean? A certain amount of strike days?

[@chanelrosatitv7906]

i like duolingo it's funny and can be good, but many times, when i learn catalan (yes i'm learning catalan, the home language in the catalan course is spanish) i have to read that Some Animals read books or cooks or Talk to another animal ahahah and is funny but i'm like: "wtf is this?? how am i supposed to learn well a language if you are telling me that "The Bear is reading a book?" 😂 anyway i think doulingo is usefull, but the videos like yours on youtube are better, i love listening to you talking in catalan and learn from these videos And many times duolingo repeat the same sentences in the same exercise more and more time and this is so annoying

[@CouchPolyglot]

Thanks for sharing your experience and I am glad my videos help 😌👍👍👍

[@whiterabit09]

The app focuses far to much on grammar compression and flawless spelling, you'll never get the amount of audio imput from it, to learn audio Spanish from native speakers..... Also because of the bizarre and non typical voice actors.

[@CouchPolyglot]

The voice is indeed sometimes bizarre. I think there are better tools, but Duolingo can be one of the tools if you want/like it :)

[@nataliac7716]

IMO, Duolingo really works if you want to improve your vocabulary, specially when you are startting to learn a new language

[@CouchPolyglot]

Yes, it can be a good tool specially for the beginning

[@jm6734]

IMO Duolingo gets old pretty quickly cause the RL applicability is so weak. After a couple of months you start loosing motivation. It’s just not very intelligently made. I don’t care at all for the silly gamification and who doesn’t want to strangle that kid after a while.. 😂 BUT it’s free and I keep popping in a few times a week for now. Soon AI will swallow the owl. It’s just dumb compared to what’s already out there.

[@CouchPolyglot]

oh no, I hope the AI does not swallow the owl, I like it somehow 😬😂

[@Deibi078]

DuolinGod

[@CouchPolyglot]

😂😂😂

[@aviastar2904]

Now let me tell you my story with duolingo and tell what is right about it. Yes, duolingo is a fun application for learning the basics of a new language such as French, German, Spanish and more. But let me tell you the truth after all this. Personally, I went to France after learning French on Duolingo. I got to talk to a man, but his accent and expressions were totally different from what duolingo taught me, he spoke quickly, like other people in France. Duolingo only taught me the basics, that is, the entire A1 level. But you can't learn further with it because it is limited to advanced knowledge such as knowledge for a job or for something else that requires clear language. So, after that meeting with the French people, I realized that I wasted my time that I could use for something else, I wasted my money for duolingo super. And in my conclusion, don't use duolingo when learning a language, better at online courses with teachers on zoom or google meet, or even with a teacher face to face, but not with duolingo. Well, everyone has their own opinions, I just expressed my opinion and I don't want hate from anyone here.

[@CouchPolyglot]

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience! I think Duolingo can give you a false sense of progress, but if it taught you A1, it is not really useless. As I mention in the video, it can be a fun way to start a language or a complement to other tools (classes, tandems, watching videos...). I know people who use it every day and have not made any significant progress, so yeah, I think relying only on Duolingo won't get you the best results, there are more effective ways of learning for sure

[@loregentlokidor6156]

I use it every day and more than one the day. It is easy and quick to use.

[@CouchPolyglot]

Awesome 😎👍

[@ninjanerdstudent6937]

I like it too.

[@CouchPolyglot]

Yeahhhj

[@habeng7208]

I think language learning is a journey that takes a lot of dedication and consistent effort. Whether a person chooses this or that method, we should not belittle it as long as it works for them 👍

[@CouchPolyglot]

Exactly, live and let live 😌

[@belstar1128]

I think Duolingo has gone down hill i used to like it a lot but they don't add languages i want to learn like Thai or Tamil .but they do add Klingon or welsh it makes no sense almost seems racist .when they added Arabic and Hindi the courses were very bad while the welsh one was much longer .and now they have the hears system that punishes you if you make mistakes so i had enough. i still use it every day for a few minutes to keep up my 2300+ day streak but it feels like a chore now.

[@CouchPolyglot]

Oh, I am sad to hear it feels like a chore. Yeah, when you have a strike you wanna keep it. I had a 8.000 steps strike of over 100 days once and, I know it's not much, but still I would do crazy stuff like walking around the house for half an hour when it was raining in order not to lose my strike 😂 Then I lost it one day and it almost felt like a relief. Now I try to do the 8.000 steps things "most days", but I am less obsessed about it😅

[@ValentinCabezas]

Haha I used to feel the same when I wanted to say I like Duolingo. Even some non polyglot people or total beginners have a bad opinion about the owl. Random facts: My idol Linguriosa 🥕 doesn't like it 😅, but I know Elisa ☕ uses it regularly 🤷‍♀️ with Jo Franco 📝. And I knew you, Laura 🛋️ likes it too

[@ValentinCabezas]

I agree with you btw. I don't wanna look like the number ONE fan of Duo here

[@CouchPolyglot]

no worries, I like it too hehehe. It has its limitations, but if we like it we should not stop using it because of what people say :D

[@edg3ofsanity]

I totally agree with you. Duolingo is a great tool, but if you want to master a particular language (or at least to become fluent in it), you should also complement it with private/group lessons. I recall one time when some Russian friends told me that the following phrase appears in their Spanish lessons: "Me ducho como mucho". I mean, you will never ever use that phrase in Spanish haha!

[@CouchPolyglot]

I know what you mean, some of the sentences are indeed weird sometimes hehe

[@ginabee1212]

What is your native language? I couldn't figure it out from the "about" section of your channel.

[@CouchPolyglot]

Hi Gina, my native languages are Catalan and Spanish, but I might have a German accent when speaking English, since the language I use the most in my daily interactions is German. I moved to Germany over 10 years ago and now live in Switzerland :)

[@ginabee1212]

@CouchPolyglot That's great! Are you from Spain? I see that you also speak Catalan, so I thought maybe you might from the northeast area of Spain. I studied in Sevilla back in my University days and I look forward to returning to Spain one day. I have family living in the Basel area of Switzerland, but I never really learned much German...yet!

[@CouchPolyglot]

Yeah, that is where I am from. Barcelona is like 1 hour and a half from my hometown :) Sevilla is my favourite city in Spain :D