I don't know which board would be better suited for this question

I don't know which board would be better suited for this question.

Has anyone here had any experience using Duolingo? I'm going to use it alongside some other supplements to start learning Portuguese, Spanish, French, & Italian. It'll be mostly for reading purposing, and I want to know if it's any good.

Also; recommendations for literature in those languages.

I used it for Spanish. It's good for the absolute bare bones of a language, but after that you're better off using other resources. I finished every exercise for Spanish but would still struggle to carry out a conversation with someone.

What other resources are you going to use?

I used this plus Rosetta Stone plus Anki plus Memrise for German and got pretty far. I can get the gist of newspaper and encyclopedia articles. Carrying on a conversation or writing something would be hard, though. I can go over to Kra*tchan and laugh at their memes now.

Like the other user said, duolingo is a good bare bones starting point. You learn some basic grammar, vocab, greetings- all of which are important- but you aren't gonna master a language with duolingo alone.

Here's the regiment I used to learn German. Once you think you have an OK grasp of the language, purchase the translations of your favorite books. For me I bought the German versions of some Mark Twain, Maugham, Conrad, Dickens etc. Your comfortability with these texts will really help you understand the German version and you can constantly compare with the original as you go. Don't be afraid to look up words in the dictionary! Now reading books like this will take some time, but it's important not to rush through. Try to spend at least an hour a day doing this, writing down and studying any important reoccurring vocab that youre unfamiliar with.

Another huge help to me was watching German movies. I tried to watch a movie each night. I started with German versions of American movies, but eventually felt comfortable enough to watch German originals. Don't worry if you cant understand anything when you start this. That's how it was with me. Just keep going.

Continue duolingo. It's a good way to practice vocabulary, along with the words you wrote down from reading.

Using all three of these methods together really enhances and accelerates your learning of the language. It may seem like a lot of time to dedicate per day (1hr reading, 1.5hr movie, 30 minutes duolingo) but it's not too bad! Watching movies is pretty passive, I'd just get into the routine of watching one every night before bed. Also, the slow, intricate reading of your favorite books in another language really gives you a greater understanding of the original work.

Just stick with it every day. Taking one day off the regiment can snowball into a week, 2 weeks, the next thing you know you have given up on the language.

Good luck, hope this helps!

>Just stick with it every day. Taking one day off the regiment can snowball into a week, 2 weeks, the next thing you know you have given up on the language.
This is the hardest part for me. Luckily I have plenty of free time over the summer to get started. Thanks user

It's shit. You'll learn a bunch of words for shit in your kitchen and only practice important grammar rarely.

Just use Anki, TV, and books; and then italki if you aren't autistic/NEET

>Just use Anki
This is the weirdest meme that has picked up traction.

You'll have to elaborate here.
>juss use buk!
>juss yewb tb!

40 hours in Duolingo = 1 semester of college. Give it a try.

Started yesterday went 0 to somewhere pretty quick don't know how well it will go. Has anyone here read fluent forever?

He also said use books and TV. Anki isn't bad for vocab. Its the same shit you do in a language learning class, just grind out whatever vocab you are learning that chapter.

I'd also suggest trying to write a language journal or something. Good language classes also include speaking the language in class, which is a little harder to imitate on your own.

Anki is good for key vocab that you may not cover again for long periods. You get immediate benefit after making the cards, but the spaced repetition is also good for later to reduce some of the gap between ensuing levels. Yeah you can get by with very few words but if you then decide you want to take a recognised exam or something for school or CV or a job or something you will need more words.

Honestly, I think it's a terrible tool, especially in a literary approach, and on another hand you shouldn't try to learn concurrently four languages.

Many European university students would laugh at you for the concurrent meme you just used. It isn't a problem but it it's a common excuse for when people fuck something up.

I'm fluent in four languages, including three European ones, and as far as I travelled and studied in Europe—I'm living there right now, to be honest—very few people actually know a third language and most painfully held a conversation in English. Few would have a command good enough to read a novel to the end.

It's actually a good advice. What I do when learning a new language is to get a frequency dictionary to Anki and then just grind the words.

It is said that only around 3000 most common words make up 80% of occurences. So learning, say, 30 words a day makes you able to understand written text in a bit more than 3 months. Personally, I wouldn't even start learning the grammar before learning enough of the lexicon first. And for me, Anki is the best tool for being consistent in learning the vocabulary.

Which language did you learn this way?

Well, obviously you don't learn a language only by learning the vocabulary. Like I said, enough words first makes it easier to read texts. After that, you have a clue about the language and it's easier to start picking up the grammar.

But I've been using this method for example in learning French, which I've learnt better now after living in France for a while.

How did you know in which way you had to learn vocabulary? I mean, how did you anticipate you would had to watch out for the plural form, the gender, each irregular verb conjugation and such features with no knowledge of grammar?

If you take a language degree a good number would end up with 3 or 4 languages. A lot of universities demand you learn an extra language at each level so quite a few of the Paris ones demand you pass a second language course for licence and then either you learn it more or move onto another for Maitre 1 etc). Just after I learnt a bit of German I visited some friends over there and I found most uni students there at least had German and English, and the language students often had quite a few.

What I find kind of odd is Switzerland has I'm p sure 1 bilingual university, and I think it's just another English and something else one.

Anyway, I also know a few language teachers and I've heard the "and then the student reckoned they got something wrong because they mixed up French and German" or similar, at which they often laugh. Concurrent learning isn't a problem unless you really want it to be.

Since most colleges require the students to take on a course with more or less two hours a week, I doubt many actually “speak” a third language, assuming we both agree “speaking” implies the ability to read a newspaper or communicate effortlessly on a random subject. The English B2 requirement in high school is already pretty much a joke, and if I remember correctly French ranked among the worst ESL speakers in the OECD, performing as higher as China or Pakistan. This depiction of Europe is a massive exaggeration, and you don't seem to have a very good English yourself, you know.

Of course grammar is needed for mastering those things. But to start reading or even discussing with people, there's no need to be able to conjugate all the nouns and verbs right. But I get your point. Also, having example sentences for each word helps to start figuring out the things you listed. And having at least some basic knowledge of general linguistics probably also helps.

>as higher
The irony...

>you don't seem to have a very good English yourself
Even better.

Is English meant to be one of the languages you're "fluent" in by any chance?

Well, it couldn't harm but I still don't believe it does help this much. You may convey an information and decipher a short text but honestly, we're talking about reading literature. You would have to step back and properly learn again approximately 3,000 words in order to fully—even partly, in fact—understand a famous author. Even on the communication side, I can imagine how awkward it would sound to incorrectly conjugate a verb in the middle of a conversation. I think it isn't a wise advice, especially to a new learner.

>You may convey an information
It keeps happening!

there's nothing wrong

Are you serious?

To copy one of the mistakes, he writes as wronger as an idiot.

I am a serious.

Inb4 you try to undermine me knowledge of English.

To be or no, it is the question! :DDDD

there is nothing wrong :DDD

t. student of British :DDD

I'll leave you with your poor attempt at derailing the thread.

not half as bad as you do

I thought we were talking about learning a new language, which OP obviously isn't very far in since he's using Duolingo.

Of course 3000 words isn't even close to being enough for reading literature.

And about conjugating a verb incorrectly in a conversation, no one, at least no one who's been through learning new languages before, cares as long as you're being understandable. It may be awkward but it is how you learn. Anyways, I was speaking about absolute beginnings.

Well, I thought we were talking about learning a language in order to read. My bad.

I've heard if you study a language 1 hour /day for two years you'll finally be able to barely talk with locals.

I have never committed that much time to anything in my entire life besides porn

: (

I've spoken to you before. It's an anonymous board but it's quite obvious when you claim the same shit over and oger, have the same opinion on everything and then same fag using your mobile phone data.

You can talk with locals quicker than that.

If you go there unprepared you become hyper aware of language shit too because you have to.

>Of course 3000 words isn't even close to being enough for reading literature.
You'd be surprised I think. Plus passive and active vocabulary are often very different.

I read something on gaijinpot about a guy going to Japan who didn't learn anything because he was always speaking English. Is it possible to achieve for an Anglo?

I lived with a Japanese girl one year as a student, and she was telling me she helped a couple of English students that had done that exchange to Japan for a year (I forget what that's called) and she said she couldn't teach them anything, in some ways they spoke better than her. But that program focuses quite a lot on Japanese language learning. But it's possible. Japanese English learners are also really almost infamous for being timid and reserved in ESL circles. But then you only need a few proactive people I guess to get you speaking English all the time.

It may also be the old "your language is too bad to communicate with" effect. It can be quite difficult sometimes to get communication in the target language if you take forever and are confusing af when you talk. Like I can remember feeling proud af when going to France and finally being at a level where if I said something to someone in French I would get a response in French consistently. That's more of a problem in tourist places, but I hear it can be quite difficult to not be in these places sometimes in Japan.

That's how I felt when I went to Japan. There are not much english speakers even in crowded tourist areas so trying to talk in Japanese is somehow compulsory.

Anyone else find memrise better than duolingo?

I used memrise for nippongo. Motherfuckers take money for user generated content. And trust me, that content is absolute garbage.

try asking on >>/int/

Yea no. Anki is good for JLPT words and grammar; otherwise use animu and read fairy tales.

You also need a grammar text if you plan on doing tests, as the grammar for conversation and tests are different.

Read fluent in 3 months guy. You'll never become advanced in a language with his system, but you can hit lower intermediate in about a month or two

>it's free
>just try it

No, instead I'll follow opinions that may be lies.