So I started with Duolingo about 4 months ago for French.
I usually do the first 5 lessons of a unit and then do a skip-test, meaning I get through a unit a day roughly.
I also supplement this by creating Anki cards from the Duolingo sentences, to memorise new vocabulary in-context. I have also been watching French Pepper Pig and was using “Le Français Par la Méthode Nature.”
I feel like I am starting to get very bored with Duolingo and unsatisfied with the progress I have been making in French. However, just two-days on LingQ I feel I am making a lot of progress. However, I am still a beginner and wouldn’t even say I am A1 yet (Currently near the end of Section 2 on Duolingo).
So is it safe to drop Duolingo and focus purely on LingQ as my main tool? (Mini-stories are usually about 40 to 50% new words for me). Or should I stick with Duolingo and my anki cards for learning grammar?
Duolingo can be fun, but it is a crutch that might be holding you back. LingQ like crazy and you’ll see great progress. And if you haven’t done Assimil French yet, definitely check it out. I’m not studying French anymore, but I was astonished at how well it helped me learn.
well i think you should stick with duolingo a bit longer too.
four months isn’t a huge amount of time in language learning and its important to not stop because its getting boring.
It’s going to be a long process and its going to be boring sometimes but you’ve gotta stick with it (we believe in you!)
IHMO duolingo is good for beginners, but it will not get you to even an intermediate level. The amount of content in the stories is about 2 orders of magnitude less then to really make a difference.
For reference, I used and finished it for Japanese. Completing a course only gets to you about an A2 level, at best. I also am somewhat critical of their overall structure and their word repeat frequency. They focus their time alot on presentation rather then building more content.
Thank you very much. I agree, I find it a little slow. However, I think I might stick with it until I feel I am bit closer to A2, just as there is some explicit grammar teaching that I might need at this early stage. But I will supplement with Anki and LingQ. Thanks guys.
The question is a bit weird On the one hand you are telling Duolingo is getting you bored and you don’t have much progress while with LingQ you feel much more comfortable. On the other hand you ask if you should proceed with Duolingo. I think the right answer follows right away from your questions.
For context, I used Duolingo for eight months for French, then Busuu, and finally LingQ which I am still using after 18 months.
Most of the online apps are essentially using the same methods. I happen to think Duolingo is one of the worst, but that’s my opinion. They provide a way to start out in a language, but they won’t take you very far.
If I was starting out in French knowing what I know now, I would use LingQ, and I would import beginner lessons from Easy French and other good channels. I would read through the transcripts, listen to the audio, figure out the meaning, and progress that way.
Incidentally, putting sentences into Anki is an excellent idea.
Learning a second langauge will take you a long time, contrary to the claims of many.
Thanks for all your responses and your experiences! My question is a little odd I agree. I guess for me, I am bit nervous to drop Duolingo in my early stage, because I worry about developing my grammar skills. I am a big believer of immersion and learning in-context but would that still work for me as a Beginner or do I need a bit of padding before going full-on immersion? I guess that was the question I was trying to ask as Duolingo does provide some explicit grammar teaching through the tips.
As long as you find input (videos) at your level or a bit higher, you can look up the grammar as you go along. Get yourself a good short grammar book. For German grammar I have a very good small BBC book, maybe their French one is as good. I have a Collins German grammar book which is dreadful, so books do vary a lot. Grammar explanations online are often very good too.
I started my German journey with Memrise and I was for sure nervous about just dropping it. I felt like SRS was something I needed to do. Having watched a bunch of Steve’s videos from way back I did get the confidence to ultimately drop Memrise, or at least move it to the side. I realized after a couple of months how much I was being held back, because I made a lot more progress with vocabulary with reading/listening in LingQ. (no SRS)
As for grammar, as someone mentioned, you can get a basic grammar book and look at that. Or maybe find an accompanying workbook with exercises. I wouldn’t spend a lot of time on that in comparison to reading/listening with LingQ. You could still use Duolingo, but I’d probably only spend 1/10 of my time in it.
Look, that is a very personal issue and also a question of personal preference. I don’t think anybody would be able to tell which strategy works better for you because we are all different. Why don’t you just try the one way and then the other and find out what works best for you? There is no general answer for that.
Thanks for the inspiration @ericb100. I watched some of Steve’s videos myself after reading your message. I will give it a go and have found a grammar book to dip into when required. I will focus on LingQ now. As @Ewgenijkkg suggests, I will see which works best for me through trial and error.
I think it is good to use many different language learning tools including LingQ, Busuu, and Duolingo. All three use different techniques to teach you a new language. In my opinion, keep using Duolingo, and any other tools that you’ve already started using. Using many different apps and websites makes it more fun and interesting and they all help you learn in different ways.
It took me several years to realise that comprehensible input is not a scientific theory. It is in truth a pseudoscience pushed by Krashen and his followers. My progress in German increased dramatically once I stopped using the comprehensible input approach.
I’d say, if it’s not fun then find an alternative.
I used duo for basic grammer, LingQ for expanding vocabulary, and podcast lessons for insight into how real people speak, as well as getting used to listening to the language. This works for me. Now I use AI for more advanced grammar concepts if a LingQ sentence confuses me in terms of grammar.
If you wish to use LingQ for expanding your vocabulary and are concerned about grammar, I’d say try AI, forums or Google searches and see if that is more effective/fun than duo for you.
If you feel you can use LingQ without trouble, you don’t feel it’s too hard and you feel you are making a lot of progress (where you are not on Duolingo) the answer seems obvious to me. IMO I think the only reason to use Duolingo over LingQ would be if LingQ were too difficult. Go all in on LingQ and you will see real progress. You should absolutely continue to watch Peppa Pig or whichever simple cartoon you find in French to supplement you LingQ use though.
Duolingo is good for dabbling and trying out the initial sounds and words. Definitely some languages even at the lowest levels are poor from my experience like Korean and Finnish. Others are better like German (from friends’ experience) and Portuguese (mine as someone who’s finished the Italian unit and had studied Spanish in school).
Duo’s not good in my view to learn a language beyond a rudimentary level due to so much of it being disconnected content in isolation. The poor-sounding AI detracts from the experience for a serious learner. I think there are some better AI apps to practice speaking (Pimsleur, Babbel, etc) till you are comfortable enough with having a tutor. I had already started elsewhere before LingQ. I am waiting for a few subscriptions to expire before going all in though at this point it seems like I will do that soon. LingQ’s strong point is centralizing content for exposure in a way to memorize vocab more readily.
On the one hand you are telling Duolingo is getting you bored and you don’t have much progress while with LingQ you feel much more comfortable. On the other hand you ask if you should proceed with Duolingo. I think the right answer follows right away from your questions.