The reason Duolingo is so baaad - Intermediate Spanish

[@sarahd3422]

I have been using duolingo for many years but never really noticed much improvent. Once i started reading spanish books from the library, watching videos, and writing stories is when i improved the most. All in a span of a few months.

[@KJPadgett]

I will give this to Duolingo, it's a free resource to dip your toes into learning a language. It's a good way to try to see if you're really interested in dedicating your time into learning. I've been doing Spanish on Duo for almost 150 days straight and I love the game aspect. It's taught me some very beginner stage Spanish and gave me the courage to start taking language learning seriously. I just started tutoring courses on italki with private tutors, and listening to dreaming Spanish daily was recommended by one of them. In my opinion, Duolingo isn't going to make anyone fluent in the language, but it's a pretty great motivator to get serious about learning and keep in practice on days when you don't have much time.

[@greglocker2124]

​@@ChilaquilesDF are you aware that you are a cringelord?

[@sasha1844]

I use Duolingo + KZbin to learn Spanish and now I'm in Spain and I was able: - to get my documents - to rent the apartment - to go to the doctor considering that it doesn't cost anything, it is a great tool in my opinion

[@whiterabit09]

I agree

[@norikosato7823]

Each person is different. Each learning tool has different effect on different person. You have found learning tools that work on you. Well done. When I was teaching Japanese, I told my students never dismiss any learning tools or strategies just because someone is saying it is useless. Try it and see if it works on you or not.

[@cuauhtemocxocoyotzin9282]

I finished the entire Duolingo Swedish tree when I was learning Swedish. Everything in gold (that's how it worked back then), meaning I literally maxxed-out Duolingo, and I could not understand Swedish at all. I went to a Scandinavian restaurant and couldn't even complete a basic food order. I put on Swedish TV and couldn't understand anything. Meanwhile using dreaming spanish and graded readers I live my whole life in Spanish no problem. My job is in Spanish, all my friends only speak Spanish, I only watch movies and TV and Spanish and it's all super easy. And consider Swedish is supposed to be easier for English speakers than Spanish and I spent 2x as long trying to learn Swedish on Duolingo.

[@sasha1844]

@@cuauhtemocxocoyotzin9282 Unfortunately not all language courses as complete as Spanish from English. For Spanish they have 10 towers with nice grammar explanations and huge community. And anyway in order to understand people you will need comprehensive input from KZbin.

[@Zumbs]

@@cuauhtemocxocoyotzin9282 I started with Duolingo Spanish from English and got about a third through the skill tree before I found Dreaming Spanish. I could understand the spoken Spanish in all the Beginner and Superbeginner videos. The intermediate level videos were a lot harder. However, after some weeks of watching Dreaming Spanish every day, I could feel my grasp of the language changed: Before I would think of a sentence and translate it in my head before starting to speak. After I would start speaking right away.

[@chantelreese2642]

I have been using Duolingo off and on for two years. Some days I do several lessons, some days I barely clock in one lesson. I'm about halfway through the Spanish tree. I would consider myself a beginner. However, I was able to listen to and understand the majority of this video without any assistance, and if it was written down, I would probably be able to understand all of it. My only Spanish acquisition method up until this point has been Duolingo. I agree that it is not ideal, but it is a great place to start.

[@TheFlyingMonkey200]

With only comprensible input / immersion. It took me 8 months B1- B2. Duolingo does teach you things it’s just not efficient. Not the best way, there are more effective and fun approaches

[@ClipsByLaura]

I wanted to post basically the exact reaction you just shared. Also, Duolingo is a gamefied program, which kept me slowly progressing for three years now. It may not be efficient, but I doubt I would have kept up with a more efficient but intensive program. Nevertheless, I'd like to do an intensive course in Spain sometime, but due to covid, I haven't gotten around to it yet.

[@chantelreese2642]

I know it isn't the most efficient program, but I have a full time job and two part time. Duo let's me work in something during breaks. I want to do some immersion classes, but I need something in the little time I have...

[@lexxon11]

Me también . En Duolingo Espanol , actualmente después dos anos, he completado nivel cinco con todos lecciones al máximo.

[@국한-w5j]

@@TheFlyingMonkey200 Months/years are irrelevant. It depends how many hours are put in and consistency. That's why it is pointless to compare oneself to others, considering we all commit different amounts of time.

[@Sinklebarn]

Gotta defend duo here…with out spending a dime, I got to a high beginner/low intermediate level of Spanish and was able to start having tutor classes where I only speak Spanish. It’s a great side dish for language learning but shouldn’t be the main

[@多肉黄桃]

Agree! I think it’s the perfect side dish. Gotta defend duo!

[@sir_arsen]

i abandoned duo after finding out that it teaches you mexican spanish, which i studying to go to spain, what made me me mad was that duolingo uses spanish flag and not mexican

[@richardditty5318]

@@sir_arsen Sí, Duolingo enseña Espanol de México/latina américa. Creo que la gente en España no se usa Usted y Ustedes. Creo que eso es la diferencia más grande. Pero si hablas español de latina américa, podrías conversar con la gente en España sin problema.

[@RuNZiT1]

True. Like, it’s not bad, at all it helped be a decent amount. That being said, after awhile I did drop it because it wasn’t really intriguing to me after awhile.

[@rwoz]

Another great thing for me has been the streaks. Some days I kept doing exercises althought I didnt feel like learning spanish just because of the streak, and by doing the exercises I wanted to learn more. I have a 100 day streak now and I dont think I would have put this much continous effort into learning spanish if it were not for Duolingo. But lately, most of my time has been put into other sources for learning, other than Duo.

[@daminimcculloch9122]

What a brave video Pablo! I agree with you in majority and I feel your frustrations BUT you have to agree that DL has started many on their language learning journey, probably most people on here... However, once I discovered DS, my understanding of Spanish has improved a hundred fold!!! Thank you for this rich resource.

[@jamesmccloud7535]

I stopped using Duolingo after a few weeks cause it started becoming a chore for me. I felt like I was taking tests everyday and get demotivated when I lose a streak. I also wanted to stop translating and just learn the language naturally through comprehensible input. The only thing I still remember from Duolingo is some words I learned for a few objects but that's it. Tbh I could have just learned them the same way but through context by watching the videos here. Dreaming Spanish has been the main resource that has really increased my comprehension level.

[@imtrying-_-3431]

This. I was struggling with Duolingo just like you and felt the same way. There’s other (and better while still free) ways to learn a language than Duolingo.

[@jamesmccloud7535]

Pablo! After a year of watching Dreaming Spanish on and off and having watched all of the free superbeginner and beginner videos and most intermediate ones, I have finally bought the premium subscription on the website. Can't wait to immerse myself in so many videos with interesting topics. Road to 1000 hours here we go!

[@thomascrowley3268]

Algo que me gusta de Duolingo es que te anima a seguir aprendiendo un idioma cada día y tener la constancia

[@NickGraveson]

During the Pandemic I was using Duolingo 2-4 hours a day. It was a GREAT service to me. For the past year I have been a subscriber of DREAMING SPANISH and have BENEFITED even MORE. DREAMING SPANISH IS TRULY WONDERFUL! GREAT SPANISH PROGRESS!

[@mojo_beatz]

No estoy en acuerdo… pero estoy de acuerdo en que no puedes aprender español solo con Duolingo. Duolingo me ayuda con las reglas gramaticales y el vocabulario. Yo leo libros intermedios y veo KZbin para ayudar con el contexto y la escucha.

[@bajanalpha4]

Yay! I've been missing the videos from you, Alma and Sandra recently and I always love videos on language learning. Thanks for a new one and all you guys do!!

[@burnieboo9857]

I found that Duo hindered my language learning. I felt negative pressure and constant disappointment when my previously completed lessons 'cracked'; I developed a bad habit of translating every word in every sentence; the phrases didn't set me up for real-life situations and it taught me incorrect vocabulary for Spain (for example, I don't uso un vestido, I llevo un vestido)! Learning through immersion - I'm lucky to live in Spain - and using Dreaming Spanish videos almost daily is all I've needed to develop my language skills to an intermediate level 🇪🇸👂📚 Thank you DS!

[@sambell2152]

Duolingo was what got me started in Spanish and I rate it highly. it won't make you fluent obviously, but it is a great tool for beginners. English speakers have less motivation to learn languages as English in the international language, gamified and accessible resources like Duolingo have probably made millions of native English speakers conversational in other languages who would have never otherwise learned one

[@GreenGiant2007]

Duolingo has its limitations but it is a useful tool when used alongside other resources. I have found that if I do one lesson a day it maintains my daily streak and that really helps with my motivation to study using other methods. Also I highly recommend the Duolingo podcast. It’s great listening practice and the stories are informative and incredibly interesting.

[@swmathus8176]

Pretty much what I was going to say. I do a little bit of Duolingo with my morning coffee and other moments of down time during that day. Most of all though I learn from the Dreaming Spanish and getting into some beginner Spanish Reading. I also practice a little with a Spanish speaking friend. All together I Think the Duolingo definitely isn't hurting. It's teaching me some words and things but by itself it would probably be pretty weak. I am starting to use it a little bit for Russian and I find it especially useful for this as there is a type of lesson specifically for learning a different alphabet that works pretty well. I imagine that for other languages where you need to learn a whole new alphabet that this would be useful too.

[@theoriginalON]

I agree, I just wish their podcast didn’t chime in with the English so often. It would be nice if the person narrating the story would just speak clear easy to understand Spanish. I just find when I listen to an all Spanish podcast, my mind starts to think more in Spanish, and I find the English narration every few minutes completely takes me out of that.

[@GreenGiant2007]

@@theoriginalON fair point.

[@4himsanctified]

Its a tool and that's it. Good for practice and initial study. Dont expect more out of it that it really can do.

[@forlearningstuff605]

Hola Pablo! Thank you for all the effort you put to make videos like this. If I may, I have some topic suggestions. - Santa muerte - Harry potter - Mixing colors - Your favorite books - Bull fighting - Pau Gasol (NBA Basketball Player) - Spain National Basketball Team - Pablo paints - Pablo unboxes things he bought online - Interesting spanish laws - How does Spanish government work Hope you see this!

[@JackBz]

A lot of the comments here are depressing. It's like they don't understand the idea of Dreaming Spanish and comprehensible input at all

[@oijqwoijdowiqjdqw]

Duolingo's target audience 😂😂😂

[@jamesmccloud7535]

Exactly. Duolingo highly relies on translation and repetitive exercises that is akin to traditional teaching methods in school. No real context or meaningful input at all, just some random phrases. You don't truly acquire the language that way. Comprehensible input is the key. I used to use Duolingo back then along with Dreaming Spanish, but that 20 minutes of time painfully grinding on Duolingo would have been better spent on immersion.

[@Marcus3415]

I like this video Pablo (and I recognize you run DS so you want people to use the platform) BUT Duo, despite its limitations, is a great app. I used to starting from absolutely 0 to get to a B1/B2 comprehension level. There are a lot of strategies to use to enhance the effectiveness, for people reading this.. 1) use desktop version, not phone. This enables you to not have autocorrect or the drag and drop feature. It makes it much harder 2) study (hover around) 2 method at a time. I do the lessons for 1 full ring, next lesson. Then back to the first, then to the second. Then I try to test out of them both until level 4, then I move on. 3) using your diction on your computer if possible. So for example, if you are prompted to translate “she is a girl” - you do not type, rather, say into your computer “Ella es una niña” This makes it far more difficult and in my opinion emulates dialogue, as much as an app could. Perfect combo for me has been 30min of duo, 1h of DS, and 30min of conversation a day. In 6mo I’ve reached a solid B1-B2. Still lots of room to grow!

[@jacey261]

I think Duolingo is helpful for beginners starting from zero. With Spanish, I always got frustrated by Duolingo because of the reasons you listed. I knew the basics since I had taken Spanish in school, but I wanted to be able to read and speak and listen, and Duo was never going to get me there. Dreaming Spanish was definitely what I needed and I've gone from Super-beginner to being able to understand some of the Advanced videos in only about 6 months. It feels like I had the puzzle pieces all along and Dreaming Spanish has just showed me the picture on the box so I can see how they all fit together. However, my experience with Polish has been completely different. I tried to start completely from ZERO, literally didn't know a single word. There's simply not that much comprehensible input out there for people who are starting from zero. I found myself getting frustrated and I went back to Duolingo to learn some basic vocabulary first. That has been going well and I now feel more equipped to handle some of the beginner input that's out there.

[@karennelson7847]

Another defender of Duolingo here, not by itself of course, or for advanced speakers, but there’s so much you can do for free, including podcasts and stories. And it’s fun

[@whiterabit09]

I M a slow learner, it has taken me years to work through Duolingo to halfway through level 3, but i can understand most of what is being said in these videos from that alone. I have only recently started watching a lot of Spanish videos on KZbin, to get better at Understanding it spoken in real time. I would definitely recommend it for new beginners.

[@whiterabit09]

I would like to add that i am finding this channel very helpful Pablo and really enjoy your videos.

[@canadianbrotv1303]

Duo and Dreaming Spanish are unmatched but listening and and speaking is what built my ability to speak with natives. I am now able to have conversations with natives in Spanish.. I have not used duo after lession 8 . When my brain began to change cause i did not wait to speak . I started right away while listening every day.

[@Eric-ji3yh]

i think if you’re really trying to take the path to fluidity seriously, you shouldn’t waste your time with duolingo in any capacity. in my opinion, 2 hours of input is way more valuable than 2 hours in the duo platform for all the additional context and exposure you receive. it’s just really inefficient to be clicking around for exposure to only a handful of sentences per minute when watching a youtube video created by a native speaker will expose you to at least like 10x that amount

[@edge.stitcher]

Great video! I've spent the last week researching how to learn languages most efficiently and was happy to come across the Dreaming Spanish videos. I've been doing Duolingo for a year now and have learned a ton of Spanish. However, after a year of learning on Duolingo I'm going to switch to learning through comprehensible input. Duolingo was great starting out since i had the motivation to practice every day to continue a streak and finally got into the habit after years of wanting to learn Spanish, and it gave me a clear path to follow. However Duo feels super repetitive and like it takes forever to make progress and see new material (often the same / similar phrases are repeated over and over in lessons) and, though I feel like I do well in the exercises, I don't feel like I'm learning to speak in a very natural way.

[@electricfishfan]

Sí. I’m only 6 days in but I’m so tired of variations of “estoy muy feliz!”

[@CarolWalker]

Vengo de la entrevista con profe Kyle. Me gusta el material de tus videos. 🙂

[@infiel20]

Duolingo tiene algunos beneficios. Es gratis, adictivo, ayuda a crear una rutina y mantener la motivación mientras enseña el vocabulario top 5k y facilita el consumo de contenido comprensible al principio.

[@shack19]

3 months of Dreaming Spanish and reading graded readers has gotten me farther than 3 years of high school spanish and a lot of Duolingo... so yeah I'd say comprehensible input has been working better for me! Plus it is a lot more fun which means it is easier to stay consistent.

[@jamesbacon4207]

Some of the newer style exercises on duolingo do have some context, they have 3 or 4 sentences, either written or spoken, and you have to answer (multiple choice) with a summary of what is being talked about, or answer a question. It is still probably possible to cheat, but if you attempt it properly for the sake of learning, not for the sake of winning, it is quite good. I also would not have been able to understand videos like this if it were not for duolingo! Another thing is you can turn off the cards (that you click on to order the words in the sentence) and have full text input instead. In that full text input you also have the option of voice-to-text which I have found very useful for correcting my pronunciation (to the point where it can be recognised by a computer) much better than their built-in speaking exercises

[@electricfishfan]

Yes. VtT makes the experience richer but it feels a little like cheating sometimes since it can be abused as a crutch for spelling, but I also find that helpful for avoiding demotivation if I would otherwise lose hearts on questions I can say but forgot how to write properly. It also makes the drudgery exercises go so much faster.

[@gail25578]

I am still at super beginner stage of your course but your title caught my attention. From what I understood, you are saying that Duolingo doesn’t equip for real/natural situations also that many of the exercises can be completed by a process of elimination. On both these counts I agree! I also find any explanations cursory so I find myself casting about for more information. I also agree that some answers are rejected because they don’t fit the narrow range of acceptable answers. I feel as though I can do the exercises but it doesn’t really take me forward with my Spanish. Thank goodness for your KZbin Channel!!! 😅

[@learneratheart2564]

🤣🤣🤣 I loved the rant about the sentence OMGosh! hahahaha

[@---ut6fk]

Thank you for making this! I would love to see you critique other apps/learning styles!!!!

[@timbit827]

Gracias por el video! I have to say a disagree a bit. The exercises you showed are given when just learning the words. The exercises get harder later on and a bit more contextual. I agree that Duolingo is not great teaching grammar or what you did wrong. Which is why it's just a beginner tool that can't be used by itself. Por ejemplo, dreaming spanish es excelente a usar con duolingo.

[@pavfrang]

Duolingo only practices passive knowledge, i.e. you see ready-to-use stuff and you select. You cannot learn this way at all.

[@timbit827]

@@Deuterium52 thank you for your correction! Like i said in my comment, duolingo is not great at teaching grammar lol, and i am still very much a begginer. But i was able to understand your comment and most of the points in the video so i think that says something.

[@infiel20]

@@pavfrang Duolingo is technically more active than dreaming Spanish

[@JulianLopez-mh6be]

@@infiel20 it’s more interactive yes, but doesn’t teach as effective as The method Dreaming Spanish is trying to show you, in duel lingo, y’all forget everything in a week, with Dreaming Spanish it’s in your long term memory, thus more effective and actually more interactive, your just not doing it right

[@Maidaseu]

@@JulianLopez-mh6be Strange. I didn't forget everything I learned on Duolingo. You can't compare one week of Duolingo practice to hundreds of hours of consuming comprensible input. I'm all for comprehensive input and acquiring a language, but I believe studying grammar and doing drills 10% can help accelerate the acquisition process by allowing to recognise patters while consuming content in your target language.

[@tori-uc9hl]

I learn probably with 20% Duolingo and 80% comprehensible input on KZbin. While I think comprehensible input is a great way to learn and it's probably more efficient, my ability to SPEAK spanish improved significantly once I started using duolingo. I could understand almost everything in your intermediate videos before duolingo, but I spoke very poor, broken Spanish. I don't think Duolingo itself is some magical language learning tool, but I do think learning to read and write in Spanish is helpful in achieving fluency when speaking. Whether you get that from Duolingo, textbooks, or formal Spanish classes is up to you.

[@krimbii]

Without duolingo, I wouldn’t be here. I use it every day. I also use other apps too… But duo is the best.

[@alwayslearning7672]

If people in the comment section understood Pablo's method of language acquisition and where he's coming from with the Comprehensible Input, then you would know why he has these views about Duolingo. Personally, I hate Gamification.I think it's for babies.I tried it for 60 seconds and quit! Each to their own.

[@kjergens1]

The only thing I remember from Duolingo is “El piso es amarillo.”

[@bengilkes7676]

No me gustan pisos amarillos.

[@juditbako8008]

Yo soy de Hungría, Húngaro es mi lengua natal, y hablo Inglés, Alemán y Espanol. Quando quiero practicar la lengua espana con Duolingo, tengo que traducir las palabras espanolas a Inglés, no a mi lengua natal, y por eso a veces hago errores. Además, practicando los números, puedes escribir el número sí mismo, por ejemplo 9, en lugar de la palabra "nueve". :D

[@mathaha2922]

I love your videos. Keep up the great work! By the way, the phrase you use at 7:12 is exactly the phrase used in the Dreaming Spanish video "Cats and kids: How to help them get along" at 9:25: "ella es una niña". Quite the coincidence!

[@coolstertothecore]

I really noticed when my daughter uses Duolingo that she learns almost nothing. She does enough to "pass" the lessons but if you ask 2 seconds later what the word means, she doesn't know. I can see why schools like it because everything has to be tested nowadays but we home educate so that isn't important. Now my daughter mostly watches Peppa Pig in Spanish and that seems to be more helpful. She enjoyed some of the Dreaming Spanish videos too. I stopped using Duo once I started watching DS as I realised how slowly I was learning. I like the podcasts though - they're really interesting.

[@Shibby27ify]

I wish I would've started with Dreaming Spanish two years ago. I started with Duolingo not knowing anything about Language Acquisition. Duolingo is pure pain for me. I hate being tested and I don't find it helpful. I prefer some Anki, as I'm doing the Refold method with Dreaming Spanish.

[@SistersTape]

what's the refold method?

[@JimSiverts]

The biggest problem with Duo is the time it takes to get input. I have never timed myself but I have to believe that Dreaming Spanish gives you 10x the exposure to content in the same amount of time. Comprehensible input is the best way to learn a language. That means endless content based on your level. Duo wastes a frustrating amount of time for so little content

[@xavierza6675]

I absolutely believe the method of comprehensible input and acquiring vs. learning a language. I also understand the meaning of "comprehensible" though, and personally I have found Duo to be incredibly useful getting me kickstarted in acquiring Spanish. I have been using Duo for a little over 3 months (website, not the app) for 20-30 minutes a day. I'm at around 1,000 words. I have listened to 7 hours of Dreaming in Spanish so far, and about 10 hours of Duolingo podcasts, and I've spent a month in Spain. I was able to understand most of this video. If I rewatch it, which I will in a couple of weeks, I expect that I'll be able to understand more than >95% of it. To me, that speaks to the utility of Duo. While I understand Pablo's criticisms at the microlevel. I think they miss the bigger picture a bit. The repetition does help raw beginners. And "Ella es una nina" has nothing to do with learning a phrase that you will use, but everything to do with gender agreement and the difference between estar and ser. I certainly agree that contextual learning is key, but I also think that a basic foundation of vocabulary and basic grammar can help one get the most of learning via comprehensible input. Additionally, most native English speakers immediately recognize this (and many others) as phrases that are not actually said. In order for comprehensible input to be effective, a significant amount of the material has to be comprehensible. Pictograms and physical tools can definitely help, but my experience is that Duo can help greatly as well. Another point with which I have to disagree is with the utility of balloon offerings and multiple choice questions. These are generally present at the beginning of a block, when knowledge is really limited. As you advance through the section, those options mostly disappear; there is more listening and more writing, with far fewer suggested answers. For me, the way it's structured seems quite appropriate in most instances. I fully expect that the more time I spend in the language, the more time I will spend with comprehensible input sources, and the less I'll spend on Duo. That said, even for where I am at this point in time, I do actually find it reasonably efficient, and a great way for me to increase the "comprehensible" part of acquiring Spanish via comprehensible input. Gracias por tu excelente canal!

[@tobynixon7830]

Tengo 1000 días usando Duolingo, entiendo que no funciona para mucha gente porque es como una tarea cada día pero uso “podcasts” y “stories” ahora y lo prefiero.

[@anitapolakowska5046]

Los podcasts son muy buenos!

[@mohitbhandari7497]

@@anitapolakowska5046 recomendas me un podcast

[@anitapolakowska5046]

@@mohitbhandari7497 Cuál nivel tienes? Para empezar me gustan los de Duolingo. Después quizás "learn Spanish and go", "how to Spanish", ("charlas hispanas"), "español con Juan", "no hay tos", "doorway to Mexico", "si compriendo", "nos vemos en la comunidad" . Más avanzados: "entiende tu mente", "psicología al desnudo"

[@mohitbhandari7497]

@@anitapolakowska5046 gracia

[@kingly71]

I have been using duo, think my streak is 150 days or something. I'm getting to a point where I might stop for a lot of the reasons Pablo warns about. Don't get me wrong it has plenty of attributes: the game aspect, getting people excited about learning, etc. But the big drawback that I'm realizing is it conditions you to translate. That is basically the entire platform after all. I'm getting to a point with my spanish where I want to use the actual language in its natural form, not view it entirely through the lens of English. Idk we'll see my streak is on the line!

[@snowangelnc]

Some people love Duolingo, some people hate it. I'd say it's all about what kind of expectations you have going in. For an app that's free and easily accessible, the practice a learner gets from it is a good supplement to a more comprehensive learning approach. It's like a student joining a basketball team, and as part of their training going out for a half-hour run in the morning. If they're going to the team practices and doing all of the exercises that involves, then that added run will do them good. However, if they are new to the game and they're depending primarily on that 30 minute run to take them from being a beginner to a star player, they're going to be disappointed and could easily conclude that running is bad.

[@ioanniscottis6600]

I too have to defend Duolingo. I have completed the Spanish lessons and I’m now doing the legendary level. I have learned my grammar on the side, because I was triggered by Duolingo. It was quite a helpful tool for me.. as a result I’m able to understand the whole presentation given here. And yes, if you want to be serious about learning a language without going to classes , one has to study from parallel sources.

[@markalford9535]

I think it is great. It's fun and class never was.

[@wesleymarinho9102]

The ad in the beginning of the video was from Duolingo hahaha

[@patrickmaschka1242]

I completely agree! Duolingo does not help to acquire real everyday language. Pablo, what do you think about Pimsleur? That's how I started learning Spanish, and I needed much much more than those lessons (5 levels) to progress further. Comprehensive input over time is the best way! Thanks ;)🏆

[@toocat2000000]

Things like Duolingo can do more harm than good depending on your goals. If you just want to know a few words here and there. Fine . But if you want to Acquire a Language and have people understand you , It can ruin your accent and make you a language "Thinker" and not a natural speaker. Everyone is different and if it works for you, go for it. Comprehensible Input is just as simple as "Shut up and Listen" .That's it in a Nutshell. Why would you want to have to work at it when you can just have fun and listen. Learning just like a baby who doesn't give a darn about Grammar or Vocabulary at all , yet as they age they already have it by intuition. Then when they are ready to speak , they just start and get better with time.

[@zyxthyzyxth900]

I don't like Duolingo as well. At first I didn't know any Spanish at all, but I watched a lot of Mexican shows (with English subtitle). Much later I decided to learn Spanish. Then I just jumped in to the language by listening to Easy Spanish podcast knowing nothing. Listening to it on repeat until I could understand everything (With translation for context and their script). So somehow, I got kinda used to that speed from the start. Then using Duolingo later made me feel like I progress backward... Because it keeps making me try to translate things to and from English. So it frustrated me a lot.

[@mattfitzpatrick4008]

Gracias por compartir. Uso 'duo' porque es gratis, y me ayuda encontrar la motivación para aprender. De acuerdo, hay muchos problemas con la app. Hay algunas limitaciónes. Y tiene examenes demasiados. Me dan mucho estrés a veces jaja. Ahora yo sé que lo importante es solo uno pedazo de mi aprendizaje. Si quiero obtener una experiencia muy rica, necesito seguir muchos caminos distintos y diferentes.

[@jamesbangerter4753]

Adding to the importance of context: there’s a lot of times in English (my native language!) where people sound like they’re having word salad because I lack some key context. When I was learning to read at higher levels I picked up dozens of new words a month without ever looking them up just because I read them so many times. If I didn’t get it I’d just move on… and that didn’t stop working until I started reading lots of really old books.

[@richardditty5318]

No estoy de acuerdo con tu opinion de duolingo. He aprendido mas espanol en ocho meses usando duolingo como he aprendido en cuatro semestres con clases de espanol en la escuela secondaria. Tambien, no hay problema si algunas frases en duolingo no esta usado en la vida real. Cuando yo era nino y todavia estaba aprendiendo ingles, yo miraba dibujos animados, y muchos de las frases que usaban en esos programas no estan usado en la vida real. Ademas, nadie deberia usar duolingo solamente, pero creo que es una manera buena para memorazar vocabulario nuevo, por eso razon miro tus videos.

[@sjl197]

On my iPad app, it gives me like 50 adverts or notifications of how to buy hearts etc after EVERY single round. No Duolingo, I don’t want to upgrade, no Duolingo I don’t want to buy that extra… I wanted to use Duolingo! It makes me close it out of annoyance.

[@marktodd7397]

I really like Duolingo although I do recognize it has its flaws. Lets face it though it is a good resource and its free. It encourages you to learn and sends you an email you forget to use it. Im really forgetful but this has prompted me everyday to use it for 3 years solid. Personally I do my daily target which you can set then later on in the day ill watch KZbin videos etc. I dont memorise lists and lists of words like I used to Instead I get it from context then sometimes look it up online or in a dictionary. Its maybe not the best tool to use but is definitely helps especially when utililsing other resources

[@brittb645]

Todos están diciendo "Duo es buen opción para aprender español!" pero los comentarios están escritos en inglés 🤨 no confio en que hayan aprendido nada

[@alexwhite3830]

Jajaja, touché

[@JR-vo5zy]

My brother has completed the entire Duolingo Spanish course. All of it. Has earned every trophy or whatever. He can't understand damn thing when someone speaks to him.

[@martaf.c.4744]

Entiendo tus reticencias y entiendo que Duolingo, como todo en la vida, no es perfecto. Pero en mi opinión cumple su cometido y yo le debo a Duolingo la adquisición de muchísimo vocabulario y la capacidad de formar frases bastante complejas y con múltiples declinaciones (en mi caso estudio alemán) sin casi pensarlo, de forma intuitiva, porque a fuerza de repetición ya es lo que me suena bien, y eso para mí no tiene precio. Por supuesto, hay que complementar Duolingo con otras cosas, en mi caso hay vídeos y programas excelentes en alemán para escuchar a la manera de Dreaming Spanish -que es una forma excelente de aprender. Pero yo estoy totalmente a favor de Duolingo y creo, por propia experiencia, que es una herramienta muy válida -aunque no debe ser la única- para comenzar con un idioma.

[@el_tejon383]

Two years of duolingo, paid, and I understand almost everything in the is video without repetition. I get that it is a little hard to understand sometimes why you got a grammar point incorrect, but that makes you have to think about it yourself and I find that helpful. I would say 90% of the times I get a sentence wrong I am able to figure it out myself and that percentage got higher and higher at I got further into the learning tree. The only downside I think is that I have a hard time listening and understanding full speed spanish; my reading, writing, and speaking are far better. But I understand that that is a common occurrence when learning a new language. That said, no single way of learning a language is complete on its own.

[@mp6519]

What do you think of Pimsleur?

[@tombnguyen]

My Spanish has picked up drastically since using DS, but I used Duolingo from 2013 to the end of 2023. It took me to an intermediate level in Spanish. I know because I enrolled in a formal intermediate class, and I was one of the best speakers in there. I wouldn’t say it’s bad, but it shouldn’t be your only language tool. I have over 600k points in Spanish on Duolingo. With that being said, I have total faith that DS will take me to the next level.

[@pabelitto]

a funny irony in here:) I only understood your intro almost perfectly cause Im learning Spanish via Duo for straight 34 days extensively :)

[@jogdonia6583]

Duolingo is a great introduction. It can't be used on its own to learn a language, but it's particularly useful in the early months. I know the Dreaming Spanish purists will disagree, but IMO Duo is best to get you to A2. You will benefit more from CI with some of the basics nailed down, and DUO will do that. I've been continuing Duo alongside DS (almost 50/50, 2 hours a day total) plus the odd bit of time on some other resources. I see Duo as a tool to be used alongside other resources. I also see DS as a tool to be used alongside other resources. Chicos, the main thing to focus on when learning a language is having fun - because if you're not doing that, you will give up. CI is very important and Pablo is not wrong about that, however using other tools ALONGSIDE DS is not a bad thing. I certainly don't buy into the idea that your accent will be significantly affected if you speak or read too early - I've read the studies and this isn't well supported. Ultimately, do what you find to be fun. Don't get too sucked into language learning methodologies and end up ironically quitting because of the pressure. Throw things around and see what sticks.

[@jaydoe5654]

Duolingo became so greedy for subscriptions that they essentially killed any motivation for me to continue using the app. Duolingo went from a favorite pass time in 2018 to pure frustration in 2022. I literally gave up on learning Spanish because of Duolingo. Then I saw one of Almas videos, wanted more and found Dreaming Spanish!

[@Ughwhatevs]

Duo is great for vocabulary and spaced repetition, and for a language like Indonesian, which has very little in the way of grammar, Duo is fantastic.

[@elmar-fc7pe]

estoy de acuerdo completamentisimo!

[@timothyreal]

Nice split keyboard!

[@AntonioGiglio]

Il 98% delle app per lo studio delle lingue sono una perdita di tempo. Credo alla fine che il miglior approccio sia quello che garantisci tu.. io sto scoprendo che guardare i tuoi video mi da molta sicurezza... e in modo naturale proseguo con la lettura.. o qualche esercizio di scrittura senza ossessionarmi con la grammatica. Grazie Pablo!

[@jamieanglen2454]

Funny. Because I literally just finished my nightly German Duolingo lesson 😂

[@fabianmusefano6402]

I use duolinguo and dreaming spanish and other teaching material on KZbin. I can see that I am making progress.

[@Jbbubanic5434]

If you can ignore the point system and just try to move through the duolingo lessons, you will learn a lot. I'm using duolingo to learn spanish now and it's going great.

[@adjoint_functor]

¿Hay canales similares a Dreaming Spanish para un dialect estadounidense/mexicano? Me encanta este canal pero siento que no me ayude tan mucho a comprender frases que oigo en el mundo real (vivo en los ee uu).

[@jowidon]

En la página web de dreaming spanish, hay profesores y videos de México , Colombia , Argentina, Chile, Panama, Venezuela... vale la pena mirar.

[@randigilmer8042]

Has a Canadian moving to Spain I wanted to learn Spanish so I started on duo and I’m now I’m 40 straight months without missing a day although most days I just do one lesson a day to keep my streak going. I agree you’ll never become fluent on duo but it does give me a base to someday become fluent…..I hope lol.

[@alexwhite3830]

Really, 40 months? Bro, you could be fluent already if you did smth more useful than duo

[@StevenBach]

I'm on Day 884 of Duolingo, though I agree with your criticisms of the exercises. At this point I don't do the exercises. I only do Stories which are much more immersive, coherent, and aligned with comprehensible input. You'd specifically excluded them, but the Duolingo Podcasts are often really good too and are again more aligned with comprehensible input.

[@griff424]

cant find the stories where they are gone?

[@StevenBach]

@@griff424 they changed the phone app so you can't just scroll through the stories, they seem integrated with the new lessons - very annoying, probably going to delete the app at this point. but you can still get to them on the web page.

[@d.lawrence5670]

9:47 - ¿Realmente cuándo se usaría esta frase? Bueno. En la frase se dice “ella”. Estamos hablando de ella. Por lo tanto, tanto la persona que lo dice como la otra saben que hay una persona y que esa persona es de sexo femenino. Vale. Entonces, supuestamente la frase “Ella es una niña”, estamos dando información. Estamos informando a la otra persona de que es una niña. Pero como los dos ya sabemos que es de sexo femenino, estamos informanado de que es una mujer de poca edad. Estamos informando a la otra persona de, en general, de la edad de la persona. Entonces, si estamos usando la palabra ella es porque necesitamos distinguir entre “ella” y alguna o otra persona que no es “ella”, alguna o otra persona que ya sabemos que no es de sexo femenino. Sabemos que hay por lo menos dos personas y que ya sabemos que una es de sexo femenino y la otra no. Vale. Entonces quiere decir que en algún momento ya hemos hablado de ella que nos habíamos referido a su sexo o que ya lo sabemos por algún motivo pero no conocimos la edad de esta persona. Entonces las únicas situaciones que se me ocurren son dos personas que están quizá mirando una lista de nombres y en la lista de nombres, pues, ven nombres masculinos, nombres femeninos y quizá uno de los observadores apunta a un nombre y dice “Ella es una niña” porque él ya lo sabe, porque conoce el nombre, conoce esta persona, y el otro ya ha visto que es un nombre femenino, por lo tanto ya sabe que es ella pero todavía no sabe la edad. Y los dos, una persona tiene que informar a la otra porque está buscando una persona de poca edad, una persona, pues, joven. Un niño o una niña. Entonces además sabemos que esta frase no puede ser una contestación a una pregunta, la manera como está escrita tiene que ser que la persona que ha visto el nombre en la lista voluntariamente, está diciéndole, informando a la otra persona de algo que sabe, que no es una respuesta a una pregunta y está dándole esta información para que la otra persona esté informada, seguramente para que tome una decisión, para que decida algo porque la persona que ha visto el nombre no ha tomado ya la decisión. Si no, hubiese dicho algo completamente diferente.

[@d.lawrence5670]

Perdón! Alrededor de 9:47 me hice confundida y tuve que escribir un poco de tu podcast para entenderlo mejor. Pero después hice un error de "cortar y pegar". Se suponía que esta sería mi práctica oral para esta noche.

[@karenhunter3113]

It can be a useful supplement but would probably take a while to become fluent. And how else am i supposed to learn how to say that my cat never wants to shower? 😉

[@onewaytickit]

Estoy aqui para defender tambien. Yo empecé aprender con duolingo y en mi caso tengo que decir que me ayudo mucho conocer el idioma antes de aprendelo con intenzita atraves otras maneras. Es muy buena manaera para empecar porque es como tu dijiste es como un examen (fun examen) gracias al examen las personas conocen y aprenderen muchas nuevas palabaras si saberlo. Es muy buena manera para empecar para luego se debe usar las otras maneras. (By the way) es el noveno mes desde que empece aprender espanol ❤

[@unrulybxite]

I like that Duolingo got me in the habit of practicing my Spanish every day, but it's not a great resource on its own. It's very repetitive and doesn't really offer any true way to test your understanding imo. For example, the story exercises will ask you about an aspect of the story and then give you 2 nonsensical answers plus the correct one. As Pablo said, if you understand any words at all, you can just guess but that doesn't mean you are actually following the story and thus understanding the language.

[@willb.139]

Duolingo is how I found my love for studying foreign languages but I think it's only worth it for say once through the tree at level 1 or 2, maybe 3. I had one lesson were I had to spell 14 out in Russian and got it wrong like 4 or 5 times, I knew the word, I just couldn't spell it. So I was just wasting time that I could have been spending on learning new words.

[@lacydaniels5568]

So how did you learn to spell 14? If I spell this in English as forteen, I still have some work to do. I am like you with simple words like this in Spanish, like diezyseis, but I know I need to keep working at it. I plan to make lists of numbers, and just repeat writing them, then my answers on Duolingo will improve.

[@willb.139]

@@lacydaniels5568 I usually remember how to spell words if I have read them several times. I'm not trying to say that spelling is unimportant I'm just saying Duolingo made me focus on spelling when I would rather have been learning new words.

[@oijqwoijdowiqjdqw]

Yep, duolingo is garbage, good somewhat if you're an extreme beginner, but nothing more than that

[@Gonzalo-qf6ov]

Dreaming Spanish's style of speaking words relatively separately actually making me, a Chinese understand better, because in our language, to make every character sound and clear is a basic requirement, glue or chain words tail with head while speaking always gets me confused because I was unable to identity which word were spoken.

[@bass_rhino]

Duolingo helped me a lot with reading and listening but was very poor for speaking and writing.

[@lacydaniels5568]

I like nice, healthy meals with a lot of vegetables. Today, I had a lovely meal with my wife. A bowl of gazpacho. A plate with hummus, raw carrot, radish, lettuce and zucchini, some small pita pieces, and a small bit of blue cheese rolled in pistachios. I liked the mix, and it makes for good nutrition. Oh, and a glass of Italian wine. I like the same in my language learning, a mix of varied routes which in the end give me good mental nutrition. Dreaming Spanish is a great menu item, but like the best gazpacho, it can't make a meal by itself, and neither can Duolingo.

[@alanenespanol]

I think the people that are defending Duolingo are missing the point. It’s not that you will learn nothing in working your way through Duolingo, and if you’re starting from zero, learning anything feels like progress. But if what it’s teaching you is to use the language in a way that it never would be, or without the appropriate context, then how much is it really helping? And for the people saying that it gets more contextual/complex the further along you go… why wait? What does that serve? It seems to me that any additional context you are able to grasp, before it is expected at a given level, would only benefit you that much more. Language is complex because communication is complex. To strip down that complexity, just to complete games to get badges, doesn’t translate to real life and holds back potential progress by insisting that focus on the “correct” answer only as a way to demonstrate you’ve learned enough to answer the question they’re asking. And unless they’ve drastically improved in the 5 years since I’ve used Duolingo, don’t worry, you’ll get plenty of practice with variations of the same 20 or so phrases.

[@zalambdalestes7394]

Yes, but... Where else could one learn High Valyrian? There isn't much comprehensible input available for that language :D Zaldrīzes dohaeriros iksos daor.

[@distempr]

If you haven't done it already, could you do a discussion on the use of loanwords / borrowed words on Spanish social media? You see a lot of English words used when watching streamers and so on, and it would be interesting to hear your opinion on whether or not it can help or harm the acquisition process.

[@neoantrop]

En mi opinión, todo el mundo debería probar Duolingo durante un tiempo para ver si funciona. Personalmente descubrí que no funciona. sin embargo, desde que comencé a escuchar dreaming spanish, espanyol con vincente, espanol con Juan y también a ver la serie "Cuéntame Como Paso", mi español ha alcanzado nuevas alturas. Para mí aprender español escuchando y mirando es genial porque puedo ver el progreso...

[@incognito96]

For beginners it's good, especially for ppl who haven't got the funds for italki, take Duolingo for what it is, to give you a starter kit into a language.

[@yandodov]

I understood this video entirely thanks to my 452 days on Duolingo. Yes, some exercises are easy. Yes, some are crazy. Yes, some are impractical. But you teach your brain to think in the target language and construct sentences. I also make it more difficult for myself by always using the dictation feature of my phone to complete text exercises. "Ella es una niña" won't be something you say in the real world, sure. But I know what it means and I know the different parts of the sentence. If I know that, I can obviously shorten it to just "es niña" when responding to a question. You don't just memorize phrases; you develop intuition, and that's the real benefit. There are surely more efficient and quicker ways to learn the language. But with solid effort for 30 minutes a day you can get really far and speak with locals in just over a year. The real issue is that people play literally for 1 minute just to keep their streak, then blame the app. If you really want to learn, you can.

[@betteroptionsnow1701]

Hola Pedro, que piensa en ""shadowing'" i.e. repitir despues una voz que habla la idioma con fluidez?

[@hanook1181]

Dl helped me at the beginning of my journey but at some point it was useless to me. I knew then that i have to find other resources because dl was hindering me. Generally, it’s not the best app. It might help the beginners to some extent but it won’t improve ur skills later on.

[@CarolWalker]

Yo empecé a aprender inglés con Duolingo y encontré los errores que hablas y ya no quería usarla, pero ahora utilizo Busuu y también me esta cansando. Utilizó Elsa Speak que me encanta para pronunciación. Yo estoy ya en nivel alto de inglés pero eso si, me falla la fluidez aún.

[@daelbeats4229]

Tienes Mucha razon , pero para mi es como un complemento, porque uso como 10 apps de Ingles mas input, saludos.

[@guymgraham]

Siempre aprecio sus explicaciones. ¡He empezado a aprender mandarín y son de gran ayuda para elegir buenos materiales de entrada comprensibles! Espero que estés bien en Bangkok.

[@user-vu3vi2sr4u]

yo entiendo lo que dices pero en mi opinión como una app gratis, duolingo es muy bien. obviamente no es perfecto pero puede ser un método para practicar el idioma.

[@Vijkhal]

For the first 2 to 4 weeks I think Duo is fine for getting a grasp on some basics of a new language. I wouldn't recommend using it more than a few weeks though.

[@StopWatch_de]

En dos anos termine DUO. Y ahora tengo nivel A1 (1,5!). Tu hablas para nivel B2. No entiendo sin subtitulos (?). Para ti NINA es muy simple, pero yo nesesito aprender esta palabra. Tambien "entonces" no es facil para mi. DUO es muy usario para Anfänger/beginner (tradusco: principiante!). Vale. Tu esres bien. Haz "weiter" asi (seguid así). ☺👍Gracias

[@addicted2sus]

I agree. The stories are great, but the main app hasn't really helped me.

[@Alex55455]

The one positive thing Duolingo has done is that it has got many new people into learning languages who may have not started otherwise. Luckily it doesn’t take people long to start finding out about CI after this and then discard green owl.