Finishing Duolingo

[lucibi22]

Has anyone here finished a language on Duolingo? How long did it take you? I just finished Italian but I tested out of about half of it. It still took me around a year to get to the end (though admittedly I go through cycles of lots of Duolingo and then nothing for weeks). Do you feel you learned a lot? I feel like I understand a lot more but my speaking has not improved lots, yet. I will keep practicing until everything is gold  :grin:

[sillylucy]

Hi and congrats on getting so far along with Duolingo. I just downloaded the app on my phone and am loving it. It is really helpful and I love that it is free. It's a good place to start, but I am nowhere near done. I am currently learning French on there and will probably start studying Spanish again.

[Chris4Davi]

Congratulations, you just have to keep practicing though as practice makes perfection. I just started using Duolingo last night to learn French and it is going well so far. Will be dedicating at least an hour a day to it, to see how fast I can learn.

[Enrico]

I was able to finish spanish on Duolingo. I've been on and off with it until I decided to really focus and I was able to finish it in a few months. I even got to 150+ streak! Now I just finish one or two lessons a day.

[RobertX]

I finished Spanish on Duolingo... I don't feel like it helped very much.  Yeah, I know what some words mean, but I still can't form more complex compound sentences by myself and I still can't even really begin to hold a natural conversation with a native speaker.

It's simple reputation masked in "game" form to give you incentives to keep coming back, but imo its no more effective than someone yelling "YO COMO UNA MANZANA" in your ear 50 times.

[Trellum]

I have quit for a bit!    I had already gotten to the colors part of the Dutch tree, but haven't been able to get farther ahead. I just don't feel like it right now!  I might let some weeks pass, then I might give it a try again.  I'm very busy with the other courses, but I must admit that Duolingo did help me...  not much tho. I wish they focused more on phrases and grammatical constructions that can actually be used... not just phrases that are grammatically correct and make no sense. That is confusing!  Because I'm not sure if x or y word should be used in f or g situation.

[Trellum]

I finished Spanish on Duolingo... I don't feel like it helped very much.  Yeah, I know what some words mean, but I still can't form more complex compound sentences by myself and I still can't even really begin to hold a natural conversation with a native speaker.

It's simple reputation masked in "game" form to give you incentives to keep coming back, but imo its no more effective than someone yelling "YO COMO UNA MANZANA" in your ear 50 times.

That is a shame, because Duolingo is supposed to teach you some basics.  I'm personally not very happy with them... I tried the Spanish and Dutch language versions, and to be honest I was unhappy at how odd and weird the phrases used in the Dutch course are. In the Spanish course they at least use phrases that do make sense, not stupid things like: ''The bear bikes to his work'' or ''Hi, I'm a banana and you are an apple''.

Wish I could say I made that last one up, but I didn't, lol.  They need to start using phrases that are not only grammatical correct, but also phrases that are actually used in an everyday setting... otherwise what is the point?

[VNtomboy]

I've just started a couple weeks ago with some Spanish so we'll see how that goes. Congrats on getting to the end!

[ProNine]

Congrats for getting so far. My sister is busy using the Spanish language and she looks into it so far. I myself am waiting for the Swedish language to be implemented. I might try it out with French for the meanwhile though.

[tckc]

I'm waiting for Swedish too!

I've used almost finished Duolingo for German, even though I haven't played with it in months. I just keep picking up new hobbies and getting interested in other things. But since I live in Germany now, I should really be focusing on learning Deutsch.  :speechless:

[Enrico]

I finished Duolingo Spanish in about 4-6 months. I think the secret is extending your streak to keep you motivated. I was able to achieve 163 days and I did it by playing the app first thing in the morning finishing at least 1 lesson until it became a habit.

[sillylucy]

Is anyone having a problem with Duolingo not saving your completed lessons? I recently went to the doctors and was working on a lesson in the waiting room. When I got home I noticed that it had not saved my lesson and it was going back to the beginning. Has this happened to anyone else?

[petesede]

I finished Spanish on Duolingo... I don't feel like it helped very much.  Yeah, I know what some words mean, but I still can't form more complex compound sentences by myself and I still can't even really begin to hold a natural conversation with a native speaker.

It's simple reputation masked in "game" form to give you incentives to keep coming back, but imo its no more effective than someone yelling "YO COMO UNA MANZANA" in your ear 50 times.

Really that is all most programs can do.. teach vocabulary and some conjugations and make it as fun as possible.  Once you have a good vocabulary and can recognize most verb tenses, then it is time to just watch soap operas ( telenovolas).  They usually have perfect diction and use generic spanish.

I think programs like duolingo are just meant to get you over that hump to where you understand all the words, so can learn sentence structure easier from other sources.

[Nbidioma87]

I finished the entire Duolingo course for Spanish. It took me about six months. They try to keep you using it by making your levels for past units go down if you have not practiced them in a while. This can be good because as we all know, if you do not use the language you are learning, you'll forget it.

I am very impressed with how comprehensive Duolingo is, especially for a free app. However nothing beats actually speaking the language with people. I feel that Duolingo should only be used in addition to speaking with others.

[宇崎ちゃん]

I used to use Duolingo in the past, learning many languages at once.

But then I decided to see how well the Dutch course was done (curious).

I couldn't facepalm enough when I saw so many mistakes during the course.

I reported most of them, but only got a decent response once.

Other than that, those moderators were complete arseholes.

They think they know Dutch better than a native speaker.

[Tyrell]

I'm trying to finish English but it keeps tripping me for no absolute reason with it's unnatural and stupid translations. I could have finished it an hour ago but no, because heavy rain equates to raining cats and dogs for God knows what reason. I'm extremely annoyed with Duolingo at the moment so I'm probably never going to finish a language there. I'll admit that the website has a nice and friendly layout, but whoever is responsible for those translations needs to get fired.

[Spyllus]

I was able to finish spanish on Duolingo. I've been on and off with it until I decided to really focus and I was able to finish it in a few months. I even got to 150+ streak! Now I just finish one or two lessons a day.

Nice! I haven't gotten very far!

[kurdapia]

I guess Duolingo is not bad for a free app. It can give you the right direction if you are serious about learning a new language. I think it is better than the others that I tried wherein I was taught about animals, colors and what not. Those lessons does not help you at all when you finally use the language 

[111kg]

I've been learning German on Duolingo for quite a while now. I've been going on and off, on and off for about 6 months, at this rate, I think I'll finish the course in about 5-6 months if not even more. I don't want to force the learning process, however. There is no point in finishing quickly as long as you forget everything you were taught in about 2-3 months.

[Trellum]

I'm trying to finish English but it keeps tripping me for no absolute reason with it's unnatural and stupid translations. I could have finished it an hour ago but no, because heavy rain equates to raining cats and dogs for God knows what reason. I'm extremely annoyed with Duolingo at the moment so I'm probably never going to finish a language there. I'll admit that the website has a nice and friendly layout, but whoever is responsible for those translations needs to get fired.

I hear ya, I hate their out of context sentences... things like: ''the bear likes beer'' or ''I am a banana''. Dutch is filled with some really crazy sentences, I think whoever made that course thought it would be so funny to include translations like those.   For me it was kinda funny at first, but after a while it gets old and tiring.  What Duolingo needs is a touch to reality and revamp all those courses... give us real examples that makes sense instead of really random sentences that seem to have been constructed by a 6 year old with a very vivid imagination. 

[Tyrell]

I hear ya, I hate their out of context sentences... things like: ''the bear likes beer'' or ''I am a banana''. Dutch is filled with some really crazy sentences, I think whoever made that course thought it would be so funny to include translations like those.   For me it was kinda funny at first, but after a while it gets old and tiring.  What Duolingo needs is a touch to reality and revamp all those courses... give us real examples that makes sense instead of really random sentences that seem to have been constructed by a 6 year old with a very vivid imagination. 

I'll admit that it can be quite hilarious and entertaining, but only when you actually have a grasp of the language and at least understand the basics already. When you're learning a completely new language though, it's hell. For example, like I mentioned before, I'm learning Spanish, and one of the questions required me to translate "Soy el oso" (or something like that) which translates to "I am the bear". It didn't make any sense and I doubted myself multiple times, like "Is that really the translation?". Because it didn't make any sense whatsoever. Then there was another one which translated to "Your duck is my dinner". I feel like they screw me up really badly, especially when you're taking the shortcut tests where mistakes do matter.

[Trellum]

I'll admit that it can be quite hilarious and entertaining, but only when you actually have a grasp of the language and at least understand the basics already. When you're learning a completely new language though, it's hell. For example, like I mentioned before, I'm learning Spanish, and one of the questions required me to translate "Soy el oso" (or something like that) which translates to "I am the bear". It didn't make any sense and I doubted myself multiple times, like "Is that really the translation?". Because it didn't make any sense whatsoever. Then there was another one which translated to "Your duck is my dinner". I feel like they screw me up really badly, especially when you're taking the shortcut tests where mistakes do matter.

Loooool,  omg... yes, that sounds totally like Duolingo.   I think for a more advanced student this site wouldn't be a good choice either to be honest, if only they used more realistic examples, because seriously I speak Spanish and i say things like ''soy el oso'' everyday xD   Of course not     I tried to give this site a try when I had zero knowledge of dutch, I did learn a few words there, but those out of context sentences didn't help the case. So I quit and I doubt I will ever go back. Actually I think Duolingo was holding me back and confusing me a lot. 

[Tyrell]

Loooool,  omg... yes, that sounds totally like Duolingo.   I think for a more advanced student this site wouldn't be a good choice either to be honest, if only they used more realistic examples, because seriously I speak Spanish and i say things like ''soy el oso'' everyday xD   Of course not     I tried to give this site a try when I had zero knowledge of dutch, I did learn a few words there, but those out of context sentences didn't help the case. So I quit and I doubt I will ever go back. Actually I think Duolingo was holding me back and confusing me a lot. 

Yeah Duolingo isn't exactly a top pick for anyone.. it's just something you do when you're bored. It won't exactly teach you anything, not up to the point where you're fluent, at least. Which is a shame, because Duolingo really has the potential! The interface is great, I like the features and pretty much everything else is on point.. except the content itself. If only they got better people to come up with the ideas for the content. I'm sick of translating "Yo soy un pingüino." and saying pretty much everyone drink milk. Seriously. Like in every single level they make everyone drink milk. The dog, your dog, my cat, your cat, the boy, the girl.. everyone is beben leche. It's so repetitive.

[bobbieb]

I really enjoy using Duolingo for refreshers in Spanish (although I have started to learn Italian using the app) and to keep my mind active with the language. I don't think I could fully rely on the app to make me fluent in Spanish, which seems to be the consensus with most people here. I do appreciate the fact that you can receive updates and reminders for daily practice. Learning basic words and phrases is a great perk regardless.  

[cpefley]

Does Duolingo actually work? I haven't downloaded it yet, but was thinking about it. I knew someone who used it for Spanish but gave up.